Episodes
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Our Love for Indian Classical Music
Indian classical music is an art form that’s been in the making for thousands of years and has exponentially grown in popularity, seeing a 70% increase in people taking exams in the UK alone. First mentioned in its simplest form in the Hindu scriptures known as the vedas, some 3,500 years ago, we...
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It Jus' Keeps Rolling: The Story of Ol' Man River
In 1927 Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein created Ol’ Man River to bind their breakthrough Broadway musical Show Boat. Giving it an almighty showstopper. Audiences were carried away as ‘Joe’, the ordinary black labourer, took centre stage to sing of toil and suffering in the land of cotton along...
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Aretha Franklin: Queen Of Soul
Aretha Franklin, for fifty years the Queen of Soul, with a voice of unique quality and who suffered a difficult and troubled life, has died at the age of 76. Jumoke Fashola hears from musicians, fans and producers from different parts of the world about what made Aretha Franklin’s music special.…
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Martin Morales’s Peruvian Roadtrip
Peruvian-born chef and record producer Martin Morales heads back to his homeland to explore the inherent link between food and music in Andean culture. Martin starts his journey at the famous La Chomba restaurant in Cusco, where musicians queue to serenade the diners, and then heads to the tiny...
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Yevgeny Murzin: Master of the Synthesiser
Due to the political climate in Soviet Russia of the day, Yevgeny Murzin was forced to build his synthesizer in secret with little access to electronic parts. Over next two decades (pre and post war), the ANS as it was known, was a self-financed, largely secret labour of love; Murzin had to work…
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Aretha at 75
Known as the Queen of Soul, voice artists have been in awe of Aretha Franklin for 50 years. In Aretha at 75 Mark Coles talks to musicians, fans and producers from different parts of the world about what makes her so special. Including contributions from South African singer Lira, American…
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Symphony of the Stones
Ancient history was not silent, so why is our study of it? The oldest-known musical instruments – bone flutes found in southern Germany – date back a little over 40,000 years. But how long humans have been making music in one form or another is a matter of great speculation. What did ‘music’ mean...
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Gabriela Montero: Improvisation Masterclass
Gabriela Montero, the exhilarating Venezuelan pianist, is playing in Miami. She is renowned for her live improvisations, a form of classical music that is rarely heard in concert halls today. Her spontaneous compositions on stage are inspired by musical motifs, sung or hummed to her by a member…
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Get Up, Stand Up: Reggae in Poland
What makes the sweet rhythmical music of a Caribbean island so appealing to young people in the eastern European country of Poland? How did a reggae singer with dreadlocks come to win the TV show Poland's Got Talent? And why is Poland one of the biggest markets for reggae music in the world? Bob...
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Van Morrison and me
John McCarthy explores how Van Morrison’s music has influenced people’s lives and Brian Keenan takes John on a tour of Van’s home city of Belfast.
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Steve Earle’s Songwriting Bootcamp
Legendary country singer-songwriter Steve Earle unveils the secrets of composing a great song. Every year he runs a four-day intensive training session in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. Journalist and aspiring songwriter Hugh Levinson joined around 100 other would-be balladeers to…
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Bob Dylan – In So Many Words
Marco Werman investigates Bob Dylan’s work, weighing the evidence on whether he’s a worthy Nobel Literature Prize winner.
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The Caribbean Musical Melting Pot: Keeping it Real?
Gemma Cairney reports on attempts to keep musical traditions alive on both Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico. In Guadeloupe – much of the music is driven by a belief in “you have to know where you come from to know where you’re going” and many young people are rediscovering their Creole music and…
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The Caribbean Musical Melting Pot: The Rise and Rise of Soca
Music from all over the Caribbean is gaining international recognition as it increasingly draws on influences from all around the world. In this first programme, Gemma Cairney looks at the new sounds of Soca in Trinidad and Barbados, which is a blend of both African and Trinidadian rhythms. It...
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A symphony for Syria
A symphony for Syria is the story of how 50 Syrian musicians beat the odds to find their way to Holland to perform together. The Orchestra of Syrian Musicians first played with British songwriter Damon Albarn in 2008. Since then, a civil war has divided their country and forced many to rethink…
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The Secrets of Songwriting
Simon Barber and Brian O’Connor, two Liverpool musicians collectively known as Sodajerker, quiz musicians on everything from the instruments they use and where they write to whether they thrive under deadline pressure. Their stellar list of interviewees includes Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (who...
