ARCHIVE

This sobering episode of Music In Time surveys the music of global energy crises. Informed by the current war-induced disruption to energy markets, host Evan McCormick looks back to similar historical episodes -- from the 1970s on -- when listeners were were feeling the effects of geopolitical tragedy through their personal consumption. How did an intense awareness of the volatility in the global economy, and of an over-reliance on fossil fuels, frame the sounds of music, from Bob Markey's Burnin' to Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot? Hop in the electric car on this sonic historical road trip and find out. It's Music In Time!

Playlist
1. Burnin' and Lootin' - Bob Marley & The Wailers (1973)
2. Mind Games - John Lennon (1973)
3. A Gallon of Gas - The Kinks (1979)
4. Sedan Delivery - Neil Young (1979)
5. Slow Train - Bob Dylan (1979)
6. Stop!- Jane's Addiction (1990)
7. All Shook Down - The Replacements (1990)
8. War on War - Wilco (2002)
9. Thinking About Tomorrow - Beth Orton (2002)
10. Do The Panic - Phantom Planet (2008)
11. The Opposite - The Smile (2022)

-----

Music does not just exist. It exists in specific times and places and in the sonic world of each individual listener who engages with it. That’s the basic idea behind "Music in Time," which explores the social and political context in which songs and albums emerge, are listened to, and reflected on over the years. Host Evan McCormick uses different formats to play with the idea of music in time—sometimes focusing on a single album and detailing the social and political circumstances surrounding its release, sometimes putting together playlists that explore a theme or concept in songs through the years. Each broadcast asks: how is music shaped by its own historical moment, and, in turn, how does music shape the histories that we remember?

By day, Evan McCormick is a historian at Columbia University, where he uses oral history interviews to understand how people remember and make sense of the past. By night, McCormick is a music lover and singer-songwriter, recording under the stage name Egan Caufield. For most of his life these two worlds remained separate, but after relocating to Catskill in 2020, he chose to bring history and music together over the airwaves, and "Music in Time" was born.