Please tune in for this conversation with cultural historian Dr Jon Gentry on "degenerate music," what it is - what it means and why it matters! Perhaps more familiar as "middle class panic" against "dangerous" popular music like the backlash against Hip Hop in the 90s, this is a history that reaches back to Darwin and the 19th Century. Taking a term from biology, inserting it into politics and then using it to police the arts has had fateful consequences for the evolution of music and popular culture. Don't forget to like and subscribe and please leave any and all comments and feedback!

In this continuation of our deep dive into Wagner, Marx and Meyerbeer which explore maybe first and most total instance of "cancel culture" in music: Wagner's "professional assassination" of Meyerbeer. Wagner shifted a whole climate of public opinion and rendered what had been beloved into something superficial, antiquated, and ultimately forgotten. Yet in a manner way ahead of his time, Meyerbeer dramatised the dangers of fanaticism, fundamentalism and gave pride of place to the outsider, the subaltern and the abused minority. Join us as we listen in and try in some small measure to rectify this historic injustice.

The roots of all modern fantasy series from Star Wars to Lord of the Rings can mostly be found in Wagner and his 16 hour music-dramatic tetralogy "the Ring of the Nibelungen." Join us as we investigate some of this vast work and see the influence of Marxism, nationalism and ultimately the pseudo-science of race on this vast canvas of giants, "dwarfs," magic helmets, swords and gold rings. In this two part lecture, we also explore Wagner's vexed relationship with his musical mentor, the most successful opera composer of his day, Giacomo Meyerbeer. In almost every sense the antithesis of Wagner, Meyerbeer composed in history not myth, education not fantasy, and empathy with the downtrodden rather than heroic triumphalism. Little known today, Meyerbeer was the target of career assassination driven by Wagner, a campaign largely successful until this day. Stay tuned for the second half to the lecture next week and happy listening.