How podcasting got its sound ft. Breakmaster Cylinder

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What if the entire sound of modern podcasting can be traced back to a single Grateful Dead song uploaded in 2001? We uncover the musical lineage that connects NPR's classical gravitas to dubstep wobbles, from the very first RSS feed experiment to the mysterious masked composer who's scored over 200 podcast themes and shaped what millions of people hear when they hit play. This deep dive reveals how podcast music evolved from classical public radio strings into today's signature blend of plinking pianos, breakbeats, and irreverent sampling—plus an exclusive interview with the enigmatic Breakmaster Cylinder, the "Hans Zimmer of podcasting" who's been hiding behind a robot helmet for over a decade. MORE Subscribe to our newsletter SONGS DISCUSSED Grateful Dead "Truckin'" Adam Curry "Daily Source Code" theme NPR "All Things Considered" theme Don Voegeli "All Things Considered" original theme (1971) Don Voegeli "All Things Considered" jazz funk version (1976) NPR "All Things Considered" orchestral version (1983/1995) The Daily theme WNYC "On the Media" theme by Ben Allison "Disposable Genius" Christopher Lydon "Radio Open Source" theme by Dafnis Prieto Disparition "The Ballad of Fiedler and Mundt," (Welcome to Night Vale theme) Serial theme Joe Rogan Experience theme Call Her Daddy theme Snap Judgment theme The Breakfast Club theme WTF with Marc Maron theme by John Montagna "Lock the Gate" Reply All theme by Breakmaster Cylinder Breakmaster Cylinder "Outside In" theme Breakmaster Cylinder "Bird Note" (Claire de Lune with loon calls) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this show comes from OnePassword. If you're an IT or security pro, managing devices,
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0:21.3	Take the first step to better security for your team.
0:24.7	Learn more at onepassword.com slash podcast offer.
0:29.4	That's onepassword.com slash podcast offer, all lowercase.
0:44.3	Stage on the podcast. offer. All lowercase. Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan.
0:48.9	Okay, so celebrating our 400th episode this year, we decided that we were going to rewrite our theme song, right?
0:54.7	Oh yeah, it was in desperate need of a renovation.
0:57.9	And we looked into all the different ways that a theme song needs to work for a show.
1:01.9	But something that we missed was, frankly, the musicology, the history of podcast music as a form.
1:08.5	Because just like pop music history, it turns out that podcast music has a long lineage and it has a sound.
1:14.9	And I promise you, you're not going to believe where it all started.
1:17.5	That's already a more dramatic promise than I could have expected for a show about podcast theme music.
1:24.0	So I'm sat, as the kids say.
1:26.6	Here's the music from the very first podcast ever.
1:30.2	Trucking. Got my chips cashed in. Keep trucking. Like the dude of man together. Or less in line. Just keep
1:42.7	trucking. The Grateful Dad's Trucking.
1:45.0	Was the first podcast ever a Grateful Dead bootleg playback?
1:51.0	We're like, wait, what is, this is confusing?
1:54.0	So according to reporting by Eric Newsom on Pod News, the Grateful Dead were the first audio distributed by RSS, the technology that makes
2:02.5	podcasts possible. Grateful Dead were always very permissive about their taping policy.
	...

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