If any band defines the long odds of the garage-to-stadiums journey, it’s The Cars.Grinding through years in Boston, they cycled through wildly different sounds before finally striking gold—fusing punk edge with pop precision to help define a new musical decade.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. How bandleader Ric Ocasek and his partner Ben Orr struggled for years to unlock their breakthrough sound
2. The surprising number of genres the band attemped before succeeding
3. The reveal of the secret formula of musical styles they combined and perfected
4. The strange, behind-the-scenes reasons the band unraveled at their peak
5. How Ocasek’s vision went on to shape countless future artists

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Episode Guest
Peter Aaron is the author of Moving in Stereo: Ric Ocasek, The Driving Force Behind the Cars. Peter is a veteran of the music industry having written on acts like the Ramones and the Band, and as the arts editor of Chronogram Magazine. Peter is also the front man of influential New York band The Chrome Cranks. His writing has appeared in The Village Voice, the Boston Herald, and several other publications.