So, Hear Me Out: What does pop owe to classical music?
Have you ever heard Beethoven in hip-hop? How about Chopin in pop?
Our hosts Gillian Moore and Linton Stephens have, and in this, our eighth episode of So, Hear Me Out, they take a closer look at the moments where modern music channels the classics.
Charlie XCX draped shimmering strings across her Brat album; Lady Gaga dropped Vittorio Monte’s Czardas straight into ‘Alejandro’. Little Mix built a whole hook out of Fauré’s graceful Pavane and The Beatles took Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ and flipped it into ‘Because’.
But in this episode we begin with hip-hop as Stephens unpacks Nas’ 2002 anthem ‘I Can’ and its unmistakable sample of Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’. Moving from hip-hop into full on pop, Moore traces the transformation of Chopin’s Prelude No. 20 into Barry Manilow’s soaring pop sensation ‘Could It Be Magic’.
‘Pop stars have always been magpies, lifting, sampling and transforming the classical past’
Gillian Moore
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Listen to all episodes of So, Hear Me Out
So, Hear Me Out: Are film and game soundtracks ‘proper’ classical music?
Gillian Moore and Linton Stephens explore the world of film soundtracks and game scores in episode seven of our podcast series.
So, Hear Me Out: Can classical music make you happier?
Gillian Moore and Linton Stephens explore the happiness that classical music can bring in the sixth episode of our podcast series
So, Hear Me Out: Can classical music provide hope to the imprisoned?
Gillian Moore and Linton Stephens explore compositions that testify to the resilience of creativity in this fifth episode of our classical music podcast.
So, Hear Me Out: Is classical music just one big remix?
Gillian Moore and Linton Stephens discuss classical music’s tendency to borrow from its own past in our classical music podcast’s fourth episode.
So, Hear Me Out: Can classical music be protest music?
Hosts Gillian Moore and Linton Stephens contemplate classical music as a form of protest in the third episode of our classical music podcast.
So, Hear Me Out: Is it ok to use music from cultures that are not your own?
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Listen to the first episode of the Southbank Centre’s classical music podcast, as hosts Gillian Moore and Linton Stephens explore humour in music.
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