Chris Molanphy

On a new #HitParadePod—The Bridge, @timmysommer, who signed Hootie &the Blowfish to Atlantic, makes the case for them as “Generation R.E.M.” & assesses why their followup album led to their downfall. Plus, trivia…and a preview that gets the party started. slate.com/podcasts/hit-p…

@SamuelAAdams Could this movie win? It's just a rumor that was spread around town. 🚢

you could watch ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT or put on Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding and save yourself 2 hours and 18 minutes youtube.com/watch?v=rlcHnp…

Finally threw on ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and am utterly gobsmacked by its pervasive banality. Visually rehashed, morally vacuous, unremarkable in every way. Beyond bizarre this is what the Academy's craft classicists have gotten behind this year.

Every year I look fwd to @Thirdmanmovies’ predix, especially his breakdown of the Best Pic ranked ballot. I’m a bit surprised he thinks AQotWF is gonna start in the middle of the pack—I’m convinced (dreading?) that movie has deep “steak-eater” love—but I like the result here, so.

@PhilKeidel @tombreihan I agree & I’d actually flip Tom’s 2 OneRepublic ratings. “Apologize” is the 4. “Counting Stars” is a 6—as is their fluke 2022 Top10 hit “I Ain’t Worried.” (Which—I seem to be the only Oscar-watcher beating this drum—was a much bigger ‘Top Gun’ hit than that boring Gaga nominee.)

@cmolanphy @tombreihan OneRepublic catching a stray, “Counting Stars” is a fun song in the car, 4 feels a little low imho

@bowiesongs @pulmyears As I say in the episode, it’s Joel doing the two Pauls. 🙂 (There’s a recurring joke in Dana Carvey/David Spade’s SNL-memories podcast that Lorne Michaels would often say, “Paul’s coming over,” & cast members would have to ask, “Which one?” cuz Simon/Macca were both F.O.L.’s.)

@cmolanphy @pulmyears calling "Don't Ask Me Why" a fusion of McCartney and Paul Simon is really on the money--it does manage to invoke them both (McC in the verses, Simon in the bridge?)

Big Shot could be seen as Billy Joel’s “Elton” song. New York State of Mind is his “Ray Charles” song.

@RachelBrods @rambocalrissian @InSyncPod Subscribed. Nice touch, including the asterisk, *NSYNC-style, to ensure you’re on top of my podcast feed. #aintnolie

*some news* 🚨I’m launching a podcast with @rambocalrissian! @InSyncPod is the show for anyone who loves a great on-screen needle-drop. Every ep, we pick one music moment in TV or film and talk about why it worked, how it happened & the cultural impact. First ep drops 4/11!

@tombreihan Re:Akon’s blankness, I reread yr Billy Ocean pieces cuz it occurs to me they’re similar—canny craftsmen from unusual global places w/no fixed personality, made cutting-edge sounds palatable,hit No1 a surprising # of times. You say as much about Billy here: stereogum.com/2145173/the-nu…

@Thirdmanmovies Have you gamed out the Best Pic ballot this year? Cuz I am rooting for EEAAO but want to be convinced ranked choice isn’t gonna rob it of the prize after all those precursor wins. (BTW I like ranked choice but don’t want, say, AQotWF to ‘Green Book’ its way to victory.)

I can’t be the first person to notice this, but there’s a split second in Everything Everywhere All at Once where Jobu Tupaki is holding an Oscar Foreshadowing!

@tombreihan “Fergie isn’t exactly a rapper but ‘Glamorous’ is basically a rap song.” I too weighed this ontological query in this @pitchfork piece & decided she was a rapper manqué—& if the #Grammys hadn’t canceled the Best Female Rap prize Fergie totally woulda won. pitchfork.com/thepitch/1487-…

Here’s the 2nd 2023 @podbelowtheline episode about #Oscars music—@LouisWeeks, Tom Peyton & I join host Skid to cover Best Original Song. Must Diane Warren win a competitive prize? Why did Gaga & Rih go so trad? Will “NaatuNaatu” be the banger of the night? belowtheline.biz/e/s15-ep-10-95…

Another #Oscars season means I got to do another music nominees chat on @podbelowtheline. I join @LouisWeeks, Jennie Armon &host Skid to talk #BestScore: Is John Williams as overdue as Spielberg? Will SonLux be swept in w/‘EEAAO’ or Hauschka w/‘All Quiet’? podbean.com/media/share/pb…

@jack_hamilton It’s your favorite porkin’ sooey. 🐽

🎵 piiiiiiig it will come back to you 🎵

@BrianZitzelman @tombreihan The initial Top20 hit insulates him from 1HW status. If he’d only scored the No1 “Slow Motion” & immediate Top40 followup “Nolia Clap,” the latter would be a Coattails Hit & he’d be a 1HW. But “Back That Azz Up” coming before the No1 removes him from that fate.

@tombreihan For those keeping score, Mims’s No32 followup “Like This” is a textbook Coattails Hit, hence Mims is an official One-Hit Wonder™ as per the widely accepted @cmolanphy 1HW rules detailed here: slate.com/podcasts/hit-p… What’s that? Why my rules? Because they’re hot. Yours are not.

@lonelypalette @HiPhiNation @Princeton I invoked your podcast in my talk, Tamar, complimenting your ability to make the visual tangible in an audio-only medium.

@HiPhiNation @Princeton @cmolanphy What a swell twosome!

A great visit to Podcasting the Humanities @Princeton from @cmolanphy. Slate podcasts are really representin’ on this campus this semester.

@thomasinskeep1 Not surprised the album’s meh—maybe Pebbles’s hubby wasn’t prioritizing his wife’s material/giving her castoffs?—but “Giving You the Benefit” was a hot leadoff (I still own that CD single). L.A./Face probably focused their energies on the potential hits & nothing more.

@tombreihan P.S. “What Goes Around” needed that Grammy boost—preshow, it was knocking around the bottom of the Top10, even briefly falling out. The Grammy perf sent it 8–>1. P.P.S. I detailed this Justin-plays-the-Grammys chart trick in my “100&Single” column in ’09: idolator.com/5157380/two-hi…

@tombreihan “Timberlake was up for a bunch of Grammys…he got to perform twice…Maybe that’s what ultimately helped lift ‘What Goes Around’…” Yup—that plus an SNL rerun (again—peak Imperial JT). Funnily, 2yrs later he pulled the same Grammy trick on a T.I. song & almost got THAT to No1 too.

@inlandemperor You might say you just had to have…

I whispered my wish to the winds and am now, miraculously, a Rock Hall voter 😱 #GeorgeMichaelOrBust