A podcast all about the making and meaning of popular music. Musicologist Nate Sloan & songwriter Charlie Harding pull back the curtain on how pop hits work magic on our ears & our culture. From Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
]]>In 1973, before their ascent to rock superstardom with Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were just two young lovers making music in Los Angeles. Their debut album, Buckingham Nicks, though commercially unsuccessful at the time, would prove to be the catalyst that changed their lives. When Mick Fleetwood happened to walk into Sound City Studios and overheard Buckingham's masterful guitar work, he knew he'd found what his band desperately needed given the departure of their guitarist Peter Green. Fleetwood invited Buckingham to join the group, and Buckingham agreed on one condition: his musical and romantic partner, Stevie Nicks, would come too. This fateful meeting would birth the legendary lineup that created Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, albums that would define a generation.
Yet all this time, the band's origin story, captured in Buckingham Nicks, has remained locked away in aging vinyl archives – until now. Grammy-winning guitarist Madison Cunningham and virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird have breathed new life into this historic recording with their interpretation, Cunningham Bird. Cunningham, celebrated for her sophisticated fingerpicking and intricate compositions, joins forces with Bird, whose distinctive violin work and plaintive vocals have earned him critical acclaim.
Their reimagining of this pivotal album offers fresh insight into both Fleetwood Mac's enduring influence and the rocky romance that sparked their success. I sat down with the duo to discuss their approach to this legendary material and what drew them to resurrect these long-lost songs. Switched On Pop spoke with Madison Cunningham and Andrew Bird about how they adapted Buckingham Nicks into Cunningham Bird
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>A musical "freak," to us here at Switched On Pop, is an artist who is unique, non-conforming, and always manages to surprise. We're living in some freaky times right now, so there's no better way to honor that than to listen to pop's freakiest artists. The past few weeks have seen new releases from Lady Gaga, Tyler, the Creator, and The Cure – the latter releasing their first new album in sixteen years. This episode of Switched On Pop, we unpack these songs and get to the bottom of their freakiness.
Songs discussed:
More
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Over the summer, the culture was shaken by the biggest rap beef this decade, between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. From “First Person Shooter” to “Not Like Us,” hip-hop listeners hung on each rapper’s every word and rebuttal, and for the first time in years, the genre felt exciting.
Months after the beef had “ended,” Lamar released a track on Instagram dubbed “Watch the Party Die,” in which he lamented that hip-hop, in its current state, has lost its way and – as the title suggests – needs to die. It’s interesting, coming from Lamar, the supposed winner of the beef, and begs the question: is hip-hop dead?
On this episode of Switched On Pop, engineer Brandon McFarland takes us on a journey over the course of history, to answer the question: can hip-hop ever truly die? And if this form of it is not sustainable, what’s next?
Tracklist:
Drake - First Person Shooter ft. J. Cole
Future, Metro Boomin, Kendrick Lamar - Like That
Drake - Push Ups
Kendrick Lamar - Euphoria
Drake - Family Matters
Kendrick Lamar - meet the grahams
Kendrick Lamar - Not Like Us
Kendrick Lamar - Watch The Party Die
Glass Animals - Heat Waves
Desiigner - Panda
Migos - Versace
Public Enemy - Bring The Noise
THE CARTERS - APESHIT
Ariana Grande - 34+35
Kendrick Lamar - Alright
Jay-Z - D.O.A.
Cher - Believe
T-Pain - I'm Sprung
Lil Wayne - Lollipop ft. Static
Kanye West - Heartless
Drake - Over
Travis Scott - Mamacita ft. Rich Homie Quan, Young Thug
Lil Yachty - Poland
DRAM feat. Lil Yachty - Broccoli
Charlie XCX - 360
Too $hort - Oakland California
Geto Boys - Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta
Geto Boys - Mind Playing Tricks On Me
Blondie - Rapture
Playboi Carti - Magnolia
Playboi Carti - Rockstar Made
Lil Uzi Vert - New Patek
Lil Uzi Vert - Suicide Doors
Lil Uzi Vert - XO Tour Llif3
Juice WRLD - Lucid Dreams (Forget Me)
Future - Fuck Up Some Commas
Tyler, The Creator – Sticky
tisakorean - LET ME HEAR YOU SCREAM
Travis Porter ft. Tyga - Ayy Ladies
AgusFortnite2008, Stiffy & DJ Smokey – COF COF
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>It’s the spookiest time of the year; Halloween is right around the corner. But unlike the winter holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah, Halloween seems to lack a defining canon of scary music. There’s, of course, “Monster Mash,” and “Ghostbusters,” but those songs aren’t actually bone-chilling. Is there a way to make music scary? In a live show from The Dalton School in New York City, Nate and Charlie try to unpack that very question, dissecting some of the scariest songs of all time to create their own spine-tingling, hair-raising Halloween anthem.
Songs discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Stevie Wonder may be our modern day Mozart. A child prodigy, he joined Motown as a preadolescent where he was marketed as “Little” Stevie Wonder. He wowed audiences with his virtuosic command of the piano, harmonica, drums and of course, vocals. At just 13, he had his first number one hit “Fingertips Part II.” It was an unusual chart topper, featuring a live recording of mostly improvised music with Wonder switching between instruments as the audience cheered him on. But Wonder’s musical potential was far more than a gimmick.
In the 1970s, Wonder broke free from the confines of his initial recording contract, securing his artistic and financial freedom. Between 1971 and 1976, during what is now known as his "classic period," he released five of the most iconic albums in popular music, beginning with Music of My Mind and culminating in Songs in the Key of Life. These albums showcased his musical genius and included timeless songs that have become part of the modern pop canon, touching on themes of love, heartbreak, justice, and spirituality. Few child prodigies fulfill their potential as profoundly as Stevie Wonder.
With the help of Wesley Morris, NYT critic and host of the spectacular audio series The Wonder of Stevie, Switched on Pop looks back on some of Stevie Wonder’s strongest compositions, exploring what makes him our contemporary musical maestro.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>We celebrate Switched On Pop's 10th anniversary by taking a deep dive into the last decade of pop music. From bubblegum pop to EDM, trap, and K-pop, we explore how the sound of pop has continually evolved—even when it feels like it’s all the same. Plus, we pull back the curtain on the show with a special interview: Sean Rameswaram, host of Vox's Today Explained, puts Nate and Charlie in the hot seat to reveal their best—and most cringe-worthy—moments from the past decade.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Coldplay is one of the biggest musical acts in the world, ranking #6 on Spotify and boasting one of the highest-grossing tours of all time. Yet, despite their global success, they've often been a critical punching bag. The New York Times once branded them “the most insufferable band of the decade.” The Independent described them as “pompous, mawkish, and unbearably smug.” But Coldplay has never claimed to be the hardest rock band—they’ve instead built a legacy on their softer sound and uplifting message. With the release of their 10th studio album, Moon Music, we dive deep into their catalog and ask the question: can we learn to love Coldplay?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Marianne Eloise has had the same Fall Out Boy song stuck in her head for over three years. "It’s Hard to Say 'I Do,' When I Don’t," an relatively obscure cut from the band's 2007 album Infinity on High has taken up permanent residence in her brain as the ultimate earworm. Everybody has had a riff or a melody stuck in their head, but not at this . Eloise, a journalist and music writer, decided to turn her malady into a story. Her pursuit of the science behind "stuck songs" led her to our unique bureau of forensic musicology.
On this episode of Switched on Pop, Charlie and Nate talk about earworms: what they are, why are they so catchy, and how we might get rid of them. Then, Nate confronts his own stuck song: The Lemon Twigs's "In My Head," and in talking to the two brothers behind the group, finds a novel approach to giving an unwanted musical guest the boot.
Songs Discussed
More
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Last month, our producer Reanna Cruz had the opportunity to attend Baja Beach Fest in Rosarito, Mexico, a three-day Latin music festival set on the Mexican coastline. While they were there, they got the chance to tap into what's happening in the world of Mexican music – from romantic tumbados and lovesick R&B to multi-language crossovers and genre experimentation. This episode, Reanna takes us through the newest gems of the Mexican pop scene, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Songs discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>"Mamushi," the fourth single from Megan the Stallion’s album Megan, was not supposed to be a huge hit. But thanks to a viral dance, the song has become the first song on the Billboard Hot 100 to feature Japanese lyrics since 1963. With a feature from rapper Yuki Chiba and a beat from producer Koshy, "Mamushi" creates the kind of cross-cultural musical collaboration that helps correct a long record of U.S. pop stars appropriating Japanese culture.
Songs Discussed
Megan Thee Stallion (feat. Yuki Chiba) - Mamushi
Megan Thee Stallion - Hiss, Boa, Cobra, Savage, Megan's Piano, Otaku Hot Girl
Kyu Sakomoto - Sukiyaki
A Taste of Honey - Sukiyaki
Selena - Sukiyaki
Pikotaro - PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen)
Hikaru Utada, Skrillex - Face My Fears
Gwen Stefani - Harujuku Girls
Avril Lavigne - Hello Kitty
More
Hannah Lee of the Japan Society
NPR on the story of "Sukiyaki"
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Oasis, the Manchester band led by brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher, conquered the charts in the 1990s with rock anthems like "Wonderwall." This month, they did something no one saw coming: Announced a reunion. In 2025, the band will play 19 dates in five cities across the UK and Ireland, their first shows with both brothers in the lineup since breaking up in 2009 due to long-simmering tensions between them.
Formed in 1991 with Noel as chief songwriter and guitarist and Liam as lead vocalist, the band helped define the sound of Britpop alongside peers like Blur, Suede, and Pulp. Noel’s and Liam’s feuding made it seem like the band would never reunite, so this upcoming tour has generated a minor frenzy, resulting in insane ticket prices, the band’s songs surging in popularity on streaming services, and countless diehard fans zipping up their parkas in anticipation.
As two casual listeners to the band, we want to understand the hype behind this long-awaited reunion, so we went through the band’s catalog to uncover what makes this working-class Mancunian outfit so beloved, and see whether we can learn to love Oasis.
Songs Discussed
Oasis - Wonderwall, Supersonic, Shakermaker, Don't Look Back In Anger, Champagne Supernova, All Around The World, Go Let It Out, Stop Crying Your Heart Out, Little By Little, The Turning
The New Seekers - I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)
John Lennon - Gimme Some Truth, #9 Dream
Sheryl Crow - If It Makes You Happy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Porter Robinson has a unique relationship with being famous. With his new record SMILE! :D, the 32 year old producer and DJ steps front and center into the spotlight for the first time in his career, working through his thoughts on fame in the process — something he says he’s “addicted” to.
The first track on the record, “Knock Yourself Out XD,” is a hook-laden radio pop hit destined to sit on a neon green iPod shuffle, filled with chiptuned synth textures and tongue-in-cheek lyrics about what it means to contend with nuclear levels of celebrity. Robinson’s voice is also front and center, unencumbered by the vocal manipulation and heavy production defining his two previous albums. “”Knock Yourself Out XD” was me indulging that fantasy of like, This is so not a Porter Robinson song. Everyone's gonna hate this,” he said. “But this is what seems really fun to me right now.”
The rest of SMILE! :D juggles two truths about Robinson: his innate desire for a positive relationship with the culture that surrounds him, and his dark, introspective nature, highlighted on tracks with stark names like “Is There Really No Happiness?”. But “Knock Yourself Out XD” is deeply silly – filled with cheeky lyrics like the line “Bitch, I’m Taylor Swift.”
It’s new territory for him, but Robinson’s inclinations are, always, to “burn everything down and start fresh.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On her sixth studio album, Short n' Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter moves seemlessly between pop, country, folk and R&B. For Carpenter, genre is merely a musical tool to help construct a song. Listen to how she bends genre to her will.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Jhayco, the artist formerly known as Jhay Cortez, feels different from the rest of the Latin music machine. He considers himself a “melody freak,” has a wide variety of influences – “Alternative music, indie music, deep house, rap, trap, salsa, bachata, scores for music” – and is intimately involved in every step of the creative process, writing, producing, and performing his brand of glossy, melancholic reggaeton.
Since his breakout hit “No Me Conoce” in 2019, the Puerto Rican multihyphenate has become one of the most listened to artists in the world, thanks to collaborations with superstars including Bad Bunny and J Balvin — which have amassed several billion streams on Spotify —, along with writing credits on smash hits like Cardi B’s “I Like It” and Natti Natasha’s “Criminal.”
Jhayco's newest record, Le Clique: Vida Rockstar (X) is out September 6th, and is a three-part, 29-track behemoth highlighting Jhayco's globalist production style, his keen eye for melody, and his unique tastemaker status in the industry. “There's only a few people I know who do this,” he says, “and thank God I'm one of those people.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>It seemingly a terrible time to launch an over-the-top sentimental duet. This style of production peaked in the 80s and has had few chart topping success since. But as a sort of counter programming, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars' duet "Die With A Smile" is an unexpected smash. This oddity from two beloved legacy artists may be more than a stand alone hit hit to promote Mars' Vegas residency and Gaga's upcoming film role in Joker: Folie à Deux. "Die With A Smile" more than hints at being interwoven to that film's universe, while also adhering to a forgotten musical traditional: the devotional duet in the style of Sonny & Cher. In the movie, Joker and Gaga's character Harley Quinn, have shared musical delusions about performing in a murderous Sonny & Cher like TV duo. But does this single come credit sequence song stand up to the best duets from the past? Listen to find out.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Few pop groups are making music as imaginative as Magdalena Bay. The Los Angeles-based duo of singer Mica Tenenbaum and multi-instrumentalist Matthew Lewin, have been steadily releasing music since 2016, eventually breaking out with their viral hit “Killshot,” four years later. In the last four years, their work has dabbled in everything from 70’s disco-pop to Y2K pastiche. Their music, often narrative-based and paired with equally stunning visuals, excels in balancing tension; there’s gossamer-sounding production juxtaposed with dark, conceptual lyrics, or chaotic cacophony placed alongside ironic euphoria.
Their sophomore album Imaginal Disk is out today, and is no exception. The record is a concept album of sorts, as it follows the story of a character named True, after receiving a “consciousness upgrade” in the form of the titular “imaginal disk.” Over the course of fifteen songs, Tenenbaum and Lewin tell a story about identity, technology, and what it means to be a human.
It’s a lofty record, so Switched On Pop’s Reanna Cruz sat down with Magdalena Bay to talk about how this album manages to sound so gorgeous — and took some cues from ABBA in the process.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>If you've spent any time on the internet this summer, you may have encountered a certain refrain accompanying particularly fierce dance videos—"I've been a nasty girl. Nasty, nasty, nasty." This track, "Nasty" by the R&B singer and songwriter Tinashe, is a jam in its own right. Far from just a piece of viral content, "Nasty" is one of the songs of the summer, a chance for an burgeoning artist to reach a new level of success, and the latest in a long line pop songs from Janet Jackson to Beyoncé and Destiny's Child, taking the term "nasty" and spinning its on its head.
"Nasty" is also a song that, in some ways, is ridiculously simple. And the simplicity of pop music has been in the news after a new scientific study argued that pop hits have become less complex over time. We dig into the study's methodology to see if we agree with its conclusion, or to put it another way, whether its conclusions match our freak.
Songs Discussed
Tinashe - Nasty, Save Room For Us, 2 On
Charli XCX - I might say something stupid
Janet Jackson - Nasty
Destiny's Child - Nasty Girl
Ariana Grande - Nasty
Paul Simon - Still Crazy After all These Years
More
Read more from the New York Times about the study exploring pop's melodic complexity through history.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On June 17 the pop world was rocked by three letters: LOL. Kesha tweeted the acronym immediately after Katy Perry announced her new single "Woman's World," which was co-written by Dr. Luke. Since Kesha had accused Dr. Luke of sexual assault a decade earlier, many read her "LOL" as directed at her one-time friend Perry. Kesha, meanwhile, released her own single a week before Perry's, a wild "Joyride" featuring hyperactive accordion, percussive handclaps, and quasi-operatic vocals.
Both pop stars have much at stake with their new songs. For Kesha, it's her first independent release since finishing her multi album contract with Dr. Luke's record label. For Katy Perry, it's her attempt to reconquer the charts after her last attempt fizzled. On this episode, we listen closely to both songs to hear how each artist is navigating a pivotal moment in their career.
Since we are talking about the changing eras of some of our biggest stars, we knew we had to speak to an expert on the subject: Tayla Parx, the singer and songwriter whose newest track "Era" considers the tension between letting the moment define you, or defining it yourself.
Songs Discussed:
Kesha - Joyride, Tik Tok, Eat the Acid, Raising Hell, Praying
Katy Perry - Womans World, I Kissed a Girl, California Gurls, Daisies
Lady Gaga - Born This Way
Madonna - Express Yourself
Tayla Parx - Era
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>If you like how Switched On Pop breaks down songs, you’re going to love the show One Song hosted by Diallo Riddle and Luxxury. They play you the stems of iconic recordings to see how they were made. To give you a taste today we’re sharing with you an episode of One Song about Blondie’s “Call Me.”
Listen to One Song on SiriusXM on Wednesdays or subscribe to the podcast which is out Thursdays wherever you get podcasts.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>CharliXCX's latest album, brat, has created an internet fever dream. This club record celebrating messiness, partying, and brutal honesty has created its own color (brat green), a viral meme generator, and even an unlikely political platform. When CharliXCX endorsed Kamala Harris for president, saying "Kamala IS brat", the album took on a larger culture significance. The pundit class rushed to explain what it means to be a brat. Countless ink has been spilled dissecting the artwork and semiotics of brat, but has everyone really listened to the music? Smack in the middle of brat summer, Switched On Pop breaks down the making and meaning of the most talked about album of the season.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>For months, listeners have been peppering us with the same question: “When are you going to cover Chappell Roan?” We genuflect, then respond, “We interviewed her back in 2023!" The people don’t care. They want breakdowns of Chappell Roan’s musical wizardry, and who are we to deny them? After all, Chappell is having a moment, with five songs on the Billboard Hot 100, iconic performances on the biggest stages, and an average of seventy million streams a week. Everyone from the mailman to your grandma is dancing along to her buoyant choreography and undeniable melodies—but why? What are the musical devices Chappell and producer Dan Nigro are using to craft her ubiquitous sound? And why are her empowered, defiant lyrics resonating with audiences at this particular moment in history, when queer and trans rights are under attack? In this episode, Nate and Charlie visit the Pink Pony Club to get some much-needed answers.
Songs Discussed
Chappell Roan - Good Luck, Babe!, HOT TO GO!, Red Wine Supernova, Pink Pony Club, Hurt
Toni Basil - Mickey
Devo - Whip It
Starship - We Built This City
More
Read Constance Grady's Vox article, Chappell Roan spent 7 years becoming an overnight success
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>For decades, hip hop has been the most successful genre on the charts. Then, in 2023, a shift occurred. For the first time, the country songs outnumbered hip hop songs on the year end charts. Last year, country’s boom was led by hyper-partisan hits like Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” and Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond.” In 2024, country has taken a left turn. Beyoncé’s genre-busting album Cowboy Carter pushed the limits of what country can sound like, and who can make it. Two of her collaborators have since charted #1 hits: Shaboozey with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Post Malone with “I Had Some Help” featuring Morgan Wallen. Country music is growing, and its sound is changing. Will it replace hip hop for good?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The Verge's Nilay Patel and David Pierce chat with Switched on Pop's Charlie Harding about the RIAA lawsuit against Al music startups Udio and Suno. Later, Nilay and David discuss the rest of this week's tech and gadget news.
Subscribe to Vergecast
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The synthesizer was invented in the 1890s. But for people to really start using it, it took half a century, a musician named Wendy Carlos, and an album called Switched-On Bach.
Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan of Switched On Pop tell Phoebe why Wendy Carlos is “the most significant figure in 20th century music that the least people know about.”
Subscribe to This Is Love
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Long live the song of the summer with Today Explained. But wait! Switched on Pop's Charlie Harding disagrees. And Rolling Stone's Brittany Spanos says maybe it never existed at all. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
Be sure to subscribe to Today Explained.
Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast
Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In today’s volatile music industry, many artists struggle to navigate the pitfalls of touring, the whims of social media, and the inequity of exploitative contracts. But Lawrence, an eight-piece band led by siblings Clyde and Gracie Lawrence, provide a beacon of hope. Combining exceptional talent, savvy business acumen, and a familial bond, they've forged an uncanny path as a band. From testifying before Congress to tackle industry monopolies, to managing their tour logistics and branding, Lawrence seamlessly blends the artistry of music with the realities of a family-run enterprise. Their perseverance and authenticity shine through their newest album, aptly named "Family Business.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The first half of 2024 has been for the “pop girlie.” It seems like every major artist who’s dominated the discourse this year has been a woman, ostensibly making music about what it means to be a woman. There’s Camila Cabello's "Chanel no.5,” Lorde and Charli XCX working out the labyrinth of emotions that come with female friendship on the “Girl, so confusing” remix, and Sabrina Carpenter’s ode to the female ego, “Please Please Please." On this episode, Charlie, Nate, and Reanna – with some insight from journalist Ilana Kaplan – unpack these tracks at length, exploring what these artists are saying about femininity, and by extension, themselves.
Songs discussed:
Read more from Ilana Kaplan
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>There’s many things to love about Los Angeles: low-rider cars, roadside taco stands, and, come awards season, the omnipresent “For Your Consideration” billboard. Nobody knows this better than lifelong L.A. resident Lorely Rodriguez, also known as Empress Of. The indie-pop darling’s latest record, aptly titled For Your Consideration, is her take on what it means to have your full self considered, in all of its guises. The almost genreless record is so wildly catchy and remarkable in scope (all of the percussion on the record is actually Rodriguez’s voice) that Switched On Pop host Nate Sloan and producer Reanna Cruz had to consider For Your Consideration with Empress Of herself, live in person, in the City of Angels.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Bootsy Collins is, perhaps, the funkiest man of all time. Over the course of his nearly six decade career, Collins has given up the funk in the iconic Parliament Funkadelic, helmed Bootsy’s Rubber Band, and lended his slaparific talents to songs from everybody from James Brown to Dee-Lite to Fatboy Slim. His new album, aptly titled Album of the Year #1 Funkateer, is on the way, so in celebration of his illustrious career, we invited Bootsy Collins – aka Casper the Funky Ghost – onto Switched on Pop to reminisce on some of his greatest hits.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>There is no contemporary pop music without Nile Rodgers. Born in 1952, Rodgers grew up playing classical music on flute and clarinet before picking up jazz guitar. And at age 20, alongside bass player Bernard Edwards, Rodgers formed the band Chic. They wrote the biggest disco hits of the 70s, like: “Dance Dance Dance,” “Everybody Dance,” “Le Freak," and "Good TImes," which formed the core of Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper's Delight”.
In his music career spanning six decades, Rodgers has produced and played on some of the biggest pop songs in history, for artists like Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Daft Punk, and Beyoncé. He is also the chair of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, so with the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony taking place this June, we invited him onto Switched on Pop to talk about the making of a great song.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>There's no music writer like the essayist and poet Hanif Abdurraqib: whether he's narrating the beautiful awkwardness of a Carly Rae Jepsen concert or talking jazz and eastern spirituality with Andre 3000, he manages to coax stories and insights out of songs in a way that never fails to surprise. His latest book, There's Always This Year, is a free flowing meditation on basketball, childhood, his home state of Ohio, and of course, music – so on the precipice of the NBA finals, Hanif returns to Switched On Pop to discuss classic soul, sports, and sound with musicologist Nate Sloan.
You can buy Hanif's work through his website here.
Songs discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On her latest album, Taylor Swift “declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.” No one was more surprised by this than Charlie Puth himself: the singer, pianist, and songwriter whose career has always straddled pop stardom and behind the scenes anonymity. After three albums, billions of streams, and numerous songwriting credits – including one on the award-winning number one track “Stay” from the Kid Laroi – Puth has been busier than ever. His new song “Hero” comes on the heels of the Swift mention, and takes him in a new direction, with acoustic guitars and hushed, contemplative vocals.
On the heels of this song’s release, Nate sat down with Charlie Puth himself at Conway Studios in Hollywood to discuss the new track, aided by a piano and all of “Hero”’s isolated stems.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On Billie Eilish’s third album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, Eilish finally graduates from her signature anti-pop persona into full blown pop stardom. This record finds Eilish experimenting on the themes from her earlier records, while crafting an economic ten tracks that position themselves for mainstream radio consumption. There’s “L’amour de ma vie,” her five-and-a-half minute beat-switching eulogy for a failed relationship, or “Birds Of A Feather,” where she contrasts the soft, dreamy melodies we’ve come to know Eilish for with hauntingly dark lyrical content. This duality is a recurring motif throughout Hit Me Hard and Soft, with each song offering a unique blend of vulnerability and strength. These tracks, along with the rest of the album, develop a satisfying and diverse creative arc that speaks to the album’s title: they hit both hard and soft. This week’s episode of Switched On Pop explores Eilish’s new record track by track, unpacking the sonic duality of her new sound.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When you go out for a meal, it’s not just what's on your plate that matters, it's what's in your eardrums, too. From dining rooms so loud you have to shout to be heard, to playlists that sound like a generic Millennial Spotify account, it's not surprising that sound is the single most complained about aspect of restaurants.
A few years ago, Charlie and Nate explored this in an episode on restaurant playlists. This week, they joined Cynthia and Nicky on their show Gastropod to help them explore the science behind the sonic experience of eating.
Are restaurants really getting louder, and, if so, why? What does it take to create the perfect acoustic environment for dining? Can restaurateurs design their playlists to make customers order more or eat faster? Listen in now for the secrets to culinary acoustic bliss – and check out Cynthia and Nicky's guest spot on our episode of Switched On Pop.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Where were you when you learned that the McDonald's jingle "I'm lovin' it" was originally part of a full-fledged pop song by Justin Timberlake and Pharrell that flopped on the charts but found staying power as a slogan? For us, it was recording our live episode about sponsored content in pop back in March 2024, and we have not been the same since. Shaken by this revelation, we found ourselves asking, "What else don't we know about fast food jingles?"
Turns out, it's a lot. From Taco Bell to Popeye's to Chili's, the music of fast food represent some of the most familiar melodies in society, across state lines and generations. But the stories behind those songs, and the way that fast food production and pop music production often move in parallel, was something we never saw coming once.
Since we are music experts but amateur foodies, we invited the brilliant hosts of Eater's Gastropod podcast, Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley, to help serve up the history of fast food and its changing role in culture. Tune in and pig out with us as we listen and debate the artistic and ethical implications of the sounds of fast food.
More
Check out more episodes of Gastropod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Tongue twisters that mock techno-optimism and cite critical theory don’t usually make for catchy song lyrics. But indie rocker Rosie Tucker’s Utopia Now! finds beauty in the dross of late capitalism. Over 13 songs backed by distorted guitars and blazing drum fills, Tucker’s searing vocals bemoan the inherent dislocation of our modern world while searching for moments of truth and human connection.
The night before Tucker embarked on a tour, Nate visited their home studio to speak to them about the inspirations behind their latest album. Although it deals with “big” topics, Tucker stressed that it all comes back to the individual and that the world we have reflects the world we make. “I am trying to reckon with both processing personal resentment,” they told Nate, “and recognizing my own role in my own misery.”
Songs Discussed:
Rosie Tucker - All My Exes Live In Vortexes, Lightbulb, Paperclip Maximizer, Unending Bliss
Erik Satie - Gymnopedie No 1
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>It’s that time of year again when the entirety of Europe (and a few other countries) come together to celebrate kitschy, bombastic songwriting through the Eurovision Song Contest! This year’s competition, held in Malmo, Sweden, features everything from rave-pop on behalf of the Netherlands, to folk-rapping hybrids courtesy of Ukraine – and Charlie and Nate are here to musicologically unpack the craziest tracks that have the potential to win it all.
For more on the controversy surrounding this year’s contest, check out Charlie’s appearance on Vox’s podcast Today, Explained.
Songs discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay of the French electronic duo Justice speak with cohost Charlie Harding about their new album Hyperdrama.
Song Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The beginning of 2024 has brought new music aplenty. Some big releases are in the form of big-ticket albums by the world’s biggest superstars (shoutout Taylor and Beyoncé); some are in the form of soon-to-be radio-friendly staples (we love you, "Espresso"); and some are in the form of personal earworms (Justice! Rosie Tucker! Dua!).
This episode of Switched on Pop, we take a look at the records that we can’t stop listening to from the past few months, from Metro Boomin to Kacey Musgraves to Willow Smith.
Songs discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift's 11th studio album, finds the songwriter in the world of literature. She interweaves personal romance with mythical creation and quotations from high and low culture: Genesis, Peter Pan and even Playstation. Despite calling herself a "modern idiot," less-than-subtle nods to Sylvia Plath, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Dylan Thomas, and Patti Smith reveal the artist’s literary aspirations and “legendary” status. The full length Anthology version contains a bookshelf of many genres: pulp fiction, diary entries, period pieces, epic poems, and her very own genre, Taylor Swift.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Lost Notes by KCRW explores how Fela Kuti’s time in LA in 1969 was instrumental in the creation of his legendary Afrobeat sound. Hosted by Michael Barnes and Novena Carmel. Find a full transcript of Lost Notes at KCRW. And subscribe to the show.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>There are few artists pushing the boundaries of their respective genres like Maryland rapper Rico Nasty and German-Iraqi electronic producer Boys Noize. The two have run in the same circles for over half a decade, but their joint collaboration has reached an apex with their three song EP, HARDC0RE DR3AMZ, a dance-floor ready project that owes as much to Berlin techno as it does to Dutch gabber music. Rico and Boys Noize – a.k.a. Alexander Ridha – are also incredible friends with a lot of love for one another, and for producer Reanna Cruz, all of these reasons make the duo’s EP one of the best projects of the year.
