ARCHIVE

"Music in Time" rings in the new year with another history road trip, looking at notable New Year's Eves of the past, exploring what listeners were hearing as the calendar was turning. Making stops in 1968, 1989, and (of course) Y2K — among others — host Even McCormack considers how the connection between music and historical moments is heightened as we mark the passing of time. With a playlist for the ages while doing it. Happy New Year — hop in!

1. Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson - The Storms are On the Ocean
2. The Kingsmen - Louie, Louie
3. Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil
4. Taj Mahal - You Don't Miss Your Water (Til Your Well Runs Dry)
5. John Lennon - (Just Like) Starting Over
6. Blondie - Rapture
7. Screaming Trees - Change Has Come
8. Nirvana - Been a Son
9. David Bowie - Seven
10. Aimee Mann - One
11. Blue Man Group - Utne Wire Man
12. Gorillaz - HillBilly Man

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. Each broadcast will focus on a single album, detailing the social and political circumstances surrounding its release and moments in time that made certain music resonate anew. How is music shaped by these historical moments, and, in turn, how does it shape the histories that we remember?

By day, Evan McCormick is a historian at Columbia University, where he is part of the Obama Presidency Oral History project, interviewing a range of people — from cabinet members to ordinary folks — about their memories of the Obama years. 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.