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If you enter the “Popcast (Deluxe)” recording studio on the second flooring of the New York Occasions’ Manhattan workplace, the very first thing you discover are two colourful chairs within the heart of the room with black microphones perched on the backs of the seats.
“We have been considering ‘elevated basement,’” stated Jon Caramanica, pop music critic for The New York Occasions and host of the present, a weekly cultural critique on YouTube. “It’s a little bit of ‘Wayne’s World’.”
Caramanica and her co-host, Occasions pop music reporter Joe Coscarelli, selected furnishings for his or her studio at Horseman Antiques on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The chairs are among the many many quirky private touches they added to the area – books, pictures of their work at The Occasions, a number of junk meals – which, just like the present, combine an mental and well-liked aesthetic.
Each Caramanica, 48, and Coscarelli, 35, have been blazing new trails once they started co-hosting “Popcast (Deluxe),” The Occasions’ first video podcast, a 12 months in the past. The present is a derivative of “Popcast”, a weekly pop music podcast that Caramanica has hosted since 2016. For the “deluxe” model with a broader view of popular culture, the thought was to take one thing that was already working – the straightforward and playful relationship between Mr. and Coscarelli , a frequent visitor on “Popcast” – and adapt it for YouTube, a video platform to which podcasts are more and more migrating.
“We need to go the place people who find themselves sensible, curious and taken with popular culture reside,” stated Coscarelli. “YouTube was the plain subsequent place.”
The duo data on Mondays and publishes excerpts of the dialog all through the week on YouTube, along with an entire audio episode on Wednesdays. For the week of Might 13, Caramanica and Coscarelli determined to cowl the feud between hip-hop giants and rivals Drake and Kendrick Lamar, in addition to Zendaya’s star activate tennis movie “Challengers”, and allowed a Occasions Insider reporter to watch.
That they had a planning assembly the Friday earlier than to debate what they wished to cowl and resolve which new songs they need to hearken to over the weekend. Then they’d a video name on Sunday to debate their concepts and overview subjects which might be trending on social media. At round 12:30 pm on Monday, they arrived on the studio to report the episode.
“We all the time have at the least two preparatory conversations,” stated Coscarelli. “Nothing is deliberate, however we don’t need to fall flat.”
Whereas Caramanica and Coscarelli went over some last-minute notes, Sawyer Roque, senior producer of “Popcast (Deluxe),” handed between three cameras mounted on tripods in a semicircle across the two chairs, checking the angles on a monitor to the left of the set. . Every digital camera displayed a unique perspective – an enlarged view of the complete scene, a close-up of Coscarelli or a close-up of Caramanica – and Roque switched between them on the monitor throughout recording.
The 30-minute phase about Drake and Kendrick Lamar was recorded virtually . Instantly afterwards, Roque despatched the footage to his editor, Jamie Hefetz, with the goal of publishing it on YouTube by 7pm that night time.
“We used to report and discard all segments directly, however we have been experimenting with posting segments all through the week as a result of YouTube rewards consistency,” Coscarelli stated.
“Additionally, it’s well timed,” Caramanica stated of the diss tracks exchanged between the 2 rappers. “The information about that is altering by the hour.” (The present additionally posts shorter clips to TikTok, Instagram and X to succeed in viewers on these platforms.)
Whereas Roque loaded the photographs, Caramanica and Coscarelli grabbed their laptops and began eager about the headlines for the phase. This course of – haphazard, chaotic, and collaborative – is how they make many selections concerning the present.
“What about ‘The Kendrick-Drake struggle is over — or is it?’” Caramanica stated, grabbing a bag of chips from the snack desk.
“Possibly ‘Why the Kendrick-Drake Feud Will not Die,’ or one thing like that,” Coscarelli stated.
“I believe it must be a query,” Caramanica stated. “Finally, we’re asking – we’re not saying we all know the reply.” The eventual consensus: “Is the fight between Kendrick and Drake really over?”
Coscarelli needed to depart for a fast assembly earlier than recording the subsequent phase, so Caramanica took the chance to analysis the choices for Snack of the Week, a recurring and well-liked phase amongst listeners. Caramanica and Coscarelli share a ardour for junk meals — “though my style is a bit more excessive,” Coscarelli stated — and their candid critiques of the unusual and wild snacks they discover in New York bodegas function a enjoyable send-off to every episode.
The present has already obtained friends equivalent to Lil Jon, Jelly Roll and Maren Morris, who additionally take part within the snack overview.
“We preserve a pantry going,” Caramanica stated. “At any time when we see one thing unique, we purchase it.”
Coscarelli quickly returned and, round 5 p.m., they taped the second of their two fundamental segments, on Zendaya and “Challengers.”
Then it was time for the large finale: Snack of the Week. They grabbed a bag of Buckin’ Ranch Takis for the style take a look at.
Upon smelling the within of the bag, Mr. Caramanica proclaimed, “Oh, that’s disgusting.” Coscarelli was extra forgiving: “Ah, but it surely has a lot taste. Have a look at all that mud!
As soon as the recording was completed, the remainder of the footage remained to be edited, which, based on Roque, would take till the top of the day on Tuesday.
Whereas it takes many hours of behind-the-scenes preparation to launch a weekly video podcast — even an unscripted one like “Popcast (Deluxe)” — Mr. Caramanica stated it was value it to work together with an viewers that may not in any other case encounter his work. .
“Lots of our listeners are youthful and don’t pay for The New York Occasions,” he added, “however they’re taken with realizing that a spot like The New York Occasions covers these points significantly.”