On the heels of Berlin techno being added to the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage for Germany, Reanna sat down with Rico and Alex for this episode of Switched on Pop.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Joe Keery is best known for his acting roles, such as the reformed jock Steve Harrington in "Stranger Things" and his chilling performance in season 5 of "Fargo." But he's also a spectacular musician. Rising through the Chicago music scene in college, he has self-released two albums under the moniker 'Djo.' His latest work, "Decide" from 2022, serves as a coming-of-age story and a meditation on navigating modern life. Despite strong initial reviews, the album only gained widespread attention two years later when its breakout hit "End of Beginning" became a soundtrack for youthful nostalgia on TikTok, casting Keery as an accidental pop star. Joe Keery joined "Switched On Pop" to discuss the creation and significance of "Decide."
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter is her foray into country music, but this isn't just dirt roads, blue jeans and whiskey. Her country music distills all of American pop: blues, gospel, R&B, soul, house, hip-hop and yes, country. If this ain't country, what is?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Hip-hop is in a weird place right now. Research says that the genre, in both streaming and chart performance, has declined over the last decade. And while rap artists can still get number one songs on the Hot 100, it’s a far cry from the peak of trap circa 2017, when Nielsen data named hip-hop as the most popular genre in the U.S.
So what does that mean for the future of rap? To find out, producer Reanna Cruz spent all weekend reporting from Inglewood, CA, at the California edition of the world’s largest hip-hop festival: Rolling Loud. Through talking to attendees and catching the weekend’s hottest sets, they learned about the current state of hip-hop – the good and the bad – as well as what the future may hold.
To read Reanna’s highs and lows from the festival, check out their Vulture article here.
Special thanks to Antonio Cruz for his production help on this episode.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>What do Duke Ellington, United Airlines, and the K Pop group Red Velvet share in common? They've all covered George Gershwin's piano concerto, Rhapsody in Blue. First premiered in 1924, the piece became an immediate hit for the way it blended American jazz with the European symphonic tradition. Gershwin had a number of successes as a composer in his day—his aria "Summertime" from the opera Porgy and Bess is by some measures the most covered song ever—but the staying power of the Rhapsody make it a rare instrumental piece that's instantly familiar. Maybe too familiar.
In 2024, there will be many centennial performances of this iconic piece, but pianist Lara Downes wanted to do something more than just the sound the notes of Gershwin's score for the umpteenth time. Downes commissioned Puerto Rican musician Edmar Colon to create a new version of Gershwin's composition, one that brought in the full spectrum of American life in 1924: fiery improvisation, Latin percussion, and dance rhythms. The resultant piece both pays tribute to an American icon while adding a new set of modern counterpoint.
Nate sat down with Lara to ask her if she was nervous to rewrite such a canonic piece, why a concerto is like a musical kaleidoscope, and the surprising family connection to Gershwin's musical world she discovered while researching Rhapsody in Blue.
Songs Discussed
George Gershwin, Lara Downes, Edmar Colon - Rhapsody in Blue Reimagined
Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue
Gershwin - 3 Preludes: II. Andante con moto e poco rubato
Sarah Vaughan - Nice Work if You can Get It
Sam Cooke - Summertime
Chet Baker - But not For ME
Louis Armstrong - Aint Misbehavin
Ella Fitzgerald - Blue Skies
Red Velvet - Birthday
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Sidestep the gossip and focus on the music in Ariana Grande’s latest album Eternal Sunshine. The music is an exercise in nostalgia: 70s Disco, 90s R&B, and 00s pop and dance music. As she moves through the musical past, her lyrics tear through past relationship. But its the way her lyrics interweave with the deft melodies and harmonies that reveal the meaning of the record.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In a landscape where the music industry seems designed to stifle creativity and independence, Amelia Meath stands as a beacon of resistance. Through her involvement in bands like Sylvan Esso, Mountain Man, and The A's, and as a founder of label Psychic Hotline, Meath defies the narratives that label success in music. This conversation dives into the systemic challenges musicians face today—from the pitfalls of streaming economics to the trials of touring and beyond. Yet, it's not just about the hurdles; it's a conversation on solutions, embodied by Meath's multifaceted career and the inspirational journey of David Gray, whose story of grassroots success with "Babylon" serves as a case study in artistic resilience and independence.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Songs Discussed
David Gray - Babylon, Shine, What Have I Become, Skellig
Sylvan Esso - Coffee, Die Young
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Live from On-Air Fest in Brooklyn, Nate and Charlie investigate listeners’ burning musical mysteries, such as: Is Beyoncé’s reference to Lexus in “Texas Hold ’Em” product placement? And, could we be tuning all our music the wrong way? These stories have twists, turns, and a live parody performance that no asked for.
Thanks to Steve Stoute, Lucas Keller, Samer Ghadry, Helen Zaltzman, and Phil Pappas for contributing to this episode.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>One of the most inventive and gifted musicians working today is none other than Jacob Collier. Maybe you know him from his YouTube videos, or co-writing SZA’s “Good Days,” or even performing alongside Joni Mitchell at this year’s Grammys. Jacob is a musician with thunderous chops, proficient on multiple instruments and with a voice that ranges from bass to soprano. over the past few years, he’s managed to release several records, net collaborations with everyone from Michael McDonald to T-Pain, and become the first British artist to receive a Grammy Award for each of his first four albums. His latest album Djesse 4 is the conclusion to his Djesse quadrilogy, and it features a kaleidoscopic range of style, from Indian sitar to Colombian reggaeton to a haunting Simon and Garfunkel cover. This week, we’re going to take a look inside the work and process of a musical mad scientist – our resident songwriter Charlie Harding sat down with Jacob to learn about his new record, his collaborators, and the beautifully unique way he sees and thinks about music.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
SONGS DISCUSSED
Jacob Collier - In My Room, 100,000 Voices, A Rock Somewhere, Little Blue, She Put Sunshine
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Renaissance Act II truthers, your time has come: There’s new music from Beyoncé, and boy, is it country. Her two new singles dropped two weeks ago, and in the time since, they’ve both climbed up the chart and taken the internet by storm. There’s the barnstorming stomp and holler ditty “TEXAS HOLD 'EM,” which just notched the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and the dark horse “16 CARRIAGES,” a autobiographical work song detailing Beyoncé’s roots in Houston, Texas. Charlie and Nate unpack both of these two songs, highlighting their structures, inspirations, and collaborators, from Raphael Saddiq to Rhiannon Giddens. Then, producer Reanna Cruz speaks to music journalist Taylor Crumpton, whose article for Time, “Beyoncé Has Always Been Country” lays out the cultural implications of this sonic pivot for one of the biggest artists of all time.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Songs Discussed
More
Read Taylor Crumpton's article Beyoncé Has Always Been Country
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The Canadian Electro-Funk duo CHROMEO have made consistently funky, highly danceable music for twenty years. They’ve released five studios albums, done the Coachella festival circuit and have been nominated for a Grammy for their sound that’s been compared to Prince, Zapp and Hall and Oates. Now with their latest album, Adult Contemporary, they are challenging preconceptions of adult contemporary music by redefining its whole meaning.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Songs discussed
CHROMEO - (I Don't Need A) New Girl, BTS, Coda, Fancy Footwork, Needy Girl, Replacements, Clorox Wipe, Six Feet Away
Dolly Parton - Nine to Five
Donna Summer - She Works Hard For The Money
Gwen Guthrie - Ain't Nothin' Goin' on but the Rent
Kenny G - Songbird, You're Beautiful
Kenny Loggins - This Is It
Kenny Rodgers - We've Got Tonight, You And I
Michael Bolton - How Am I Supposed To Live
Michael Bublé - Home
Michael Jackson - Human Nature, Working Day and Night
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
Steely Dan - Black Cow, Ricky Don't Lose That Number, Time Out of Mind
The Bee Gees - Staying Alive
Toto - I'll be Over You
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Who is the biggest Diva of them all? The U.S. National Anthem, which borrows its melody from a historic British drinking song, has undergone enormous musical change in the hands of pop music vocalists. Famously, José Feliciano, Marvin Gaye and Whitney Houston each changed the meaning of "The Star Spangled Banner" by finding new approaches to the performance. Countless others have followed in their footsteps. Now every major sporting event is an excuse for pop divas to make their own creative interpretation. So who does it best? Or worst? Jan Diehm and Michelle McGhee, data journalists at The Pudding, analyzed the pitch fluctuations of over a hundred famous performances to answer these questions and more.
Check out Jan and Michelle's full analysis at pudding.cool
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When it comes to powerful artistry, few can match the intensity of Brittany Howard. Over the past decade, we’ve seen her bring her signature Southern belt to the Alabama Shakes, her intimate songwriting to her first solo record, and now, her boundary-pushing genre experimentation on her new album What Now. The record, which drops on Friday, February 9th, continues to show Howard’s versatility – the record jumps from disco pop to pared-back R&B to roaring psychedelia.
This episode of Switched On Pop, we’re giving you an early look at all What Now has to offer, as well as an interview with the woman behind it all: Brittany Howard.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When it comes to musical theater, everyone has an opinion. And Bridger Winegar, host of the very funny podcast I Said No Gifts!, is no exception. In the paradoxical tradition of Bridger's podcast, Charlie and Nate have brought a series of gifts in the form of a sonic smorgasbord: a tour through musical theater's finest offerings, from Les Miserables to Spring Awakening.
Check out Bridger's podcast I Said No Gifts! here.
For more on movie musicals, check out this episode of Vox's Today Explained.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Songs discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis has cemented herself as something of a vibe curator; her signature genre fusion has brought forward everything from Latin radio mainstays to Bootsy Collins collaborations. But instead of looking to the genres of the future for her latest record, Orchídeas finds Uchis digging into genres of the past and present, creating a global soundscape across the record’s 14 tracks. On this episode of Switched on Pop, producer Reanna Cruz guides Charlie and Nate through the flowery world of Orchídeas, exploring multiple genres of the Latine diaspora (with a quick stop in South Africa) in the process.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>We live in an age of musical nostalgia where artists wear influences on their sleaves. Case in point, two established artists who are drawing from established pop music history: Lil Nas X's "J. Christ" sounds like a Kendrick Lamar "Humble" type beat, and Ariana Grande's "Yes, And?" unabashedly interpolates Madonna's "Vogue." So are these songs mere copies or do they actually say something new with their reference material?
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>All throughout the year, Switched on Pop gets a litany of musical questions that need answering. To kick off 2024, hosts Charlie and Nate answer some of these questions live on air! From the renewed interest in Cass Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" to the lack of multi-part harmonies on the charts, this episode takes a closer look at some listeners' musical maladies – alongside special guest star Joe Treble.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In case you missed it, last January, we published this story on the rising trend of sped-up music. It seems like the tempo-shifting isn't going anywhere, so we're rerunning our history and exploration into the phenomenon.
Original description below:
Over the past few months, you may have heard your favorite song pop up on the Internet – just slightly faster. You’re not alone: the phenomenon of the “sped-up” remix has taken over social media, with everyone from Lady Gaga to Thundercat getting the tempo treatment. The popularity of the craze has led to millions of TikTok videos, Billboard number ones, and songs becoming relevant again, decades after release. Ever since the proliferation of these “remixes,” the big questions remain: where did these songs come from and why are they here?
On this episode of Switched on Pop, we explore this exact phenomenon, tracing its roots from Thomas Edison to Cam’ron to vaporwave to nightcore.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In case you missed it, Wham’s 1984 contribution to the holiday cannon, “Last Christmas,” has surprising staying power. When Grammy-winning pianist Chilly Gonzales set out to record a holiday album, “A Very Chilly Christmas,” most of the selections were over a half century old. That’s because most of our favorite seasonal songs come from the 1960s and earlier. But in addition to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas,” Wham’s “Last Christmas” reliably returns each winter. Despite the cheesy 80s synths and drum machines, the song’s harmonies are remarkable resilient, a testament to George Michael’s auteur songwriting method. Celebrated artist known for his solo piano works, collaborations with Feist and Daft Punk, and his musical masterclasses series, Chilly Gonzales—musical genius—AKA “Gonzo,” sits down at the piano to share in the beauty of this nu-classical Christmas love song, as well as a few selections from his new album “A Very Chilly Christmas.”
Originally aired Dec 2020
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Holiday album releases sometimes have a sense of pandering to them. "I'm a pop star. Here's me singing the nineteen-millionth cover of 'Jingle Bell Rock.' Please give me money."
The comedian and singer Matt Rogers understands this dichotomy of the holiday hit—part grotesque cash-grab, part unfathomably genuine cheer—better than anyone. His new album, Have You Heard of Christmas?, mines that tension for tragicomic gold.
"Also It's Christmas," the album opener, announces this satirical spirit blithely, with an exhortation to "play this song seasonally!" "Rum Pum Pum" turns the little drummer's beat into a sexy club anthem: "Saw your name on the naughty list highlighted in red / Now you're up in the club in someone else's sweat." Over the course of Have You Heard..., Rogers poses questions that poke at the edges of Christmas lore: "Is it weird to hook up on Christmas day?" "How does it feel to be the hottest female in Whoville?" And, "Why does Santa needs so much lube for his sleigh?"
Matt joined Nate and Charlie to share how his pop writing draws from sketch comedy rhythm, the influence he drew from both Ariana Grande and the Lonely Island, and how he accidentally created a sincere holiday hit in the middle of making a comedy album.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Nicki Minaj is one of the most unique rappers of all time. She’s given us numerous iconic guest verses from “Monster” to “Flawless (Remix),” everlasting hits like “Super Bass” and “Starships,” and legions of loyal fans in the Barbz. She’s also given us over twenty alter-egos in the course of her career. However, no alter-ego of hers has been more impactful than Roman. The voice at the center of Nicki’s most unhinged music, the “Roman” persona serves a conduit for Nicki to put forward a high level of theatricality and character work in her music, from beats to bars. And to understand Nicki, you need to understand Roman.
This episode of Switched on Pop, producer Reanna Cruz takes us on a journey through the history of Roman, on the heels of Nicki Minaj’s latest record, Pink Friday 2.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
When you make a weekly podcast about pop music, there’s some things that, naturally, slip through the cracks. On this episode of Switched On Pop, our hosts – alongside our editor, Jolie Myers, our engineer, Brandon McFarland, and our producer, Reanna Cruz – try to course correct that by discussing our team’s (and a listener’s) favorite picks of 2023. Whether it’s something we got to in the later months or something we felt still deserved its flowers, this episode hops around genres to show the musical versatility of the Switched On Pop team. We even got some of our selections, specifically Laufey and Chappell Roan, on the show to talk about the music that made our year. Who knows: maybe you’ll find the song to top your personal best-of list!
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Nate and Charlie were recently featured on Harman Audio Talks. While our team takes the week off, we wanted to share that conversation with you as we pull back the curtain on how we make the show and select songs for the podcast.
Sign up for the Switched On Pop Newsletter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Noah Kahan is having a banner year. Between his Best New Artist nomination at the Grammys, his debut SNL performance, and collaborations with everyone from Post Malone to Hozier, the Vermont singer-songwriter has transcended the confines of New England to become one of the harbingers of the 2023 stomp-clap revival. This episode of Switched on Pop, host Charlie Harding sits down in person with Kahan to find some secret magic chords, opine on car commercial music, and talk about all things Stick Season.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Country music's had a massive year. Seriously, not since 1958 have we seen so many country tunes topping the Hot 100 in a single year – and it's not been without its share of controversy. Leading this country music revival? Morgan Wallen, for starters. He bounced back from being shunned for dropping a racial slur with his number one single “Last Night.” Then there's Jason Aldean with “Try That in a Small Town,” a song and music video that which unsubtly lynching references. Next up, newcomer Oliver Anthony Music dropped “Richmond North of Richmond,” weaving in QAnon references and welfare shaming into a track largely about government distrust. On a lighter but still contentious note, Luke Combs covered the mega 90s hit “Fast Car,” turning Tracy Chapman into the first black woman with a number one country hit. And let's not forget Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves' beautiful duet “I Remember Everything” about a past romance, which also climbed to the top. Many of these songs have just been nominated for Grammys, including “Last Night,” “Fast Car,” and “I Remember Everything.”
When all this started happening, we were scratching our heads. Country songs topping the Hot 100? Sure, but not this many in quick succession. Something felt different. And we think we've finally figured it out after diving into Chris Molanphy's new book: Old Town Road. Chris, a music and charts critic, author of Slate’s Why Is This Song No. 1 column, and host of the excellent music podcast Hit Parade, explores country music's chart history in his latest book “Old Town Road,” part of Duke's Single Series. He zeroes in on Lil Nas X's 2018 “Old Town Road” and its 2019 Billy Ray Cyrus-amped remix as a case study. So, to get the lowdown on 2023's country chart toppers, we've got to rewind to 2018 and re-examine “Old Town Road” with Chris Molanphy's insights.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When Paul McCartney announced that he and Ringo Starr had produced a new Beatles song with the aid of AI, many music pundits were skeptical. Was this new song be another gimmick like the fake Drake hit "Heart on My Sleeve"? No. Instead, the Beatles simply used AI voice separation technology to repair a well-worn John Lennon demo tape.
Back in the '90s, Yoko Ono gave shared a collection of unfinished John Lennon demos with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison (who died in 2001) as part of a final recording session that resulted in the singles "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love." However, the third song, “Now And Then" was marred by hissing and humming, and the piano was overly loud. Harrison called it rubbish, and after a few hours of tracking a rough song they left it on the cutting room floor.
But now in 2023, using film maker Peter Jackson’s latest restoration technology created for his "Get Back" documentary, the Beatles were able to create one last song together, though in three different eras. Lennon tracked his vocals in the '70s, Harrison's parts were lifted from the '90s sessions, and McCartney and Starr added their parts in 2022. The band is filled out by a string arrangement by Giles Martin (Beatles cataloger and son of the late Beatles producer George Martin) and Ben Foster, in addition to reused backing vocals from earlier Beatles tracks.
So, did the Beatles successfully bring this worn-out recording back to life? Does this AI song sound like Beatles, let alone human? Find out on Switched On Pop.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Three big artists have rerecorded their most hallowed musical material. Taylor Swift, Roger Water and Demi Lovato each have different intentions in painstakingly putting their old songs onto new proverbial tape. On 1989 (Taylor's Version), Taylor Swift seeks control of her master recordings. On Dark Side of the Moon Redux Roger Waters explores his most vaunted work from his youth now with from perspective of an octogenarian. And Demi Lovato Revamped pivots their old pop hits into a hard rock aesthetic. Switched On Pop listens back to all three albums to see how they hold up to the original and to uncover new musical discoveries.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>It’s time for another edition of our series Chartbreakers, where we take a look at the trends and shakeups happening on the Billboard Hot 100. This week, however, the chart has been dominated by Drake and his album For All the Dogs, which takes up a grand total of 23 spots on the Hot 100. So, rather than do a story on that, Charlie and Nate take a look at the brand new TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart, established only last month.
This chart – which measures the most popular songs on the platform through each song’s number of videos, views, and user engagement – perhaps best shows the things that are popular and pervasive among a contingent of younger music listeners. Here, there’s room for everybody from Mitski to Sexyy Red to J. Dash, highlighting that the music that’s popular isn’t necessarily what hits the radio.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Talking Head's concert film Stop Making Sense first came out forty years ago, and it’s just been rereleased in theaters in a 4k remaster by A24. The film finds the band — Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, David Byrne and Jerry Harrison — at the height of their powers over three successive nights at the the Hollywood Pantages Theater. As Chris and Tina remembered it when they spoke to producer Reanna Cruz, "We'd reached a state in our career and our lives when we felt, 'we've gotten pretty good at this now. We can show the world.'"
Director Jonathan Demme spliced the band's performances into an eighty-eight minute odyssey beginning with Byrne solo on the stage and gradually bringing in the rest of the band and a cast of stellar guest musicians: vocalists Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, percussionist Steve Scales, and guitarist Alex Weir. The film introduced landmark moments like Byrne’s big suit, Demme’s cinematic approach to concert cinematography, Chris's and Tina’s Tom Tom Club performing the perennial sample flip "Genius of Love," and a theater-rocking version of "Burning Down the House." Stop Making Sense broke the mold of concert films and created a new paradigm for artists to follow ever since.
Nate, Charlie, and Reanna take insights from Reanna's conversation with Tina and Chris on the legacy of Stop Making Sense as a guide to think through our own favorite concert movies — the Band's The Last Waltz, Madonna's Truth or Dare, and Beyonce's Homecoming — to identify the musical and visual choices that make them so indelible.
Songs Discussed
Talking Heads - This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) - Live
Talking Heads - Burning Down the House - Live
Beyoncé - Diva - Homecoming Live
Beyoncé - Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) - Homecoming Live
Madonna - Express Yourself
Madonna - Live to Tell
The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - Live
The Band - I Shall Be Released (Finale) - Live
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The past two episodes of the show have been in Atlanta, and this week, we’re staying there with a look at singer-songwriter Faye Webster. Her music defies genre and convention: over the course of four albums, her sound has come to contain both pedal steel and indie rock as well as soft vocals and R&B sensibilities, all the while embodying the city of Atlanta. On this episode of Switched on Pop, we take a look at the work of Webster and how she builds her anomalous sound – even talking to the artist herself.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Few producers have had such a demonstrated impact on the the last decade of music as Metro Boomin. Described by GQ as the “architect of Atlanta rap,” Metro has netted collaborations as far-ranging from Coldplay to Gucci Mane, garnered three #1 projects on the Billboard 200, and is credited with bolstering trap music’s presence both in and out of the South. From “Jumpman” to “Bad & Boujee” to “Creepin’,” we’ve been hearing his productions for years – all of which manage to capture the ear due to his penchant for eerie soundscapes and light and dark dichotomy.
This episode of Switched on Pop, we take a closer look at Metro Boomin’s career, highlighting what makes his production style so versatile.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Twenty years ago, the song "Get Low" by Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz and Ying Yang Twins was released; in the years since, the song has managed to stand the test of time, becoming the paragon of what we know as crunk music. In this episode of Switched on Pop, we take a look at crunk – from its roots in Memphis and Atlanta to its sonic successors, and give flowers to the man behind it all: Lil Jon himself.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In case you missed it rerun from 2016. Back in 2011, two pop songs dropped with the same patriotic title: "Made in America." But the similarities pretty much end there. Toby Keith's country smash and Jay Z, Kanye West and Frank Ocean's soulful hip hop anthem have little in common except a firm conviction that each song knows what it really means to be American. Five years later, these tracks have a lot to tell us about the role music plays in shaping our national identity, and begs the question: does music truly bring us together?
Music Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In hip-hop, what draws us to an artist is not just the content of their lyrics but how they deliver them. Along with tapping your foot to the rhythm, understanding something called “flow” is essential to understanding hip-hop as a whole.
In this episode of Switched On Pop, we interview genre icon DJ Jazzy Jeff on the concept of flow: what it is, how it applies to all music – not just hip-hop – and how any rapper’s flow can be analyzed under his guidelines. Taking his word for it, we put our magnifying glasses on to look at the bars of our favorite rappers, from Megan thee Stallion to Babytron.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>For the first time in 2023, a rap song is at number one on Billboard's Hot 100: Doja Cat's “Paint the Town Red.” It’s her second number one single after the disco inspired “Say So.” But the ubiquitous and lighthearted bop didn’t accurately reflect Doja’s divisive persona, an extremely online meme lord, and sometimes troll, with a history of riling up internet controversy.
Doja Cat recently called out her fans for their parasocial obsessiveness, losing 250k instagram followers in the process. Simultaneously, religious conservatives have accused her of Satanism for her playful use of illuminati imagery at her 27th birthday bash. But rather than recoil, Doja Cat is clapping back at criticism by embracing the devil.
On “Paint the Town Red” she’s following the playbook of Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy,” all of which use demonic imagery to spark religious controversy while also commenting on artists’ indiscretions and the hellish nature of the attention economy. In her satanic suite — “Paint The Town Red,” “Demon,” and “Attention” — Doja Cat’s turns online flame wars into musical gold.
More
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When Jimmy Buffett died on the first day of September, 2023, musicians from Paul McCartney to Pitbull mourned the death of the "Margaritaville" singer. This surprised Nate and Charlie, because frankly, they had never listened deeply to Buffett's work before, and viewed him more as a branding genius than a great musician. How wrong were your faithful podcast hosts. Jimmy Buffett was no novelty act or one-hit wonder. He found a precise combination of yearning lyrics, hip modulations, and singable melodies that produced a collection of songs that questioned the fantasy of Island Life as much as they celebrated it. Journey with us across the seas of Buffett's artistry as we listen for everything we might have missed about this unique musical icon.
Songs Discussed
Jimmy Buffett - Margaritaville, Cheeseburger in Paradise, Why Don't We Get Drunk, Come Monday, Fins, A Pirate Looks at 40, My Gummie Just Kicked In
Harry Belafonte - Will His Love Be Like His Rum?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In case you missed it, Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance is one of her most ambitious albums yet. On this week’s episode of Switched On Pop, we discuss Renaissance with beloved guest Sam Sanders, host of the new Vulture podcast Into It. In Sanders’ words: “it’s trying to do a lot” – but in the best way. The album incorporates seemingly every decade of contemporary popular dance music from Chic’s “Good Times” to Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy.”
Much of the early discourse surrounding the album was marred by a confusing controversy over a small sample (we try to resolve the issue musicologically) – but the references on Renaissance are worth listening closely to, acting as a guide through essential dance music. The album is an homage to the black and queer innovators of dance; with samples and interpolations of songs both niche and mainstream flying by, like a DJ set curated by house music pioneers.
On Renaissance, Beyoncé goes out of her way to cite, credit and compensate her influences, resulting in a triumph of musical curation. Just look at “Alien Superstar”: the song credits twenty-four people, largely due to Beyoncé’s musical nods, rather than an exercise in boardroom style songwriting. Sanders says “the liner notes themselves are showing you that this woman and her team have a PhD in music history.”
Listen to Switched On Pop to hear how Renaissance honors dance music innovators and finds new modes of expression in the genre.
Subscribe to Into It with Sam Sanders
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3vE4jqf
Listen on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3bB7Vmf
Listen elsewhere: https://bit.ly/3BI0Nz0
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Everyone seems to be getting Olivia Rodrigo wrong. She's one of the few pop stars who has made it big in the current era of fragmented music streaming, but so much of the narrative has been about whose songs she's stealing from, whether it be Taylor Swift, Elvis Costello or Paramore. Rodrigo's new album Guts arrives next Friday: while we wait patiently, we take a close listen to her new singles "vampire" and "bad idea right?" to subvert the narrative. These songs show that she isn't stealing from pop music, but rather uses a deep repertoire of musical predecessors to write very crafty music.
Songs discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In 2003, amidst a bunch of bleak alternative rock bangers like “Numb” by Linkin Park and “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence, a rock song stood out on the charts for its fantastic hooks and juvenile sense of humor. “Stacy’s Mom” turned the New Jersey band Fountains of Wayne into MTV mainstays and Grammy nominees. But while they continued to release music, tour the country, and maintain a devoted fanbase, they never reached the same level of fame again.
Most people never looked further than the raunchy music video, but Fountains of Wayne released six albums across two decades, each filled with tracks of quirky, clever, and undeniably catchy power pop. And the writer of that song, FOW bassist Adam Schlesinger, had a rich and fascinating career behind the scenes in film, TV, and more. In this episode of Switched on Pop, we explore the history of “Stacy’s Mom”, a perfectly crafted pop song that stands as a testament to the brilliance of a musician whose career was cut tragically short.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Right now, the two biggest records in the country come to us from two of hip-hop’s biggest superstars: Travis Scott and Post Malone. Both artists have been releasing mainstream records for nearly a decade; their records UTOPIA and AUSTIN, respectfully, sit at number one and two on the Billboard 200. But going further than the numbers, these albums signify a shift in these artists’ sounds, moving them out of their usual genres into previously uncharted territory in both of their careers. And as this is Post Malone’s fifth record and Travis Scott’s fourth, we also must ask: what does it mean to be a mid-career artist?
Songs discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Part two of the secret world of song camps looks at the different roles in a songwriting session. There are producers who sit behind a console desk or computer and record, arrange and craft the instrumental and track the vocal. Often they double as engineers who use their technical knowledge to select mics, set up signal chains, and ensure the best recording. Then there is the topliner, a singer who generates melodies on the fly, throwing ideas at the instrumental, looking for the best hooks. Often the top liner is also a songwriter who crafts chords and lyrics to fit the topline melody. And then there is of course the artist who performs the piece.
These roles aren’t always clearly divided - most musicians have multiple skills. But for the sake of understanding how each role is essential to creating a song, we asked four musical luminaries to embody one of these roles and break it down: producer/engineer Alex Tumay, topliner Wolftyla, Songwriter and Walk the Moon frontman Nicholas Petricca and Artist Grace VanderWall.
This conversation happened live at the College of Performing Arts at The New School as part of Anti Social Camp 2023, the largest song camp in the world that is working to revive to the NYC songwriting scene.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Beginning in the nineties, pop songwriters have traveled to a 13th-century castle in the south of France for what’s come to be known as a “song camp” – a place where songwriters and collaborators can hunker down and spend a week together writing the next big hits.
The castle’s owner Miles Copeland, former manager of The Police, brought songwriters to this far-flung location for a dose of creativity, and yielded massive success through the process: artists like Celine Dion, Britney Spears and Miranda Lambert have all benefited from songs stemming from these retreats.
Over the last fifteen years, song camps have exploded in popularity from Peter Coquillard’s Bali Invitational, to Rihanna’s $200k LA camp, to the Anti Social Camp: a NYC-based event and the world’s largest songwriting retreat. This episode of Switched On Pop, we take a look at the secret world of song camps, and even manage to be a fly-on-the-wall in a camp with songwriter Nicholas Petricca of Walk The Moon, Julia Cumming of Sunflower Bean, engineer Will Campbell and producer Andrew Maury.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Recently while scrolling twitter we saw a clip from American Idol of judge Katy Perry admonishing an auditioner on the show to “Enunciate!”
The video went viral because of Perry’s incensed reaction, but also because the contestant’s performance of Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie” offered a crystalline example of a popular style of singing that has produced reactions of love and—like for Perry—hate.
