The Bridge: Slate Music Club 2024

The Bridge: Slate Music Club 2024

Author: Slate Podcasts December 27, 2024 Duration: 35:12

The Slate Music Club is back, in a special edition of Hit Parade – “The Bridge”! Our year-end panel of critics—NPR Music’s Ann Powers, Hearing Things’ Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Slate’s own Carl Wilson and Hit Parade host Chris Molanphy—discuss their favorite albums and singles and the trends that shaped the year in pop, rap, country, Latin and global music. 


Among the questions the roundtable tackles: Have we reached peak Taylor Swift? Did the Kendrick Lamar–v.-Drake beef overshadow hip-hop’s next generation? How much further will country cross over to pop audiences—and how does Latin music fit in? How did music from diverse artists stand in for protest music in 2024? And what will become of music criticism itself?


Note: Slate Plus members can hear this special episode in full. Ad-supported listeners will hear the first half. Want to hear the whole discussion? Sign up for Slate Plus!


Podcast production by Kevin Bendis.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.


What makes a song a smash? Talent? Luck? Timing? All that—and more. Chris Molanphy, pop-chart analyst and author of Slate’s “Why Is This Song No. 1?” series, tells tales from a half-century of chart history. Through storytelling, trivia and song snippets, Chris dissects how that song you love—or hate—dominated the airwaves, made its way to the top of the charts and shaped your memories forever. Get more Hit Parade with Slate Plus! Join for monthly early-access episodes, bonus episodes of "The Bridge," and ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Hit Parade show page on...
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Podcast Episodes
The White and Nerdy Edition Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:10
Sped-up voices. Wacky instruments. Songs about cavemen, bathtubs, bikinis, and mothers-in-law. From the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll through the 1970s—the age of streaking, CB radios, disco and King Tut—novelty songs could be c…
Here's The Beef Edition Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:41
When Kendrick Lamar took the Super Bowl halftime stage in 2025 and had the stadium chanting along to “Not Like Us,” it was clear: Diss tracks had gone stratospheric.The Kendrick vs. Drake beef echoes legendary rap rivalr…
Here’s the Beef Edition Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:28
When Kendrick Lamar took the Super Bowl halftime stage in 2025 and had the stadium chanting along to “Not Like Us,” it was clear: Diss tracks had gone stratospheric.The Kendrick vs. Drake beef echoes legendary rap rivalr…
Mighty Real Edition Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:06
Little Richard was rock ‘n’ roll’s flamboyant architect. Lesley Gore sang that no one owned her. Sylvester was a gender-fluid icon who helped define disco. Freddie Mercury made rock operatic, and George Michael demanded…
Mighty Real Edition Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:49
Little Richard was rock ‘n’ roll’s flamboyant architect. Lesley Gore sang that no one owned her. Sylvester was a gender-fluid icon who helped define disco. Freddie Mercury made rock operatic, and George Michael demanded…
All Apologies Edition Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:02
The story of Nevermind, Nirvana’s genre-defining breakthrough, is a familiar one. Less well known is the saga of Billboard’s Modern Rock chart—and how college-rock staples of the 1980s like R.E.M. and The Cure gave way t…
All Apologies Edition Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:06
The story of Nevermind, Nirvana’s genre-defining breakthrough, is a familiar one. Less well known is the saga of Billboard’s Modern Rock chart—and how college-rock staples of the 1980s like R.E.M. and The Cure gave way t…
Only Girl in the World Edition Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:40
It’s been nearly a decade since Rihanna released a studio album—and fans and critics alike have wondered when, if ever, a follow-up to 2016’s Anti might arrive. Which is ironic, because in her heyday, Rihanna was the mos…
Only Girl in the World Edition Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:45
It’s been nearly a decade since Rihanna released a studio album—and fans and critics alike have wondered when, if ever, a follow-up to 2016’s Anti might arrive. Which is ironic, because in her heyday, Rihanna was the mos…
Singing Nuns and Green Tambourines Edition Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:28
When you think of music in the 1960s, some groundbreaking artists probably come to mind: Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and the Jefferson Airplane, for example. But the pop charts paint a very different picture of that decade,…