This week on Speed Of Sound, host Steve Greenberg talks about his role in the mid-90s resurrection of teen pop, which all begins with his trip to a town fair in Kansas to see a little band called Hanson to see if he'd sign them to Mercury Records. It's the beginning of a remarkable rise to the top of the charts, and a sign of a seismic shift away from grunge's mid-90s dominance.

Listen to the episode here, which feature interviews with Taylor Hanson, Nirvana co-manager and former Mercury Records president Danny Goldberg, and many others:https://ihr.fm/3eZ81zO

Some interesting takeaways:

—The initial failure of the Backstreet Boys. When the influential boy band was first launched, the USA was not having it — they were stuck playing shows at Seaworld and at pet stores. They had to build a following in Europe before they could break through on the US charts.

—How "Mmmbop" was built. When the Dust Brothers — fresh off producing Beck's masterpiece Odelay — heard the demo for "Mmmbop," they immediately agreed to produce, lending an immediate credibility to the project. But early on in the process, after laying down some of the key tracks, the Dust Brothers ghosted Hanson because they were annoyed by Hanson's 10-year-old drummer. They were replaced by Stephen Lironi, who had worked on Shaun Ryder's comeback album with Black Grape, which went #1 in the UK.

—How the Spice Girls broke America. Greenberg knew that "Mmmbop" had a chance on radio after the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" became an international sensation. The Spice Girls' individual personalities — encouraged by Annie Lennox, influenced by Brit-pop punk band Shampoo and specifically defined by a lazy journalist — helped make them a pop juggernaut. "Wannabe" was already a global hit by the time it was launched in the US, which made its conquest of the American airwaves easy.

On Speed Of Sound — which hit #1 on Apple Music's Podcast chart upon its release — Greenberg "artfully treats every twist and turn as inspired shop talk” (AV Club) as he considers the sociological, technological, and musical contexts of some of music’s most remarkable and unlikely success stories.

Greenberg appeared on KCRW's Press Play to discuss the connection between Chic's hit "Good Times" — one of the final smashes of the disco era — and the introductory hip-hop hit "Rapper's Delight." Listen to that here: https://kcrw.co/3iUMOtr