Zebulon, North Carolina — The Wake County man will make his on-air debut this weekend on SiriusXM satellite radio from his home studio in Zebulon.
Dean Baldwin is a passionate music fan who enjoys a wide range of styles from classical to classic rock. After he and his wife Marie moved here in 1999, Triangle played with his band covering his area.
Baldwin, 51, creates short videos about his favorite acts and music trends on social media to capture the attention of other fans and, in some cases, music insiders. Baldwin isn’t shy about being a fan of multiple genres, but he’s a rocker at heart. Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” might be his favorite album of all time. His social his media his videos provide props to many contemporary rock his bands and celebrate rock his vocalist, guitarist and drummer in an informative and fun way. Perhaps his most in-depth video in the last 30 years, he explores how MTV’s restructuring led to the homogenization of the Billboard Hot 100.
On Saturday night, Baldwin will be on SiriusXM station Classic Vinyl (60s and 70s classic rock) and on Sunday, Classic Rewind (70s and 80s inspired album rock).
Baldwin has millions of ears as he takes a tour through the golden age of rock’s annual story-driven listening experience. It’s a hard out from his previous career trajectory, but it’s also a move he’s excited about.
Below is a condensed Q&A transcript of an interview between Baldwin and WRAL News.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your career arc.
A: Most of the time it happened without a plan. A few years ago I reached a point where I lost my passion and interest in what I was doing. At 25 years into my career, it’s kind of scary to make a change, but I did. On the one hand, I have always been passionate about music. I grew up in a musical family. My wife and I played here with a local band. My daughters are musicians. They always encouraged me to tell stories that grew up listening to me.
I’ve never made it big on social media, but about two years ago I made a few posts on TikTok and one day one of them took off and I grew from there.
Bottom line, I didn’t have a plan for this, so the story I gave to the many people who followed me and reached out was how I created this pivot. , it was somewhat unintentional.The lesson was three years ago. If you told me, at 51, that I would have taken a completely different career path hosting with SiriusXM, I wouldn’t. I don’t know where life will go.
Q: How did the opportunity with SiriusXM arise?
A: About a year ago SiriusXM’s Bob Buchmann contacted me and started a conversation to see where my interests lay. At that time, I never thought about going on air as a moderator. I had never done it and it wasn’t in my career path, so he spent time mentoring me, preparing me for the audition process, and getting me trained. will be my debut weekend. They will be performing at Classic Vinyl on Saturday and Classic Rewind on Sunday. At that point, I will be the host of his Classic Rewind night every Sunday.
Many other people who have reached out and started conversations with me through various other media channels have given me a lot of guidance in terms of where I should take this. I have not. I wish it all stopped now because I was having fun, but there are some people who have given me some pretty good guidance and advice on where to go.
Q: Some videos on social media look pretty polished and well edited. How do you spend your time on these clips?
A: Spending time as a musician, preparing materials for a band, years as a web designer, and working as a producer on small scale music productions for various artists gave me a basic idea of what I wanted to do. I hope you got the idea. approach my video
Q: How did your early experiences with music shape your tastes, and how did you share fond memories of bands and musicians?
A: Some of my earliest memories are tied to songs, so whether it’s “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” or “Love Will Keep Us Together” Every time I listen to it, I have memories that go back to my very young days. My father will listen to the country. His mother loved forks.
At first it was country, but around 1979 and 1980 I got exposed to bands like Rush, Triumph, April Wine and Dio and it just kept going from there. In the 80’s, I was more into rock. But everything her mother got me hooked on, even Barry Manilow, I spent my time sitting at the piano, she played “New England Weekend,” and I sang with her.
Even now, when I look back on my memories, I sometimes recall an event, but remembering what year that event happened was almost all associated with the song and saying, “I’m glad that song was released.” because you can say I think a lot of that is due to the way she talks about music.
Q: What is the process for selecting songs for playlists?
A: At this point, I’m given a playlist, take the playlist they’ve given me, and put my style into it. I am very story oriented. Just put your story in the playlist they offer.
Q: What was your most memorable concert experience?
A: Some of the recent bands like Muse and Los Lonely Boys have been great. Eagles – Loved watching them a few times.Def Leppard was always great. Probably the best concert was The Who. In 1990 or his 91 (a quick research shows that The Who played at Carter Finley Stadium in 1989), I was living in Virginia at the time, and I was with a friend at Triangle in his area. I came to It was without a doubt the best concert I have ever seen. It was phenomenal.
Q: Your MTV TikTok got a lot of attention. What is the reasoning behind that video?
A: MTV was fascinating. A lot of people said, “I miss those days. I want to do MTV again.” At first, I started thinking about a so-so lens, but why? Because you can go to YouTube and watch almost any video you like. I think what people are talking about is that they’re missing a few things. For one, they miss the commentary. Believe it or not, I think there was a lot of value in the commentary between the videos, but I think it’s a single stream concept. Those who grew up in the early days of MTV weren’t bound to one subgenre. I think today’s playlist is that if you like a style of music, just listen to it. By default, it prevents overexposure. On Single Stream, if you’re an Iron Maiden fan, you’ll be sitting there watching her MTV waiting for an Iron Maiden video. So you’re going to see Prince, Michael Jackson. I never actually chose it. As a result, my exposure to music expanded.
There’s nothing I can say to prove this, but when I was looking at the data on how the Billboard Hot 100 changed from the ’80s to the ’90s, when I think about the bands that came out in the ’90s, , mostly Gen X. These are people who grew up watching single-stream MTV or single-stream radio. The 90s was probably your biggest breakout period in terms of musical subgenres. It wasn’t just rock anymore, it was grunge, post-grunge, new wave, nu metal. When I listen to music, I hear music that incorporates elements of hip-hop and folk. The fusion of styles is much greater. I was exposed to a wider variety of music. I think a lot of music these days is more homogenous. It’s an opinion and anyone is welcome to discuss it with me.
