318 Episodes

  1. History in Five Songs Episode 316: Bands Ruined by Funk

    Published: 7/26/2025

  2. History in Five Songs Episode 317: Non-American Hair Metal

    Published: 7/22/2025

  3. History in Five Songs Episode 315: Metal Classics That Sold Nothing

    Published: 7/8/2025

  4. History in Five Songs Episode 314: When Writing Credits Matter

    Published: 7/1/2025

  5. History in Five Songs Episode 313: What did you do during hair metal?

    Published: 6/24/2025

  6. History in Five Songs Episode 312: Unexpected AOR Albums

    Published: 6/17/2025

  7. History in Five Songs Episode 311: Covers, not grunge, killed hair metal.

    Published: 6/10/2025

  8. History in Five Songs Episode 310: Struggling with the Greatest New Wave Bands

    Published: 6/3/2025

  9. History in Five Songs Episode 309: New Wave’s Pub Rock Problem

    Published: 5/27/2025

  10. History in Five Songs Episode 308: Who invented new wave?

    Published: 5/20/2025

  11. History in Five Songs Episode 307: Knighted Rock Stars

    Published: 5/13/2025

  12. History in Five Songs Episode 306: Offshoot Band, Shadow Band

    Published: 5/6/2025

  13. History in Five Songs Episode 305: Bands That Became American

    Published: 5/6/2025

  14. History in Five Songs Episode 304: The Best Real Estate on a Vinyl Album

    Published: 4/22/2025

  15. History in Five Songs Episode 303: The Stealth Platinums

    Published: 4/15/2025

  16. History in Five Songs Episode 302: Prog Bands’ Top Ten Seconds

    Published: 4/8/2025

  17. History in Five Songs Episode 301: There’s no such thing as proto-punk.

    Published: 4/1/2025

  18. History in Five Songs Episode 300: The Guitar Weave

    Published: 3/25/2025

  19. History in Five Songs Episode 299: Punk Albums Late by a Year

    Published: 3/18/2025

  20. History in Five Songs Episode 298: The Yes Solo Album Break

    Published: 3/11/2025

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History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff is the show that aims to make grand and often oddball hard rock and heavy metal points through a narrative built upon the tiny idea of a quintet of songs. Buttressed with illustrative clips, Martin argues quickly and succinctly why these songs - and the specific sections of these tracks - support his mad professor premise, from the wobbly invention of an “American” heavy metal, to the influence of Led Zeppelin in hair metal or to more succinct topics like tapping and twin leads. The songs serve as bricks, but Martin slathers plenty of mortar. At the end, hopefully he has a sturdy house in which this week’s theory can reside unbothered by the elements. At approximately 7000, Martin has had published in books more record reviews than anybody in the history of music writing across all genres. Additionally, Martin has penned approximately 85 books on hard rock, heavy metal, classic rock and record collecting. Proud part of Pantheon - the podcast network for music lovers.