S8 EP5: Melanie C on Spiceworld, comparing muscles with Arnold Schwarzenegger and why she’ll always be a Spice Girl

NPR News: 07-10-2026 1AM EDT · Jul 10, 2026 Music

Welsh pop icon Bonnie Tyler has died at 75 in a hospital in Portugal. Best known for the soaring 1980s ballad 'Total Eclipse of the Heart,' Tyler leaves behind one of the era's most recognisable voices. Expand

It started with a mix · Jul 10, 2026 Music

Lauren Laverne argues that Amy Winehouse represents the cultural hinge point where digital music changed everything. When all reference points live permanently online, you get artists who fuse Shangri-La sounds with colloquial modern lyrics — and that's what modern pop music now is. Expand

S8 EP5: Melanie C on Spiceworld, comparing muscles with Arn… · Jul 6, 2026 Music

Manager Chris Herbert housed all five Spice Girls together — a decision Melanie C calls a stroke of genius. You don't know someone until you live with them. That shared house created the real friendships, real feuds and the unshakeable band chemistry that no amount of manufactured pop could replicate. Expand

S8 EP5: Melanie C on Spiceworld, comparing muscles with Arn… · Jul 6, 2026 Music

Tom Yorke called the Spice Girls the Antichrist. Shirley Manson of Garbage wished for their 'complete and utter destruction'. Liam Gallagher said he'd chin them. The fury was proportionate to their dominance: they were the most commercial band ever and completely inescapable — which made them everything the indie and rock establishment despised. Expand

S8 EP5: Melanie C on Spiceworld, comparing muscles with Arn… · Jul 6, 2026 Music

At the Royal Albert Hall during Mikhail Gorbachev's 80th birthday celebration, Arnold Schwarzenegger complimented Melanie C on her biceps. This surreal encounter later inspired the Sweat single, which samples Schwarzenegger's fitness workout albums from the Pumping Iron era layered over a Diana Ross hook. Expand

S8 EP5: Melanie C on Spiceworld, comparing muscles with Arn… · Jul 6, 2026 Music

After eight years DJing house music, Melanie C wanted her 2026 album Sweat to bridge her pop identity and the dancefloor. She built a fitness banger around a Diana Ross hook and an Arnold Schwarzenegger workout album, drawing on childhood inspirations from Fame and Flashdance. The result is electronic disco-pop designed for a sweaty late-night club. Expand

The Most American Episode of The Daily, Ever. · Jul 5, 2026 Music

Aaron Copland didn't invent Americana — he excavated it from folk songs already in the American soil. His ballet Rodeo, built on tunes Woody Guthrie also recorded, created the vibe of a nation trying to distinguish itself from Europe, and its 'Hoe Down' finale ended up selling beef on national TV. That's the arc from serious art form to mass culture in one piece. Expand

Taylor Swift's "Big Fat Disney Wedding," Prince Harry's UK … · Jul 2, 2026 Music

When the US soccer team won its World Cup knockout match, they played John Denver's 'Country Roads' — a song Megyn Kelly says reminds her of her late father and her late sister. Music from your youth is neurologically wired into your identity, and this team just chose the right soundtrack. Expand

Taylor Swift's "Big Fat Disney Wedding," Prince Harry's UK … · Jul 2, 2026 Music

Barry Manilow at 83 and Smokey Robinson at 86 are still performing — but they are mouthing words to backing tracks, not actually singing. Megyn Kelly and Maureen Callahan say loving family members would not let you go out this way. Rick Springfield at 76, still shirtless and singing live, is the exception that proves the rule. Expand