It’s a style that features elongated vowels, clipped consonants, and runaway phrasing associated with contemporary singers like Halsey, Jorja Smith, and Shawn Mendes, and like many things in the 21st century it got its name from a tweet—specifically by the user @trackdroppa who boasted in 2009, “Voice so smooth it’s like i’m singing in cursive”
In this episode we speak to vocal coaches and journalists to to ask: Where did this cursive style come from? What are the vocal techniques used to create this sound? And why does cursive singing create so much backlash?
Songs Discussed
More
Ashaala Shanae
https://www.themahi.com/founder
Jumi Akinfenwa
https://www.vice.com/en/contributor/jumi-akinfenwa
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>This past week, the film Barbie opened nationwide to massive success – and with it came a soundtrack, executive produced by Mark Ronson.
Functioning as both a companion to the movie and a stand-alone collection of hits, the album features everyone from Dua Lipa to reggaeton star Karol G to K-Pop group FIFTY FIFTY. This episode of Switched on Pop, we take a look at the singles from the soundtrack and see how well they embody the ethos of Barbie: plastic and all.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In 1964, Louis Armstrong knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts with his recording of “Hello, Dolly!” becoming, at age 62, the oldest artist to ever hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Sixty years later, Louis Armstrong remains a beloved cultural figure, his oft-imitated voice still instantly recognizable. But Armstrong is more than a source of levity — his artistry and innovations when he made his first recordings a century ago in 1923 set the template for the modern pop star. On this centennial episode, hear Armstrong as you’ve never heard him: a defiant, pathbreaking musician whose voice resonates in every hit record.
Songs Discussed
More
Read Terry Teachout’s brilliant biography of Armstrong, Pops
Visit the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, NY
Listen to Lil Hardin Armstrong’s 1968 interview with Chris Albertson for Riverside Records
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Taylor Swift is currently the most streamed artist in the world as she’s commandeered the media as she embarks on her Eras tour around the globe. It's likely to be the highest grossing tour of all time, crossing $1B in sales. What’s more, she’s just released her 6th studio album since 2020, and her 3rd re-recording of her older material called Taylor’s Versions. She famously got in a spat with the new owner of her master recordings. She decided to take back control with her own hands and voice, creating mostly true-to-the-original updates alongside a smorgasbord of bonus material.
First there was Fearless from 2008, then Red from 2012 and now Speak Now the last of her more country leaning albums having originally arrived in 2010. Switched On Pop listens to Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) for whats is and isn’t working musically, how the re-recordings are fairing, and where this ambitious project may go next.
Joining the conversation is Lauren Michele Jackson American cultural critic, assistant professor of English and African American studies at Northwestern, author of White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation and a contributing writer to the New Yorker in her review of Taylor Swift’s midnights said “I’ve always maintained that Swift is incapable of writing a bad song.”
MORE
SONGS DISCUSSED
Taylor Swift - Fearless, Red, Speak Now, Never Grow Up, The Story Of Us, Sparks Fly, Mine, Mean, Superman, Karma, Better than Revenge, Electric Touch, Castles Crumbling, When Emma Falls in Love, I Can See You, Back, To December, Last Kiss
Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me
Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Us at Switched On Pop are off on vacation, but don't fret – this week we're still bringing you an episode, courtesy of the Vulture podcast Into It with Sam Sanders. If you've openly wondered why concert tickets seemingly have gotten more confusing and expensive, this episode's for you.
–
Content creator and head of the Beyhive Kalen Allen is more than OK spending four thousand dollars on one ticket for Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour. 2023 feels like a big year for huge stadium tours for artists like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Ed Sheeran and more. But why are tickets so expensive, and how much are fans willing to put up with in order to go? Sam talks with music journalist Nate Rogers about why the touring industry might just be broken and what lawmakers and some artists are trying to do to fix it.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Vulture might have killed the song of the summer back in 2016, but if you’re a member of the LGBTQ+ community, it’s hard to argue against “Padam Padam” by Kylie Minogue. The track, released this May, has taken the queer community by storm, quickly becoming ubiquitous and inescapable – it's hard to even scroll on Twitter without a well-timed meme about the "padam-ic" popping up on the timeline. However, Minogue's song hasn't even cracked the Billboard Hot 100; instead, its status has morphed into that of a "gay anthem," a song widely celebrated inside the community but unable to garner longstanding success outside of it.
This episode of Switched on Pop, producer Reanna Cruz tackles a question that the LGBTQ+ community has debated over for decades: what makes a gay anthem? Through talking with everyone from academics to their close friends, the answer takes us from Judy Garland to 1920s cabaret to, of course, "Padam Padam."
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Another installment of Switches Brew the show where you get to hear from the larger team Switched On Pop team and community about what we're listening to old and new. With recommendations from editor Jolie Myers, producer Reanna Cruz, and listeners Micah Salkind and JT.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>As summer comes upon us, it’s time for some Billboard shake ups. On this week’s edition of Chartbreakers, we’re looking at the recent iterations of the Hot 100 and a trend that has slowly been creeping up in popularity over the past few months: the influx of regional Mexican music. The past two years have seen many songs by Mexican artists making their way onto Billboard, all managing to highlight different scenes and sounds from the different states in Mexico.
We’re joined this week by the cohost of the NPR Music podcast Alt. Latino, Anamaria Sayre, who says that Mexican regional, or simply, regional, is a marketing “bucket term” that encompasses different Latin genres including everything from norteño to corridos, all genres that are comfortably finding a home in the top 20 of the Hot 100 in 2023.
Of course, there’s more happening outside of Latin music. Much of the chart has been stagnant since our last iteration of Chartbreakers, but, as always, there’s been some shake ups thanks to the world of the TikTok sped-up remix, the legacy artist, and on some occasions, a mix of both (we’re looking at you, Miguel).
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In the song "Touch" from Daft Punk's final studio album, 2013's Random Access Memories, featured artist Paul Williams sings a line that augured the end of an impressive collaboration: "I need something more." With RAM, Daft Punk pulled out all the stops, going the opposite direction of their previous albums, to "give life back to music" and bestow hearts and souls upon their robotic doppelgängers.
RAM features almost no samples or programmed digital instruments, instead leaning into extensive collaborations with legendary studio musicians, iconic producers like Nile Rodgers, and modern mavens such as Pharrell. The making of RAM followed the blueprint of classic albums from what Daft Punk called "the golden age" of recording—Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Pink Floyd. The duo spent over a million dollars, held five years of studio sessions, and painstakingly crafted each track. The result was a record that helped usher in a retro disco-funk revival across pop music and generated a smash hit in "Get Lucky." The band had perhaps crafted their magnum opus—but did it also represent the conclusion of their epic narrative of the battle between human and machine?
Songs Discussed
Daft Punk - Give Life Back to Music
Daft Punk - Lose Yourself to Dance (feat. Pharrell Williams)
Daft Punk - Get Lucky (feat. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers)
Daft Punk - Giorgio by Moroder
Eagles - Hotel California
Daft Punk - Contact
The Sherbs - We Ride Tonight
Daft Punk - The Prime Time of Your Life
Daft Punk, Paul Williams - Touch (feat. Paul Williams)
Thomas Bangalter - Mythologies: X. L'Accouchement
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Throughout their legendary career, Daft Punk continued to prove that the more robotic their music became, the more human they sounded. This dichotomy came to a head on their third album, aptly titled Human After All. Where their past two records wired their circuits and gave the robots a voice, on Human After All, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo gave Daft Punk sentience. On Human After All robots rock, but they also question their rigid programming. The record's ensuing tour and resulting live album, Alive 2007, furthered the narrative by ushering in a new age of live electronic performance. The impact of these two records range from the development of EDM to everlasting hits like “Technologic.” On episode three of our Listening 2 Daft Punk series, we take a look at these two records, and how both Alive and Human After All imbued the robots with super intelligence.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Daft Punk’s first album laid the groundwork for their robot personas, with four to the floor beats, programmed drum machines, and sequenced synthesizers. On their second album Discovery, Daft Punk fully lean into the artificial – singing through robotic vocoders that correspond with their now-iconic robot helmets.
But in there is a paradox, explored on episode 2 of Listening to Daft Punk: the more machine the robots become, the more human the music sounds.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Ten years ago, Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories gave life back to music. The world-beating smash “Get Lucky” broke streaming records, forged a retro sound that still dominates the charts, and paved the way for artists like The Weeknd, Dua Lipa and Lizzo to craft their own throwback hits. How did Daft Punk do it? Switched On Pop’s four part-mini series Listening 2: Daft Punk unlocks the sounds, voices, and stories across all four of the group’s studio albums. On their first album, Homework, Daft Punk stretched the boundaries of electronic music and began wiring the circuits that would become their robot alter-egos, asking a fundamental question: where does the human end and the machine begin?
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>After nearly two decades as a band the Jonas Brothers are staking their claim to a magnum opus by calling their next album, quite simply, The Album (out May 12). The project follows the success of their 2019 comeback project Happiness Begins — which blended polished pop sounds with ‘70s funk breaks and produced the No. 1 single “Sucker” — with a focus on the smooth sounds of yacht rock. Switched On pop co-host Charlie Harding spoke with Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas in March 2023, during their five night broadway run, in anticipation for the release of The Album.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>It’s May, and that can only mean one thing: it’s time for the Eurovision Song Contest. This year’s edition of the international-but-primarily-in-Europe competition features a uniquely eclectic group of songs (per usual), from a take on electro-flamenco, to Game of Thrones EDM, to a previous winner’s return to the Eurovision stage. On this episode, Charlie and Nate look at the six songs bookmakers are looking at to lead the pack of this year’s entries.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When trouble strikes in music town, there’s one guy who gets the call. That’s me, Joe Treble, forensic musicologist. This week, I've got one of the most shocking cases I've ever worked. Someone killed the key change in pop music, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to find the perpetrator.
The key change used to be at large on the Billboard charts. From the 1950s to the 1990s, 20-30% of all number one hits featured one. In Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody," the key change hits right before the final chorus. The song’s harmonic center shifts up, raising the pitch of the song, challenging the vocalist to hit higher and higher notes, juicing the big finish with excitement and pep. But starting in the 1990s the key change virtually disappeared from the Hot 100. Now, hit songs start and end in the same key, and no one seems to have even noticed. Except for me.
This investigation will bring me face to face with a rogue's gallery of suspects and sources: Chris Dalla Riva, music and data specialist; Brandon McFarland, alias 1-O.A.K., producer; Emily King, singer and songwriter. Each interrogation brings me closer to revealing the murderer, but will I be able to handle the terrible truth? Tune in as I tackle the hardest case of my career: the case of the missing key change!
Songs Discussed
Emily King - Georgia Sleepwalker, Medal, The Way that You Love Me
YG, Kamaiyah, RJ, Mitch, Ty Dolla $ign - Do Yo Dance (feat. Kamaiyah, RJ, Mitch, Ty Dolla $ign)
Beyoncé - Love On Top
Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer
Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)
Frank Sinatra - Strangers In The Night
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>We have an emergency podcast drop because the biggest and fastest moving story on the internet right now is about a song called “Heart On My Sleeve.” The track sounds like it was made by the producer Metro Boomin featuring Drake and The Weeknd. It might be one of the most consequential songs in music history because it was actually a fake, made with artificial intelligence. The blowback from this song has been enormous and a bit confusing. So host Charlie Harding went on The Vergecast podcast to break down how this song was likely made, and what it might mean for the music industry, the tech industry and all of our intellectual property.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The South Korean idol group BTS is one of the biggest musical sensations in history. They're constantly breaking records and they have one of the most dedicated fan bases in the world known as Army. Their hit singles like “Boy With Love,” “Dynamite,” and “Butter” have been discussed on the show in the past for breaking through the US charts. But back in 2022, they decided to take a break from group activities and start releasing solo material because of their obligations to each fulfill mandatory military service in South Korea, precluding them from working together at the same time. Solo projects aren’t new for the group – BTS members have released mixtapes as far back as 2015 and countless solo singles – but this was the first time that BTS had ever announced a prolonged break. This moment, originally presented as a hiatus, has evolved into a whole new musical chapter for the group, with a seemingly endless array of new solo releases. Switched On Pop listens back to one track from each solo effort so far to introduce the casual listener to what is happening in this new era of BTS. Joining the show is Lenika Cruz, senior editor at The Atlantic, who literally wrote the book on BTS, simply called On BTS out on the Atlantic Editions imprint.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>From the first seconds of her latest album Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, Caroline Polachek asserts that she is truly a once-in-a-generation artist. From her work in the indie band Chairlift to years of behind-the-scenes songwriting, she has worked hard over years to build a stellar music career – culminating in the pop opus Desire, already one of the best rated albums of 2023. On this episode of Switched on Pop, we look at Polachek’s career thus far, and talk to her about the intricacies of her latest.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Shakira is back on the Billboard Hot 100 – thanks to the help of Argentinian producer Bizarrap. Together, their song “Shakira: BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” is layered with musical and lyrical references, from the callbacks to “She Wolf” to the multiple beat switches. It also works to play into something larger: something akin to a pop music conspiracy. On this episode of Switched On Pop, we take a closer look at Shakira’s latest, and how it’s indicative of a larger metatextual shift in pop music.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>If you’ve ever learned classical piano, you probably tried to play one of Bach’s Inventions. The composer wrote fifteen pieces containing the most important fifteen keys in order to teach his son the fundamentals of piano and composition. Today, they remain some of the most popular pieces of piano music. Acclaimed jazz pianist Dan Tepfer recently revisited his childhood music books seeing them in a way he’d never realized as a student: the Inventions are much more than novice piano works.
For Tepfer, each of the Inventions not only highlight masterful command over harmony and counterpoint, but also contain moving character arcs that resemble the hero’s journey. A character is introduced at home in place of safety in act I. And then they are thrust into chaos and must overcome unsurmountable challenges in Act II. Finally, in Act III, our hero overcomes their final battle and returns home transformed by the journey. Once Tepfer heard this character arc, he started to apply it to his own free improv.
Through studying Bach, Tepfer conceived a new album: Inventions / Reinventions. In this project Tepfer fills in the missing keys from the Bach to complete all twenty four keys (there are twelve major and twelve minor keys) while updating the music with modern improvisation. In this conversation Tepfer walks co-host Charlie Harding through his process of playing Bach and applying it to jazz improv.
Listen to Dan Tepfer’s Inventions / Reinventions on StorySound Records
Listen to Into It with Sam Sanders on Fair Use
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Everyone will describe the music of 100 gecs differently. To some, Dylan Brady and Laura Les make deeply satisfying earworms, tracks able to scratch the itches that occupy the deepest memory-holed corners of the brain. To others, though, their music is an "anarchic assault on the ears,” a quilt of all of the genres historically ridiculed in the popular canon: nu-metal, scuzz-rock, ska and 90’s pop punk are all fair game in the world of gecs.
On their latest record, aptly titled 10000 gecs, Brady and Les double down on the crunchy distortion and harmonics, creating tracks equally influenced by Primus and Eddie Van Halen as they are by their hyperpop contemporaries. The album reflects a Internet-core approach to music as a whole, shedding notions of “good” and “bad” music in favor of catchy melodies and intricate song construction.
On this episode on Switched On Pop, we dig deep into the ethos of 100 gecs, and producer Reanna Cruz talks to the duo themselves about their eclectic sophomore record.
Songs discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Every week the Switched On Pop team gets together and everybody shares one song they’re loving right now. It is one of our favorite conversations each week because we hear music that is new and old, on and off the charts. We’re sharing that conversation with you as a new format we’re calling Switches Brew alongside friend of the show Brittany Luse, host of NPR's It's Been A Minute
Listen to Brittany Luse on NPR’s It’s Been A Minute: Web, Apple, Spotify
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>“Kiss From a Rose” is one of the most unusual number one hits of all time. Seal’s song can’t decide if it’s in minor or major, it uses an old-fashioned waltz rhythm, and its lush orchestration and elaborate vocal harmonies support mysterious lyrics about a “greying tower alone on the sea.” Seal himself wasn’t sure about the song, and needed some convincing to include the composition on his 1994 album SEAL II. But once director Joel Schumacher decided to use the track for the end credits of the film Batman Forever, the song went global and has remained a cultural phenomenon ever since. Ahead of his upcoming 30th anniversary tour for the albums SEAL I and SEAL II, we speak with the singer and songwriter about the enduring appeal of “Kiss From A Rose.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>“Take Me Home, Country Roads” is a song about West Virginia, but its message of homecoming has resonance far beyond Appalachia. Songwriter and producer Ian Fitchuk found this out when he was requested to perform Denver’s music at a music festival in Tibet. Fitchuk discovered that Denver has a huge following in East and South East Asia, where Denver toured multiple times from the 70s through the 90s. Denver’s songs first came to the region through the US Armed Forces Network radio as well as a diplomatic performance for China’s leader Deng Xiaoping at the Kennedy Center in 1979. Denver performed alongside the Harlem Globetrotters and the Joffrey ballet, and he left such an impression, the show led to an invitation to be one of the first western musicians to tour China. To better understand Denver’s meaning in the region, Switched On Pop co-host Charlie Harding speaks with Ian Fitchuk about his performance and interviews journalist Jason Jeung who wrote about “Country Roads” in The Atlantic.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Currently on Billboard’s hot 100 there is an unexpected UK Garage / Jersey House mashup, a disgraced country star making a questionable comeback, and an out of nowhere fifties ballad all jockeying for their moment on the charts. This week, we take a listen to the FEBRUARY 25, 2023 Hot 100, looking for triumphs, fumbles, and oddities.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Five years ago, Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle released Victory Lap, his only full length album. It was the high point of a career stretching back to the mid 2000s, when Hussle started releasing mixtapes on his own record label — mixtapes that brought him respect from artists like Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar, but were not widely heard.
Victory Lap brought him both the critical acclaim and commercial success he deserved — It hit #2 on the Billboard 200, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album. But only a little over a year after its release, Hussle was shot to death outside his clothing store and community center in Crenshaw. In some ways, Hussle’s tragic end has overshadowed his incredible life as a musician and community activist.
In this conversation with Justin Tinsley, host of the podcast King of Crenshaw, we listen deeply to Victory Lap to hear Nipsey’s identity as an artist and consider the legacy of his debut album on its 5th anniversary.
Songs Discussed
Nipsey Hussle - Victory Lap, Dedication, Hussle and Motivate, Last Time That I Checc'd, Real Big
Arctic Monkeys - Knee Socks
Jay-Z - Hard Knock Life
Snoop Dogg - Y'all Gone Miss Me
More
Listen to the King of Crenshaw podcast.
Check out more of Justin's work
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>“Flowers” by Miley Cyrus is spending another week on top of the Billboard 100 – quite fitting for Valentine’s Day.
The disco-country track has gotten people talking for a few reasons, but most notably, Cyrus invokes Bruno Mars’ classic “When I Was Your Man” in both lyrical and melodic allusions. The connection between the two songs is not one of interpolation, but rather, Miley is responding to Bruno’s hit through her own words: making “Flowers” an answer song.
This episode of Switched On Pop, we take a deeper look at “Flowers” and how it fits in the canon of response songs throughout history, from classics like “This Land is Your Land” to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.”
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In case you missed it, “Rihanna Is The 21st Century’s Most Influential Musician” according to NPR. Millions and millions of fans the world over agree, and while we try to avoid overt expressions of pop favoritism, we think they’ve got a strong case. It’s for that reason and a dozen others that we were thrilled to welcome Gina Delvac of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend back to the show to discuss the legendary career of one Ms. Robyn Rihanna Fenty. As we all await her ninth studio album (R9), join us for a virtual* blunt-smoke-laced tour through the hit songs that defined her early sound, and a delectable deep dive into her most recent album, ANTI.
MORE CONTENT
Check out Jenny Gathright’s NPR article “Rihanna Is The 21st Century’s Most Influential Musician.”
And find even more work from our wonderful contributors this week down below:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In 2010, a photographer named Reuben Cox moved to Los Angeles to start Old Style Guitar Shop. In the years since, the instruments that he continues to repair and sell have come to define the sound of the LA indie folk scene among artists like Blake Mills, Andrew Bird, Madison Cunningham, Ethan Gruska and Phoebe Bridgers.
Reuben’s guitars are Frankenstein-esque creations, cobbled together from spare parts and neglected guitar bodies found in flea markets and estate sales. The sounds that these make, though, are as eccentric as their source: the strings are laid on top of Reuben’s signature, a rubber bridge.
This sound, and the mythos of the rubber bridge guitar, has turned Reuben into a local celebrity and put Old Style at the center of Los Angeles’s indie music scene. In this episode of Switched on Pop, host Charlie Harding explores that sound and the man behind it all.
Songs Discussed (playlist)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>It's Grammys weekend and Sam Sanders, host of Vulture's Into It podcast, is ready for disappointment! Sam is joined by Switched on Pop's Charlie Harding and Reanna Cruz to break down the Grammys' history of tone deafness when it comes to the night's biggest awards. Will Beyoncé lose Album of the Year again... or will the voting body finally give her her due?
Subscribe to Into It: https://link.chtbl.com/intoit?sid=stw
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In 1988, Bobby McFerrin recorded a song a cappella with a simple message: not to worry, and just enjoy life. That song, aptly titled “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” topped the charts and become one of the most well known one-hit wonders of all time.
In doing so, it also propelled McFerrin into the spotlight, winning him three Grammy awards and an eternal place in pop culture. His career, though, is more than just the Big Mouth Billy Bass: a deep dive reveals an incredible career in jazz, folk, and classical music as well as a remarkable command of his own voice. This episode of Switched on Pop, we explore the history behind "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and the ensuing legacy of Bobby McFerrin.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Six years after their last record, Paramore is back with new music, and their upcoming record seems to have an uncanny connection to the era of new wave. But what is “new wave” anyway? Is it just a period of time in music or something more?
In this episode of Switched on Pop, we explore some of the tracks from This is Why, out February 10th, and connect them to the works of everyone from Talking Heads to Joy Division.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Streaming feels like it's both at its height and on a precipice. Musicians are fed up at getting paid fractions of a penny, and the whole business model seems precarious. Switched On Pop co-host Charlie Harding was talking about the challenges for streaming future with my friend Nilay Patel, editor in chief of The Verge and host the podcast Decoder - a show about big ideas. And they taped a conversation about what’s next for streaming through the case study of Taylor Swift who has deftly navigated the transition from CDs to streaming, and whose era tour may mark the end of an era in music.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Why does SZA's latest album SOS hit different? It's the way her melodies don't repeat where you expect them to, defying all the rules of pop songwriting. We break down how her endless melodies echo the intimate themes of her most recent release, and how they connect to genres ranging from gospel to Wagnerian opera.
Songs Discussed
SZA - Kill Bill, SOS, Shirt, Notice Me, Seek & Destroy, Gone Girl, Low, Smoking on My Ex Pack, Ghost in the Machine (ft Phoebe Bridgers), F2F
Sam Smith & Kim Petras - Unholy
Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero
Jazmine Sullivan - Girl Like Me (ft H.E.R.)
Summer Walker - No Love (ft. SZA)
Jessye Norman - Isoldes Liebestod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Over the past few months, you may have heard your favorite song pop up on the Internet – just slightly faster. You’re not alone: the phenomenon of the “sped-up” remix has taken over social media, with everyone from Lady Gaga to Thundercat getting the tempo treatment. The popularity of the craze has led to millions of TikTok videos, Billboard number ones, and songs becoming relevant again, decades after release. Ever since the proliferation of these “remixes,” the big questions remain: where did these songs come from and why are they here?
On this episode of Switched on Pop, we explore this exact phenomenon, tracing its roots from Thomas Edison to Cam’ron to vaporwave to nightcore.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Matt Daniels, editor of the publication The Pudding, wanted to find out what songs from his youth would last into the future. So he designed a study that would test if Gen-Z had a grip on 90s culture. Hundreds of thousands of participants provided over 3 million data points. Daniels parsed through the data for insights. Sadly, the majority of his most beloved songs have not survived even one generation. Though most had been forgotten, he found that just a few songs had staying power across generations — what he defined as the emerging 90s music canon. Find out what songs make it and which have fallen to the wayside.
MORE
The Pudding’s study on Defining the 90s Canon
Take The Pudding’s quiz yourself
SONGS DISCUSSED
Spice Girls - Wannabe
Mariah Carey - Fantasy!
Lou Bega - Mambo #5
Los Del Rio - Macarena
Boys II Men - Motown Philly
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
Savage Garden - I Want You
The Barenaked Ladies - One Week
Jewel - You Were Meant For Me
Jennifer Lopez - If You Had My Love
Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On
Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
Smash Mouth - All Star
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The number one song on the charts is a bit of a mystery. “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is the unlikely hit from Disney’s sleeper animated musical Encanto. Set in a mountainous village in Colombia, the film was a middling commercial success when it was released in Nov 2021. But in recent months it has become a pop culture phenomenon for a confluence of reasons: an expansive discourse on Colombian representation in media, fan videos on TikTok, and of course it's ear-wormy hits.
The musical is yet another notch in the belt for Lin Manuel Miranda (the auteur behind Hamilton and In The Heights) who wrote the now chart-topping song book. While Disney certainly commands vast commercial success, its musicals rarely see such crossover attention. The last #1 Disney musical number was “A Whole New World” from the animated Aladdin back in 1993. Where that song was literally uplifting, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is quite the opposite.
Bruno is the uncle of the Madrigal family, whose skill for seeing the future portends gloom and sends him into exile. In his namesake song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” an ensemble cast trade verses about his ghostly presence (Bruno haunts the family home, living inside its walls). It is an odd ball song, with dark and bizarre lyrics. Sure it starts with a story about rain on a wedding day (which is not ironic), but then it takes a hard left into tales of dead fish, middle aged weight gain, and creeping rats. So then what makes it a hit? A distinctive concoction of salsa piano rhythms, familiar Lin Manuel Miranda-isms, and contemporary pop connections to Camila Cabello, Britney Spears, J Balvin, Bad Bunny and Cardi B.
Listen to Switched On Pop to solve the mystery of what makes “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” a hit.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Lin Manuel Miranda - We Don’t Talk About Bruno, In The Heights, Helpless, Satisfied, My Shot, Wait For It, Say No To This
Cardi B, J Balvin, I Like It
Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee - Despacito
Camila Cabello, Young Thug - Havana
Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When it comes to distinguishing what exactly Latin music is, what makes the cut? To some, it’s simply music from the Latin American region, and to others, it’s any music that is sung in Spanish – but much like the pop canon, the phrase encapsulates so many different eras, styles, and genres.
Like any distinction, there’s also music on the periphery: specifically, the music of Brazil, where the sounds are similar but the main language is different, and Spain, where the history of colonization looms over the country’s relationship with Latin America, raising controversial questions of appropriation.
Nonetheless though, music from both countries has made big waves amongst U.S. listeners on Latin radio stations and at award shows. Anitta’s record Versions of Me has been finding success on streaming and the radio, while Rosalía’s MOTOMAMI has become one of the most acclaimed records of the year, winning this year’s Album of the Year award at the Latin Grammys. This episode of Switched on Pop, we take a look at these artists and how they incorporate both native and Latin sounds in their tracks.
Vote for the Signal Awards: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2022/shows/general/music
SONGS DISCUSSED:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>For Switched On Pop’s end of year coverage, we just have one superlative: who won 2022? The answer, of course, is Bad Bunny. This year alone, the prolific Puerto Rican artist has topped charts worldwide, became Spotify’s most streamed artist globally, and his record Un Verano Sin Ti has obtained many accolades including being the first Spanish-language album nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys.
The record itself serves as a textbook to the sounds of Latin America: over the course of 23 songs, we’re introduced to bachata, dembow, cumbia, merengue, bomba, and of course, reggaeton. This episode, alongside LA Times journalist Suzy Exposito, we unpack Un Verano Sin Ti and why the album is so important, both for Bad Bunny and the Latin diaspora.
Vote for the Signal Awards: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2022/shows/general/music
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Through crafting a unique, cross-cultural sound, Kali Uchis has emerged as one of indie music’s most promising talents. From playing in jazz band as a kid to collaborating with Bootsy Collins and Kaytranada, the Grammy Award-winning artist has managed to take her bilingual, one-of-a-kind music to the Billboard charts while still keeping her DIY ethos. At this year’s Vulture Fest live in Los Angeles, host Charlie Harding talked with Uchis about her career, her songcraft and her two upcoming albums: one in Spanish and one in English.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In case you missed it last year: why are there no new Christmas songs? One one hand, there's more holiday songs than we’ll ever need. Every year pop stars drop countless holiday-themed album.
But despite the annual glut of Christmas releases, few of these new songs join the rotation of holiday classics. On Billboard's Holiday Hot 100 chart right now, there's only four songs from the past ten years that have made it to the top fifty.
We listen to each of these holiday hits—from Kelly Clarkson, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, and the Jonas Brothers—and and ask if these songs can go the distance and become the 21st century members of the Christmas music canon.
Songs Discussed - Playlist
Kelly Clarkson - Underneath the Tree
Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me
Justin Bieber - Mistletoe
Jonas Brothers - Like It's Christmas
The Bird and the Bee - You and I at Christmas Time
Loretta Lynn - White Christmas Blue
Woody Goss - One for One
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - 8 Days of Hannukah
Jenny Owen Youngs, Tancred, John Mark Nelson - Fireside
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In hip-hop, what draws us to an artist is not just the content of their lyrics but how they deliver them. Along with tapping your foot to the rhythm, understanding something called “flow” is essential to understanding hip-hop as a whole.
In this episode of Switched On Pop, we interview genre icon DJ Jazzy Jeff on the concept of flow: what it is, how it applies to all music – not just hip-hop – and how any rapper’s flow can be analyzed under his guidelines. Taking his word for it, we put our magnifying glasses on to look at the bars of our favorite rappers, from Megan thee Stallion to Babytron.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Coping Mechanism, Willow's new album, is her heaviest music yet. Charlie and Willow chat about the making of the new record and the many multitudes of rock music.