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Music that Unites Us
Asad Ali Chaudhry explores music of the world that unites fans, including Pakistani folk singer Bali Jatti, whose music is inspired by Indian culture, Cypriot folk music shared by Greeks and Turks, and a Russian folk metal band with a strong Finnish influence.
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Cross Cultural Collaborations
The unique music that can result when artists from different traditions come together to create new sounds. Including a Cuban/Bangladeshi group collaborating with Nigerian Afrobeats star Dele Sosimi and a Breton fiddle player who have joined forces with a trio from Mali.
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The Human Voice
What's happening physiologically and chemically to us when we sing - and why does it make us feel happy - and free.
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The Persian Underground
How young Iranian musicians and singers are finding ways of breaking the restrictions on the public performance of music and songs. And how they're leaving Iran to do it.
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Argentina’s Rock and Roll
The music that helped forge a new Argentine identity after the violence of military rule in the 1970s and 1980s.
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Freedom Songs
American civil rights song and Nina Simon hit I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free is instantly recognisable. How did the song come to be written and what is its place in the US today?
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Jimi Hendrix's Time in London
Jimi Hendrix's 1967 gig at the Marquee club in London launched his career. His English girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham, recalls her relationship with a man who would become a musical legend.
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In Perfect Harmony
Beautiful singing in harmony from around the world. This documentary looks at when and why we sing, what it means to us musically and emotionally and how harmonising differs from place to place.
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The Secret History of Bossa Nova
Forget its low-key, supper club reputation, bossa nova was tied to a political revolution in Brazil. Presenter Monica Vasconcelos travels to Rio to meet musicians that were part of the original bossa scene - Joyce and Marcus Valle, Eumir Deodato and music writer Ruy Castro.
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Walk on the Wild Side
Mike Williams talks to critics, fans, academics and historians to try and explain why Lou Reed's music changed everything.
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Flashmob Flamenco
Spain's current economic crisis is seeing the return of flamenco as a form of protest. Jason Webster explores its history.
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I Dressed Ziggy Stardust
For more than four decades, David Bowie has entranced his followers. As he releases his first new material in ten years, Samira Ahmed looks at his particular appeal for British Asian women across the generations.
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Johnny Cash and the Forgotten Prison Blues
Did Johnny Cash have any real impact on prison reform in America? Was it realistic for Cash to attempt to rehabilitate an inmate through music?
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Michael Jackson - The Thrill Of Thriller
To mark the 30th anniversary of the world's biggest selling album we look at what Michael Jackson means to the Ivory Coast village of Krindjabo - where after DNA tests revealed the singer was descended from the royal Sanwi line - he was declared a royal, known as Prince Michael Jackson Amalaman...
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Wheel And Come Again - 50 Years Of Jamaican Music
Colin Grant explores the daring and innovative music that has come from Jamaica since its independence, 50 years ago.
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Southern Tracks - Part Two
Writer and DJ Joe Fletcher tracks down forgotten musicians who made records in the 60's and 70's, in America's Deep South. In part two he speaks to Pastor Tim Daniels and two members of the Ramada Singers - LC Jacobs and James Johnson.
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Southern Tracks - Part One
Writer and DJ Joe Fletcher tracks down forgotten musicians who made records in the 60's and 70's, in America's Deep South. In part one he speaks to Johnny 'Hurricane' Jones, Paul Anderson and Little Jan Buckner.
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Song by Song by London - Part Two
Robert Elms continues his search for the musical soul of London. He discusses the pride that puts a swagger in the step of Londoners. He finds it in the characters of street sellers, wartime entertainers and the songs that were played in East End music halls.
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Song by Song by London - Part One
Robert Elms searches for the musical soul of London, celebrated in over a century of song. This two-part special features songs by The Clash, David Bowie, Lord Kitchener, Gert and Daisy, Lily Allen, The Kinks, Professor Green and many more. What do Robert's personal musical highlights reveal…
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Ziggy Changed My Life
Gary Kemp presents this programme which marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most influential albums ever recorded - David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars, which was released on 6 June 1972.
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One Love: the Legacy of Bob Marley
Poet Lemn Sissay - whose own life was uniquely altered on hearing Marley's music and by discovering a shared Ethiopian connection - talks to fans and musicians, from all over the world to find out what it is about Bob Marley's music that has created such a passionate - and diverse - following.
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What's Going On - Music that Defined a Decade
Smokey Robinson explores the social and political impact of Marvin Gaye's classic album - What's Going On - and explains why Marvin's masterpiece still has resonance today.
About this show
All the BBC World Service music podcasts gathered into one place. New documentaries will be added intermittently. Only available in the UK.
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BBC World Service
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