#50- 24 Phrasal Verbs, Idioms & Slang for Music

Welcome to episode #50 of The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast! This episode will teach you 24 phrasal verbs, slang words and idioms for talking about music. Music is the heart and soul of many cultures. It can do things from waking you up in the morning or putting you to sleep at night, to help you celebrate life's happiest moment or survive the darkest ones. In American culture and most cultures around the world, it’s very important to know how to talk about music. After listening to this episode and using this Study Guide, you’ll be able to confidently about music and be one step closer to speaking English like a native speaker.

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• Words & Definitions
• Example sentences
• Practice exercises
• Transcript

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Transcript

[00:00:00] On this episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 24 phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms all about music. You'll be learning vocabulary like an earworm, a mix tape, a jam, to spit bars, don't sleep on something, and more. Let's get to it!

Hey there. Welcome to the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host, Gabby—your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.

Are you ready to improve your English skills? Let's jump right in.

Hey, hey, hey. Welcome to the podcast to all of the first-time listeners, and welcome back to all of my regular listeners.
 [00:01:00] Greetings from New York City! It's been nice and sunny the past two weeks here in Brooklyn, New York. You know, we had Earth Day last week, and my family and I went to the beautiful Brooklyn Botanical Gardens to see the cherry blossoms. It was so gorgeous.

We went with a group of like 40 other people from my son's school group.

If you remember from the education episode, I told you that my son does non-traditional schooling, so we teach him some subjects ourselves, like English writing and reading, and he learns other subjects like science in smaller classes outside of the house from professionals. We get to do a lot of creative classes, and we get to do a lot of fun activities all around the city. So we went as a school group—quote unquote.
 [00:02:00] An educational group with all of the kids and their families, and it was amazing. The kids did watercolor painting in the middle of the cherry blossoms. They did a scavenger hunt with flowers and learned about different types of flowers. It was phenomenal. So we had a really good Earth Day. And the weather was about 26 Celsius, so it was the perfect day.

That's pretty warm. My son's classroom is New York City, and so we had a very unique and fun experience this past weekend. It was my birthday—woo-hoo! And that was fun too. The weather got a little bit cooler on my birthday, unfortunately. But things are looking up here as far as the weather goes.

Back to today’s episode. It’s episode number 50—yay! What a fun milestone to reach.
 [00:03:00] Thank you all for supporting the show and helping me get to 50 episodes.

Today’s topic is music, and I’m so excited for this topic.

Honestly, this episode was so much fun to make, and it was really difficult to cut down into just one episode. Music is the heart and soul of most cultures around the world, and it’s the center of pop culture. Musicians and music take up a very large part of the media in most countries around the world, especially here in the USA. Music is everything and everywhere. I’m sure most of you can easily name five popular American musicians—if I asked you to.

Because of how popular and how special this topic is, we’ll be talking about 24 new phrasal verbs, idioms, and expressions—and they’ll be good.

I was born in the
 [00:04:00] eighties and raised in the nineties and two-thousands, so I grew up with some amazing music. Not only did I grow up listening to fifties music like Elvis, sixties music like The Beatles, and seventies music like the disco era—I was born in the middle of Michael Jackson and Madonna—and grew up my childhood years with *NSYNC, Britney Spears, and lots and lots of other boy bands. I love them all. I love all types of music, honestly.

In my house, we play everything from gospel music to pop music to rock music. Music has a beautiful way of reaching your soul and healing you in the toughest moments of life. It also helps you celebrate during the best moments of life. It can wake you up in the morning or put you to sleep at night. And scientific
 [00:05:00] research has led us to know that music can even increase our intelligence, get rid of a headache, and help plants grow. There have been so many amazing studies about the power of music on the human body, soul, and mind.

What’s your favorite type of music?

In addition to enjoying different styles of American music, I love music from around the world as well, which is largely thanks to my students and to growing up here in New York City in a very international culture. I grew up with English and Spanish music, but as a teacher and world traveler, I was exposed to lots of Brazilian funk and samba, K-pop and J-pop, Turkish music, and French music.

As a traveler, I fell in love with Arabic music, Indian music, Italian music, and so much more. If you ever have
 [00:06:00] song recommendations, please send them to me. I truly love all types of music, and I would love to hear new things.

