You know what Top 40 radio is. But…think about it for a second. Top 40 what? Songs? Albums? Bands? And top for who? Once you get started, the supposedly homogenous “mainstream” at the center of American listening is actually pretty complicated. To help us explore the past of pop, we talk with Eric Weisbard, music critic and professor of American Studies, whose book “Top 40 Democracy: The Rival Mainstreams of American Music” examines how radio formats and the artists that populated them helped make modern music. We go from the bizarre pan-ethnic brass band sounds of Herb Albert to the Cleveland station that invented classic rock—with a stop along the way for some Dolly.

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Buy Top 40 Democracy: The Rival Mainstreams of American Music by Eric Weisbard