Episode 42 · Soft rock
Africa
Toto
One of the most beloved yet endlessly mocked songs in pop history, and what it reveals about how nostalgia shapes taste.
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AfricaToto · Guilty pleasure or great song?
Show notes
A song can be a joke and a masterpiece at once. We trace how a 1982 studio record became a shared piece of internet affection, and ask whether the irony ever really left.
Jade Monroe walks through the layered percussion, Layla Brooks takes the lyric seriously for the first time, and Marcus Reyes explains the session-musician culture behind the band.