Pushkin Loves Love Songs: Babyface, Broken Hearts, and the Best Genre for Love

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Pushkin Industries

Music, Society & Culture

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nothing says romance like a perfect playlist—except, maybe, a special network-wide episode about love songs.

In this Valentine’s Day special, Broken Record hosts Justin Richmond and Leah Rose make their cases: is R&B the undisputed sound of love? Are sad songs more romantic? Can country win the day?

Plus, the legendary songwriter Babyface talks about how young love shaped his most enduring ballads, Malcolm Gladwell breaks down the perfect break up song, and Ben Naddaff-Hafrey writes a love song of his own.

Whether you're mid-swoon or nursing a broken heart, this episode is our valentine to you.

Listen to Broken Record’s interview with Babyface.

Listen to a Revisionist History episode about sad songs.

And hear more from Ben’s band, Rookin.

Plus, our battle of the playlists continues… here’s Leah’s sad songs playlist. And Justin’s for love songs. Pick your fighter and… enjoy!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin.
0:10.8	Hey everyone. Welcome to all you lovers out there. This is Justin Richmond.
0:17.1	And I'm Leah Rose.
0:18.5	We're the host of Broken Record, where we interview your favorite musicians and bring to life the stories behind their music, behind some of your favorite recordings.
0:27.0	If you're listening to this in the Broken Record feed, welcome back.
0:30.3	But if you're hearing us as a listener of another Pushkin show, that's because today we're doing something special.
0:35.9	That's right.
0:36.6	This is our Valentine's Day special.
0:38.7	And today, to celebrate the music we love, Justin and I are going to do what we love,
0:43.9	which is argue about music.
0:45.7	We're also going to be talking to some of our friends here at Pushkin.
0:48.3	People who have equally strong opinions about the songs they love.
0:52.4	I'll be talking about Malcolm Gladwell, who has a very
0:55.3	gladwellian take about why he believes country is the best genre for love songs. And I can guarantee
1:01.1	it's not for the reason you may think. It's depressive music. That's what it is. We'll also hear
1:07.0	from Ben Natif Hoffrey, the sometimes host of The Last Archive, about a love song he wrote
1:12.6	that's so good, it helped him score his forever Valentine.
1:17.5	I think that folk music does love songs the best.
1:20.2	But first, Justin, I'm going to ask you what I think is a central question of today's episode.
1:25.9	I think I know what you're going to say, but out of every genre and
1:31.3	subgenre that exists today, which one do you think does love songs the best? R&B. I knew it.
1:40.3	Look, when you think about it, it's really the shorthand in music and an audio for love
	...

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