In today’s episode, we’re gonna focus on vocabulary that is used to describe music and talk about music and musicians. You’ll notice that I usually like to stay around 15 to 18 words per episode so that it’s not overwhelming for you. However, sometimes there are just too many words to mention. For this episode, I landed on 24 vocabulary words and expressions that I think will really help you speak confidently about music in English.

Before we get into the episode, I just wanted to share that there’s a free study guide waiting for you that will help you practice all of the vocabulary you hear in this episode. It has the words in context in the story, definitions, examples, practice activities, and the transcript.

To get the study guide,
 [00:07:00] just click the link in the episode description.

Let me tell you the 24 vocabulary words and expressions that you are going to learn in this episode: up and coming, play something by ear, track, a mixtape, slaps, drop a track, turn up, turn down, fade in, fade out, jam out to, a bop, a jam or a banger, a remix, a tune, to spit bars, a collab, don’t sleep on, breakout artist, earworm, chill out to, rock out to, sing along, blow up, a one-hit wonder, and groove.

All right, so let’s get to the story.

Listen as I use all of the
 [00:08:00] vocabulary in context in this story. Try and see how much you can understand just from the context. And then after the story, we’ll review all of the vocabulary with meanings and examples. Let’s get started.

Diego was an up-and-coming producer and musician in São Paulo, who loved nothing more than creating new music in his tiny bedroom studio. He loved playing music by ear and mixing songs and beats together.

One Friday night, he finally finished what he had been working on for months—a 10-track mixtape called Midnight Moves. 

His friends had all said that it slapped really hard and encouraged him to upload it onto streaming platforms. He invited his best friend, May, over to listen to the song one more time [00:09:00] before he dropped the track online. As the song was playing, May told Diego, "Turn it up! This is a real hit." After a few minutes, his neighbors called him and asked him to turn it down because it was too loud. They laughed, but turned the knob anyway—only a little. The opening song began with a beautiful fade-in that had May dancing.

"Wow, Diego, this is a bop! People will be jamming out to this all summer long."

His next song was a guitar remix of an old samba tune. Diego's cousin, Leo, had agreed to spit bars on it. When Leo's verse ended in Portuguese and English, May's jaw dropped.

"That collab is genius. Don't sleep on Leo. He's a breakout artist."

They kept listening. Track number five was so good that it became an instant earworm. [00:10:00] May found herself singing it even when the song ended. Track number seven was a slower song, perfect to chill out to while studying. Track number nine was pure stadium energy—something to rock out to on a late-night drive—and the finale was a total banger as well. The album was perfect.

So, at midnight, he uploaded Midnight Moves to every streaming platform he could find. He added one small caption: Hope you find a track on this album to sing along to.

Two weeks later, Diego had blown up on social media. A popular influencer had used one of his songs in a viral dance video, and suddenly Diego's social media pages and phone exploded with notifications. His streams skyrocketed, and music blogs and websites were talking about him and hiring him for their parties.

Soon after [00:11:00], a record label offered him a contract. May smiled and said, "There is no way you'll be a one-hit wonder now."

Diego responded, "One hit? No way. I've got plenty more grooves coming."

And he did. In the years to come, Diego became one of the top-selling artists in the country.

The end.

All right, so let's talk about this vocabulary.

First up, he's described as being an up-and-coming artist. This is an artist who is new but starting to attract attention. You can tell that there's a lot of potential and that they will be popular very soon. By the way, it might be confusing for you to hear me using the word artist, but we use artist for anyone who creates anything in the arts. It can be a painter, it can be a musician, it [00:12:00] can be anyone who creates. And so, musicians—we often call artists.

Have you seen that new up-and-coming artist from L.A.? She's brilliant.

Next up, we have the expression to play something by ear. He loved playing music by ear and mixing songs and making new music. This is to play music without using written sheet music. So this is someone who relies on their memory or musical instincts—or relies on what you hear. It's often used when someone can figure out melodies, chords, rhythms just by listening.

Someone who can play something by ear is extremely talented, because someone can start singing a song, and then they can just start playing automatically and following along.

For example:
 Let's see which song the crowd likes, [00:13:00] and we'll play the rest by ear.

Next up, we hear the word track. In the story, they talked about the mixtape that was 10 tracks. And then, as we went along, we said: track number one, track number two, track number three. A track is an individual recorded song. So if you listen to a music album, it will have six tracks, 10 tracks, 20 tracks. They're just individual songs or recorded pieces of music.

The fourth track on the album features a violin solo.