Music Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Tegan & Sara and King Princess have found themselves placed under the banner, "sapphic pop," a term recently coined referring to music by and/or for sapphics (a.k.a. women or femme folks attracted to other femme folks). Journalist Emma Madden defines the folk-inspired sound as having a “soft tactile approach” that’s “more sensual than it is sexual.” This umbrella folds in everyone from indie pop veterans Tegan & Sara to nonbinary artists like King Princess; even artists like Hozier and Sufjan Stevens are, improbably, considered sapphic pop, with their music having the same sonic qualities of other songs dedicated to feminine yearning.
From articles popping up in multiple news outlets to the majority of Taylor Swift’s openers for this upcoming tour (looking at MUNA, girl in red, and Phoebe Bridgers, specifically), the terminology of “sapphic pop” has come to define a scene almost out of nowhere.
This week on Switched On Pop, we explore exactly what sapphic pop is, where it came from, and how artists feel about it – even asking Tegan & Sara and King Princess directly. You can listen wherever you get podcasts.
Songs discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Scary Pockets is the musical collective that has been transforming pop classics into funk anthems for over half a decade. Each week they release a new cover on YouTube featuring razor-sharp instrumentalists and a rotating cast of virtuosic lead singers. Amazingly, each of their 200-plus covers is arranged on the fly, in a span of about 90 minutes—capturing the talent and spontaneity of a group of musicians at the top of their game. We here at Switched on Pop were struck by the band's ability to infuse familiar songs with syncopation and backbeat, and rack up millions of views in the process, so we reached out to Scary Pockets's leaders—guitarist Ryan Lerman and keyboardist Jack Conte—to arrange for Nate and Reanna to be flies on the wall during their creative process. After documenting the behind-the-scenes dialogue that led to a slow-burning interpretation of the Bee Gees's 1977 classic "Staying Alive," we called up Ryan, Jack, and the song's lead vocalist, Lizzy McAlpine, to hear their insights on making a song that everyone knows sound fresh and unfamiliar
Songs Discussed
Bee Gees - Staying Alive (Scary Pockets Cover)
Paul McCartney and Wings - Arrow Through Me (Scary Pockets Cover)
Beatles - Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Coldplay - Fix You (Scary Pockets Cover)
Parcels - Tieduprightnow
Bill Withers - Just the Two of Us (Scary Pockets Cover)
Justin Bieber - Peaches (Lizzy McAlpine Cover)
More on Scary Pockets
Watch the video of Scary Pockets and Lizzy McAlpine covering "Staying Alive"
See them LIVE with David Ryan Harris & John Scofield, November 16 at Echoplex in Los Angeles! Tickets
Subscribe to their YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/scarypockets
Merch Store: https://www.scarypocketsfunk.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scarypockets
Listen on Spotify: Scary Pockets
Instagram: @scarypockets
Musician Credits:
Vocals: Lizzy McAlpine
BGVs: Sophia James, Arielle Kasnetz
Guitar: Ryan Lerman, Will Graefe
Wurlitzer & Synth: Jack Conte
Bass: Travis Carlton
Drums: RJ Kelly
Audio: Engineered & mixed by Caleb Parker
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>A Taylor Swift album is just not a collection of new music, it’s an exploration of a theme. For the last eight years, each release has embodied a single idea. Reputation marked a turn to the dark side, Lover a return to the light, and her pair of albums Folklore and Evermore painted acoustic, fictional landscapes. Each album propels fans to find covert lyrical connections to her personal life, and easter eggs to past compositions.
Whereas Swift's pop star contemporaries have focused their energies on becoming business moguls, Swift has gone deeper into songwriting and receiving accolades in the process. In September 2022, the Nashville Songwriting Association International awarded Swift the Songwriter of the Decade award. In her acceptance speech she says, “writing songs is my life’s work and my hobby and my never-ending thrill.”
Now she continues that thrill collaborating with her frequent producing partner and friend of the show, Jack Antonoff, on Midnights, her 10th studio album (not counting her recent “Taylor’s version” re-recordings of past releases). On Midnights Swift builds a lyrical and sonic world that takes place across “13 sleepless nights.” Nate and Charlie listen closely to hear how she constructs this late night feeling.
More
Music Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>It’s the song that launched a thousand TikTok videos – or over 500,000 to be exact: Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit.”
The track is a smooth, psychedelia tinged ode to yearning, currently spending its third week on the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Lacy is an artist dedicated to shifting form and convention, from his records with alternative R&B band The Internet to his productions for artists like Mac Miller and Vampire Weekend. Even in his solo work, his songs are unpredictable, deftly moving through genre in the vein of artists like Prince and Stevie Wonder.
“Bad Habit” specifically, though, is rooted in the genre of bedroom pop, a scene slowly gaining mainstream traction. With this track, Lacy is taking the sound that’s seeped through TikTok and Spotify to the top of the charts. On this episode of Switched On Pop, we dig deep into Lacy's career and his ability to craft immaculate melodies.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Earlier this year, the members of Sylvan Esso took a gamble, making their "most free and wild and strange" album yet: No Rules Sandy. And to add to the overall theme of lawlessness, Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn decided to do something equally as free and radical: they decided to forgo the typical multi-year album cycle as well as a standard promo campaign. While wrapped in what Amelia calls a “PR cocoon,” she began to think about the less tangible aspects of the album rollout process, and wanted to enlist other musicians (as well as Switched On Pop) in exploring certain aspects of what it means to be an artist to answer the question: why does it hurt to release records?
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>After a four-year hiatus – and a name drop on a Beyoncé remix – musical polymath Santigold is back with a brand new album. Known for her signature blend of genre-defying songcraft, the artist’s fourth studio album Spirituals is one of her most artistically challenging projects yet. It’s another venture into what she does best: addressing heavy themes through toe-tapping melodies. From Nate’s personal favorite, 2016’s “Can’t Get Enough of Myself,” to “My Horror,” a pan-genre sonic vision has always been present in her career. On this episode of Switched On Pop, Santigold speaks about her new record, being a mother, and the emotions that went into making Spirituals.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In part 1 of our Vergecast: Future of Music series, Alex Cranz talks with Switched on Pop's Charlie Harding about the trends in music today that make new songs out of old material, and whether it's foreshadowing the future of pop.
Further reading:
Selena Quintanilla Will Sound Older on Her New Posthumous Album
Michael Jackson songs removed from streaming services to 'move beyond' fake vocals controversy
Shred with Green Day, with some help from AudioShake
Invasion of the Vibe Snatchers
Music discussed:
Como Te Quiero Yo A Ti - Selena
My Way - Frank Sinatra
I'll Be Seeing You - Billie Holiday
We Can't Stop - Miley Cyrus
bad guy - Billie Eilish
Through The Wire - Kanye West
Breaking News - Michael Jackson
Real Love - The Beatles
Free As A Bird - The Beatles
2000 Light Years Away - Green Day
Betty (Get Money) - Yung Gravy
Genius of Love - Tom Tom Club
Fantasy - Mariah Carey
Big Energy - Latto
I'm Good (Blue) - David Guetta, Bebe Rexha
Bang Bang - Rita Ora, Imanbek
Higher Love - Kygo, Whitney Houston
Don't Start Now - Dua Lipa
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>After an enlightening experience at Lady Gaga's Chromatica Ball, producer Reanna Cruz takes a look at the connection between Gaga's music and the Latin sounds she's engaged with over the years, from traditional rancheras to the rhythm of reggaeton.
Songs discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Why do so many songs sound familiar? Because the number of chart topping interpolations — songs built off of old hits — has roughly doubled in the five years. It’s everywhere, you can’t escape because many people are embracing it.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Who had the song of the summer? Sam Sanders chats with Switched on Pop's Charlie Harding and Reanna Cruz about whose song (and album) is in the running: Beyoncé, Bad Bunny, Lizzo, or Kate Bush?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Are you like Nate? Is there one artist that, every time you hear them, you can't help it—you start to grimace, sweat, seethe. You can't explain it, but there's something about them that you just. can't. stand. For Nate, that band is the Killers. Lots of people love this band, they've been around for almost two decades, they're practically an institution! So why can't he get past his hang up? Charlie and Reanna step in to help break down what it is about the Killers that rankles their normally open-eared colleague so, and then step back to consider what it is that makes us think we hate the bands we do—and whether we can change those opinions.
Songs Discussed
The Killers - Human, All These Things That I've Done, When You Were Young, Mr. Brightside, Deadlines and Commitments, Where the White Boys Dance, boy, Shot at the Night, The Man, Tranquilize
Ariana Grande and Zedd - Break Free
Erasure - A Little Respect
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>A lot has happened in the world of Kpop this summer, from Girls’ Generation sugar coated banger “Forever 1” marking a triumphant return from a five year hiatus, to the ascendance of newcomers NewJeans, whose R&B infused sounds have quickly taken over the charts. But it's the return of BLACKPINK that has lit up the world literally in pink. Get a full deep dive on the songs at the top of the Kpop charts on the latest episode of Switched On Pop, where hosts Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan speak with journalist Kristine Kwak.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Demi Lovato has found herself in many avenues over the past few years – from releasing a tell-all documentary to uncovering extraterrestrials – but 2022 finds them traveling back in time to the sound of the late 90’s and early 2000’s: pop-punk. On this episode of Switched On Pop, we check out her two latest singles, “Skin of My Teeth” and “Substance,” and through focusing on the latter, pull out what, exactly, pop-punk is, and how Demi embodies the genre’s ever-evolving sound in their new track.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance is one of her most ambitious albums yet. On this week’s episode of Switched On Pop, we discuss Renaissance with beloved guest Sam Sanders, host of the new Vulture podcast Into It. In Sanders’ words: “it’s trying to do a lot” – but in the best way. The album incorporates seemingly every decade of contemporary popular dance music from Chic’s “Good Times” to Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy.”
Much of the early discourse surrounding the album was marred by a confusing controversy over a small sample (we try to resolve the issue musicologically) – but the references on Renaissance are worth listening closely to, acting as a guide through essential dance music. The album is an homage to the black and queer innovators of dance; with samples and interpolations of songs both niche and mainstream flying by, like a DJ set curated by house music pioneers.
On Renaissance, Beyoncé goes out of her way to cite, credit and compensate her influences, resulting in a triumph of musical curation. Just look at “Alien Superstar”: the song credits twenty-four people, largely due to Beyoncé’s musical nods, rather than an exercise in boardroom style songwriting. Sanders says “the liner notes themselves are showing you that this woman and her team have a PhD in music history.”
Listen to Switched On Pop to hear how Renaissance honors dance music innovators and finds new modes of expression in the genre.
Subscribe to Into It with Sam Sanders
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3vE4jqf
Listen on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3bB7Vmf
Listen elsewhere: https://bit.ly/3BI0Nz0
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Subscribe to Into It with Sam Sanders
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3vE4jqf
Listen on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3bB7Vmf
Listen elsewhere: https://bit.ly/3BI0Nz0
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In the middle of a long, hot summer 2022, the people have spoken, and the people want to dance. Lizzo's "About Damn Time" just replaced Harry Styles's "As It Was" to become the top song on the Billboard Hot 100. Powered by retro instrumentation, a propulsive groove, meme-worthy lyrics, and a generous dose of slash chords (not the Guns 'n Roses guitarist, the harmonic voicing), Lizzo's hit song marks a deepening of the sound she established in past tracks like "Juice." But on other tracks from her latest album Special, Lizzo aims for new aesthetics. "Coldplay"—featuring a rare Chris Martin vocal sample—opts for emotional honestly over pithy affirmations. With the upbeat "Grrrls," Lizzo found herself in an online controversy: she had used a ableist slur in the song's lyrics. Taking the criticism as an opportunity to learn, Lizzo chose to replace the offensive line—but have other artists of pop's past always followed suit when met with fan feedback?
Songs Discussed
Lizzo - About Damn Time, Juice, Coldplay, Grrrls
Daft Punk, Pharrel Williams - Lose Yourself to Dance
Michael Jackson - Rock With You, They Don’t Care About Us
Quelle Chris, Chris Keys - Sudden Death
Coldplay - Yellow
Beastie Boys - Girls, Sure Shot
Taylor Swift - Picture to Burn
Lady Gaga - Born This Way
Orville Peck - Born This Way
Ella Fitzgerald - How Long Has This Been Going On
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Baz Luhrmann’s hit box office hit biopic Elvis has spurred new interest in the music of The King. Elvis Presley’s streaming subscribers has grown by two million listeners on Spotify since the film’s release according to ChartMetric, and if you’re hearing a lot more “Hound Dog” these days, it might be partially due to the success of Doja Cat’s hit song “Vegas,” which updates – and interpolates – the song for contemporary listeners.
Doja Cat’s version samples from the original 1953 “Hound Dog,” sung by Big Mama Thornton and written by acclaimed songwriter team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (whose credits also include Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” and Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”). The original is a sauntering blues song with a raunchy tale about a two timing man; Presley, who is frequently said to have stolen the song from Thorton, instead sings a tepid lyric about an actual dog, and radically changes the groove.
But in an interview with Rolling Stone, Stoller says Presley didn’t steal the song at all. Rather, he adapted one of many covers of the song, specifically the version performed by the Las Vegas lounge act Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. Their “Hound Dog” borrows its upbeat rhythm from a song responding to the original “Hound Dog,” titled “Bear Cat.” It’s a similar rhythm to the one we hear on the contemporary Doja Cat version, “Vegas,” which heavily features samples of Thornton’s original vocals: listening closely reveals a song that synthesizes a complicated music history by uniting the best parts of the many versions of “Hound Dog.”
Listen to the latest episode of Switched On Pop and uncover the long legacy of “Hound Dog.”
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On June 24th 2022 the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v Wade and asserting that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion.
The decision marked a seismic moment in politics and culture that has affected everyone’s lives, and the world of pop music is no exception. Musicians started responding immediately, from Cher to Olivia Rodrigo: on social media, at their shows, and in their music. Critic Ann Powers has been chronicling the reactions in a running list at NPR, and she joins in the second half of the episode to talk about the long history of artists speaking out—and singing—about reproductive rights.
One artist who wasted no time responding to the Dobbs decision is the singer and songwriter Connie Lim, aka MILCK. Her song “We Won’t Go Back,” composed with Biianco, Autumn Rowe, and Ani DeFranco, came about after Politico published an article in May with the leaked draft of the Dobbs decision, telling the world in no uncertain terms that the Supreme Court was considering striking down Roe. MILCK found herself protesting in D.C., this time with her camera ready. The chants she heard there became the first sonic element of “We Won’t Go Back.”
Songs Discussed
MILCK, Biianco, Autumn Rowe, Ani DeFranco - We Won’t Go Back
MILCK - Quiet
Ani DeFranco - Play God
Poison Girls - Mandy Is Having a Baby
Cyndi Lauper - Sally’s Pigeons
Leslie Gore - You Don’t Own Me
Robyn - Giving You Back
Joni Mitchell - Little Green
L7 - Pretend We’re Dead
Everlast - What It’s Like
Madonna - Papa Don’t Preach
Lauryn Hill - To Zion
Megan Thee Stallion - Plan B
We need your help. We are conducting a short audience survey to help plan for our future and hear from you. To participate, head to vox.com/podsurvey, and thank you!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>As we hit the dog days of summer, the artist that’s started to soundtrack pool parties across the country is former One Direction bandmate and contemporary sex symbol Harry Styles.
In May, Styles released Harry’s House, an album propelled by the number one hit “As It Was.” Despite having critical and commercial success, a barb often thrown at the album is the idea of it being inoffensive: pleasant, “easy listening” music apt for an elevator, grocery store or, perhaps, a sushi restaurant.
Fans of Styles have warmly accepted this, and have come to love his sly appreciation of different decades of pop music history. This latest album reveals an interesting connection to one era in particular: the 1980s and the percussive, full-bodied horn sections that came with it.
The first track on Harry’s House, “Music for a Sushi Restaurant,” offers a whole chorus of just horns, in an homage to one of Styles’s musical touchstones, Peter Gabriel. These 80s “sledgehammer horns” connect to a deep well of 80s grooves—from Lionel Richie's "Up All Night" to Janet Jackson and Herb Alpert's "Diamonds," —as Styles's strives to achieve the same effortless funk and propulsion of his brassy icons.
MORE
Sledgehammer Horns playlist
Every Olivia Wilde reference Vulture found on Harry’s House
Songs Discussed
Harry Styles - As It Was, Music for a Sushi Restaurant, Daydreaming
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
Lionel Richie - Up All Night
Donna Summer - She Works Hard for the Money
Sheila E. - The Glamorous Life
Steve Winwood - Higher Love
Janet Jackson and Herb Alpert - Diamonds
Herb Alpert - Rise
Notorious B.I.G. - Hypnotize
We need your help. We are conducting a short audience survey to help plan for our future and hear from you. To participate, head to vox.com/podsurvey, and thank you!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In 1999 filmmaker Baz Luhrmann released the song “Everybody’s Free To Wear Sunscreen,” a 7-minute-long graduation speech set to downtempo electronic music. It was a highly unlikely hit that made its way across continents and eventually into the ears of a young Avery Trufelman via the album NOW That’s What I Call Music Volume 2. For over 20 years, Trufelman has applied the song’s advice to her daily life: “wear sunscreen… be nice to your siblings… do one thing every day that scares you.” This unusual song has left a lasting impression, and yet for Trufelman, it makes no sense that “The Sunscreen Song” was commercially successful. We investigate the song’s many architects — novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich and Baz Luhrmann himself — to unpack one of the internet’s first conspiracy theories that turned into Billboard’s greatest outlier.
We need your help. We are conducting a short audience survey to help plan for our future and hear from you. To participate, head to vox.com/podsurvey, and thank you!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The world stops with a Beyoncé drop. On Monday, June 20th, our prayers were answered with “Break My Soul,” the lead single off of her upcoming album, Renaissance. The song draws from several places of inspiration: lyrically, it’s a cathartic dance-floor ode to liberation, soundtracking the current cultural moment that some have called the “Great Resignation.” Sonically, though, “Break My Soul” is Beyoncé’s foray into house music – a genre that the chair of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Jason King, summarizes as “a highly rhythmic dance music created by mostly Black and brown artists in the late 1970s and early 1980s,” propelled by a fanbase of queer and trans communities of color. There’s been an undeniable buzz that Beyoncé is “bringing house music back.” And from Charli XCX to Drake, it does feel like house music is currently having a moment in mainstream pop music, paralleling the original rise of the subculture from the ruins of disco. But the genre “has always been here,” in King’s words, and has decades of history. In this episode of Switched On Pop, we unpack house music – and how Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” fits into the genre.
Songs Discussed
Beyoncé - “BREAK MY SOUL”
Beyoncé - “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”
Drake - “Falling Back”
Thelma Houston - “Don’t Leave Me This Way”
Robin S - “Show Me Love”
Bob Sinclair, Steve Edwards - “World Hold On (Children of the sky)”
Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj - “Swish Swish”
Charli XCX - “Used To Know Me”
Livin’ Joy - “Don’t Stop Movin’”
Mr. Fingers - “Can You Feel It”
Madonna - “Vogue”
Black Box - “Ride on Time”
CeCe Peniston - “Finally”
Aqua - “Barbie Girl”
Big Freedia - “Explode”
Beyoncé - “Formation”
Drake - “Nice For What”
Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers - “Get Lucky”
Destiny’s Child - “Say My Name - Maurice’s Last Days Of Disco Millennium Mix”
Beyoncè - “FIND YOUR WAY BACK”
Madonna - “Deeper and Deeper”
Janet Jackson - “Together Again”
C & C Music Factory - “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Robert Glasper is the only artist to have an album debut in the top 10 of 4 different Billboard charts. He's a musical polymath whose resume ranges from Kendrick Lamar to Herbie Hancock. At the piano, he serves up jazz licks worthy of Mary Lou Williams before segueing into a Nirvana cover. Glasper brings his diverse skill set to bear on his latest project, the score for the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, composed in collaboration with "Succession" soundtracker Nicholas Britell. It's not just Glasper's musical chops that made him the perfect candidate for the gig: in a past life, he was a baller himself. Nate spoke with Glasper about crafting the sound of the 1980s, improvising soundtrack themes on the spot, and what jazz and basketball have in common.
Songs Discussed
Robert Glasper - Over, FTB, "Winning Time" and "The Photograph" Themes
Nicholas Britell - "Succession" and "Moonlight" Themes
Morris Day and The Time - Get It Up
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>We recently deconstructed how Kate Bush’s 1985 song “Running Up That Hill” has found itself at the center of culture due to a placement in the Netflix, eighties, horror, sci-fi show, Stranger Things. For that episode we excerpted an interview with the composers of the show who shared great insights on how they created the iconic theme song and spooky soundscape for the most streamed show of 2022. But we want to share the full conversation with you because they have equally cheeky as well as valuable musical offerings to share. Surprisingly, this show steeped in 80s nostalgia, has a more contemporary soundtrack than you you might think.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” enters the latest season of Stranger Things during a brooding high-school hallway scene right out of the John Hughes playbook, and it has since bounded up the charts, hitting No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and performing better now than when it peaked at No. 30 upon release. Stranger Things, whose latest season has logged more viewer minutes for Netflix than any other English-language release to date, has leaned heavily on ’80s nostalgia since its premiere in 2016: Its iconic theme song is reminiscent of John Carpenter B-movies, and, in an email, used-instrument resale site Reverb.com tells us the show has boosted interest in analog synthesizers.
“Running Up That Hill,” then, is a natural fit for the show, and it plays a pivotal, spoiler-ridden plot point in the show, requiring us to hear the hook multiple times throughout the season — a perfect earworm. But its success is owed to more than just repetition. It waffles between major and minor, and the show’s composers, Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, told Switched on Pop that both it and the rest of the Stranger Things score have “moments of darkness and lightness in it, constantly trading places.” Plus, they’re composed from the same set of instruments: classic synthesizers and drum machines like the LinnDrum. The song is part and parcel with the soundtrack itself: “There’s these little melodies that we always refer to as ‘And then the Kate Bush part comes in,’” Dixon says.
Listen to Switched On Pop to hear how Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” is an exquisite song placement and hear how it blends seamlessly with the Stranger Things soundtrack.
MORE
Check out Reverb Machine’s sounds of Kate Bush
Reverb.com made a tutorial on the synth sounds of Stranger Things
The story of the Kate Bush renaissance from The Ringer
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On TikTok, pop stars — Halsey, FKA Twigs, and Florence Welch among them — have been complaining a lot lately about their labels forcing them to make TikToks. As people spent the early part of the pandemic staring at their phones instead of flocking to concerts, the short-form-video social-media platform upended music discovery. In many cases, it gave unknown musicians a pathway to enormous audiences and allowed them to burst into the mainstream on the backs of their TikTok hits.
It’s a story as old as the music industry itself: No-name musician gets big overnight and lands a record deal. But until recently, it’s been hard to say just how big and how overnight, so Estelle Caswell from Vox and Matt Daniels from The Pudding spent seven months manually compiling and interrogating the data of who went viral, who got signed, and whose careers dropped off. Their resulting short documentary, We Tracked What Happens After TikTok Songs Go Viral, is a definitive dive into the 2020 class of viral TikTok stars.
Although the platform is clearly a dominant force in new-music discovery, they found that streaming music is still overwhelmingly dominated by legacy artists. And since these established acts are now competing for the same eyeballs as their lesser-known colleagues on TikTok, it’s getting harder and harder for the latter to break out. So what happens after you go viral on TikTok? Listen to Switched On Pop to find out.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>If you've heard Latto's swaggering track "Big Energy"—and after 30 weeks on the Hot 100, you probably have—you may have heard a resemblance to Mariah Carey's 1995 hit "Fantasy." That's because both songs borrow a groove from the 1981 hit "Genius of Love," a genre-defying smash made by Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. "Genius of Love" was made when Frantz and Weymouth took a break from playing in the band Talking Heads to let loose at the Island Records studio in the Bahamas with the help of some reggae luminaries. The original "Genius of Love" mashed up funk, new wave, disco, and rap, capturing the diverse sounds of 1980s downtown New York City, shouting out their musical influences in the process. From there, the song wended its way through hit after hit, from Grandmaster Flash to "Return of the Mack." Why does "Genius of Love" continue to spark musicians', and audience's, imaginations forty years after its release? Tune in to find out.
Songs Discussed
Latto - Big Energy
Mariah Carey - Fantasy
Mariah Carey ft Ol Dirty Bastard - Fantasy (Remix)
Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love
Grandmaster and the Furious Five - It's Nasty
Busta Rhymes and Erykah Badu - One
Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>It’s been five years since Kendrick Lamar released his Pulitzer winning album DAMN. Having established himself as a modern rap virtuoso whose songs have become anthems fueling social movements, expectations run high for his latest release. So when he dropped his new album Mr Morale and the Big Steppers, people tuned in - it is the biggest album drop of 2022 so far. Lamar moves his focus presumably from the societal to the personal on the double LP. His words arrive seemingly from therapy sessions meditating on family, infidelity, and the healing power of nature. The album has some bumps: platforming artists with a problematic past and an inelegant attempt at LGBTQ+ allyship. But nothing on the record is quite straight forward. Lamar doesn’t always say exactly what he means. He frequently shifts voices and puts on different characters. In musical interludes on the record, the sound of tap dancers points to the performative nature of recored music. Rather than give us direct meaning Kendrick leaves breadcrumbs for us to follow. To unravel his lyrics its necessarily to also examine the underlying production. The samples on Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers aren’t used just for their sound, in many cases they unlock the song’s meaning. Switched On Pop picked six stand out samples for close listening to hear the intent hidden in the music.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On all of his projects — Grammy-winning albums, playing keys with Maroon 5, fronting a full string section in his NPR Tiny Desk Concert — PJ Morton evinces his mastery at updating classic soul and R&B with modern sounds. His latest full-length release, Watch the Sun, sees him joined by some of his own sources of inspiration, Stevie Wonder and Nas. The three combined forces on Morton’s track “Be Like Water,” which recites an uplifting mantra over unsettled harmonies. The effect is hypnotizing. Morton spoke with Switched on Pop about what it was like to work with his heroes and to share overlooked modern classics from Wonder’s and Nas’s catalogs.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Greece, Spain, UK, Sweden, Italy and Ukraine are the frontrunners in the 2022 Eurovision competition. Switched On Pop analyzes the top six songs as well as some of the more oddball picks.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Belle and Sebastian released the first album Tigermilk in 1996, and they’ve released eight more since—a catalog that helped define the sound of rock and indie in the new millennium through buoyant melodies and verbose lyrics.
Their new album, A Bit of Previous, continues to refine their unique sound but also embraces new musical directions. We spoke to Stuart Murdoch, leader of the 7-piece band hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, about their latest project.
Songs Discussed
Belle and Sebastian - Young and Stupid, Unnecessary Drama, If They're Shooting at You
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Last month, Nirvana entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time in nearly two decades — only their fifth time in history — thanks to a comic-book movie. The band’s 1991 track “Something in the Way” was heavily featured in The Batman, whose director, Matt Reeves, said Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain inspired Robert Pattinson’s brooding performance as the caped crusader. Plus, Cobain’s music influenced the film’s score: Michael Giacchino references the dirge-like chords of “Something in the Way,” borrowed from Chopin’s famous funeral march, throughout The Batman’s soundtrack. While these musical motifs obviously pair well with the inner turmoil of a fledgling Batman, the sound is part of a larger revival of “alternative” music.
The DIY aesthetic of ’90s alternative, heard in the music of young stars like Olivia Rodrigo and Willow, is a pendulum swing from electronic-laden sounds of the last decade. And the genre’s anti-corporate perspective, which developed out of the excesses of the ’80s, is a fitting backdrop to contemporary activist attitudes. From the nostalgia of Beabadoobee, to the post-rock sounds of Wet Leg, to the industrial sonics of Halsey’s latest project, new artists are using alternative’s old sounds to shape the sound of contemporary pop. On the latest episode of Switched on Pop, Nate and Charlie scan the alternative radio and streaming charts for standout songs that trace this umbrella genre’s myriad sounds and influences.
More
Read Justin Curto's article 2021 Killed the Myth that Rock Ever Died
Songs Discussed (playlist)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Allison Ponthier knows the hardest part of making anything is getting started. When she was young, she “always wanted to write songs,” fanatically scribbling rhymes in a diary, but gave it up — the prevailing narratives of natural talent, artistic genius, and spontaneous inspiration put the brakes on her songwriting aspirations. She didn’t pick it up again until she turned 19: “It just took me that long to build the confidence.”
Now, after a short stint in jazz school, a scholarly approach to YouTube song tutorials, and consistent writing practice, the 26-year-old Ponthier has crafted a songwriting method that reliably turns the mundane into the profound. Her 2021 EP Faking My Own Death shows the hand of a seasoned artist, with lyrics that mine her personal life for unexpected twists and turns. (“It took New York to make me a cowboy,” says the Texas-born, New York–based singer on “Cowboy.”) It helps that she has the backing of songwriting heavyweights such as recent collaborators Lord Huron, Semisonic’s Dan Wilson, and Ethan Gruska (whose productions with Phoebe Bridgers soundtracked the pandemic).
To provide a closer look at her process, Ponthier gave us a tour of her songwriting notebook — but not before noting that “no one looks at this, by the way.” The details it contained on the making of her single “Autopilot” is a master class for anyone looking to break through creative barriers.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The recorded version of Justin Bieber’s “Peaches” opens with a full-blast chorus alongside driving percussion and ringing guitars. But when he performed the song at this year’s Grammys, the song’s instrumentation was stripped down, with Bieber alone at a grand piano, crooning into the mic. Slowly, a band built up, and in came guest verses from Daniel Caesar and Giveon between seven repetitions of the chorus. Each time the chorus returned, the band got louder, the music pointing upward until a high-flying synth solo closed the song. It may have been a surprisingly churchy arrangement of Bieber’s hit, but it was the same sort of slow climb heard earlier in the night when Maverick City Music, the first Christian group to perform at the Grammys in 20 years, gave an uplifting performance of their song “Jireh,” off their award winning album Old Church Basement.
