Vincent Cunningham
speaker
266 appearances
43 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard May 2025
Vincent Cunningham’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
And one of the things they've realized is, you know, I think a lot of us thought that to be a hit, a song probably needed a catchy tune. I think what they realized is they got more and more interested in the textures and sounds that were coming out of these electronic equipments.
And they realized that you could have a rigid electronic beat, but somehow have enough happening that it wouldn't be boring and it wouldn't be predictable. Or if it was predictable, it would be predictable in a good way. But they were arguably the first. Well, you know, a lot of people were using this stuff, right? Like Sly Stone has one of the first drum machine hits, right, in 1971.
So, you know, people are using this electronic stuff, but they had a – there was something about their vision. And as with anything else, they put elements together in a way that was catchy. It's a funny word to use about a track like Numbers, but – Numbers comes back. Here's a way in which Numbers comes back. A trio from Florida called Anquette has a song called Shake It, Do the 61st.
And if you listen closely, you can hear those chirping, fluttering synthesizers in the background from Numbers. That's the group Anquette, yeah. So, I know we are a little bit digressive. I'd like to get extra digressive here for a moment, David.
The single is called Janet Reno, who at the time was, I believe, a U.S. attorney in Miami-Dade County. Oh, it was before she was in the Clinton administration. Yes, because she was a local figure. And the idea was that if you don't pay your child support, Janet Reno was going to come after you. I don't know if she owns an autographed copy of that single, but I hope she does.
Anyway, back to Kraftwerk. This one particular track, Numbers, kept getting recycled and sampled and sampled. You might recognize the robotic counting in this techno track. This is Mike Hitman Wilson's remix of Rock to the Beat by Reese, which is a name of the producer Kevin Saunderson, who was one of the Detroit producers who created techno. And so this is a fairly early techno track.
This is only a few years after the genre was born. And by this point, like, Kraftwerk is roots music. And for a techno producer, that's a way of paying tribute to, you know, the eight, by this point, eight years old German track that helped inspire them. Okay, one last Kraftwerk track, Computer Love, from that same 1981 album Computer World. It's kind of a love song about computers.
I think the sense of humor in Kraftwerk is sometimes underrated. Overlooked. Yeah, there's a silliness to them or a sense of play.
Well, I think it's fair to say most of the people who come to see them now are there for the older songs, right? They would call that a legacy act, right? Not oldies. It's pejorative.
Yeah, so the heart of Kraftwerk was Florian Schneider and Ralf Hutter. Ralf Hutter is still alive and touring. Florian Schneider died in 2020. So, you know, it's partly an opportunity to pay tribute to this legacy. But, David, I think you might have told on yourself a little bit. You said that this track, Computer Love, sounded kind of familiar. Something. I think I know why. Why?
Because Coldplay took the melody and used it for Talk from 2005. Wow. This is the ultimate musical lesson that no matter what kind of pioneer you are, you're going to come back to life as a Coldplay song. Okay.
I have so much to say on this subject.
The Catholic Church was made for this moment. I think 2,000 years ago, the Catholic Church basically anticipated TikTok, Instagram, X. You don't have those little Swiss guard outfits and think they're not being photographed. Oil painting is not enough.
This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Our theme music was composed and performed by Meryl Garbus of Tune Yards, with additional music by Louis Mitchell.
This episode was produced by Max Balton, Adam Howard, David Krasnow, Jeffrey Masters, Louis Mitchell, Jared Paul, and Ursula Sommer, with guidance from Emily Botin and assistance from Michael May, David Gable, Alex Parrish, Victor Guan, and Alejandra Deckett. The New Yorker Radio Hour is supported in part by the Cherena Endowment Fund.
A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways.
And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
From the online spectacle around Leo XIV's election to our favorite on-screen cardinals. This week on Critics at Large, we're talking all things Pope.
Showing 21–40 of 266 · page 2 of 14
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