The Worst Room in the World: How Bad Acoustics Built the Sound of American Music

Sun Studio was a converted radiator shop with a low ceiling and a concrete floor. Chess Records cut classics in a space above a car parts warehouse. Motown's Hitsville USA had a living room with the furniture pushed out. This episode makes the case that the physical imperfections, happy accidents, and flat-out limitations of America's most mythic recording spaces didn't just shape the music made inside them — they are the music, baked into the frequencies themselves. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.