In the church tradition, the slow build is a common feature, beginning as a quiet prayer that expands outward as more voices join in. Naomi Raine, one of Maverick City Music’s members, describes this kind of slow build as a “common and underlying structure” that feels “supernatural and spiritual.” But it’s clearly not restricted to the church. “We are called to blur the lines as far as what is Christian and what is gospel — those two have been segregated for too long,” says the group’s leader, Chandler Moore. The expansiveness of the music is represented in Maverick City Music’s diverse makeup. The seven core members invite dozens of songwriters from countless backgrounds to songwriting camps to explore the traditions constraining boundaries. Having only started putting out music in 2019, Maverick City Music has since released more than 17 combined LPs and EPs in multiple genres, including worship, gospel, R&B, and Latin pop. Consistent across all those records is the transcendent slow build.
After exploring the discography of Maverick City Music, one starts to hear the slow build all over pop music. In the case of Bieber, who is both friends with the group and has a religious background, previous hit songs like “Holy” and “Anyone” also use the technique. Even the reworked “Peaches” Bieber performed at the Grammys makes sense, given the chorus’s final line: “I get my life right from the source.” There has been a long history of stylistic exchange between the religious and secular world. There would be no rock and roll without gospel, and Christian Contemporary draws its sounds from the ’60s folk movement. Today, songs made for worship share qualities with power ballads, the former elevating the spirit, the latter coaxing out emotions. On the latest episode of Switched on Pop, hosts Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan speak with Maverick City Music and listen to songs both religious and secular that lift us up.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>We love listening to music at a ridiculous level of detail. But the other day we heard a podcast that made us fundamentally question the accuracy and reliability of our own listening skills. In it they played a familiar melody, “Yankee Doodle,” in such a way that we couldn’t recognize it at all. Our brain plays so many auditory tricks on us — some truly spectacular and unexplainable. In fact that’s the name of the show: Unexplainable. It’s hosted by Noam Hassenfeld, who in addition to being a fantastic reporter, is also a remarkable composer. So today we’re sharing Unexplainable’s episode on hearing. It’s the 1st in a 6 part series called Making Sense. We think you’re going to really dig this one.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>There’s no more iconic Britney lyric than the opening of “Gimme More.” It's 2007, four years since her last album In The Zone was released, and Britney is affirmatively back with the uptempo track leading off her album Blackout: “It’s Britney, Bitch.” The song echoes the dance-pop Neptunes sound of “I’m A Slave 4 U.” It's built around a driving riff and off-kilter drums produced by Floyd Nathaniel Hills AKA Danja. Each time Britney sings “more” her voice is pitched down to a devilish growl. This disturbing vocal processing mirrors the vulgar paparazzi and public scrutiny in her personal life. On the fourth and final episode of our series Listening to Britney, we want to once again focus on her voice, how it's manipulated, how it’s evolved, and where it might be going.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In 2003 Britney Spears released “Toxic,” a song that would make converts out of pop skeptics, be named one of the greatest tracks of the 21st century by multiple publications, and become a personal favorite of Switched on Pop.
Despite its success, when “Toxic” was released as the second single from Spears’s fourth album, In the Zone, even the song’s writers thought it was too “weird” to become a hit. But thanks to the new iTunes platform, which was just gaining traction in 2013, audiences kept buying the track and helped push it to the top of the charts.
For many listeners, your hosts included, hearing “Toxic” for the first time was a moment of epiphany, an opportunity to rethink one’s views on the expressive power and musical invention of Top 40 pop. And almost twenty years after its release, “Toxic” is still rippling through the culture. It’s been covered as a jazz-noir ballad by Yael Naim, a screamo anthem by A Static Lullaby, and a bluegrass burner by Nickel Creek. In 2022, the song enjoyed yet another revival in the form of DJ duo Altego’s viral TikTok mash-up of the song with Ginuwine’s “Pony.”
What makes “Toxic” so enduring? For one, it’s the pull of Spears’ voice, as she moves from her chest voice in the verse to an eloquent falsetto in the pre-chorus, then combines the two techniques in the chorus. It’s the way the song’s producers, Bloodshy and Avant, combine a matrix of sounds that should not go together—a 1981 Bollywood love song, electric surf guitar, and funky synthesized bass—into an unforgettable melange. And it’s the lasting power of Cathy Dennis’s lyrics, which spins a universal tale of trying to resist temptation…and ultimately failing.
Songs Discussed
Britney Spears - Toxic
Lata Mangeshkar and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam - Tere Mere Beech Mein
Kylie Minogue - Can’t Get You Out of My Head
Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl
Yael Naim - Toxic
A Static Lullaby - Toxic
Nickel Creek - Toxic
Mark Ronson - Toxic
Altego - Toxic/Pony Mashup
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In the first three years of Britney Spears’ pop music career, she released annual, consecutive albums. In 1999 we got Baby One More Time – its lead single was #5 on the Billboard year-end Hot 100 chart. In 2000, Oops… I Did It Again generated multiple hits. It’s eponymous single reached the #1 spot on Top 40 radio but only ascended to #55 on the year-end chart — the single was only released on vinyl, not CD, to boost album sales. Destiny's Child, Aaliyah and Janet all outperformed “Oops” on the year end chart. CD era marketing tactics aside, these artists were harbingers of what’s to come. The sound of pop music was changing and Britney needed to change with it. So in 2001, she released her self-titled album Britney. When we hit play on our metaphorical discman, the skittering beats of “I’m A Slave 4 U” suggests a significant musical transformation. Enter Spears’ Virginia Beach era.
Britney signaled that she’s moved beyond the Swedish-produced pop polish for an entirely new sonic identity just as she left behind the ingenue character for the first two albums. Working with the Virginia Beach-based duo The Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), on “I’m A Slave 4 U” Spears evolved her sound to sit aside the the R&B sounds of her chart peers. Now with a soundtrack of off-kilter beats and harmonic dissonance, Spears needed a new vocal approach.
We hear this transformation in the opening line: “I know I may be young.” She begins with a breath and a half-whispered vocal. As she propels into the verse, we hear some of Britney's unforgettable tone: controlled vocal fry and rhythmic percussiveness. But there's no sign of the ballad-style singing from her earlier hits. Instead, she sing-speaks through the song. The melody is loose because as she says, “dancing’s what I love - now watch me.” This is not a sing-a-long, this is a dance song and the introduction of a whole new musical era for Spears.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On a crisp Autumn morning in 1998, the world was introduced to the voice of Britney Spears, and pop would never be the same. Britney’s mix of vocal fry, percussive pronunciations, and timbral play on “...Baby One More Time” hadn't been heard before. As successful as they were, these techniques were derided by critics as parts of her manufactured “baby voice." Listening in 2022, we can hear Britney with more clarity: as a radical new artist.
"...Baby One More Time" was not Britney's first turn in the spotlight. She had been cast on the Mickey Mouse Club in 1992, when she was 12 years old, executing immaculate vocals and choreography. But the voice on her first single represents a different side of the singer, and a new sound on the pop landscape. With Britney's ferocious vocals at the center, "...Baby" rocketed to number one and broke sales records. On her next release, "Oops!... I Did it Again," Spears upped the ante. Working again with producers Max Martin and Rami Yacoub, "...Oops" borrowed liberally from music across the radio dial, and added a dash of 16th-century harmony into the mix.
Between her first two albums, Britney had taken hold of audiences by sheer force of personality and artistry, fought for in every syllable she sang. The stardom that followed was as unprecedented as her sound. But for someone as scrutinized as Britney has been, the artistry behind her celebrity has often been ignored. On the first episode of the four-part series Listening to Britney, we focus on Britney's voice in order to hear a pop icon with fresh ears.
Songs Discussed
Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time, Oops!... I Did it Again, Stronger, Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know, Email My Heart
Backstreet Boys - Larger than Life
Jean-Baptiste Lully - Les Folies d'Espagne
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Presenting Chartbreakers, in which Nate and Charlie listen to the Billboard Hot 100 chart from top to bottom and discover a TikTok controversy, a Nashville music mystery, a rogue duck-billed platypus, and Megan Thee Stallion's debut piano concerto.
Songs Discussed
Gayle - abcdefu
Muni Long - hrs and hrs
Ckay - Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)
Dustin Lynch featuring Lauren Alaina or Mackenzie Porter - Thinking 'Bout You
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Black Summer
Megan Thee Stallion - Megan's Piano
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Leon Bridges is the soul singer hailing from Fort Worth, Texas, who burst onto the music scene in 2015 with the album Coming Home. Since then he’s established himself as an adventurous musician whose latest album Gold Diggers Sound combines retro sounds with contemporary production. Khruangbin is the Houston-based power trio——Mark Speer on guitar, Laura Lee on bass, and DJ Johnson on drums—who also debuted in 2015 with the album The Universe Smiles Upon You, which introduced their unique brand of funky, dreamy, psychedelia.
In 2020, Bridges and Khruangbin teamed up to release the EP Texas Sun, whose title track managed to channel both spaghetti western soundtracks and classic soul at the same time. Now, the quartet is back with another collaborative EP, Texas Moon, which continues the musical palette of their first release while inverting its lyrical themes.
We spoke with Leon Bridges and Khruangbin about their new EP, the Texas songs that connect them to their home state, and why they chose to go lunar for their latest project.
Songs Discussed
Leon Bridges and Khruangbin - Texas Sun, B Side, Chocolate Hills
Mel Waiters - Got My Whiskey
Townes Van Zandt - Columbine
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The last proper, blowout concert Charlie attended was devastatingly long ago, back in the winter of 2019. Bringing some funk to buttoned-up Walt Disney Concert Hall, the duo Sylvan Esso rocked Charlie’s world with epic performances of songs like “Die Young.” When live music, and the world, shut down shortly after—well, it was a great note to go out on.
Now, that moment comes full circle, as Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn join Charlie to discuss their album, Free Love, one of the bright spots during a dark time—an album which is now nominated for best electronic/dance album in this year's Grammy cycle.
Free Love is a testament to Sylvan Esso’s unique sound. If you choose, you can just listen to the intoxicating textures and move your body unconsciously. But if you listen in close, you’ll find the duo blending the inquisitiveness of folk lyrics with danceable electronic beats. Each song offers layers of sounds and text to ponder, so we dove deep through Sylvan Esso's latest to better understand the secrets behind their musical alchemy.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The number one song on the charts is a bit of a mystery. “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is the unlikely hit from Disney’s sleeper animated musical Encanto. Set in a mountainous village in Colombia, the film was a middling commercial success when it was released in Nov 2021. But in recent months it has become a pop culture phenomenon for a confluence of reasons: an expansive discourse on Colombian representation in media, fan videos on TikTok, and of course it's ear-wormy hits.
The musical is yet another notch in the belt for Lin Manuel Miranda (the auteur behind Hamilton and In The Heights) who wrote the now chart-topping song book. While Disney certainly commands vast commercial success, its musicals rarely see such crossover attention. The last #1 Disney musical number was “A Whole New World” from the animated Aladdin back in 1993. Where that song was literally uplifting, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is quite the opposite.
Bruno is the uncle of the Madrigal family, whose skill for seeing the future portends gloom and sends him into exile. In his namesake song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” an ensemble cast trade verses about his ghostly presence (Bruno haunts the family home, living inside its walls). It is an odd ball song, with dark and bizarre lyrics. Sure it starts with a story about rain on a wedding day (which is not ironic), but then it takes a hard left into tales of dead fish, middle aged weight gain, and creeping rats. So then what makes it a hit? A distinctive concoction of salsa piano rhythms, familiar Lin Manuel Miranda-isms, and contemporary pop connections to Camila Cabello, Britney Spears, J Balvin, Bad Bunny and Cardi B.
Listen to Switched On Pop to solve the mystery of what makes “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” a hit.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Elvis Costello burst onto the music scene in 1977 with the album My Aim Is True. Songs like “Alison” established him as a powerful new voice in rock. His next album, This Year’s Model, introduced hits like “Pump it Up,” which has resounded through stadiums and arenas across the country ever since.
From then on he released album after album, decade after decade, becoming a force to be reckoned with in pop music. Now, Costello has released his 32nd studio album, The Boy Named If, and it's a kaleidoscopic journey through many of the sounds and styles that he's experimented with over the years.
We spoke with Elvis about his wrong notes and open-ended lyrics, his much-publicized defense of Olivia Rodrigo, and why he turned down working with Adele
Songs Discussed:
Elvis Costello - Farewell, OK, Magnificent Hurt, Alison, Pump It Up
Richie Barrett - Some Other Guy
Olivia Rodrigo - Brutal
Chuck Berry - Too Much Monkey Business
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Eric Nam is an accidental K-pop star. Growing up in Atlanta, and graduating from college in Boston, he did not expect that in his twenties he’s sign to a K-pop label, be named 2016 Man of the year by GQ Korea, and become a go-to television personality in South Korea. His music, imbued with his charisma and charm has charted globally. As fun as it is, the K-pop machine can be a real grind — it churns through young people not unlike the NFL draft. Nam is unusually candid about this experience, likely because he decided to quit the label system, and take his blossoming music career independent. On his second all English full length album There And Back Again Nam has full creative control, and all the burdens of sustaining a solo music career. Nam spoke with Switched On Pop co-host Charlie Harding about what it is like to go from K-pop star to indie musician.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Eric Nam - Ooh Ooh, Heavens Door, Good For You, Honestly, Can’t Help Myself (feat. LOCO), Lost On Me, I Don’t Know You Anymore, Wildfire, Love Die Young
Lee Hyori - 10 Minutes
MOMOLAND - BBoom BBoom
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Dawn FM is The Weeknd’s most narratively compelling album yet. More than just a collection of eighties-nostalgia single bait, Dawn FM is a concept album that picks up on a multi-year meta narrative. Abel Tesfaye, seemingly killed off his character at the end of his last album, After Hours. Getting caught up in the “Blinding Lights” of fame and excess, the narrator ends up overdosing in the back of an ambulance. On the final song “Until I Bleed Out” he sings “I can’t move, I’m so paralyzed.” Dawn FM picks up where After Hours left off. The album opens with pastoral winds and bird sounds, with The Weeknd driving down the road searching for a light at the end of a tunnel. His radio is turned to a fictional radio station: 103.5 Dawn FM hosted by The Weeknd’s real life neighbor, the actor Jim Carrey. Channeled through the Vaporwave inspired production of Oneohtrixpoint Never, Dawn FM is the sound of purgatory.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Why are there no new Christmas songs? One one hand, there's more holiday songs than we’ll ever need. Every year pop stars drop countless holiday-themed album.
But despite the annual glut of Christmas releases, few of these new songs join the rotation of holiday classics. On Billboard's Holiday Hot 100 chart right now, there's only four songs from the past ten years that have made it to the top fifty.
We listen to each of these holiday hits—from Kelly Clarkson, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, and the Jonas Brothers—and and ask if these songs can go the distance and become the 21st century members of the Christmas music canon.
Songs Discussed - Playlist
Kelly Clarkson - Underneath the Tree
Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me
Justin Bieber - Mistletoe
Jonas Brothers - Like It's Christmas
The Bird and the Bee - You and I at Christmas Time
Loretta Lynn - White Christmas Blue
Woody Goss - One for One
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - 8 Days of Hannukah
Jenny Owen Youngs, Tancred, John Mark Nelson - Fireside
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Whether you’re a TikTok fanatic, or the app’s K-hole-inducing stream of content has forced you to delete it from your phone, its influence on music is undeniable. In 2020 the platform bragged that over 70 artists on the platform signed with major labels. TikTok’s success was linked to pandemic-related stay-at-home orders -- people were stuck at home and musicians couldn’t tour. And while trending dances and songs on TikTok may turn over weekly, with a billion monthly users, the social media platform has industry power. In 2021, Billboard’s Hot 100 was overflowing with TikTok hits -- over 175 according to the company -- more than twice that of last year.
While major artists like J Balvin and Taylor Swift use the platform, TikTok’s algorithm is surprisingly good at exposing aspiring artists. Take Tai Verdes for example. While working his day job at the Verizon store. Ty set his mind on using TikTok to launch his musical career. When he released a video singing his song “Stuck In The Middle” in his Prius, millions saw him for the first time. Tai’s music has since been heard at Lollapalooza and on Top 40 radio. But like so many overnight successes, he built it up over years of practice and creative releases. If you want to know how social media has fundamentally changed music, you need to hear Tai’s Verdes tell his story to Switched On Pop’s Charlie Harding.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Robert Plant is in his own words “cold” and “prickly” while speaking about his new album with Alison Krauss, Raise The Roof. First thing upon joining the Zoom call from London, Plant jovially launches into the much misattributed quote “talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” But he is neither callous, nor coy. For Plant the music is ineffable, a joyous celebration of friendship, and a kindred love of song that he shares with Krauss and producer T-Bone Burnett. Their album follows up from their 2007 Grammy award winning album Raising Sand. Both albums are steeped in americana and roots music, favorites that the trio traded across the Atlantic over many years of friendship. There are few hints of Plant’s Led Zeppelin or Krauss’ Union Station. Instead their collaboration sounds timeless, haunting and melancholic. Their idiosyncratic sound emerged from an entirely organic process, a method that both parties are happy to share, but reticent to analyze. Switched On Pop’s co-host Charlie Harding spoke with Plant and Krauss about the making of Raise The Roof.
SONGS DISCUSSED - Spotify Playlist
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles’ final album, Let it Be. To commemorate the occasion, the remaining members of the band have remixed the album and unleashed an eight-hour-plus documentary directed by Peter Jackson that lays bare the making of the record. For super-fans this video memoir reveals a lot about the messiness of the creative process: The Beatles nearly broke up while making it! Author Tim Riley says that the band approached Let It Be with an aesthetic challenge: to get back to playing as a live band. But the original release of the album deviated from that mission and received mixed reviews. Over the decades, The Beatles have revisited this work with multiple mixes and alternative takes that try to show the original spirit of this direct-to-tape, live album. Charlie and Nate listen back, warts and all, to get to the heart of this enigmatic project.
Songs Discussed
The Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Strawberry Fields, Dig A Pony, Good Golly Miss Molly, I’ve Got A Feeling, One After 909, Get Back, Two Of Us, The Long & Winding Road, Let It Be, I Me Mine
Little Richard - Tutti Frutti
More
Read Tim Riley's works on The Beatles
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>This week we are having a blast feeling really sad. Guest Brittany Luse, cohost of the acclaimed podcast For Colored Nerds, joins Nate and Charlie to dig into this fall's slate of breathtaking breakup albums from Adele, Kacey Musgraves, Summer Walker, and Mitski.
Some have been calling this confluence of releases, "sad girl autumn," but the melancholy moment goes beyond gender, with even Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak's leaning into the lachrymose on their album An Evening With Silk Sonic.
On top of all this, Taylor Swift has stormed the charts with her re-recording of her hit album Red and the ten-minute version of fan-favorite breakup song "All Too Well."
We take the opportunity to mine this gold rush of emotions and diagnose every type of heartbreak on the radio dial.
Songs discussed:
Taylor Swift - All Too Well (Taylor's Version)
Summer Walker - Throw it Away
Silk Sonic - Put On a Smile
Adele - Easy On Me
Mitski - The Only Heartbreaker
Kacey Musgraves - Justified
More
Listen to Brittany's podcast For Colored Nerds
Watch Guy Winch's talk How To Fix a Broken Heart
Weep along to our playlist of breakup albums
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Merging hip hop and Indigenous culture, rap duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids are creating a sound that goes hard for a cause. On tracks like “War Club” with DJ Shub, Yung Trybez and Young D connect Indigenous protests to the Black Lives Matter movement, and on “Boujee Natives,” Snotty Nose Rez Kids celebrate traditional culture through a modern lens. But as much as this music has a message, it also bangs, and SNRK’s new album After Life runs the gamut of emotions; from tackling police brutality on “Red Sky at Night” to celebrating their community on “Wild Boy.”
Their first tour since COVID brought them to Los Angeles, where Nate talked to the band repping the Haisla Nation about pipeline protests, reclaiming the term “savage,” and how the hell the Disney movie Pocahontas ever got greenlit.
Songs Discussed
Snotty Nose Rez Kids - Red Sky At Night, War Club, Creator Made An Animal, Sink or Swim, Boujee Natives, Wild Boy, Northern Lights, Something Else
Megan Thee Stallion - Savage
Jay Z and Kanye West - Otis
Kendrick Lamar - Alright
Check out a playlist of our favorite SNRK tracks
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>From time to time, it is our constitutional duty to provide an update to the people on the current state of pop. What are the sounds? Who’s making the hits? What are they singing about? We take the musical temperature by consulting the charts, the platforms, and the people.
MORE
Cat Zhang’s review of PinkPantheress’ “Passion”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Swedish supergroup ABBA is releasing their first album in forty years, making this the perfect time for Nate and Charlie to investigate what makes their music so beloved and reviled in equal measure. For every ABBA stan, there’s a hater lurking, like legendary pop critic Robert Christgau, who once said of the group: “We have met the enemy, and they are them.” That suspicion was earned through ABBA’s musical catchiness and lyrical earnestness, but regardless of how you feel about their music, their compositional acumen cannot be denied.
The longevity of their songs is testament to that musical brilliance. So after breaking down the vocal contrast, musical maximalism, and studio wizardry used to concoct world-beating hits like “Super Trouper,” “Mamma Mia,” and “Dancing Queen,” Nate and Charlie turn their ears to the band’s latest singles, “Don’t Shut Me Down” and “I Still Have Faith in You,” to determine whether the newest releases represent a return to classic form or a departure into new sonic realms.
Songs Discussed
ABBA - Super Trouper, Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen, Don’t Shut Me Down, I Still Have Faith in You
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>It. Has. Been. A. Year. We’ve felt it; you’ve felt it. Sometimes, it’s comforting to consider how universal that overwhelming sense of blah is. Other days, woof, it can be tough to see the light. That’s the subject of today’s episode, brought to you by our producer Megan Lubin.
When Megan hit an especially low point earlier this year, she noticed something in the music she was listening to: Über-popular artists making explicit references to the state of their mental health and the things they do to cope with it. It made her want to know more about the impact of those lyrics, so she dug around and found an academic who studies that very thing: Alex Kresovich, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media who has authored a bunch of studies on mental health and popular music. In today’s episode, we walk through one of those studies with him and learn how influential lyrical content can be — even when you’re not paying super-close attention. Alex’s research, and research like it, opens up the possibility that pop artists are an underestimated asset when it comes to mental-health messaging. “People like to point at pop music as a source of problems, not a source of solutions,” he says. Alex sees his job as guiding the scientific community toward new data that could change how we understand the value of pop-music lyrics — “laying the railroad ties,” as he puts it.
In the second half of today’s episode, we talk to an artist who has taken the concept of music as medicine to a whole new level. Over the course of her career, Esperanza Spalding has reimagined the music-making process — transforming it from one designed to meet her label’s commercial needs to one designed to meet the mental-health needs of her immediate community. With her new album Songwrights Apothecary Lab, Spalding offers up a collection of songs for “releasing the heaviness of a seemingly endless blue state,” for “steadying the vast-spinning ‘potential hurt’ analysis triggered by the bliss of new romance,” and for “slowing down and remembering to make space/time for your elders.” Spalding made clear that this way of “musicking” is nothing new:
It’s like the oldest thing ever….we’re playing with the origin of music. The origin of music being: a response to others in your community, in your surroundings. And the response is intuitive! When you hum for a baby or when you’re sitting with somebody who is grieving and you, you feel compelled to hum, or when you’re excited and go, “Wow!” That’s music!
Spalding’s view of music these days opened our eyes wide to the true healing power of individual songs and just how accessible music is when we need it.
Songs Discussed
girl in red - Serotonin
Billie Eilish - Getting Older
Julia Michaels ft. Selena Gomez - Anxiety
J. Cole ft. kiLL edward - FRIENDS
Lil Nas X - VOID
Kehlani - 24/7
Kendrick Lamar - u
Juice WRLD - Lucid Dreams
Panic! At the Disco - King of the Clouds
Shawn Mendes - In My Blood
Ariana Grande - breathin
Logic, Alessia Cara, Khalid - 1-800-273-8255
Billie Eilish ft. Khalid - lovely
Lil Uzi Vert - XO Tour Llif3
Esperanza Spalding - Formwela 3
Esperanza Spalding - Formwela 6
Esperanza Spalding - Formwela 10
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Sam Sanders is one of our favorite friends of the podcast. His NPR show, It's Been A Minute, has released an outstanding three part series exploring crossover in pop music. We want to share with you the 2nd episode form that series on the legacy of Janet Jackson.
From It's Been A Minute
On the 35th anniversary of Janet Jackson's first No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit, we look back at Control, her career-defining album that changed the trajectory of pop music in the late '80s and '90s. In the second episode of a three-part series exploring crossover in pop music, we look at Jackson's musical and cultural legacy over the years. We also reconsider how Jackson was vilified after her Super Bowl XXXVIII appearance, and why. Episode art by Blake Cale for NPR
All episodes in the series
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The latest installment of the James Bond franchise, No Time To Die, closes the book on the Daniel Craig era of the international superspy. The film’s theme song, “No Time to Die,” by Billie Eilish, Finneas, and Hans Zimmer, also marks the conclusion of one of the great musical sagas in recent cinema. Monty Norman’s and John Barry’s now-iconic “James Bond Theme,” written for 1962’s Dr. No, has remained a constant across six decades of espionage and one-liners. But every new Bond theme has also developed subtle variations on the original that reflect the character’s changes over time. On this episode of Switched On Pop, we uncover what inspired the theme, how it’s changed, and why it almost never happened.
FURTHER JAMES BOND THEME READING
The James Bond Songs: Pop Anthems of Late Capitalism by Adrian Daub and Charles Kronengold
The Music of James Bond - Jon Burlingame
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>For a decade James Blake has crafted an idiosyncratic sound. His early work as a minimalist electronic producer fused lush R&B chords with lyrical collage and unfiltered synthesizers. He describes his hit 2013 song “Retrograde” as apocalyptic yet also romantic. This single was in stark contrast to the bubblegum pop of the early 2010s. But other artists recruited him to spread his subversive sonics. He produced on three of the most seminal albums in recent history: Beyoncé’s Lemonade, Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN and Frank Ocean’s Blonde. Before Blake, it sounded like pop was caught in the same four chord loop. But gradually Blake’s vision of harmonic melancholy has infused popular music. On his new album “Friends That Break Your Heart,” Blake has written his most compelling songs yet, but underneath are those his familiar wandering chords and emotional suspense.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On this week’s episode we're sharing a story fromThe Cut where senior writer Angelina Chapin and co-host Jazmín Aguilera talk about and talk with Sparkle (born Stephanie Edwards), who first reported R. Kelly to the police for allegedly sexually abusing her 14-year-old niece. Back then, no one believed her, but following the explosive documentary Surviving R. Kelly and the R&B artist’s trial, at the end of which he was found guilty of nine federal sex crimes, she’s been vindicated. Angelina spoke with Sparkle a few times during and after R. Kelly’s most recent trial to hear about the monumental costs she has paid for coming forward.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Lil Nas X has a talent for creating productive controversy. First with “Old Town Road,” he challenged expectations about blackness in country music. Now with “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” he takes aim at anti LGBTQ+ messages propagated by the religious dogma from his youth (he came out as gay during Pride 2019). The song describes a romantic encounter without innuendo. Sure it’s raunchy, but the song doesn’t especially stand out on Billboard where explicit sexual fantasy is commonplace. But his use of religious iconography in his video and merchandise created an immediate backlash. In the video to “Montero,” Lil Nas X rides a stripped pole into hades where he gives a lap dance to Satan (also played by Lil Nas X). Despite the obvious commentary on repressive orthodoxy, religious conservatives failed to see the subtext. The song became a lightning rod. But as pundits fought on social media about the song's meaning, most critics failed to look into the song’s musical references. Produced by Take A Daytrip, the duo behind Shek Wes’ “Mo Bamba” and Lil Nas X’s “Panini,” “Montero'' mashes up genres that take the listener on a global journey, sharing his message of acceptance across cultures.
Music
Lil Nas X — Montero, Old Town Road, Panini
24kGoldn, iann dior - Mood
Dick Dale and his Del-Tones - Misirlou
Tetos Demetriades - Misirlou
Aris San Boom Pam
Silsulim - Static & Ben El
Shek Was — Mo Bamba
Lehakat Tzliley Haud
Bouzouki recording from xserra from FreeSound under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
More
Listen to Gal Kadan’s project: Awesome Orientalists From Europa on Bandcamp
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In the last few years music copyright claims have skyrocketed. More and more artists are giving songwriting credits away. Frequently, credits are given retroactively to avoid the cost of long jury trials like when Sam Smith credited Tom Petty. Smith’s melody for “Stay With Me” clearly drew from Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” On rare occasions these cases go to court, where music litigation is at an all time high. In the last ten years there have been 190 public cases, up over 350% from the prior decade, according to The George Washington University & Columbia Law School Music Copyright Infringement Resource.
This story has come in and out of the news cycle in closely watched jury trials including artists like Marvin Gaye, Led Zeppelin, and Katie Perry. Historically, courts have extended copyright to only unique combinations of words and music, not rhythms, chords, instruments. But recent cases increasingly litigate the core building blocks of music. Many artists fear that a bad court outcome could let an artist copyright a “vibe” using commonly used musical language.
The question of whether someone can borrow a vibe resurfaced when Olivia Rodrigo shared songwriting credits on her hit 2021 album Sour with Taylor Swift, and comparisons have been made to the art of Courtney Love and music of Elvis Costello. Many listeners have commented on Rodrigo’s more obvious influences on social media. Viral TikTok videos compared Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” to Paramore’s “Misery Business,” which share a common chord progression and vibe. This online campaign likely contributed to Rodrigo handing songwriting credits, also known as publishing, to Hayley Williams and Josh Farro of the band Paramore.
This week we are airing the conversation Switched On Pop’s Charlie Harding had on the podcast Decoder with host Nilay Patel who is also editor and chief of The Verge. Together we try to understand how the byzantine music copyright system works, and how its rules affect the sound of pop music today and in the future.
