Sound Field

James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, created the DNA for funk. Musicians LA Buckner and Nahre Sol explore how he created funk music, as well as how Bro...

It only takes a few notes of Sarah MacLachlan’s “Angel” over images of homeless dogs and cats to trigger our tear ducts. Heartbreaking visuals aside,...

Hi-hats. That blazing fast sound is everywhere—pop, reggaeton, country—and hi-hats are essential in trap music. Where exactly did trap music come from...

Since the beginning of time Phi—also known as the golden ratio—has inspired the world around us. Have you ever noticed how some pieces of music just s...

Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were some of the first bands to perform the metal scream, but the origin of screaming in music actually goes back a lot...

What is music? From John Cage to Legendary Stardust Cowboy, avant-garde artists have forever been pushing on the edges of what is considered music. Co...

Have you heard the conspiracy theory that Nicki Minaj songs are just Jay-Z pitched up? Well that may not be true, but changing the pitch of their song...

Why do so many horror film scores today sound similar to The Exorcist from 1973? A lot of that is thanks to Krzysztof Penderecki, a Polish composer wh...

Kacey Musgraves won the Album of the Year award at the 2019 Grammys, becoming only the 4th country album to ever win that award. Two of the producers...

"Weird Al" Yankovic might be the first person to come to mind when you think of parody music, but did you know that composers like Bach, Mozart, and S...

Streaming services like Spotify are changing more than the way we listen to music - they are actually changing the way music is written.

The songs of Disney musicals do more work than you might think. Under all that fairy dust and sparkle, there are techniques songwriters use to make su...

Adam Neely joined LA and Nahre in the studio for an improvised jam session. Adam comes from a jazz and rock background, while Nahre comes from a class...

You’re probably familiar with New York’s underground ballroom scene through Madonna’s Vogue or films like Paris is Burning. This subculture has been r...

Three 6 Mafia are a Memphis based group that created the building blocks for the trap sound. Though trap music came from Atlanta, the sound originates...

Today goth is a subculture popularized by movies like the Addams Family or the fashion of Billie Eillish, but where did this scene originate? Many agr...

The banjo was, at one time, the most popular instrument in America, with tens of thousands manufactured and sold between 1910 and 1930. Nahre talks to...

We broke down every song in the Billboard top five from the last two years and found some interesting trends. LA and Nahre try to write the next Billb...

For our episode on music criticism we spoke to Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop about the purpose of music criticism in today's digital world. We al...

Canadian DJ collective A Tribe Called Red combine Native American drum circle sounds with electronic music to create Electric Pow wow. Nahre Sol trave...

We explore where the blues came from and how it went on to influence many modern genres of music. From Delta Blues pioneers like Robert Johnson and So...

LA and Nahre travel to Chicago, the birthplace of gospel music. There they meet gospel artist, Donald Lawrence and LA introduces Nahre to drum shed cu...

Bach, Mozart, Clara Schumann and Chopin all improvised as part of their performances. Today, classical musicians rarely improvise. So what changed? Na...

Bachata music comes from the Dominican Republic in the 1960's but thanks to newer acts like Romeo Santos and Aventura, has blown up internationally. W...

The electro-funk style known as the Minneapolis Sound took over pop music in the 1980s and 90s. LA is in Minneapolis to meet with Jellybean Johnson of...

K-Pop has become a global phenomenon. While K-Pop may seem like traditional pop music, it's actually more complex. It borrows from a variety of genres...

Dubstep came from UK garage music in the 90's, influenced by the syncopation of 2-step and the bass and reverb of Jamaican dub. What started off in Lo...

Busking, also called street performance, is the act of playing in public for donations. The tradition goes back to ancient history and has launched th...

LA Buckner is the host of Sound Field but also a professional drummer, producer, and teacher. LA tells us about his musical journey from drumming at 3...

Nahre Sol is the host of Sound Field but is also known worldwide as a classically trained pianist and composer. As a soloist and chamber musician she...

Independent, or "Indie" music, has a broad definition that can be applied across genres and regions. So what makes indie music indie? LA Buckner inter...

LA Buckner spotlights the innovative style of Kansas City's own Charlie “Bird” Parker — a legendary jazz musician who has influenced many of today's g...