CYNDI LAUPER (with The Ringer's Rob Harvilla)
Pop Pantheon
DJ Louie XIV
4.7 • 630 Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2022
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Senior Staff Writer for The Ringer Rob Harvilla joins DJ Louie for a deep dive into foundational early MTV-era icon, Cyndi Lauper. First, Louie and Rob parse what made the early 1980s such a crystallizing moment for The Pop Star as we know it today and particularly the role MTV played in taking pop stardom 360°, making it a visual endeavor as much as a musical one. They then breakdown Cyndi’s rough-and-tumble upbringing in Queens and how it established her distinct star persona and voice, her stint as a cover band front-woman honing her skills as a canny interpreter of other people’s songs, and her first breakout attempt as the lead singer of erstwhile new wave band, Blue Angel. Next, they consider her seminal solo debut album, 1983’s She’s So Unusual, how she remade cover songs in her own image, the towering success of her first single “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” which both solidified her place in the pop canon but potentially became an albatross around her neck, as well as the versatility she displayed on her second hit, quintessential ‘80s power-ballad “Time After Time”’. Next, Rob and Louie examine Cyndi's successful sophomore album, 1986’s True Colors, how it cemented both her more overt activist bent and her status as an LGBTQIA+ icon, Cyndi’s third record, 1989’s A Night To Remember, which she’s since referred to as “A Night To Forget”, how she struggled to regain her commercial footing through the ‘90s and ‘00s despite releasing some of her best music and finally, her surprising late-career renaissance as the Tony-Award winning composer of the hit Broadway musical, Kinky Boots. Finally, Louie and Rob rank Cyndi Lauper in the official Pop Pantheon.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everybody. Welcome back to Pop Pantheon the podcast where we completely overanalyze all of your favorite pop stars and then rank them in the official Pop Pantheon. I'm your host, DJ Louis the 14th. So glad you're here. |
| 0:22.4 | Welcome to all of my new listeners. Last episode was by far the most successful of the podcast run so |
| 0:28.2 | far. So no, there's a bunch of new people out there listening. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Hope you're |
| 0:32.7 | enjoying the show. As usual, please rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, |
| 0:39.5 | which now also has ratings. Those ratings really help the podcast get exposed in the |
| 0:44.2 | algorithm to more people. So really appreciate everyone that's been doing that. Please, |
| 0:48.4 | if you have a second, hit five stars on the podcast. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Also, |
| 0:52.6 | please follow me, DJ, L-O-U-I-E-X-I-V on both Instagram and Twitter, as well as the podcast. Thank you, thank you. Also, please follow me, DJ, L-O-U-I-E-X-I-V on both |
| 0:56.2 | Instagram and Twitter, as well as the podcast at Pop Pantheon Pod. Join the Discord chat |
| 1:01.9 | tonight with me and lots of other fun people. January 20th at 8 p.m. Eastern 5 p.m. Pacific. |
| 1:08.1 | Enjoy the Spotify's essential playlist of every artist we ever talk about on this |
| 1:12.3 | podcast. The links for all of those things are we on social media and are in the show notes of |
| 1:16.6 | this episode. Send any questions you have about this episode, about past episodes, about the Pantheon |
| 1:22.5 | in general to pop pantheon pod at gmail.com so I can answer them on a future minisode. |
| 1:29.0 | And let's just get into it about this week's topic, which I know will be an education for a lot |
| 1:34.2 | of people that are listening to this show as it was for me. This is an artist that is so |
| 1:39.4 | incredibly important and influential on so many of the pop stars that we all know and love today. |
| 1:44.0 | And I'm really |
| 1:45.2 | excited to be able to present this person's career to people that may not know that much about her |
| 1:50.0 | or who may just know her for the few hits that have stood the test of time, but don't really know |
| 1:55.5 | her whole story and also like the true extent of her artistry and impact, which is pretty |
| 1:59.9 | profound. And it was a real treat to get to look into that myself. |
... |
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