SONGS DISCUSSED - Spotify Playlist
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>CHVRCHES is well-known for their comprehensive use of synthesizers and their updated take on “synthpop”, a subgenre of pop we most closely associated with the 1980s. While gearing up to make their second album in 2015, CHVRCHES members Iain Cook and Martin Doherty spent much of the recording budget buying up many of the original synthesizers used to make those iconic 80s dance tracks. Contemporary replicas of those synth sounds are now commonplace with pop acts like Dua Lipa and The Weeknd. But CHVRCHES has been wielding these sounds for more than a decade, and their newest project is a great reminder of how closely we link that synth sound with not just to a bygone era, but specifically to the eerie sound of horror film.
Screen Violence is their new album. It draws inspiration from classic horror films like John Carpenter's Halloween. With its horror frame, the lyrics explore dark themes, like the violent online abuse CHVRCHES lead singer Lauren Mayberry has endured for much of the band’s existence, a hyper consciousness of her own mortality brought on by that abuse, and fears of losing her grip on reality. Switched On Pop’s co-host Charlie Harding spoke with Lauren, Ian, Martin from CHVRCHES about the making and meaning of Screen Violence.
MORE
Chvrches' Lauren Mayberry: 'I will not accept online misogyny'
SONGS DISCUSSED
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On August 27th Big Red Machine, the joint musical project of Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner - artists known for their work as Bon Iver and in the rock band The National, respectively - returned with new music. You’ve most definitely heard Dessner’s production work elsewhere, like on Taylor Swift’s pandemic albums evermore and folklore. The Big Red Machine album, titled How Long Do You Think it's Going to Last, celebrates the fruits of creative partnership and the importance of family and community. At least, that’s what we took from our conversation with Dessner. “A lot of my favorite music - usually there's something elusive about it, in that whatever is elusive is coming from this weird cocktail of different people's input. There's just this weird, swampy alchemy, and you can't easily put your finger on why it's so moving.”
Dessner told us he draws much of his creative inspiration from the kinetic energy generated by multiple musical brains working in tandem, which makes sense given the list of features on this album - everyone from Swift to Sharon van Etten to Anaïs Mitchell to The Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold. “I'm such a born collaborator. I'm definitely interested in this exchange where you make something and you send it out into the ether and then it comes back slightly changed or radically changed. Then you work on it and send it again. I like this handoff, this communal approach to music making.”
The musical collective fostered by Vernon and Dessner on How Long Do You Think It's Going to Last is a testament to the power of musical communities in a year of intense isolation. We’re so pleased to bring you Nate’s conversation with Aaron Dessner in this week’s episode.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Recently the hosts of Switched on Pop kept seeing the same byline next to their favorite pieces of music writing. A moving profile of Bad Bunny? There was the name. A searing critique of West Side Story? There it was again. An elegy on love, loss, and an Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson duet? By now it was committed to memory: writer and translator Carina del Valle Schorske. So we knew we had to invite Carina to participate in our Modern Classics series and learn what this brilliant writer would place in her modern pop pantheon.
Carina’s pick, the 2012 song “Manhattan” by Cat Power, presents an opportunity to analyze an artist we’ve never discussed on the show before, and a song that sparks associations with New York City’s rich musical history. Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, released “Manhattan” on her 2012 album Sun, and the song—on which Marshall recorded every instrument herself—has become an unlikely sleeper hit in the Cat Power catalog. Perhaps that’s because, as Carina tells it, the song is a celebration and elegy at once, trying to capture the beat of a city that is constantly in flux, but with an inescapable iconicity.
“Manhattan” isn’t the only piece of urban musical alchemy Carina brought to the show. Cat Power’s ode to the borough syncs up in surprising ways with the 1978 salsa track by Willie Colón and Rubén Blades, “Buscando Guayaba.” Together, the songs stake out a twisting path across genre, time, and language, but along on the same streets.
Songs Discussed
Check out Carina’s profile of Bad Bunny, her essay on Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson, and more writing at her website.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>For the past two weeks, our series on summer music festivals has uncovered the interplay of festival fashion and music and examined festival subcultures. But we've so far overlooked an essential reason that people attend music festivals: to experience transformational joy.
At the start of summer 2021 it seemed like the pandemic was waning and that live music was coming back. But now, heading into the fall with the Delta variant, the fate of live music is once again in question. Caught in this limbo, we thought it might be a good time to get nostalgic and reflect on joyous music festival moments as we hope for more live music in the future.
This week's episode features seven stories from listeners about their most surprising and wonderful moments at festivals past. The first story comes from musician and producer Dave Harrington of the band Darkside, who was once helped out of a musical rut by a Phish festival set
Songs
Phish (live Aug 4, 2017) - Everything In Its Right Place, Axis Bold As Love, Prince Caspian
Darkside - Only Young
Music scored by Zach Tenorio of Arc Iris
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The Gathering of the Juggalos is the music festival centered around the rap duo Insane Clown Posse. Their songs are hyper-violent and profane; their stage show features grotesque clown makeup and blasting the audience with their favorite drink, Faygo soda; and their fandom has even been designated by the FBI as a loosely organized gang. Musically, they’ve historically been rejected by critics: The Guardian has called them “a magnet for ignorance;” Allmusic has called them a “third rate Beastie Boys,” and Blender called them “the worst band in music.” Nate became fascinated with them after watching the 2011 documentary American Juggalo — that’s when he realized that there’s more to Insane Clown Posse and its fans than he previously thought.
For the second episode of our summer festival series, we dig into the sound of Insane Clown Posse to ask: Is their music really as bad and offensive as all the critics say? What is the general public missing that ICP’s fans are hearing? To answer these questions, we talk to Nathan Rabin, the author of You Don't Know Me but You Don't Like Me: Phish, Insane Clown Posse, and My Misadventures with Two of Music's Most Maligned Tribes, and 7 Days In Ohio: Trump, the Gathering of the Juggalos and The Summer Everything Went Insane.
Songs Discussed
More
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The co-hosts of The Cut, Jazmin Aguilera and B.A. Parker, think deeply and incisively about fashion. For this special episode of Switched on Pop — the first in our three-part miniseries about summer festivals — we invited the hosts of The Cut, Jazmin Aguilera and B.A. Parker, as our honorary co-hosts to help us break down the connections between festival fashion, music, and culture. With the additional help of Dr. Lorynn Divita, Associate Professor of Apparel Merchandising at Baylor University, we dissect the commercialization of festival fashion, and how it could lead to some festival goers feeling alienated from the musical experience they love. And, of course, we all discuss the iconic looks -- and performances -- of two of the most quintessential music festivals: Woodstock and Coachella.
MORE
3 Days of Peace & Music & Fashion : A History of Festival Dress from Woodstock to Coachella
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Mark Ronson has a CV too long to list here. Suffice to say he’s a musician who’s worked with everyone from Amy Winehouse to Lady Gaga to Dua Lipa, has one of the highest selling singles of all time with Bruno Mars in “Uptown Funk,” and has been making just really good music since the turn of the millennium. He’s also the presenter of one of our all time favorite TED talks on the history of sampling, and he’s been continuing that journey of musical curiosity with the Apple TV show “Watch The Sound,” which explores the untold stories behind music creation and the lengths producers and creators are willing to go to find the perfect sound, and the FADER Uncovered Podcast, where he interviews artists ranging from David Byrne to HAIM. Today, Mark is the guest for another episode of Modern Classics, in which he brings Ginuwine’s classic 90s jam “Pony,” produced by Timbaland and Static Major, as an example of the ways that innovation and radical experimentation undergird even the biggest of pop smashes.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>We’ve been wanting to speak with Jack Antonoff since we started Switched On Pop back in 2014. We've had countless hours of conversation sound tracked to his productions with artists like Taylor Swift, Lorde, Lana Del Ray starting in just our second episode. When we wrote a book about 21st century pop, we devoted a chapter to the song “We Are Young” by his band, Fun.
And so we're excited to finally sit down with him to hear about how he approaches his own work. He has a new album out with his band Bleachers called Take the Sadness out of Saturday Night. And for our series on Summer Hits, we wanted to start our conversation with Jack Antonoff about the song “Stop Making this Hurt.”
More Episodes ft. words or music by Jack Antonoff
Chained to the Green Light: Katy Perry + Lorde
folklore: taylor swift's quarantine dream
Total Request Live! Taylor, Lana, Kim, and More (with Sam Sanders)
Song of Summer 2020: TikTok Jams, Protest Anthems, Breezy Bops & Bummer Bangers
Carly Rae Jepsen: Meeting The Muse
Songs Discussed
Bleachers - Chinatown (feat. Bruce Springsteen)
Bleachers - How Dare You Want More
Bleachers - Secret Life
Bleachers - Stop Making This Hurt
Bleachers - What'd I Do With All This Faith?
Bruce Springsteen - Jungleland
Dexys Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
Fleetwood Mac - Bleed to Love Her (Live at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, CA 52397)
Fleetwood Mac - Bleed to Love Her
Lana Del Rey - Mariners Apartment Complex
Television - 1880 Or So
The Strokes - New York City Cops
Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In this installment of Modern Classics we speak to the amazing four-time Grammy Nominee musician, singer and songwriter Yola about her new record, Stand For Myself, and how hearing Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” and all its references to 1970s funk encouraged Yola to unlock her own unprecedented mix of symphonic soul and classic pop.
As Yola tells it, it’s not just a sound from the past that she’s conjuring, it’s a sense of possibility. The way that progenitors like Funkadelic, Minnie Ripperton, and the O'Jays combined political protest with deep grooves, what Yola calls “the Mary Poppins philosophy of music” (the groove being the spoonful of sugar to help the socially-conscious medicine go down).
With this marriage of sound and statement, Yola makes retro sounds relevant again, as on the title track “Stand For Myself,” where she uses throwback slap bass, fuzz guitar, and orchestral strings to craft a distinctly modern messages about her identity as a Black woman, cultural allyship, and UK politics. Also, why she likes mixes that sound like they have a “big old booty.”
Songs Discussed
Yola - Stand For Myself, Diamond Studded Shoes, Starlight, Barely Alive, Be My Friend, If I Had to Do it All Again
Childish Gambino - Redbone, Riot
Bootsy Collins - I’d Rather Be With You
Funkadelic - Can You Get to That
The O’Jays - Back Stabbers
Queen Latifah - U.N.I.T.Y.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>L’Rain is the musical persona of singer and multi-instrumentalist Taja Cheek, whose new album, Fatigue, begins with a lyrical quandary: “What have you done to change?”
What follows is a journey of self-discovery, the songs interwoven with home recordings of practicing piano, clapping games, and everyday life. The first full length song, “Find It,” repeats the mantra “Make a way out of no way,” looking for a path out of darkness. An unexpected sample of a preacher at a friend’s funeral service — recorded with permission by L’Rain — interrupts the chant promising that “Good days outweigh my bad days.”
But L’Rain doesn’t provide quick solutions for making change. Rather, she takes us on a journey that evades easy understanding. By avoiding conventional structures, L’Rain asks the listener to lean in close to the music. The sounds are at times unsettling — on “Blame Me,” the guitar warbles in and out of tune — though the uncomfortable moments are blanketed over on songs such as “Take Two,” where warm synthesizers mix with angelic voices. The melodic hooks and captivating rhythms on “Suck Teeth” reveal L’Rain’s command over the experimental work — she is meticulous about building layers of sound on her many instruments.
Had L’Rain pursued a more traditional style of songwriting, or further fleshed out Fatigue’s catchiest moments, the record might be an easier listen — but not as rewarding. Instead, its undulating moods and nonlinearity mirror the unpredictability of human emotion and the up-and-down nature of personal change. To help decipher this album, Switched On Pop’s Charlie Harding spoke with L’Rain at JBL’s flagship store in Soho in front of a live audience.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>One of the songs we anticipate playing on repeat this summer is “Twerkulator” by Miami rap duo City Girls. It’s a track with enough sonic energy to power a small town, but that’s not all we dig. The song’s music includes a chain of samples that stretch back through pop music history—from 1990s house, to 1980s electro, to 1970s German krautrock—and poses an implicit challenge to some of hip hop’s most problematic figures. Meanwhile, the lyrics celebrate a tradition of movement that’s as culturally important as its controversial
To break down the manifold cultural dimensions of twerking we welcome a very special guest: Kyra Gaunt, ethnomusicolgist and author of the forthcoming book “Twerking at the Intersection of Music, Sexual Violence, and Patriarchy on YouTube,” who explains why twerking is not what you think it is (and why the Oxford English Dictionary got it wrong).
Songs Discussed
City Girls - Twerkulator, Twerk (featuring Cardi B)
Cajmere - Percolator
Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock
Kraftwerk - Numbers, Trans-Europe Express
Juicy J featuring A$AP Rocky - Scholarship
More
Dr. Kyra Gaunt's TED Talk and her brilliant book, The Games Black Girls Play
Estelle Caswell's Video, "The Sound that Connects Stravinsky to Bruno Mars"
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Lorde's new song "Solar Power" set the internet ablaze when it dropped from out of nowhere in June. Some fans found the song to be a buoyant departure from Lorde's last release, Melodrama, while others thought the track felt half-baked. On top of that, listeners questioned the song's provenance — had Lorde cribbed too closely from 90s hitmakers like Primal Scream and George Michael?
To listen closely to "Solar Power" and unpack its polarizing sounds, we needed to speak to someone with an unerring ear and a razor-sharp mind: the author, poet, and host of Object of Sound, Hanif Abdurraqib. Hanif knows Lorde's catalog like the back of his hand, and he's got feelings about this latest release. But he also offers a word of caution: wait for the album before reserving judgment!
Hanif doesn't just take us deep into "Solar Power," though, he helps us get philosophical on some trenchant musical questions, including: What is a summer song, anyway? Where's the line between stealing and inspiration? And most importantly, does Lorde's track end six minutes too early??
Songs Discussed:
Lorde - Solar Power, Royals, Liability, Green Light, The Louvre
Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil
Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home a Heartache
Primal Scream - Loaded
George Michael - Freedom! '90, Faith
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
More
Check out Hanif Abdurraqib's podcast Object of Sound
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Olivia Rodrigo’s summer breakup anthem “good 4 u” is filled with the kind of ebullient angst that makes us want to spontaneously dance around our house and belt the lyrics out with abandon. Whether it’s the creeping baseline that pulls us in, or the cathartic release of the chorus, we can’t get enough of this track. And we’re not alone, it seems. The song debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and like its predecessor “Driver’s License,” has fueled and been fueled by viral TikTok memes that helped solidify the song’s position among 2021’s summer jams.
Those TikTok memes range in format, but tend to play off of one unavoidable observable of Rodrigo’s “good 4 u” - just how beautifully it syncs up with Paramore’s 2007 pop-punk “Misery Business.” The two songs share some of the most common building blocks in pop music, from their 4, 1, 5, 6, chord progression to the opening note of their choruses. Those links have led critics and fans alike to wonder aloud if “good 4 u” indicates the emo-slash-pop punk revival we discussed back in May is here to stay.
In the second installment of our Summer Hits series, producer Megan Lubin goes searching for the musical roots of Rodrigo’s ebullient angst, and uncovers two histories - the first is the sound of emo as it branched off of punk music in the 1980s, and the second is of women raging on the microphone through time, from the blues to country, to Olivia’s chart-topping confessional.
Lubin gets help from the rock critic Jessica Hopper, who reminds us of emo’s gendered origins: “It became prescriptive. The narrative was always girls were bad and they never had names” and takes us on a journey through Rodrigo’s rage-full forebears. We’re still thinking about her lines about women in pop and the boxes we try to put them in. “People just need to stop trying to draw it back to something that a man did before, and realize that teenage women have completely remade the landscape of top 40 pop in the last 15 years.”
More:
Jessica Hopper’s The First Collection Of Criticism By A Living Female Rock Critic
Helen Reddington “The Forgotten Revolution of Female Punk Musicians in the 1970s”
nikjaay’s “misery 4 u” mashup
Music
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Modern Classics is the new series where Charlie and Nate invite their favorite musicians, journalists, and friends of the show to wax lyrical about a song that's important in their life. In the first installment of Modern Classics, Nate and Charlie sit down with the host of NPR’s hit news and culture program It’s Been a Minute, Sam Sanders. Sam is one of the best people to talk music with, not only because he has his finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the entertainment world, but because as a former music major he’s got knowledge for days.
That knowledge makes Sam the perfect person to explain why Labrinth’s 2019 track “Sexy MF” might be one of the hidden gems of contemporary pop, a song that he hears as “fun and fantastical with all these wonderful tricks and bells and whistles.” Nate and Charlie had never heard “Sexy MF” before Sam brought it to them, and were immediately hooked by the song’s copious ear candy: sly references to Prince and James Brown, death-defying vocal harmonies, all scaffolded atop an indomitable piano groove.
Labrinth, aka Timothy Lee McKenzie, is a U.K. singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who released his first single in 2010. Since then he’s gone on to compose the score for the hit TV show Euphoria, collaborated with Sia and Diplo as L.S.D., and worked with Beyoncé on the live-action Lion King soundtrack. Labrinth has racked up massive streaming numbers with tracks like “Jealous” and “Thunderclouds,” but “Sexy MF” is more of what one might call a “deep cut.” If you haven’t heard it yet, like Sam, you might find that it’s one you’ll play “perhaps a thousand times” after your first listen.
Songs discussed
Labrinth - Sexy MF, Still Don’t Know my Name, Mount Everest, Misbehaving
Prince - Sexy M.F.
James Brown - Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine)
Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop (That Thing)
Paul Anka - Put Your Head on my Shoulder
Beach Boys - God Only Knows
Harry Nilsson - Gotta Get Up
Foreigner - Cold As Ice
Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg - Still D.R.E.
Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Growing up is never easy. But pop songs about adolescence too often gloss over the complicated moments. The “teenage dream” archetype is just a pop culture fantasy. And no one really wants to be 17 forever.
On her new album “Home Video,” Lucy Dacus talks about youthful growing pains. She remembers the uncomfortable moments. Dacus says that “a lot of childhood is crisis mode… you get pushed around by the world and the rules that are set for you.” Her songs examine unequal power relationships between parents and friends and lovers.
On the lighter side, the album opens up with “Hot And Heavy,” which takes us back to the scene of an early romantic encounter on a basement sofa, red faced and awkward. But by the next song, “Christine,” the amorous feelings fade: “He can be nice, sometimes / Other nights, you admit he's not what you had in mind.” Bad dads, bible camp indoctrination, and perpetual peer pressure all take the stage in Dacus’ coming of age album.
Dacus says that writing about those years is “a process of extorting control over things that I didn’t have control over at the time.” With untethered teenage dreams safely behind her, Dacus now gets to reclaim the meaning of youth: “I am the narrator of my own life so I get to say what this meant.”
Songs Discussed
Lucy Dacus - Night Shift
Frank Zappa - Sharleena
boygenius - Souvenir
Lukas Graham - 7 Years
Kendrick Lamar - Beyonce
Justin Bieber - Baby
Mandy Moore - Fifteen
Hilary Duff - Sweet Sixteen
The Beatles - When I'm Sixty Four
ABBA - Dancing Queen
Sound of Music - Sixteen Going On Seventeen
Avril Lavigne - 17
Kings Of Leon - 17
Lake Street Dive - Seventeen
Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen
Alessia Cara - Seventeen
Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen
Janis Ian - At Seventeen
More
Playlist of coming of age songs
Study on songs that references age
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In summer 2020, BTS released “Dynamite,” their first single recorded entirely in English. The song shot up the charts, became one of the most successful YouTube videos in history, and won over pop radio, which had stubbornly refused to play their songs in Korean. Now, in summer 2021, BTS have topped themselves again with “Butter,” yet another English-language bop that melts like … well, you get it. BTS member Jimin told Variety that they wanted to make an “easy-listening,” fun song, and it arrived as a much-needed distraction from the interminable global pandemic.
With everyone constrained by travel restrictions, the song was written over WhatsApp, a collaboration achieved via text and voice notes sent between South Korea and the U.S. Jenna Andrews, one of the songwriters, says the track went through at least 50 rewrites to reach perfection. The final single is a tightly produced, less than three-minute song in which every moment is a hook. It shifts nostalgically from ’80s Prince to ’90s Michael Jackson through 2000s EDM, each second highlighting BTS’s musical savvy and distinctive vocal performance.
In our kick-off episode of Switched on Pop’s Summer Hits series, Andrews spoke about how she worked with BTS to craft this song remotely and map out every throwback reference. In the second half of the episode, we speak with Bora, a prominent BTS translator who presents the case for why we should hear “Butter” as the first step down the BTS rabbit hole, especially into their Korean-language discovery.
Songs Discussed
More
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In 1974 country music, singer songwriter, Dolly Parton got wind that Elvis Presley wanted to record her new song, “I Will Always Love You.“ According to Dolly, the deal fell through when Elvis's manager demanded 50% of the publishing revenue. Dolly refused, released the song herself, and years later arranged a more equitable deal with Whitney Houston, who of course made it a massive hit.
It's a juicy bit of industry history that actually speaks more to our current reality than you might think. What Elvis’s management did, demand a cut of the publishing revenue on top of the money he'd already make from album sales and live shows, is not an anomaly.
Songwriter, Emily Warren knows this all too well. Emily's a songwriter and performer in Los Angeles. You've heard her on the show before in part, because she's written some huge hits, including Dua Lipa’s “New Rules” and The Chainsmokers “Don’t Let Me Down.”
What happened to Dolly in ‘74 has happened a lot to Emily. She says that countless times, after an artist decides to record a song of hers that she wrote without any involvement with the artist, she'll get an email from the artist's management team, asking for a cut of her publishing. She says the emails are polite, but the mask and implied arrangement: give us a cut of the publishing they say, or we won't put out the song.
So Emily's started talking to other established songwriters she knows, Tayla Parx, Ross Golan, Justin Tranter, and Savan Kotecha—they've all been asked to give up publishing. Together they decided they wanted to do something about this practice. So they formed an organization called The Pact, a group of music professionals who refuse to give publishing away for songs where artists do not contribute. Their goal is to make the music business more equitable for the creative laborers.
Songs Discussed
Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
Dua Lipa - New Rules
The Chainsmokers - Don’t Let Me Down
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>If you listen to a lot of music on YouTube, you may have been recommended a video. The thumbnail image is a striking black-and-white photo of a Japanese singer named Mariya Takeuchi. The song, “Plastic Love,” is a lush disco track with deep groove, impeccable string and horn arrangements, and a slow-burn vocal performance from Takeuchi. When the song was released in 1984, it sold 10,000 copies. Today, it’s racked up over 65 million views since its posting in 2017.
How did the relatively obscure genre of Japanese City Pop, an amalgam of American soul and funk and Japanese songcraft from the 1970s and 80s, become the sound of the moment? For Pitchfork’s Cat Zhang, City Pop’s heart-on-its-sleeve emotions and slick production resonates with the nostalgic leanings of much contemporary pop. Sampled by artists like Tyler the Creator and inspiring original material from bands around the globe, City Pop has much to tell us about cultural exchange, technology, and the enduring universal power of slap bass.
Songs Discussed:
Miki Matsubara - Stay With Me
Mariya Takeuchi - Plastic Love
Makoto Matsushita - Business Man Pt 1
Tatsuro Yamashita - Marry-go-round
Anri - Good Bye Boogie Dance
Boredoms - Which Dooyoo Like
Toshiko Yonekawa - Sōran Bushi
Takeo Yamashita - Touch of Japanese Tone
Mai Yamane - Tasogare
Young Nudy ft Playboi Carti’s - Pissy Pamper
Tatsuro Yamashita - Fragile
Tyler The Creator - GONE, GONE / THANK YOU 9
Sunset Rollercoaster - Burgundy Red
Check out Cat’s article The Endless Life Cycle of Japanese City Pop on Pitchfork
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>J Cole is one of the most successful rappers of his generation, someone who racks up hits while sustaining critical acclaim. But that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Cole’s sixth studio album “The Off Season” finds a musician struggling to stave off complacency and keep his skills sharp. In a short documentary about the album, Cole describes the album as an attempt to “push himself,” a sentiment reflected in a line from the Timbaland-produced track “Amari”: “If you solo these vocals, listen close and you can hear grumbling.” Cole is never satisfied on this album, pushing his technique to the breaking point through verbal dexterity and rhythmic complexity.
One way Cole stays on his toes is through the use of a trap beat melded with one of the oldest grooves in pop: the 12/8 shuffle. He’s far from the only artist to make use of an often overlooked, but iconic meter. Why does this pattern keep us moving? And where did its unique sound come from? We have a theory about that...
Songs discussed:
Watch Bernard “Pretty” Purdie: The Legendary Purdie Shuffle
Read more on The Off Season in Craig Jenkins in-depth review on Vulture.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>One of our favorites artists right now is Rina Sawayama. She works with her producer Clarence Clarity to make this mash up of sounds from the late 90s and early aughts. She in particular recasts Max Martin pop and Nu Metal — too styles that rarely converged — to make compelling songs with a strong anti-consumerist message. I spoke with Rina Sawayama last summer about her debut eponymous album Sawayama and she shared with me the stories behind her songs XS and STFU. We're rebroadcasting our interview with her from last summer.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When you think of jazz, you might think of La La Land, luxury car commercials, or fancy dinner parties. Cool, sophisticated, complex, jazz today seems to signify the epitome of class and taste. For pianist Vijay Iyer, that view gets the music completely wrong. Jazz isn’t cool. Jazz is countercultural. Jazz is alive and relevant. Jazz fights racism and injustice. And for those reasons, maybe we shouldn’t be calling this music “jazz” at all.
With a trio of Linda May Han Oh on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, Iyer has recorded a new album, Uneasy, that continues the defiant political legacy of improvised music. Through songs that tackles the Flint water crisis, the murder of Eric Garner, and social unrest, Iyer connects to the key of issues of our day without saying a word. While his songs speak to our chaotic present and crackle with fierce urgency, they also reach back to elders like John Coltrane, Geri Allen, and Charles Mingus—musicians who never shied away from a fight.
Songs discussed:
Charlie Parker - Ko Ko
Charles Mingus - Fables of Faubus, Original Faubus Fables
Vijay Iyer - Children of Flint, Combat Breathing, Uneasy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Today we’re sharing something a little different - a new TV and film show from the Vox Media Podcast Network that we think you’ll like called Galaxy Brains. On Galaxy Brains, entertainment writer Dave Schilling and Mystery Science Theater 3000’s Jonah Ray explore a big, mind-expanding question raised by a TV show or movie, and take it way, way too seriously. In the preview episode we’re sharing today, they explore why the once-panned musical comedy Josie and The Pussycats may have actually been a sharp critique of capitalism that was well ahead of its time. It’s weird. It’s funny. We’ll hope you’ll give it a listen, then go follow Galaxy Brains on your favorite podcast app.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Willow Smith has a new Paramore-inspired emo-slash-pop punk track with a formidable drum groove powered by Travis Barker. Over churning guitars she sneers at fake friends: "smile in my face, then put your cig out on my back." As Nate and Charlie headbanged along to we found ourselves asking "why did we sleep on Willow Smith?"
Maybe because we had not taken Willow seriously, knowing her only as the nine (!) year-old singer behind the precocious hit "Whip My Hair" back in 2010. In the ensuing decade, your hosts missed out on the rise of a talented musician. Her slow-burn, consciousness-expanding, galaxy-brain funk track "Wait A Minute!" from 2015 showcased the voice of a full-fledged artist. So why couldn't we hear her? Whether because we perceived nepotism or industry sleight-of-hand as the cause of her success, or maybe because we just didn't think a celebrity kid could also have anything to say worth hearing.
Whoops. And it's not just Willow. Turns out the whole Pinkett-Smith clan have discographies worth taking a closer listen to. Who knew Jaden was sampling 1930s jazz wailer Cab Calloway? Or that Jada fronted a death metal band who got booed for being Black in a white genre? Or that the much-maligned "Getting' Jiggy Wit It" by Big Willie Style himself....actually bangs?
Songs discussed:
Willow Smith - Transparent Soul, Wait A Minute!, Whip My Hair
Osamu - Koroneko No Tango
Jordy - Dur dur d'être bébé!
Wicked Wisdom - Bleed All Over Me
Jaden Smith - Icon
Cab Calloway - Hi De Ho Man
Will Smith - Gettin' Jiggy Wit It
Sister Sledge - He's the Greatest Dancer
The Bar-Kays - Sang and Dance
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>For nearly a decade, Julia Michaels has penned hit songs for the biggest acts in pop music. She is adept at turning people’s vulnerabilities into memorable hooks — think Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” or Selena Gomez’s “Lose You to Love Me.” There are countless others, but all of them share distinctive traits. Where many songwriters might turn to the simplest, almost nursery-rhyme-level lyrics to get the message across, Michaels does the opposite. She crams as many words as possible into each phrase. Her lyrics sound spoken. On her own hit song, her 2017 debut solo single “Issues,” she sings, “Bask in the glory, of all our problems / ’Cause we got the kind of love it takes to solve ’em”; it earned her a Song of the Year nomination at the 2018 Grammys, along with a Best New Artist nod. Her rhyming may sound accidental, but that’s the pop-song illusion. Michaels’s idiosyncratic phrasing has symmetry and her rhyming is indeed purposeful, all to illuminate her primary subject: the infinite recursions of human relationships. After releasing three EPs and countless singles of her own, Michaels has just released her first full-length album, Not in Chronological Order. On this week’s episode of Switched on Pop, Nate and Charlie try to identify Julias Michaels songwriting superpowers and then Charlie speaks with Michaels about how the vagaries of the heart inspire an endless stream of songs.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The story of the hitmakers behind Lil Nas X’s “Montero” Sheck Wes’s “Mo Bamba” and many more
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Lil Nas X has a talent for creating productive controversy. First with “Old Town Road,” he challenged expectations about blackness in country music. Now with “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” he takes aim at anti LGBTQ+ messages propagated by the religious dogma from his youth (he came out as gay during Pride 2019). The song describes a romantic encounter without innuendo. Sure it’s raunchy, but the song doesn’t especially stand out on Billboard where explicit sexual fantasy is commonplace. But his use of religious iconography in his video and merchandise created an immediate backlash. In the video to “Montero,” Lil Nas X rides a stripped pole into hades where he gives a lap dance to Satan (also played by Lil Nas X). Despite the obvious commentary on repressive orthodoxy, religious conservatives failed to see the subtext. The song became a lightning rod. But as pundits fought on social media about the song's meaning, most critics failed to look into the song’s musical references. Produced by Take A Daytrip, the duo behind Shek Wes’ “Mo Bamba” and Lil Nas X’s “Panini,” “Montero'' mashes up genres that take the listener on a global journey, sharing his message of acceptance across cultures.