Next up, we have the word mixtape. Now, for those of you listening who are very, very young—you don't even know what a tape is—a cassette tape. But I grew up with cassette tapes, and when we wanted to play music, we had to play the album on [00:14:00] a tape. Then we moved to CDs—compact discs. Now every kind of music is just an MP3 audio file or streaming on Apple Music or Spotify or some other player. But back in the day, we had tapes. And a mixtape is an informal collection of songs, often something that’s self-released, and this really showcases or shows off new material.

Now, a mixtape has also, throughout American culture, been one person mixing music on a tape or on a CD or in a music file and giving it to someone else—it can actually be kind of romantic. So if you're watching an American series or an American movie and a guy makes a girl a mixtape, it's a collection of songs that are extremely romantic—maybe that [00:15:00] define their relationship or sum things up.

Her first mixtape is streaming on Spotify, and it's amazing.

Next up, we have the word slaps. Okay, this is a slang word. To slap usually means to hit someone very hard across the face—if you remember Will Smith at the Academy Awards slapping Chris Rock, for example. But in slang, when we say this slaps, it means that something sounds exceptionally good. Usually there's a strong beat, there are good words—or lyrics, we call them—and so we say, "Ooh, this slaps," or "This song slaps." This slang word is typically used for music. Some people use it for other things, maybe like food, but really we use slaps for music.

Have you heard Taylor [00:16:00] Swift's new single? It slaps!

Next up, we have the expression to drop a track. Now, as you know, a track is a single, individually recorded song—piece of music. To drop a track means to release a new song to the public.

They're set to drop a track every Friday until their tour starts.

You can also say, "Oh hey, Beyoncé just dropped a new album," and that would refer to the entire collection—the album—of music. But to drop a track is only one track—single piece of music.

Next up, we have turn up and turn down. Turn up means to increase the volume.

"Hey, can you turn up the chorus so that I can sing along?"

Or turn down—lower the volume.

"Can you turn down the music? [00:17:00] It's a bit loud."

In the story, you heard that the neighbors said, "Hey, turn down the music. It's too loud."

So we don't typically say, "Hey, can you make it louder?" We say, "Hey, can you turn it up?"
 This comes from the fact that in the past, you used to have to turn a knob to turn it up or down. Now we just push buttons that increase it or decrease it, but we still use "turn up" and "turn down" because we used to turn knobs.

Next up, we have fade in and fade out.
 Fade in is when something gradually increases in volume, and fade out is gradually decreasing in volume at the end of a song or the beginning of a song.
 So, for example, with my podcast—when it's the introduction, you hear the music slowly fading in, and then it slowly fades out. It gradually gets louder and decreases the same [00:18:00] at the end of the podcast episode.
 For example, I love the way the intro fades in at the beginning of the song.

Next up, we have jam out to.
 "Jam out to" means to listen to and enjoy music enthusiastically. We're really enjoying it—we're dancing, we're nodding, we're singing along. This is oftentimes a song that we love.
 For example:
 We were jamming out to the '80s music while decorating our new studio.

Next up, we have a bop, a jam, and a banger.
 These three slang words are all used interchangeably, and it means that this is a very high-energy song that people love. We say it’s catchy—it's a catchy song. It's very popular. People love it.
 And we can say, "Ooh, that's a bop! That's a jam! That's a banger!"
 [00:19:00] Have you heard that new bop? It's number one on the Billboard chart.

Next up, we have the word remix.
 Now, the word re- means "again," so remix is a song that’s been mixed again.
This is a reworked version of an existing song. Typically, it has new beats or some kind of new elements. Maybe a new artist is singing along. It’s just a new version of an old song.
The new remix that played at the nightclub is my favorite.

Next up, we have the word tune.
 We use it as a noun—this is a tune—and it's slang. This is a great song that we like.
"Oh, that’s my favorite tune. That’s my tune!"
For example:
Turn up the volume—this is my tune.

Next up, we have the slang [00:20:00] expression to spit bars.
 This is to rap some kind of impressive, complex lyrics. Spitting bars is someone who can rap very well. So think of all the famous rappers that you know—I'm sure Eminem is one of those that you really know. Could be Kendrick Lamar as well. Tupac.
 They’re spitting bars because they’re not just rapping, but they're rapping in an extremely high-level, impressive way. The lyrics or the words are extremely on point. They’re amazing.
 Did you hear that Maya started rapping at the party? I never knew that she could spit bars like that.

