The Sexy Soundtrack for the ‘New Black Middle Class’

In the mid-1970’s, a small college radio station created an evening program catering to a new socioeconomic group referred to as the “new Black middle class.” The show was called “The Quiet Storm” and it grew so popular that an entire genre of music would spring up alongside it. Artists like Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, and many more would find massive success in the genre, performing smooth and sexy songs you could turn on after a long day.

Audio producer Christopher Johnson made a piece about The Quiet Storm for the legendary podcast about design 99% Invisible and he joins Anna to talk about why Quiet Storm music will always feel like home to him.

You can listen to The Quiet Storm playlist from 99% Invisible here and check out the seasons of Slow Burn that Christopher worked on here: Season 3 - Biggie and Tupac and Season 4 - David Duke.

This episode was produced for DSM by Andrew Dunn.

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