The allure of ‘legacy’ has long been a motivating fire sparking some of the world’s most impactful artistic creations. 

Song Exploder, the music documentary series growing from a podcast with the same name, feels inextricably tied to the concept of legacy. Through interviews with musicians and their collaborators, the series takes audiences into the creation process of their favorite songs. The series’ star-studded lineup of world-class artists suggests a certain pre-requisite existing legacy for being invited to dissect a song, and the song choice itself always seems to be rooted in the song’s greater impact on the artists’ career or music genre. Some episodes serve as a snapshot into the lives of artists who are still in their beginnings, like Dua Lipa, or industry veterans who are still active, like The Killers. 

Yet, the episode following R.E.M. captures a special snapshot, bringing together a band that split up over 10 years ago, hasn’t played together live in 15 years, and is now in their old age reflecting on years past. What emerges from such a combination is an episode that both demonstrates the artistic urge to cement a legacy and the inevitable fluidity of such an intangible concept, told via a series format that is unexpectedly conducive to treating such themes.

Some might argue that, for legacy acts like R.E.M., the draw of being featured in Song Exploder is the opportunity to be placed side by side with more contemporary artists, gaining exposure to the next generation of music listeners. But, what comes across in R.E.M’s involvement is not excitement at a continued commercial potential. 

In an article on posthumous live performance, Sam Geden introduces the concept of “death-proofing” legacy: taking actions now that will ensure a satisfactory posthumous after-image. While all four members of R.E.M. are alive and well, the urges that drew them to participate in the episode are undeniably shaped by the specter of death. As the episode dives into the demos for R.E.M.’s hit single “Losing My Religion,” guitarist Peter Buck drawls “I don’t want to die with all this crap in a drawer somewhere. I want it out there for the people who are interested.” 

For a group that, as drummer Bill Berry points out with a self-deprecating laugh, is often only recognized as that band that made “Losing My Religion,” the opportunity to share the story of their artistic identity, in their own words, one more time, is unsurprisingly appealing. Somewhat ironically, the simple premise of Song Exploder allows the artistic voices behind a song to be louder than the song itself, the song serving as an entry point into the lives and brains of its creators. 

In comparison to the rich and at times erratic visuals of music doc staples like Monterey Pop (1968) and Montage of Heck (2015), the visuals of Song Exploder err on the side of commercially clean and under-stimulating, keeping the focus on the words the artists share, both said and unsaid. The story is grounded in the interview rooms with the band, at times venturing into archival footage and the occasional b-roll visuals, but rarely departing into any true narrative or aesthetic tangent. When the b-roll visuals do take some artistic liberty, the episode makes a targeted effort to keep them within the world of R.E.M., even at the risk of confusing viewers not in the know. The animated graphics peppering the episode are beautiful extensions of the “Losing My Religion” music video, discretely fleshing out what other events could take place within its world.

What arises from this simplicity is a true focus on the emotions of the band. In a particularly impactful segment, singer Michael Stipe listens to the song’s demo with tears in his eyes and a furrowed brow, mouth opening and closing as he tries to answer series host Hrishikesh Hirway’s question about why the demo is so hard for Stipe to hear. “It’s just so naked, you know, it’s so raw” Stipe finally shares, a feeling the stripped-back visuals ultimately support. 

The decision to interview each artist separately on their version of the song’s creation further strengthens Song Exploder’s commitment to highlighting individual agency in reflections on legacy. Though we only see the band united in archival footage, the editing underlines their synchronicity, intercutting between each member’s retelling of their shared stories and perceptions of each other in a way that makes their history as a unit obvious. Accompanying Stipe’s emotional reaction to the demo is Buck’s nonchalant statement:  “Michael is always embarrassed when he hears these demos. I just try to go, Michael, you know, at this point it’s just history. I mean, this is not gonna change people’s mind about it. The real song is imprinted in people’s heads.”

Yet, what emerges perhaps most strongly from the episode is how malleable and unpredictable history –legacy– is. How perhaps a song is remembered not as it originally was, but as it was last remembered to be. 

R.E.M.’s own idea of the song evolves through their participation in the episode. Stipe originally states the underlying story of the song’s imagined protagonist is “total fabrication.” But then he re-reads the lyrics, encouraged by Hirway to speak from the heart on the fear of rejection the song’s imaged protagonist suffers from. Stipes chuckles with the realization: there is “autobiographic material in there.” As Hirway prompts Berry to discuss the handclaps in the song’s production, Berry has a moment of wide-eyed wonder as he re-discovers an element of the song he forgot existed. “That’s wild… I’m just flummoxed right now ‘cause I– it’s 30 years ago.” Berry recalls how quickly the whole song was recorded, bringing to mind the irony of dissecting a song's creation process when its ensuing impacts are fresher in mind than its creation. 

Most ironic of all, “Losing My Religion” was never supposed to define R.E.M.’s legacy. With the mandolin as the star instrument and an untraditional chorus structure, R.E.M. not only anticipated it would be a flop, they hoped it would be. After 10 years of touring and developing a strong fan base, they wanted to “ruin their career” with Out of Time, the album on which “Losing My Religion” appeared. They wanted a fresh start. In a sense, they got it, though perhaps not in the way they originally intended. “Losing My Religion” was a fresh start, into an even greater level of stardom. The band was nominated for their first every Grammys, winning two for Losing My Religion and one for Out of Time, the only Grammys they would win for the rest of their career. 

