It's the Best New Artist Breakdown season finale, featuring a MASTAS greatest-hits line-up, the return of sprung rhythm, grand unifying complaints about breakthrough categories, Elt Zeppelin, and how to evolve past Wolfman Jack in pop-music discovery. Do we agree with the Grammys' most recent BNA choices? Have we decided how to tackle the 2025 nominees? Should jerks win awards? Come spook the Recording Academy herd with us!

Intro and outro by Laura Barger and Jack Baldelli; for more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• • Ms. Warwick "roasts" Chance The Rapper
  • Episode 68: "Stay" Title Bout
  • Episode 247: Julia Michaels, "All Your Exes"
  • MB's Top 10 Songs of 2024 at The Lost Songs Project
  • Episode 224: Dua Lipa, "Levitating"
  • Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 4: 2007-2022
  • Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 3: The NEXT Next 15
  • Episode 189: Yola, "Faraway Look"
  • NPR's Stephen Thompson on Ingrid Andress's upsetting anthem
  • Phoebe Bridgers in The New Yorker

  • Single 19: Favorite Discoveries on NPR's Women+ Song List

Our penultimate Best New Artist Breakdown moves into the teens; we're talking about Amy Clonehouses, lost anthems of lady rage, gold-watch nominations, the Overton window of band-name ludicrosity, and much more. Grab those Kendrick Lamar seminar syllabi and have a listen!

Intro and outro by Andrew Byrne; for more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• • Episode 107: Bond-Movie Songs, Ranked
  • Duffy's return to social media after her ordeal
  • Episode 166: Taylor Swift ft. The Dixie Chicks, "Soon You'll Get Better"
  • Episode 182: The Stills, "Changes Are No Good"
  • Episode 74: Four By Pink
  • Pop Goes The Actor 4: '80s Movie Gents
  • Episode 68: "Stay" Title Bout
  • Episode 14: Bastille, "Pompeii"

As the Best New Artist Breakdown season rounds the millennium turn, we're talking about which band is playing when Jennifer Love Hewitt flees a serial killer, artists we should like on paper but fall asleep to in practice, the music of shampoo ads, and the basic room in each of our hearts. If Kanye West will make room, join us on the line between genius and madness for our latest episode!

Intro and outro by David Gregory Byrne; for more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• • The list of Best New Artist recipients, and nominees
  • The Best New Artist Breakdown season premiere
  • Episode 186: Nelly Furtado, "I'm Like A Bird"
  • Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 3: 1991-2006
  • Episode 116: Maroon 5, "Moves Like Jagger"
  • Episode 71: Kanye West, "Jesus Walks"
  • Amy

We're closing out the twentieth century in our fifth episode, and there are fewer howling embarrassments among our Best New Artist winners this time...but just as much anal-retentive insanity in our prep, plus diversity of sound, nothingburger arrangements saved by a Braxton, convincing Patsy Cline drag, effortful album titles, and the memory-holing of a multi-platinum act. Your dinner-party table in hell is ready, so pull up a chair and listen!

Intro and outro by David Gregory Byrne; for more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• • The list of Best New Artist recipients, and nominees
  • The Best New Artist Breakdown season premiere
  • "Frosty The Snowman...Is Melted"
  • Beats Around The Bush, Episode 01: Hippie Hop Hooray
  • Episode 41: Another Bad Creation, "Iesha" (with guest Nick Rheinwald-Jones!)
  • Extra Extra Hot Great 327: Focusing In On Interior Chinatown
  • The Lilith Fair 40, Episode 02: The Next 5
  • Weird Al vs. Everybody, Episode 08: Crash Test Dummies
  • Episode 8: Jewel-erdome! "You Were Meant For Me" vs. "Hands"
  • Episode 100: Surprise Party
  • Episode 85: Why Aren't These Songs Super-Famous, With Pam Ribon
  • Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 3: 1991-2006

Confusing band names, the MTV aura, and what happens if the comedy/tragedy masks and a keyboard mate: it's the 4th episode of our Best New Artist season, which brings us great winners, indefensible losers, and tracks that are more branding exercise than song. Does Mariah tie a whole Reagan-era room together? Listen now and find out!

Intro and outro by Andrew Byrne; for more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• • The list of Best New Artist recipients, and nominees
  • The Best New Artist Breakdown season premiere
  • Best New Artist Breakdown 03: 1977-1984
  • Episode 242: Tracy Chapman, "Fast Car"
  • SDB's review of Monsters
  • Beats Around The Bush, Episode 05: The Mystery Of Tone Loc
  • Episode 50: The Indigo Girls' "Indigo Girls," Ranked
  • Beats Around The Bush, Episode 01: Hippie Hop Hooray
  • Episode 164: Milli Vanilli, "Blame It On The Rain"
  • Lisa Stansfield live at The Apollo

Disco, NuRo, and not knowing where to look during "Afternoon Delight" -- it's all part of our third episode, when we're also talking about Starman's dinner party, the mayonnaise filter, the Michael McDonald industrial complex, and Mark's request to dump all the geography-named bands into one planetary supergroup. There's only one way to lift the Best New Artist curse, and that's to listen now.

Intro and outro by Laura Barger and Jack Baldelli. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• The list of Best New Artist recipients, and nominees
• The Best New Artist Breakdown season premiere
• Only Chicken
• Michael and Maeby sing "Afternoon Delight"
• Dig the styling on the Brothers Johnson
• "Hey Deanie" at The Lost Songs Project
• Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 2: 1975-1990
• In My Life's Wikipedia page
• Pop Goes The Actor 3: Comedians
• Episode 107: Bond-Movie Songs, Ranked

We're wading into the '70s in our second ep, which includes ruminations on inessential classic rock; how Karen Carpenter and Judy Garland can take you whenever they are; holding your nose and throwing your vote at the nomination dartboard; and more. We've only just beguuuuuun / to taaaaaaalk -- and to hear your comments! -- so listen now.

Intro and outro by David Gregory Byrne. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• The list of Best New Artist recipients, and nominees
• The Best New Artist Breakdown season premiere
• Episode 62: "Ode To Billie Joe" And "Harper Valley PTA"
• '90s Soundtrack Flashback, Episode 03: Forrest Gump
• Episode 18: Led Zeppelin/Dread Zeppelin/Dolly Parton, "Stairway To Heaven"
• Episode 69: Bryan Adams, "Summer Of '69" (with guest Danny MacEachern!)
• "Lost Grammy Nominee: Chase" at The Lost Songs Project
• "Woman Of The Hour: There are no winners here" at Best Evidence

The Best New Artist Breakdown season has begun! Instead of pitting the 64 winners of the Grammys' Best New Artist category against each other, we're talking about each year's nominees and winner in the context of their time...and in today's sixties-spanning ep, we're trying to make sense of the 20th century's monocultures, how far in the past most votes had gotten stuck, the weird dominance of the ukelele in the Kennedy years, and the weird ambitions of Mr. Swingle. Ready to go Bach to the future? Listen now!

Intro and outro by Andrew Byrne. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• The list of Best New Artist recipients, and nominees
• The Record Of The Year Showdown season premiere
• Episode 145: Bobby Darin, "Mack The Knife"
• The Beat Generation box-set playlist on Spotify
• The Lost Songs Project on Timi Yuro
• Episode 62: "Ode To Billie Joe" And "Harper Valley PTA"
• The Lost Songs Project on Harpers Bizarre
• Life Magazine's cover story on the non-golden era of hijacking