Music
Lil Nas X — Montero, Old Town Road, Panini
24kGoldn, iann dior - Mood
Dick Dale and his Del-Tones - Misirlou
Tetos Demetriades - Misirlou
Aris San Boom Pam
Silsulim - Static & Ben El
Shek Was — Mo Bamba
Lehakat Tzliley Haud
Bouzouki recording from xserra from FreeSound under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
More
Listen to Gal Kadan’s project: Awesome Orientalists From Europa on Bandcamp
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Earth Day 2021 gives us the chance to pause our usual programming and consider the role pop music plays in our deepening climate emergency. On Side A, we listen to artists who have confronted the climate crisis head-on. Side B considers the environmental cost of streaming music with Kyle Devine, author of Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music.
Songs Discussed:
George Pope Morris - Woodman, Spare That Tree!
Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi
Marvin Gaye - Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
Tower of Power - Only So Much Oil in the Ground
Various Artists - Love Song for the Earth
Anohni - 4 Degrees
The Weather Station - The Robber
DJ Cavem - Sprout That Life
Learn more about the environmental impact of NFTs
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On Switched on Pop we talk to songwriters and artists about how they make great songs. Most songs are written with two or more people in the room. Something we've never done before is pair two of the best songwriters in the business to explain how they create a successful collaboration.
Teddy Geiger is a Grammy nominated songwriter who's written countless number ones. You've likely heard her work with Sean Mendes, Leon Bridges, and Christina Aguilera, among many others. She’s also a critically acclaimed artist who's just released a single called “Love Somebody” written with Ricky Reed and Dan Wilson.
Dan Wilson is the bandleader of Semisonic, famous for the song “Closing Time,” and the co-writer of Adele's “Someone Like You” and “Ready to Make Nice” by the Chicks. Wilson recently shared his top songwriting and collaboration tips published as a deck of cards called Words and Music in Six Seconds. He shared his ground rules for collaboration from the deck, through the case study of Teddy Geiger’s “Love Somebody” as part of On Air Fest 2021.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Anderson Paak and Bruno Mars have joined forces as the duo Silk Sonic, and their first release “Leave the Door Open” suggests that their collab is as natural as peanut butter and jelly. The song exudes throwback vibes through its lush harmonies and sensuous lyrics. But this isn’t any run-of-the-mill exercise in empty nostalgia. Silk Sonic have a very specific sound in mind that they’re reviving for 21st century audiences: Philly Soul, the sophisticated 70s sound that “put a bow tie on funk.”
Charlie and Nate aren’t the only ones trying to blow the dust out of the grooves of “Leave the Door Open.” Songwriter Tayla Parx, who’s worked with everyone from Ariana Grande to Panic! At the Disco to Anderson Paak himself, joins the hosts to help explain how Silk Sonic created such a catchy track, and why modern listeners might be ready for a blast from the past.
Songs Discussed
Silk Sonic - Leave the Door Open
Aretha Franklin - I Say a Little Prayer
The Temptations - My Girl
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell - Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
Martha and the Vandellas - Dancing in the Street
Otis Redding - Try a Little Tenderness
Sam and Dave - Soul Man
Commodores - Who’s Making Love
MFSB - TSOP
O’Jays - Love Train
Billy Paul - Me and Mrs. Jones
The Stylistics - You Are Everything
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes - If You Don’t Know Me By Now
The Delfonics - Didn’t I Blow Your Mind
Seals and Croft - Summer Breeze
Smokey Robinson - Quiet Storm
Teddy Pendergrass - Close the Door
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Adam, Jack and Ryan Met, better known as AJR, started playing gigs on the streets of New York City. The sidewalk hustle taught them how to grab the attention of the least forgiving audience. Now on their fourth studio album, OK Orchestra, they’ve honed an ear-stopping sound that combines modern pop with broadway bombast.
Their platinum-certified single “Bang” pairs a carnival-like horns section with skittering trap style hi-hats. This strange pairing worked. Peaking at No. 8 on the Hot 100, the song is their strongest commercial release so far, despite sounding like nothing else on Billboard. It is a coming of age celebration (“I’m way too old to try so whatever, come hang / Let’s go out with a bang”) with lyrics that lament the pedestrian parts of adulthood: eating healthy, paying taxes, and remembering your passwords. Like its broadway influences, “Bang” takes little moments and makes them sound larger than life.
Switched On Pop’s Charlie Harding spoke with Jack and Ryan Met about the making of “Bang,” their latest single “Way Less Sad” and the showtune influences on OK Orchestra.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Cory Wong is a Minneapolis native and Vulfpeck collaborator known for pushing rhythm guitar from a background instrument to the star of the show. Wong’s a walking encyclopedia of funk guitar, and he takes us through the riffs and styles—from Nile Rodgers to Quincy Jones—that power modern bops such as Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” and Jessie Ware’s “Step Into My Life.”
For Cory, rhythm guitar isn’t just a source of propulsive joy, but a sound that’s intimately connected to different regional scenes: change one note in a riff and you’ve moved from Philadelphia to Cincinatti. Every bubble and chuck speaks to a history of musical innovation - a history Cory mines on his new album-slash-variety show, Cory and the Wongnotes. Mixing comedy sketches, massively funky performances, and interviews, Cory’s project imagines what happens when the bandleader takes over as late night host.
Songs Discussed (it’s a long one)
VULFPECK - Cory Wong
Doja Cat - Say So
Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk (Audio) ft. Bruno Mars
Dua Lipa - Levitating
Chic - Good Times
Earth, Wind & Fire - Shining Star
Ohio Players - Love Rollercoaster
Prince - I Wanna Be Your Lover
Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger feat. Christina Aguilera
Morris Day & The Time - The Bird
Bootsy Collins - Stretchin' Out (In a Rubber Band)
Gap Band - I Don't Believe You Want To Get Up And Dance (Oops Up Side Your Head)
James Payback - The Payback
Sly & The Family Stone - Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
Jessie Ware - Step Into My Life
Chic - Le Freak
David Bowie “Modern Love”
Duran Duran “Notorious”
Diana Ross - I’m Coming Out
The B52’s “Love Shack”
Avicii “Lay Me Down”
Diana Ross - Upside Down
Sister Sledge - We Are Family
Sister Sledge - Thinking Of You
Sister Sledge - He’s The Greatest Dancer
Steve Winwood “Higher Love” chorus
Stevie wonder - Higher Ground
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Daft Punk - Get Lucky (Feat. Pharrell Williams)
David Bowie - Let's Dance
Madonna - Like a Virgin
Eminem - Lose Yourself
Miley Cyrus - Party In The U.S.A
Stevie wonder - Higher Ground
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Daft Punk - Get Lucky (Feat. Pharrell Williams)
David Bowie - Let's Dance
Madonna - Like a Virgin
Eminem - Lose Yourself
Miley Cyrus - Party In The U.S.A
Cory Wong - Tiki Hut Strut
Cory and The Wongnotes - Episode 4, “Genre (ft Grace Kelly)”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The 63rd Grammys was as unprecedented and unusual as last year. Backdropped by the pandemic, the show was delayed and had to be taped in multiple locations in front of a bare bones audience. Echoing the public cries against injustice, standout performances by Mickey Guyton, DaBaby, and Lil Baby decried racism to the nation and to the Grammys—the academy made multiple public statements throughout the night promising to do better. The more light hearted performers played best against highly produced backdrops (Silk Sonic, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, and Taylor Swift), but others fell flat, lacking an audience reaction. Not unexpectedly, the Grammy awards ranged from predictable to jaw dropping. Notably, Beyoncé broke records: she now holds more Grammys than any other singer in history. And the major four categories —Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year — were all awarded to women. While the Grammy ceremony horse race can be as much a commentary on commercial worth as musical strengths, the ceremony has much to teach us about what pop music means in 2021.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Ten years ago the Australian artist Gotye asked New Zealand musician Kimbra to feature on his song “Somebody I Used To Know.” At the time Kimbra had no idea it was going to be a hit. No wonder—the song lacks the trappings of a conventional pop song. The chorus shows up late and it only repeats once in a track composed of an obscure Brazilian guitar sample and nursery rhyme xylophones.
But this slow burner about opposing sides in a relationship's bitter end found a global audience, ascending to No. 1 in more than 25 countries, and accumulating billions of plays across streaming platforms. In 2013, Prince anointed Gotye and Kimbra the Grammy for record of the year (it won best pop duo/group performance as well). The song created many opportunities for both Gotye and Kimbra, but both chose unconventional paths, resisting the industry’s desire to generate the next hit for hits sake.
Reflecting on the song a decade later, Kimbra spoke with Charlie Harding from the podcast Switched On Pop about how this unlikely song inspired her to pursue her singular musical vision, and how it feels to be yet again co-nominated for a 2021 Grammy for her collaboration with Jacob Collier and Tank and The Bangas on “In My Bones.”
SONGS DISCUSSED
Gotye - Somebody I Used to Know (feat. Kimbra)
Luiz Bonfá - Seville
Kimbra - Miracle
Kimbra - 90s Music
Kimbra - Top of the World
Jacob Collier - In My Bones
Kimbra - Right Direction
Son Lux - Lost It To Trying
MORE
Check out Kimbra’s course on Vocal Creativity, Arranging, and Production over at Soundfly
Listen to our conversation with Jacob Collier
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Kaytranada has what every producer strives for: an in-demand signature sound. His records glide fluidly between four-to-the-floor house beats, hip-hop sample-flipping, and P-Funk style 808 bass lines. He honed the technique as a teenager, and it has since grabbed the attention of some all-star collaborators: Pharrell Williams, Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Anderson .Paak, and Kendrick Lamar. This year, he’s nominated for three Grammys, including Best Dance/Electronica Album for his 2019 sophomore release, Bubba, and Best New Artist. But Kaytranada is hardly new to music; at 28, he has been building a career in the industry for more than a decade. Although the recognition may be overdue, the thrill of it hasn’t worn off. “I’m Kaytranada, all the way from Montreal, Canada — been making beats since I was young. And now here I am, [one of the] Best New Artists for the Grammys. It’s really crazy and exciting,” he says. On this week’s episode of Switched on Pop, co-host Charlie Harding spoke with Kaytranada about how his DIY approach to production led him to music’s biggest stage.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>JP Saxe wrote the song “If the World was Ending” with acclaimed songwriter Julia Michaels in 2019 about a fictional cataclysm. The record was released in the before times in a way that seemed to presage lockdown. In the early months of the actual pandemic the song resonated so widely that it catapulted up the charts. It’s now been nominated for a Grammy for song of the year — an award JP Saxe could share with his grandfather János Starker who was awarded a Grammy in 1997 for a recording of Bach’s cello suites. We wanted to speak with JP not just because of the song's success, but also because he has a way of thinking about the practical implications and even morality of songwriting in this track as well as his song "Line By Line" with Maren Morris.
Songs Discussed
JP Saxe with Julia Michaels - If The World Was Ending
JP Saxe - 25 In Barcelona, A Little Bit Yours, The Few Things, Same Room
Lennon Stella - Golf on TV (with JP Saxe)
JP Saxe, Maren Morris - Line By Line
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Adrian Younge is a producer for entertainment greats ranging from Jay Z and Kendrick Lamar to the Wu Tang clan, a composer for television shows such as Marvel's Luke Cage (with A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Mohammad), and owner of the Linear Labs record label and analog studio. Younge has a new mixed media project that breaks down the evolution of racism in America that he calls his “most important creative accomplishment.” A short film, T.A.N., and podcast, Invisible Blackness, accompany the album The American Negro (available Feb 26). Younge tells Switched on Pop how his experience as a law professor and his all-analog approach to recording resulted in a sound he describes as “James Baldwin hooked up with Marvin Gaye.”
Music Discussed
Adrian Younge - Revolutionize, The American Negro, Revisionist History, Black Lives Matter, Margaret Garner
Gil Scott Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
More
Additional production by Megan Lubin
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The Netflix series Bridgerton has hooked audiences with its bodice-ripping sex scenes, a colorblind approach period drama casting, and a soundtrack featuring recreations of modern bangers from pop stars like Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish arranged in the style of a classical string quartet. By bringing modern melodies into the proper world of Regency England, the show reminds us that classical music wasn’t always so stuffy and solemn. In its time, it trafficked in the same scandal as modern pop.
Alongside these classical-pop mashups, Bridgerton serves up its own ravishing score from composer Kris Bowers, who joins to break down how he made the past pop.
Songs Discussed:
Vitamin String Quartet - Thank U, Next, Bad Guy, In My Blood
Kris Bowers - When You Are Alone, Flawless My Dear, Strange
Maurice Ravel - Tombeau de Couperin, Prelude
Clara Schumann - Der Mond Kommt Still Gegangen
Johannes Brahms - Symphony No 3 in F Major Op 90, Mvt 3 (for Four Hand Piano)
More
Read Maria Popova on the letters of Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann
and Adrian Daub on Four Handed Monsters
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>This Sunday, The Weeknd will perform his distinctly dark brand of pop at the Super Bowl halftime show. On the surface, the alter-ego of Abel Tesfaye is a strange pick for the ostensibly family-friendly main-stage — for more than a decade, The Weeknd has fused the sounds of pop, R&B, and trap into a cinematic horror-thriller about drugs, sex and the excess of fame. While his sheer volume of Hot 100 hits have rightly earned him mainstream status, even his most commercial material is hardly PG — the 2015 hit “Can’t Feel My Face” is an 80s throwback laced with on-the-nose cocaine metaphors.
But over the last year his subversive image has been rewritten by the song “Blinding Lights,” from his 2020 album After Hours. The song vaulted up the charts in March 2020, supported by a viral TikTok challenge: Using the song’s opening instrumental as inspiration, countless families performed the dance together while sheltering in place. Since then, seemingly every radio format, adult contemporary included, has played this song on repeat, making it the longest running song in the Hot 100 top five and top ten (given the songs success, The Weeknd is justly aggrieved by the Grammy’s recent snub).
On Switched on Pop’s first episode as part of Vulture, we break down how “Blinding Lights” blends lyrical relatability with musical familiarity, earning The Weeknd the biggest and perhaps most misunderstood hit of his career.
Songs Discussed
The Weeknd - Blinding Lights
Michael Sembello - Maniac
a-ha - Take on Me
Bruce Springsteen - Blinded By The Light
Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Blinded By The Light
The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face
The Weeknd - Faith
The Weeknd - In Your Eyes
The Weeknd - Save Your Tears
The Weeknd - Until I Bleed Out
More
Read Chris Molanphy's "Why the Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” Is the First Chart Topper of the Coronavirus Era"
Thanks to Arc Iris for the theme song reharmonization
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Epik High are elemental to Korean hip hop. DJ Tukutz, Mithra Jin and Tablo’s underground style boom bap beats with dexterous rapping helped bring this music from its underground roots to a global scale. On their latest release, Epik High Is Here Part I, the textures are subdued but paired with heavy drums and aggressive vocals, a contrast that matches our collective anxiety arising from the pandemic. Charlie speaks with Tablo about the creation of the album, but first first ethnomusicologist Youngdae Kim shares a short history on the development of Korean hip hop.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Epik High - Rosario, Go, Fly, Map the Soul, Harajuku Days, Born Hater, Lesson Zero, Based On A True Story, Leica, Wish You Were
Seo Taiji and Boys - I Know
Verbal Jint - Overclass
MORE
Read Youngdae Kim and T.K. Park’s “A Brief History of Korean Hip-hop”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Power ballads used to top the charts regularly, from 80s rock to 90s R&B. But then in the 2000s, the formula of constant escalation gradually fell off the Billboard. Now, seemingly out of nowhere, Olivia Rodrigo’s single “Drivers License” is breaking streaming records as listeners yearn for the emotional catharsis from this contemporary power ballad. With the help of David Metzer, professor of music history at the University of British Columbia, we break down how “Drivers License” sticks to an age-old formula, and how it deviates from a well worn musical path.
SONGS DISCUSSED
MORE
Professor David Metzer’s The Ballad in American Popular Music: From Elvis to Beyoncé
Aiyana Ishmael for Teen Vogue “Olivia Rodrigo Song "Drivers License" Sparks Fan-Made TikTok POV Covers”
Olivia Rodrigo’s Instagram demo
Richard S. He Twitter thread
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Listen to Top 40 pop over the last decade and you’ll notice something weird is happening. The chorus—the emotional apotheosis of a pop song, its dizzying high, its cathartic sing-along center—is disappearing. In its place, artists from Bad Bunny to Taylor Swift are toying with new, chorus-lite song forms that introduce a new musical grammar to the sound of contemporary pop. We may not think much about pop structure when listening to our favorite songs, but this is a big deal—the last time pop experienced such a seismic shift was when the chorus first came into fashion, back in the 1960s. What does this mean for modern musicians and listeners? Emily Warren, songwriter for new-guard stars like Dua Lipa and Khalid, joins to break down why the sea change in pop form represents a new horizon of creative possibility.
Songs Discussed
Bad Bunny - Si Veo a Tu Mamá
Future & Drake - Life Is Good
Billie Holiday - Blue Moon
Beyonce - Formation
Travis Scott - Sicko Mode
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Aretha Franklin - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
Drake - Laugh Now Cry Later (ft. Lil Durk)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Is it true that all pop music sounds the same today? For the past year the “pop-drop” has dominated the airwaves. This new form of EDM infused pop came out of DJ culture and has infused its sound with every mainstream act like Lady Gaga and Coldplay. Tiring of this sound, some artists are finding creative ways to parody this pop trope. The rock outfit Fall Out Boy’s “Young And Menace” demonstrates equal parts mastery and mockery of the pop-drop. And PC Music, a rising art-music label out of London, skewers the whole of pop cliché on their mixtape collaboration with Charli XCX. After this episode, we promise you’ll be ready to move on to new sounds. Luckily, listeners have collaborated to create a new favorites playlist to help you cleanse your palette.
This episode was originally published May 2017.
SONGS DISCUSSED
The Chainsmokers – Closer
Kygo & Selena Gomez – It Ain’t Me
Lady Gaga – The Cure
Fall Out Boy – Sugar We’re Going Down
Fall Out Boy – Young And Menace
Jay Z – D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)
Ariana Grande – Into You
Katy Perry feat. Skip Marley – Chained To The Rhythm
Drake – Passionfruit
Postmodern Jukebox – Sugar We’re Going Down Swinging
Britney Spears – Oops! I Did It Again
Skrillex – Bangarang
DJ Snake – Middle
Beyoncé – Love On Top
Icona Pop – I Love It (feat. Charlie XCX)
Iggy Azalea – Fancy ft. Charli XCX
Selena Gomez – Same Old Love
Charli XCX – 3AM (Pull Up) (feat. MØ)
Hannah Diamond – Every Night
Bronze – Thy Slaughter
Danny L Harle – Super Natural (ft. Carly Rae Jepsen)
SOPHIE – JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE
A.G. Cook – Superstar
Ariana Grande – Side To Side
Coon Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra – I’m Gonna Charleston Back To Charleston
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Auto-Tune may be the most divisive effect in music. Artists have protested it publicly at the Grammys, and critics have derided the effects for its inauthentic reproduction of the voice. And yet, nearly a decade since Jay-Z prophesied the death of Auto-Tune, the sound is alive and thriving in contemporary pop and hip-hop. Journalist Simon Reynolds has written a definitive history of Auto-Tune for Pitchfork that fundamentally changed how we hear this sound. This deep dive criss crosses geology, technology, and the evolution of pop as we know it.
Songs Discussed:
Further Reading: Simon Reynolds - “How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music" Simon Reynolds -Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Wham’s 1984 contribution to the holiday cannon, “Last Christmas,” has surprising staying power. When Grammy-winning pianist Chilly Gonzales set out to record a holiday album, “A Very Chilly Christmas,” most of the selections were over a half century old. That’s because most of our favorite seasonal songs come from the 1960s and earlier. But in addition to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas,” Wham’s “Last Christmas” reliably returns each winter. Despite the cheesy 80s synths and drum machines, the song’s harmonies are remarkable resilient, a testament to George Michael’s auteur songwriting method. Celebrated artist known for his solo piano works, collaborations with Feist and Daft Punk, and his musical masterclasses series, Chilly Gonzales—musical genius—AKA “Gonzo,” sits down at the piano to share in the beauty of this nu-classical Christmas love song, as well as a few selections from his new album “A Very Chilly Christmas.”
MORE
Get tickets for A Very Chilly Christmas Special airing Dec 23rd at www.chillygonzales.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Just five months after releasing her Grammy-nominated album “folklore,” Taylor Swift surprised fans with a continuation of sorts — her ninth studio album “evermore.” Working with many of her “folklore” collaborators, Swift says that the team “couldn’t stop writing songs.” Like its sister album, “evermore” shies away from over-the-top pop production, and leans into Swift’s craft. Stripped of the highly produced synth layers from her “Lover” and “Reputation” era, Swift’s lyrics and vocal performance shine in their unvarnished restraint. On this hour-long album, Swift shows her ingenuity with the building blocks of songwriting, giving us more of her signature Swiftian strengths: Lyrics, melody and story.
More
Read "Figure It Out: The Linguistic Turn in Country Music" by Jimmie N. Rogers and Miller Williams in Country Music Annual 2000
Listen to Jenny Owen Youngs album Night Shift for more rubber bridge guitar and great songs
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Producer Bridget Armstrong shares her top tracks from women who are running hip-hop in 2020: Megan Thee Stallion, Tierra Whack, Rico Nasty, Flo Milli, and CHIKA
More
Listen to the Drake episode on In My Feelings: https://switchedonpop.com/episodes/93-drake-vs-drake
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In 1990 John Carlin and Leigh Blake pioneered a new kind of charity album. Together they co-founded Red Hot, a non-profit music label that uses music to raise money and awareness to for the fight against AIDS. This year is the 30th anniversary of their record: Red Hot + Blue, a platinum tribute album to Cole Porter, featuring artists like U2, Jody Watley, David Byrne, k.d. lang and Annie Lennox. Having released 20 projects and raised over $15M for AIDS charities, Carlin reflects back on Red Hot's idiosyncratic approach to reaching music audiences with a public health mission. And ten time Grammy nominee Red Hot collaborator Meshell Ndegeocello discusses how her contributions informed her own prolific music activism.
More
Listen to Red Hot's records at redhot.org
Listen to Meshell's Chapter & Verse by calling 1-833-4-BALDWIN or visiting www.meshell.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Every song Cyndi Lauper writes is pop perfection according to Sam Sanders, host of NPR’s “It’s Been A Minute.” Many fall for “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” but Sanders's favorite song is the slow burner “All Through The Night,” save for one moment: the synthesizer solo. For Sanders, this solo never fit in. Charlie investigates the source of his musical malady and uncovers how the 80s got its groove.
Songs Discussed
Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
Cyndi Lauper - She Bop
Cyndi Lauper - All Through the Night
Janet Jackson - When I Think Of You
Janet Jackson - The Pleasure Principle
Janet Jackson - Nasty
Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone
Whitney Houston - Greatest Love Of All
Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever
Tina Turner - What's Love Got To Do With It
Cyndi Lauper - Change Of Heart
Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight
Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes
Tom Petty - You Got Lucky
Cars - Lets Go
Talking Heads - Burning Down The House
Parliament Funkadelic - Atomic Dog
The Weeknd - Blinding Lights
Dua Lipa - Physical
Little Mix - Break Up Song
Miley Cyrus - Heart of Glass (Blondie Cover)
More
Read Dr. Megan L. Lavengood's research on the DX7: https://meganlavengood.com/research/
Listen to Dave Smith's (recently re-released) Sequential Prophet 5 synthesizer: https://www.sequential.com/product/prophet-5/
Learn about William Wittman's production credits on Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/170639-William-Wittman
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Cultural critic Ivie Ani breaks down how Missy Elliott broke into the pantheon of anthems, and how she changed the scope of who could belong.
Songs Discussed
Missy Elliott - Work It
Blondie - Heart of Glass
RUN-DMC - Peter Piper
Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three - Request Line
Snoop Dogg - Y'All Gone Miss Me
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby
Justin Timberlake - Sexy Back
Trace Adkins - Honky Tonk Badonkadonk
Missy Elliott - The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)
Lil Kim - Not Tonight (Remix)
Missy Elliott - Lose Control (feat. Ciara & Fat Man Scoop)
Missy Elliott - Sock It 2 Me
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When Smash Mouth wrote "All Star,” they knew that it was going to change their lives. But they never expected it would become an anthem played in sports arenas, soundtracked by Hollywood, and embedded into seemingly every internet meme. Darryn King joins the show to break down "The Never-ending Life of Smash Mouth's 'All Star.'"
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In 1995, ESPN launched Jock Jams Volume 1, a compilation record that would define the sound of sports for the next quarter century. We listen to the album's biggest songs to define what makes a "Jock Jam," and tell the story of how this record came to define the sound of the stadium.
MORE
Read Emily VanDerWerff's article: “The Jock Jam” megamix inadvertently plays out ESPN’s inner tensions
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Freddie Mercury and team made one of the most unusual anthems of all time. “We Are The Champions” has a somber beginning, an uncertain ending and a sprinkling of operatic allusions. Yet more than 40 years after this slow burners debut, it continues to be a staple at sporting events. In the first episode in a four part series, ANTHEMS, Nate and Charlie break down the song’s fundamental elements that place this song in the anthemic pantheon.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Cory Henry is a remarkably gifted multi-instrumentalist. Growing up in the church, he started playing the Hammond B3 organ at age 2 and played his first gig at Apollo theater in NYC at age 6. As a professional musician he’s played along side Bruce Springsteen, Boyz II Men, The Roots, Kirk Franklin and many others including the acclaimed group Snarky Puppy which earned 3 Grammys during his tenure playing keys. Now he leads his band Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles who are releasing an album on Oct 30th called Something To Say, which features all of Henry’s gifts, but especially his voice in an album that makes you want to get up and dance as much as it makes you want to take action.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Shawn Mendes, BTS, Alicia Keys, 24kGoldn, Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber & Chance The Rapper are all in the Hot 100 with songs that attempt to cope with the state of the world. What do they tell us about the sound of popular music and our collective psyche? Charlie is joined by writer, critic and friend of the podcast, Lauren Michele Jackson to offer a meteorological reading of music in late 2020.
MORE
Read Aja Romano's article "With 'Dynamite,' BTS beat the US music industry at its own cheap game" on Vox.com
SONGS DISCUSSED
Shawn Mendes - Wonder
Alicia Keys - Underdog
Hamilton - My Shot
Dua Lipa - Break My Heart
INXS - Need You Tonight
BTS - Dynamite
Justin Bieber - Holy ft. Chance The Rapper
24kgolden - Mood ft. iann dior
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>There is a type of country song that loves flawed characters lost on a winding journey ... likely down a dit road. One of the best songwriters in this style is acclaimed artist Brandy Clark. Her credits include a whose-who of country music—Kacey Musgraves, Reba McEntire, Darius Rucker, Lean Rimes—and her albums have received overwhelming critical acclaim. And her debut record, 12 Stories, earned her a 2015 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.
We spoke with Brandy about her new album Your Life Is A Record, which asks what if your life’s journey fit on one LP. The songs are honest, and buck the all too familiar pop-country clichés. Clark writes songs about anti-heroes who make imperfect choices (“Who You Thought I Was,” “The Past Is The Past.”) All together her songs portray one whole life.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Keith Urban is a legend of country. He’s been releasing hit records for two decades now. Each album he describes as a portrait of his life in that moment. On his latest work, The Speed Of Now Part 1, has Urban disregarding country convention (as he’s known to do), and collaborating with a diverse roster of musicians who contribute an eclectic array of sounds funk guitar, breakbeat drums and even EDM style programming. The result is less straight ahead country and more the unique sound of Keith Urban. In this conversation, we discuss his music, how he stays creative, and why he believes music can still be a uniting force.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Mickey Guyton spent a decade of fits and starts trying to make a career in country music. But now in recent months she’s having a country music moment releasing vulnerable songs that use her experiences of rejection, exclusion and racism as inspiration. Charlie speaks with Guyton about her breakout songs “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” and “Black Like Me,” as well as what it took for her to make it onto one of country musics most beloved stages, the American Country Music Awards.
Songs Discussed
Mickey Guyton - What Are You Gonna Tell Her
Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers - Islands In the Stream
Dolly Parton - Coat of Many Colors
Mickey Guyton - Safe (Acoustic)
Mickey Guyton - Heartbreak Song
Mickey Guyton - Why Baby Why
Mickey Guyton - Better Than You Left Me
Mickey Guyton - Black Like Me
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Howard and Guy Lawrence, the brothers behind Disclosure, found global acclaim in 2012 with their song “Latch” ft. Sam Smith which blended house and dubstep in a doo-wop time signature. Since, they have collaborated with many of pop’s most sought after vocalists (The Weeknd, Lore and Khalid to name a few) in an ever evolving vision of dance music. On their latest album release, “Energy,” Disclosure channels sounds and samples from the global south. Listen to find out how they make the energy flow.
Survey
We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: voxmedia.com/podsurvey.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When we listen closely to the Fifth, we hear a testament to self-expression and determination. Which means that we get to decide how to honor this symphony today, whether that means taking a break from Beethoven to commission new works from underrepresented composers, bringing new audiences into the fold by staging concerts in communities outside of the concert hall, or re-writing Beethoven’s works to make them reflect our present moment.
