Make It Stop
Being absolutely floored by our favorite music is one of the most euphoric experiences life has to offer for us. That feeling when we’ve found the perfect song – no matter the era it comes from – and we can close our eyes, move our feet, and drift away down a river of auditory bliss, if even for three minutes at a time. When the track absolutely slaps. It’s something special. Music is just oh so good.
Except… sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes music is just plain bad.
This is where the team behind the locally-produced podcast Make It Stop come in. For the past two years, Heather Mack and Mike Dunn have made it their personal mission to document and analyze the absolute worst of the worst that the deep coffers of pop music have to offer, and there are near endless permutations and qualifiers for what constitutes “bad.” Sure, they’ve encountered plenty of the so-bad-it’s-good category, where you can’t help but tap your foot and smile; but for each of those, there are also plenty of the just-plain-awful. Heather and Mike navigate these choppy waters the best way they know how: by thoroughly roasting the music, as well as the artists who thought it was a good idea to release such garbage in the first place.
Mack and Dunn are college friends who, with now over 60 episodes of Make It Stop under their belt, have seen the show’s presence and reach gradually expand. So far, the listener base is focused in the U.S. – New England, California, New York – but they’ve picked up a few international listeners along the way. In each episode, they bring in a guest to help dissect the week’s selection, usually pooling from friends in comedy or local musicians. It makes for a fun listen on Tuesday afternoons, serving as a refreshing reminder that 1) maybe we don’t have to be so serious about art all the time and 2) whatever you’re trying to create in your own time probably doesn’t suck as bad as you think it does.
Heather Mack, comedian Katie McCarthy, and Mike Dunn
Together, the duo tows a fine line between being critically honest and being mean. It’s a delicate space to occupy. Dunn thinks “it’s fair game to be critical, but I don’t want to hurt any kid’s feelings. This has definitely taught me that there is a deep personal connection with music. [But] One thing I have to remember is that whoever we’re talking about is going to be fine.” Like any good music critic, they’re willing to admit that art is subjective and all that, but Mack only allows for so much wiggle room along those lines: “If you have a good reason why you think we fucked up, if you have a justifiable argument, then sound off. But when people say, “Christian ska isn’t bad just because it’s Christian,” what am I supposed to say to that? I’m the meaner one on the show.”
For Mack and Dunn, no artist is off limits, no matter how legendary, iconic, or talented. In recent episodes, they covered the top ten worst of performers like David Bowie and Prince. Dunn justifies this with, “Even the worst Bowie [and Prince] is better than a lot of music… When you’re so prolific, you’re eventually going to have at least 10 bad songs.” For the most part, however, they’re mixing in critical misses by some of music’s biggest names (Metallica has popped up twice already) and the truly baffling, horrendously atrocious. “One of our goals was to have more streams than Brokencyde,” Mack says, setting up a rivalry that Brokencyde – who’s name I refuse to stylize correctly – might not even be aware of.
That isn’t to say that some artists haven’t taken notice of Make It Stop’s presence. Hesta Prynn, member of the all-female hip-hop group Northern State, took the podcast to task on Twitter, suggesting that it’s creators would be better served spending their time creating something of their own rather than besmirch the creative output of others. The duo laugh off the suggestion in stride, with Mack adding, “We both write and play music.” Not all the attention is negative, though. “Aaron Carter followed us back and liked our tweet.”
As far as why they chose to create this podcast and stick with it, they feel that it’s a necessary endeavor that someone’s got to do. “I think it’s funny implying that it’s a noble mission. But I do honestly kind of think of it that way. Like people need to know that Marilyn Manson is a piece of shit. That was our Halloween episode. We thought it was going to be fun, but it turned out to be, wow, this person is an actual, legitimate piece of shit. It’s like he’s tried to hide it under this persona. I don’t want to bum anyone out, but I believe that these are things that get buried under other narratives. And on top of that, the music is really bad.” It’s a way to keep these artists in check at times, even if someone like Marilyn Manson might not ever hear that episode.
Musician Jenner Barrington-Ward, Mack, and Dunn
The way Heather and Mike see it, a lot of these selections get produced and released because there’s no one around to tell the artists no. The way Dunn sums it up, “Wealth, fame, and privilege can and often does make monsters of people… Pedophilia, rape, stuff like that has come up from time to time.” These can be understandably difficult subjects, but the pair address them maturely when they do arise, with an acceptance that these are unavoidable topics when discussing material made often among a maelstrom of drug use and abusive figures. “I definitely don’t want to do a show that glosses over things like that,” Mack says. “Bad music can be a weird funhouse mirror that shows what was going on in society at the moment.” To that, Dunn adds, We don’t choose albums because we think it’s going to be some big piece of cultural commentary, but it just keeps happening! The music industry is fucked up.”
While it can get sometimes dip into those heavier subjects at times, for the most part, the show finds the hosts in good spirits. They really do this out of a shared love for music, eclectic palates, and a whole lot of opinions they want to get out on these terrible tunes. Make It Stop releases a new episode on Tuesdays three out of every four weeks. Find it wherever you get your podcasts.