Next up, we have the word collab.
 A collab is short for collaboration. This is when two or more artists work together on a project or a song.
[00:21:00] Their pop-rock collab surprised everyone.

Next, we have the expression don't sleep on something.
 This means don’t overlook or underestimate something or someone good.
 So maybe you have a friend from high school and they are now becoming famous, and you say, "Hey, don’t sleep on them. They’re actually really good."
 Don’t ignore this person. Don’t overlook them. Pay attention because you’re going to miss something great.
 Don’t sleep on that singer from American Idol. Her vocals are amazing.
(By the way, vocals mean voice.)

Next up, we have the expression a breakout artist.
 This is similar to up and coming, except there’s a small difference.
So someone who's up and coming—you’re predicting that they’re going to be successful, but they haven’t had their breakout moment yet.
A breakout [00:22:00] artist is someone who achieves recognition very quickly.
I’m gonna give an example: Ed Sheeran. Ed Sheeran was playing at random events throughout the United States. He got to know singer and actor Jamie Foxx. Jamie Foxx brought him to different venues to perform, and very, very quickly, he became famous.
And so Ed Sheeran was a breakout artist.
There are so many artists who this happens to, and it’s just—very quickly, they are famous.
Last summer’s breakout artist is already touring with Beyoncé.

Next up, we have the expression an earworm.
 This is a song or melody that sticks in your head. It’s like a little worm—the song is a little worm that stays in your head and you can’t [00:23:00] get it out of your mind.
 For example:
 Justin Bieber’s new song became a three-day earworm for me.

Next up, we have the three-word phrasal verb chill out to.
 This is to relax while listening to calm music. You’re just chilling—but you’re chilling out to specific music. This is music that you just wanna listen to when you wanna calm, when you wanna relax.
I love chilling out to lo-fi music during my study sessions.

The opposite of "chill out to" is rock out to.
 As you can imagine, because of the word rock, this originated because of rock and roll.
To rock out to something is to enjoy loud, energetic music with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement.
This is music that you listen to when you just wanna have a good [00:24:00] time.
Maybe you’re happy and excited about something, or maybe you need to burn off some energy—you are just gonna play some loud, energetic music and just rock out to it. You’re gonna dance, you’re gonna sing, you’re gonna be very happy and exerting a lot of energy.
For example:
They rocked out to heavy metal music on their road trip.

Next up, we have the phrasal verb sing along.
 Sing along is to join in vocally with a song that’s playing—you’re singing with the song.
 Like I mentioned, the word vocal and vocally has to do with your voice and singing.
So we’ll say, "Hey everyone, sing along! Woo-hoo!"
In the story, he says, "I hope that on my album you find at least one track to sing along to."
And that’s what this means—you want to sing with something.
[00:25:00] For example:
The whole stadium sang along when they started playing the music.

Next up, we have blow up.
 Now, blow up—as you know—can mean an explosion, like a bomb blew up and destroyed a building.
 But we have a slightly different use for that word.
 Blow up, in this context, means to become very popular suddenly.
 So this person exploded with popularity or fame.
 His new music blew up after a celebrity shared it on TikTok.

Next, we have the expression a one-hit wonder.
 A one-hit wonder is a very interesting expression—no one ever wants this to be them.
 This is an artist that’s only known for one major hit—maybe two—
 [00:26:00] before they just fade away from fame.
 So a one-hit wonder in your country might be someone who had a really popular song, it was everywhere, and then all of a sudden you just never heard from that artist again.

Decades later, even though he's a one-hit wonder, he still earns money from his song.
 And lastly, we have to groove or a groove. Groove can also mean dance—like, "They're grooving"—but in this context, it's the feeling that makes music exciting. So "he's playing a groove" means he's playing a part of the music that really makes the music exciting and makes people want to listen to it.

So we can say, "The band got the audience grooving with their music."
 Well, guess what? You just learned [00:27:00] 24 new phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang words for music.

After listening to this and downloading the study guide, I'm giving you some homework. As usual, I challenge you to use at least five to ten new words in your English this week.

You can write a paragraph describing your favorite song.
 Or you can write a message via email, DM, or text to one of your friends describing new music that you just heard. Or use some other way to practice, like having a conversation with your friends about music.

Whatever way you do it, just remember that using this vocabulary is the goal, and it'll help you remember all of the words more easily so that you can become a naturally fluent speaker of English.

Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of the [00:28:00] Real Life English with Gabby podcast. Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently.

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English learning. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a review.

Thanks so much