As Stipe shares “Once you have this huge hit song, it’s not really your song anymore.” The episode reveals “Losing my Religion” was meant to spotlight the struggles of unrequited love for a shy man with a crush, titled after a Southern expression meant to express frustration with a situation. Yet, the title soon gave way to deeper connotations with its audience reception, even resulting in the song getting banned in Ireland for religious connotations. In many ways, it became a protest song questioning the power religion holds over society, even though Stipe shares he wrote the song to move away from the overtly political lyrics of the previous two R.E.M. albums. Though R.E.M.’s participation in Song Exploder, long after they’ve ceased being active as a band, calls back to the death-proofing of legacy, there is perhaps no better example than “Losing My Religion” for how legacy is uncontrollable. 

Ultimately, perhaps this is Song Exploder's most valuable contribution. If legacy is ever-evolving, then at least the artists can benefit from a moment of pride, reflection, and celebration, as their legacies continue on with, or without, them. 

Hearing the story behind a piece of music can make it feel more emotional and easier for audiences to relate with, but does this create a culture where artists are obligated to have impactful stories behind their songwriting in order to be successful? Song Exploder is a podcast and Netflix documentary series that raises this exact question. Each episode focuses on musicians breaking down the creation of their songs and explaining the stories behind them. The episodes focus on a different artist and one of their songs rather than their whole discography. Most artists talk about what inspired them when writing and how that ultimately influenced the lyrics and tone of the overall song being analyzed. 

In the second volume of the Netflix documentary series adaptation, Dua Lipa delves into the process of coming up with her hit song “Love Again” which was released in 2020. In the episode, Dua Lipa says that the starting point of what inspired the song was getting out of a troubled relationship and learning how to get to a point where she can say “I’m in love again,” which was the direct inspiration for the song title and can be seen in the lyrics, “I can't believe there's something left in my chest anymore, But goddamn, you got me in love again.” She talks about how, while writing the song, she was channeling the recent ending of a long-term relationship with a man who was being dishonest with her, and she used writing as a way to cope with her feelings. The story behind the song is emotional and honest, as Dua Lipa writes about how she was able to find a way to love again in a time when she felt hopeless for any future relationships. The tale of a bad breakup has been used as songwriting inspiration for an endless number of musicians, yet hearing each individual story told in their songs still hits the emotional connections a listener wants. These songs become so popular because of how relatable they are, and an audience is able to commiserate with the artist through their music on a deeper level than if the artist had just written a song for fun or no particular reason. Relatability to songs and their lyrics trigger so much emotion for listeners as they are able to connect with their own experiences, especially with universal scenarios like love or heartbreak. 

Marketing also heavily influences an artist's story and how that adds to their brand image identity. Marketing is often what makes a song a hit. An artist can make a great song, but if nobody knows about it, then it won’t make money or be considered widely successful. Suppose an artist has an impactful story tied to their music. In that case, that can be used in promotional materials so that new listeners can relate to the artist and contribute to the artist’s success by listening to their music, going to concerts, buying merchandise, etc. The most effective marketing campaigns succeed because they’re based on something authentic, so if you’re faking a persona, it won’t feel real, and you probably won’t receive the results you’re hoping for. An easy way to be authentic as an artist is to explain what inspires your music and how that relates to your artistic identity. Without a cohesive story, an artist might struggle to create a brand identity that marketing can utilize.

While sharing the story behind a song can make it more impactful, some artists prefer to keep the song's meaning private, either for personal reasons or because they think it is a cheap marketing tool. However it is hard for smaller artists to keep private as they don’t have a wide audience and therefore need to rely more on marketing to boost their career, compared to artists who can ignore such marketing tactics since their careers are already taken off. On August 7, 2023, Dua Lipa talked to the New York Times about her opinion on sharing her private life, “I think it’s a marketing tool: How confessional can you be?” she says. “I also don’t put so much of my life out there for people to dig into the music in this weird, analytical way.” At first glance, this may seem hypocritical of her to say since she shared her inspiration from a bad breakup behind her song “Love Again” in her Song Exploder episode. However, while she did talk about the feelings that came with the breakup and how that led to her learning how to love herself and others again, this was also when her career was only starting to take off and before her position in mainstream pop culture was cemented. At the beginning of March 2020, her highly awaited album “Future Nostalgia” leaked online at a time when most artists were pausing their work due to the pandemic. This caused her to release her album early as there were concerns the pirated version would severely impact her sales. It ended up thriving during quarantine as the upbeat dance-pop served as a pleasant escape from the craziness in the world at the time, with “Love Again” being one of the hit songs released on the album. She became the top female artist on Spotify’s listening charts the week her album came out, which boosted her fame and led to her album receiving six nominations at the 63rd Grammy Awards, winning Best Pop Vocal Album. The sudden increase in popularity could explain the pressure she may have felt to keep the momentum going and lead to her telling the story behind “Love Again” on Song Exploder even if she preferred privacy. Now that she is a global pop sensation, her popularity is less precarious, and she likely doesn’t face as much pressure as before to expose her private life, leading to her recent statements to the New York Times.

Ultimately, musicians sharing the stories behind their songs is a double-edged sword that can lead to great success by reaching new audiences through marketing, but also lose a sense of privacy and intimacy the artist may have with their music. On Dua Lipa’s Song Exploder episode, she breaks down her song inspirations as she was in the middle of her career taking off and may have felt pressured to keep the momentum going by doing an episode that would expose her to new audiences. The episode gave her exposure to a broad Netflix audience, and to potentially connect with both new and existing fans, therefore being a key way to promote her music career. However, now that she is more secure in her fame, she prefers to keep her life private and not go too into detail about the background of her songs, leaving the interpretations up to the fans. This is a refreshing outlook for an artist, as many pop stars feel obligated to share every detail of their lives with their fans even if they are judged for it. A series like Song Exploder gives a platform to both new and veteran artists by offering a marketing format that can reach various audiences. However newer artists may feel more pressure to appear and go into private details surrounding their music as it is seen as necessary to be successful in the industry.