Popular Reviews of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs

Instead of an interesting look at the history, context, structure, instrumentation, or whatever makes each chosen song special, this is two people having a personal conversation about the song. It did not hold my attention. I guess I am spoiled by legendary podcasts like Song Exploder or Hit Parade. This is not those.

I listened to the first two episodes and had the same criticism of both. I love the idea for the podcast, especially a deep-dive into how music critics view different songs and their justification for being placed on the list. The hosts are great and I love the inclusion of a third guest to provide greater insight, but the overall structure just does not hit right for me. There are a few glaring issues that make it difficult to listen to in the long run for me though.1) Production - This is a music discussion podcast, but there is little to no use of the music being discussed. Compared to a podcast like Hit Parade, where there is both discussion and integration of the songs, this is a huge miss. In the second episode, they reference specific drum styles and other musicians, but if you don't already have a background in those artists, this means nothing to the casual listener.2) Song Ranking - I love the conceit of the podcast, but some discussion of why each particular song was ranked. Dreams was #9 and Baby One More Time was 205. Some comparison or contextualization would make the ranking more clear and add to the depth.