Featuring:
Anthony McGill, Clarinet
Andrea Moore, Musicologist
Deborah Borda, CEO and President
David Lang, Composer
Jaap van Sweden, Conductor
Leelanee Sterett, Horn
Sherry Sylar, Oboe
Music Featured:
Carlos Simon, Loop
Tania Léon, Stride
David Lang, Prisoner of the State
Recoding of Beethoven Symphony 5 by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Jaap van Sweden used by permission from Decca Gold.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Before Beethoven’s time, classical music culture looked and sounded quite different. When Mozart premiered his Symphony 31 in the late 1700s, it was standard for audiences to clap, cheer, and yell “da capo!” (Italian for “from the beginning!”) in the middle of a performance. After Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony debuted in the early 1800s, these norms changed — both because the rising industrial merchant class took ownership of concert halls and because of shifts in the music itself.
As we explored in episodes I and II of the Switched On Pop podcast series The 5th, the musical complexity of Beethoven’s symphony required a different kind of listening. The Fifth’s four-note opening theme occurs and recurs in variations throughout the symphony, slowly shifting from minor to major keys and mirroring Beethoven’s experience with deafness. The Fifth’s creative rule-breaking — subverting the classical sonata form in the first movement, for example — requires close listening to fully grasp. Over time, these norms crystallized into a set of etiquette rules (e.g., “don’t clap mid-piece”) to enhance the new listening experience. In the third episode of The 5th, we explore how Beethoven’s symphony was used to generate the strict culture of classical music — and the politics that undergird those norms of behavior.
Music Discussed
Recording of The New York Philharmonic performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 conducted by Jaap van Zweden used by permission from Decca Gold.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In the first movement of his famous symphony, Beethoven sets up a battle between hope and despair. The dark side of that spectrum is represented by the anguished opening notes of the first movement: DUN DUN DUNNN. Over the course of the next three movements, Beethoven keeps trying to overcome his dark fate with bright major melodies, and keeps getting defeated.
With each high and low, we begin to understand that this battle isn't just about major and minor keys, it's about the will to live in the face of adversity. How do you perform such an emotional rollercoaster? We talk to the members of the New York Philharmonic about what it's like to sound a symphony whose stakes are life and death.
Jaap van Zweden, Conductor
Leelanee Sterrett, Horn
Kyle Zerna, Percussion
Frank Huang, Violin
Anthony McGill, Clarinet
Sherry Sylar, Oboe
Recording of The New York Philharmonic performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 conducted by Jaap van Zweden used by permission from Decca Gold.
Hear new episodes of our four-part miniseries The 5th every Tuesday and Friday starting September 8th.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>You know Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. You’ve heard it in films, advertisements, parodied in Saturday morning cartoons and disco-ized in Saturday Night Fever. The Fifth Symphony is a given, so much so that it blends into the background. You know this piece, but how well? Of all the symphonies of the bewigged classical "greats," why is this one still stuck in our heads over two centuries later?
To answer these questions, we’re giving Beethoven’s famous symphony the same treatment we give to pop songs. And we’re doing so with the help of an orchestra that’s been performing this piece since 1842, the New York Philharmonic.
In Movement I, we hear how the famous opening notes of the symphony aren't just melody: they’re the main character in a drama that will unfold over four movements.
Featuring:
Frank Huang, Violin
Anthony McGill, Clarinet
Sherry Sylar, Oboe
Recording of The New York Philharmonic performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 conducted by Jaap van Zweden used by permission from Decca Gold.
New episodes of our four-part miniseries The 5th drop every Tuesday and Friday starting September 8th.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Our Switched on Summer Throwback Series continues with “Dancing in the Street,” the 1964 Motown hit by Martha and the Vandellas that was co-written by none other than Marvin Gaye. Over 50 years and countless covers later, we explore how this song still manages to get people off their feet and onto the streets—not just to dance, but also to raise their voices in joy, catharsis, and protest.
SPONSOR
We use Reason Studios to make music on Switched On Pop. You can use Reason too free for 30 days: http://reasonstudios.com/onpop
SONGS DISCUSSED
Martha and the Vandellas – Dancing in the Street
Marvin Gaye – Stubborn Kind of Fellow
The Mamas and the Papas – Dancing in the Street
The Grateful Dead – Dancing in the Street
Van Halen – Dancing in the Street
Mick Jagger and David Bowie – Dancing in the Street
Kendrick Lamar – Alright
Pharrell Williams – Happy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>How does it feel to become a global pop star under lockdown? Benee’s “Supalonely” had been out for over 5 months when in March of 2020, it quickly became the second most popular song on TikTok. The song’s hook “I’ve been lonely… Supalonely” clearly reflected a global collective malaise about the pandemic—and people wanted to dance to it. She wrote this “sad banger” to help get over a breakup. And now the song changed her life. Not along before she’d dropped out of college to make music while working at a pizza place. Her first EP had found an audience in her home country, New Zealand. Now, with her TikTok success Benee has ascended the top 100 in 30 countries. All of this happened from the solitude of her childhood bedroom, where like so many people, she’s taking zoom calls all day. She tells Switched On Pop about using levity to overcome personal difficulty and what’s like to achieve global recognition from home.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Matt Daniels, editor of the publication The Pudding, wanted to find out what songs from his youth would last into the future. So he designed a study that would test if Gen-Z had a grip on 90s culture. Hundreds of thousands of participants provided over 3 million data points. Daniels parsed through the data for insights. Sadly, the majority of his most beloved songs have not survived even one generation. Though most had been forgotten, he found that just a few songs had staying power across generations — what he defined as the emerging 90s music canon. Find out what songs make it and which have fallen to the wayside.
MORE
The Pudding’s study on Defining the 90s Canon
Take The Pudding’s quiz yourself
SONGS DISCUSSED
Spice Girls - Wannabe
Mariah Carey - Fantasy!
Lou Bega - Mambo #5
Los Del Rio - Macarena
Boys II Men - Motown Philly
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
Savage Garden - I Want You
The Barenaked Ladies - One Week
Jewel - You Were Meant For Me
Jennifer Lopez - If You Had My Love
Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On
Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
Smash Mouth - All Star
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Bruno Major blends old song structures from The Great American Songbook with contemporary production on his new album “To Let A Good Thing Die.” The result is a nostalgic, yet contemporary collection of love songs for the Netflix and chill generation. We speak with Bruno Major about how he draws inspiration from the past to craft something new. He breaks down his songs "Nothing," "To Let A Good Thing Die," and "The Most Beautiful Thing," which he wrote with Finneas. And we unpack how Bruno Major found success only after being dropped from his record label.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Bruno Major - Nothing
Autumn Leaves - Nat King Cole
Fly Me to The Moon - Frank Sinatra
Stella By Starlight - Tony Bennett
There Will Never Be Another You - Nat King Cole
Like Someone in Love - Chet Baker
Deep in a Dream - Frank Sinatra
All The things you are - Ella Fitzgerald
Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years
Wes Montgomery - In Your Own Sweet Way
Bruno Major - Wouldn't Mean A Thing
Bruno Major - Bad Religion (Live)
Bruno Major - I'll Sleep When I'm Older
J Cole - KOD
J Dilla - La La La
Bruno Major - The Most Beautiful Thing
Bruno Major - To Let A Good Thing Die
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Beyoncé' has released "Black Is King," a visual album based off of music that she released last year. We're rerunning that piece so that you can place the visual component of "Black Is King" in context to the music. For the live action remake of the Lion King, Beyoncé, (who voices Nala in the film), recorded and curated a companion soundtrack called The Gift. She worked with leading Afropop stars to expose the music of the continent to a global audience. In her piece, “Diversity Is in the Details: What Beyoncé’s ‘The Lion King: The Gift’ Gets Right and Wrong,” Okayplayer music editor Ivie Ani argues that the album highlights music while unintentionally treating the continent as a monolith. Ani joins Switched On Pop to break down this album and what it means for Afropop.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Childish Gambino, Oumou Sangaré – MOOD 4 EVA
Oumou Sangaré – Diaraby Nen
Burna Boy – JA ARA
Fela Kuti – Water No Get Enemy
Fena, MDQ, Mayonde, Kagwe, Blinky Bill – PARTY NATION
BONUS
Listen to Blinky and Ivie’s East African playlist recommendations
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Taylor Swift has released folklore, her unexpected eighth studio album. It is an understated work that firmly puts celebrity gossip behind her (there are no who's-dating-who easter eggs to be found). Instead we're gifted Swift's greatest strength: songwriting. The lyrics blur "fantasy and reality." There are imagined teenage love trysts, recreated dynasties and intimate reflections on modern love. We break down the sounds and lyrics that make up Swift's strongest album yet.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Taylor Swift - the 1, illicit affairs, my tears ricochet, august, epiphany, cruel summer, this is my trying, hoax, peace, you belong with me, mirrorball, epiphany, our song, cardigan, the last great american dynasty, betty
The National - Light Years
Bon Iver - 666
BONUS
The correct term for the piano line is a "turn"
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Nu-Metal, the mid 90s creation that blended metal, rap and pop, is one of the most critically derided pop genres. So it is strange that this genre is having a comeback. But whereas its first incarnation was dominated by men, now women are leading the way. Artists like Poppy, Grimes and Rina Sawayama have recast the heavy guitars, sung-rap lyrics and gaudy aesthetic to fight back the patriarchy.
CORRECTION: Charlie does not play pinch harmonics, but rather natural harmonics
SONGS DISCUSSED
MORE
Check out Finn McKenty's YouTube channel The Punk Rock MBA starting with his video on what killed Nu-Metal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATllyNXF3Kg&t
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Listen closely to the start of the 2015 hit "Hey Mama" by David Guetta, Nicki Minaj, Afrojack, and Bebe Rexha and you'll hear voices intoning a chant: "Be my woman, girl, I'll be your man." It's sample from a 1948 recording called "Rosie," and it's the propulsive hook of "Hey Mama," driving the song to over a billion views on YouTube. The voices in the sample belong to CB Cook and ten other unidentified prisoners at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, aka Parchman Farm. These men never got credit for their work, even though it's been reused by everyone from Guetta to the Animals to Nina Simone. We investigate the story of "Rosie" to understand an inequity that lies at the heart of the music business and our national consciousness.
Songs Discussed
David Guetta ft Nicki Minaj, Bebe Rexha, and Afrojack - Hey Mama
CB Cook and Axe Gang - Rosie
The Animals - Inside Looking Out
Grand Funk Railroad - Inside Looking OUt
KRS-One - Sound of Da Police
Jay Z - Takeover
Nina Simone - Be My Husband
Check out Kembrew McLeod's and Peter DiCola's book Creative License to learn more about the law and culture of digital sampling.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The 2020 song of summer competition is underway. We asked you for your favorite songs and put them in a head-to-head tournament. Find out which is the song for this very unusual summer.
ROUND 1 - TikTok Jams
SAINt JHN - "Roses" Imanbek Remix
Megan Thee Stallion - Savage Remix (Feat. Beyoncé)
The Weeknd - Blinding Lights
ROUND 2 - Protest Anthems
Beyoncé - Black Parade
Anderson .Paak - Lockdown
YG - FTP
ROUND 3 - Breezy Bops
Dua Lipa - Physical
Chloe x Halle - Do It
Harry Styles - Watermelon Sugar
ROUND 4 - Bummer Bangers
Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer
Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness
HAIM - Up From A Dream
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Lady Gaga’s 6th album is a conceptual release about a future that is neither utopian nor dystopian. Despite its sci-fi visuals, the album looks more to the past and present than the future. Chromatica gives us a world that sounds like 90s house music made for this summer’s cancelled Pride parties. It is lyrically somber, but musically upbeat, a productive tension that inspires hope. Gaga shared that she made this album to help her and her ‘little monsters’ dance through the pain. So we called on our listeners to dig up the most meaningful moments on the album and help us tour the world of Chromatica.
SONGS DISCUSSED
MORE
"Welcome To Chromatica" playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6nIb85jPqtjhjuOB3DUI49?si=Vy9LLNWcSAeih_V2Amq6Aw
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Shea Diamond has experienced so many facets of America as a black trans woman, and with songwriter Justin Tranter, she's woven those experiences into "I Am America," a blistering, funky anthem about community and belonging. Her track is also the theme song for the new HBO show "We're Here," which follows a team of a drag queens bringing drag shows to small towns across the country, challenging our assumptions about who makes up the "real America."
We sit down with Diamond and Tranter to discuss singing as preaching, what it means to release this track during Pride month, why the flat seventh hits so good, and how the horns on the song feature producer Eren Cannata's dad Richie on sax, making this bop a true family affair.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In 1999 filmmaker Baz Luhrmann released the song “Everybody’s Free To Wear Sunscreen,” a 7-minute-long graduation speech set to downtempo electronic music. It was a highly unlikely hit that made its way across continents and eventually into the ears of a young Avery Trufelman via the album NOW That’s What I Call Music Volume 2. For over 20 years, Trufelman has applied the song’s advice to her daily life: “wear sunscreen… be nice to your siblings… do one thing every day that scares you.” This unusual song has left a lasting impression, and yet for Trufelman, it makes no sense that “The Sunscreen Song” was commercially successful. We investigate the song’s many architects — novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich and Baz Luhrmann himself — to unpack one of the internet’s first conspiracy theories that turned into Billboard’s greatest outlier.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Baz Luhrmann - Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)
Think - Once You Understand
MORE
The BBC documentary on “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszvtr
Another speech set to music, Byron MacGregor/Gordon Sinclair’s “Americans,” peaked at #4 in 1974
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Quarantined in his family’s music room, musician Jacob Collier has been remarkably productive. Known for his polymathic musical talents, Collier has used this time to reflect on, and release new music. His latest song “All I Need,” was created with new technology that let him record remotely with his collaborators Mahalia and Ty Dolla $ign. The song is uplifting. It modulates into arcane keys that evoke the euphoria of newfound love. Collier’s also been convening live streams with artists like Tori Kelly and Chris Martin where Collier seemingly defies the laws of physics to collaborate, in time, over long-distance video chat. Collier is a hopeful voice, demonstrating how music can boost our spirits in dark times.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The pandemic has upended the art and business of making music. Producing, performing and releasing — every aspect is new and uncharted. The need for social distancing means that it’s unsafe to collaborate in small studios or perform for large crowds — not to mention finding the right thing to sing about in such a charged moment. We’re telling three stories about how artists are working within these constraints: Ricky Reed and John-Robert have found a way to generate a creative spark remotely, Jacob Collier has defied the laws of physics to master live performance over the internet, and Dua Saleh has released a powerful new track that helps support the protests in Minneapolis. Everything is radically different than it was a few months ago, but these stories shine a light on why making music matters more than ever in 2020.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Lizzo - Juice
John-Robert, Ricky Reed, Zach Sekof - Favorite Boy
Bill Withers - Lean On Me performed by Ty Dolla Sign & Jacob Collier
Jacob Collier - All I Need
D’Angelo - Feel Like Making Love
Stevie Wonder - You And I performed by Tori Kelly and Jacob Collier
Dua Saleh - Body Cast
Dua Saleh - Sugar Mama
Dua Saleh - Moth
Dua Saleh - Smut
Sister Rosetta Tharp - This Little Light Of Mine
MORE
Watch Nice Live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24tNtu1NuD9yZ9t2YUATIQ
Dua Saleh's "Body Cast" BandCamp campaign: https://duasaleh.bandcamp.com/track/body-cast
Listen to Dua Saleh's new album Rosetta: https://duasaleh.bandcamp.com/album/rosetta
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In a Rolling Stone article titled “He Shook The World: George Floyd’s Legendary Houston Legacy”, writer Charles Holmes reveals the musical past of the man who has become an international symbol for justice since his murder. Known as “Big Floyd” in his Houston community, he was part of the city’s Screwed Up Click, a hip-hop collective centered around the now-legendary producer DJ Screw. This underground scene created a style of slowed-down “chopped and screwed” hip-hop that seeped into mainstream hip-hop, and has even been appropriated by bubblegum Top 40. In this episode we unpack how this chopped and screwed sound took over pop and shine a light on George Floyd’s involvement with the Screwed Up Click.
MORE
Read Charles Holmes’ Rolling Stone article: '”He Shook the World': George Floyd's Legendary Houston Legacy”
SONGS DISCUSSED
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>They say you should never meet your idols, that you’ll only be disappointed. We had this possibility in mind going into our first interview with Carly Rae Jepsen, the pop star who inspired us to start our podcast Switched on Pop when Nate taught “Call Me Maybe” as a case study in music theory. Six years later and hundreds of pleading emails later, the time had come to meet the muse and unpack her latest offering, Dedicated Side B. In the course of composing her last two albums, E•MO•TION and Dedicated, Jepsen wrote over 200 songs. Many of her favorite works didn’t make it on either final album, so she’s started a tradition of releasing “Side B” records on the one-year anniversary of her last release. Her newest collection of unreleased music fluidly crosses decades of musical history and spans a vast emotional range. We spoke with Jepsen over Zoom about how she curated her latest B-Side release from a massive body of work. Would this beatific figure, once described by poet Hanif Abdurraqib and the “most honest pop musician working,” live up to her reputation? Listen to find out.
SONGS DISCUSSED
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Lo-Fi hip-hop has emerged as a hugely popular genre and internet subculture. Its millions of loyal fans rely on curated lo-fi playlists and live-streams to write to, study to and even fall asleep to. Heck, we even wrote a good chunk of our book to Spotify’s lo-fi beats playlists. There’s just something about those ambient, spacey, plodding beats that place us in a state of determined zen. But what of its musical roots? Who are its stars? And why, despite its mass following on YouTube, Spotify and elsewhere, is it nearly impossible to spot on the Billboard? We trace lo-fi from its godfathers to its moments in the sun, to the complex creative ecosystem playing out on streaming platforms today.
MORE
You can find music from this episode on this week’s Spotify playlist
Sign up for Cherie Hu’s newsletter Water & Music that sent us down the lo-fi hip hop rabbit hole
Check out Seneca B on Spotify:
Check out weird inside on Spotify
Check out eevee on Spotify
SONGS DISCUSSED
Brenky - Bye
Brenky - People
J Dilla ft. Common, D’Angelo - So Far To Go
Isley Brothers - Don’t Say Goodnight (It’s Time For Love), Pts. 1&2
Charlatan - Wasted Jazz
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Like many events, the international song competition Eurovision 2020 has been canceled. Sadly, there will be no champion crowned this year... or will there?! Charlie and Nate comb through the emotional, the catchy, and the downright bizarre entries, then—with some help from our audience and 2018 Eurovision winner Netta—pick the best song in all the land. Come for the Lithuanian moose dance, stay for the unshakeable power of pop glory in a world gone mad.
Songs discussed
Netta - Toy
Netta - Ricki Lake
Senhit - FREAKY!
Tornike Kipiani - Take Me as I am
Go-A - Solovey
Efendi - Cleopatra
Gjon’s Tears - Repondez-moi
The Roop - On Fire
Dadi Freyr - Think About Things
Roxen - Alcohol You
Little Big - Uno
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When BBC America reached out to do a piece about the music of Killing Eve, we jumped at the opportunity. The series antagonist, Villanelle, is an unpredictable assassin. On a dime she shifts from cold and calculating to child-like and jocular. Her personality swings are accompanied by a captivating psychedelic pop soundtrack. Whether you are familiar with the series or not, this no spoilers episode breaks down music from the 1960s that has earned its place on primetime.
SPONSORED BY BBC AMERICA
Support explainer journalism — all things pop included — by making a contribution to Vox today: Visit bit.ly/givepodcasts.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Since 1996, Fiona Apple has only ever had one hit, “Criminal.” Nonetheless, every album she’s released has been nominated for a Grammy. Her newest work, Fetch The Bolt Cutters, has received near universal acclaim. Apple’s songs are simultaneously idiosyncratic and relatable, tackling unusual themes for pop songs: middle school bullies, uncomfortable dinner conversation, toxic masculinity and female friendship. Apple accompanies her idiosyncratic lyrics with homemade percussion and only minimal piano. The final product is on the borderline between crafted composition and impromptu improvisation. It is this duality which makes the work relatable and timeless. Her two song suite “I Want You To Love Me” and “Shameika” have connections to Beethoven, Yeats, and Patti Smith, which we break down in the first half. And listeners call in during the second half to share what moved them about the album.
Songs Discussed
Support explainer journalism — all things pop included — by making a contribution to Vox today: Visit bit.ly/givepodcasts.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Doja Cat has gatecrashed the Top 40 with her effervescent hit “Say So.” How did this Internet personality best known for a song whose chorus is “B***h, I’m a cow!” join the ranks of Dua Lipa, Drake, and The Weeknd? The answer involves a voice that careens from gentle soul to fierce rapping, a catchy chorus that grabs you from the first measure, and most importantly, interpolating the guitar patterns of Nile Rodgers, the secret sauce behind four decades of smash hits.
Songs featured:
Doja Cat - Say So, Juicy, Fancy, Moo
Chic - Good Times
Sugarhill Gang - Rappers Delight
Diana Ross - I’m Coming Out
David Bowie - Let’s Dance
Daft Punk - Get Lucky
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>A lot of people miss the old Kanye. The last time we reviewed his music was back in 2016 when he released the work-in-progress album “The Life Of Pablo.” Since then, Kanye has put out four albums: Ye, Kids See Ghost (with Kid Cudi), Jesus Is King, and Jesus Is Born (with the Sunday Service Choir). In the same period he’s also caused a media ruckus with his union to the Kardashian family and his foray into political punditry. His public persona has largely overshadowed his musical offerings. But what does the music communicate when we separate it from its messenger? We take the opportunity to listen with an open mind, especially to his most recent two albums. In the first half we examine his recent innovations as one of hip-hop’s best produced with the help of RapAnalysis.com’s Martin Connor. In the second half we speak with music industry veteran and gospel expert Naima Cochrane in order to place Kanye’s spiritual turn in a larger arch of gospel history.
Songs Discussed
Kanye West - Follow God, Closed On Sunday, Father Stretch My Hands, Freestyle 4, Every Hour, Golddigger, Famous, Jesus Is Lord, I Thought About Killing You
Fat’s Domino - The Fat Man
Run DMC - Walk This Way (ft. Aerosmith)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The band 5 Seconds Of Summer have just released their fourth studio album, Calm. Lead vocalist Luke Hemmings and bassist Calum Hood join us to talk about some of Australia’s biggest hits. In the first half of our conversation we discuss the catchy rhythms and vocals in Tame Impala’s song “Borderline,” a song driven more by vibe than conventional structures. Then on side B, 5SOS break down their new single single “Wildflower” and its countless 80s references. One sound in particular, the “stab” or “orchestral hit” in "Wildflower's" chorus, truly evokes the 80s. The song’s producer, Rami Yacoub, had used the sound before on Britney Spears “Lucky,” as had 100s of other artists who first got their hands on this sample from an Australian inventor who forever changed the sound of music.
Songs Discussed
More
Estelle Caswell’s Earworm Video on Peter Vogel’s Fairlight CMI and her playlist of Orchestral Hits
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Scandal and intrigue surround Joe Exotic, the central character of the new Netflix documentary Tiger King. Among the many bizarre traits of this zoo keeper, Exotic tries his hand at country music. Interspersed throughout the series, Joe sings about his love of big cats as well as his hatred for his nemesis in a gruesome murder ballad. But it turns out that amongst his many lies, Exotic’s country career may be yet another fabrication. Charlie speaks with journalist Robert Moor, host of the podcast Joe Exotic: Tiger King about who’s really behind the music.
Songs Discussed
More
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In the year 2000, D'Angelo released Voodoo—with some help from Questlove, Angie Stone, Raphael Saadiq, and a band of jazz veterans—an album that has cast a long shadow with its unique sound of stripped-down soul, Faith Pennick, who literally wrote the book on the record, joins to break how D'Angelo broke the "shiny suit" regime of R&B, explore how he conjured the spirits of J Dilla, Prince, and Roberta Flack, and consider how one video almost derailed his career.
Check out D'Angelo's Voodoo by Faith Pennick, from Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 Series
Songs discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>With Nate’s birthday around the corner, it’s time to admit that our go-to birthday song is actually the worst to sing to someone. There are reasons both musicological and cultural why this wooden celebratory number needs to go, ranging from funereal rhythms to Wagnerian opera to the Wizard of Oz. Tune in to uncover the horror of “Happy Birthday” and consider some of the alternatives on offer, including a recent Anne-Marie hit that takes birthday wishes and turns them around 180º.
Songs Discussed
Frédéric Chopin - Piano Sonata No 2 in B-Flat Minor, III
John Williams - The Imperial March
Judy Garland - Over the Rainbow
Richard Wagner - Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
The Beatles - Birthday
Anne-Marie - Birthday
Fetty Wap ft. Monty - Birthday
Stevie Wonder - Happy Birthday
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Latin Trap megastar Bad Bunny may be best known to American audiences for his feature on Cardi B’s #1 “I Like It’, but the Puerto Rican native is known to music-lovers worldwide for more than just those few bars. Bunny started off as a student in Universidad de Puerto Rico studying audio visual communications. He was bagging groceries at a supermarket in PR when he posted his song ‘Diles’ on SoundCloud. That moody, 808-fueled track turned into a record deal, as well as huge feature opportunities with bigger acts like Becky G, and of course--Cardi. His newest project, YHLQMDLG (an acronym that stands for the Spanish translation of “I do what I want”) is currently smothering the Hot Latin Billboard Chart. The albums opening track, "Si Veo a Tu Mamá" had us listening to the origins of Bossa nova, and investigate how elevator music-sounding samples and overused chord progressions add up to latin trap magic for El Conejito Malo.
Special thanks to Bad Bunny super fan and listener Maita, for never giving up hope :)
Songs discussed:
Bad Bunny - Diles
Becky G ft. Bad Bunny - Mayores
Cardi B ft. Bad Bunny, J Balvin - I Like It
Bad Bunny ft. Drake - MIA
Bad Bunny - Si Veo a tu Mamá
Antônio Carlos Jobim - The Girl From Ipanema
Bad Bunny - Soliá
Bad Bunny ft. Kendo Kaponi, Arcangel - P FKN R
Bad Bunny ft. Jowell & Randy, Nengo Flow - Safeara
Missy Elliot - Get Ur Freak On
Bad Bunny - <3
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Gone are the days of a clear dividing line between “mainstream pop” and “conscious” music. Many of the world’s highest-grossing pop stars are climbing the charts with lyrics that seem to get right at the very weight of human existence. They’re tackling climate change, and drug addiction, crippling anxiety, inequality, sexism and racism. It’s a fascinating shift to witness.
That’s why this week, we’re especially thrilled to be chatting with folk-pop duo Overcoats. JJ Mitchell and Hana Elion are known for otherworldly harmonies that sound more like a single voice diverging in two rather than the other way around. We discuss two singles off their new album “The Fight” (out now), and reflect on how seemingly small decisions about a song’s arrangement can make things like anxiety and microaggressions feel a bit easier to carry. Here’s a teaser quote from the episode that we’ll be thinking about for a while:
“We often use repetition as a way of saying something until you believe it...that’s very true for this song as well. We’re singing ‘There’s a fire / There’s a fury’...it feels apocalyptic. But the more you say ‘We’ll get through it’ and the more voices join in, it starts to feel true, and starts to feel hopeful.”
SONGS DISCUSSED
Overcoats - The Fool
Overcoats - Fire & Fury
The Supremes - Stop In The Name Of Love
LCD Soundsystem - Watch The Tapes
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>This week, Charlie talks to Lauv, the singer, songwriter and producer behind unfailingly catchy tracks such as “Mean It” and “I Like Me Better.” Lauv’s a master at making the sad feel fun—masking themes of anxiety and betrayal with upbeat, percussive production. He even does a bit of the opposite, too, by infusing his joyful songs with vulnerability and emotional complexity. You’ll soon be able to hear all of that and more on his debut studio album, ~how I’m feeling~, out later this week. Our conversation explores Lauv’s song-making process and touches on everything from T Swift (Lauv counts himself a fan), “mind” rhymes, and the particular nuances of loneliness in the internet age. Today’s episode also features the voices of some of our wonderful listeners--special thanks to Katy, Sadie, Robert, Genevieve, Keen and everyone else who wrote in with questions for Lauv.
Songs Discussed:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When Bristol-based producer Laxcity logged onto Twitter to find out that Justin Bieber sampled his music, he was at first unphased. The sampled material came from a royalty-free sample pack on Splice.com, free for Splice users to add to their track. Then accusations of theft started rolling in. Another artist, Asher Monroe, had used the same sample just a few weeks earlier and he accused Bieber of copying the idea. Laxcity inserted himself into the argument to show that the so-called offending sound, was in fact his, but not limited to anyone’s use. This mixup led to Bieber shouting out Laxcity, giving the nascent producer a career boost. On his episode we speak with Laxcity, Splice CEO Steve Martocci, PEX COO Amadea Choplin and Verge reporter Dani Deahl (who first reported the story) to unpack how sampling works in today’s music. Then we hear how Beiber’s new album, “Changes,” interprets the sample to convey Bieber’s personal evolution in the public eye.
Songs Discussed
Laxcity - Good Morning (Splice Sample)
Asher Monroe - Synergy
Justin Bieber - Running Over, Sorry, Available, Yummy, Intentions
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In 2019 guitar made a comeback in the top 10. According to analysis from Hit Songs Deconstructed, about a third of all songs featured the electric guitar, a nearly 10% jump from the year before. In 2020 this trend isn’t stopping. Recent releases by Halsey, 5 Seconds of Summer and Joji all prominently feature electric guitars tones. They reference 90s nu-metal, grunge and metal genres. More than a nostalgic nod, these songs draw from an era that was self-consciously “alternative” to convey disaffection, frustration and longing.
SONGS DISCUSSED
MORE
Listen to our conversation about MIA’s “Paper Planes” and Drake’s “God’s Plan” with Sam Sanders on NPR’s It’s Been A Minute
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Selena Gomez has her first #1 song on the Hot 100. “Lose You To Love Me” is a confessional look at her past five years of heartbreak and health challenges. By contrast, her single “Look At Her Now” is a testament to moving on and moving up. Each of these songs inhabits a different musical and lyrical world and we were lucky to get to speak with her collaborators on the songs to take us behind the scenes of how they came to be. Justin Tranter and Ian Kirkpatrick are two of today’s most in-demand writers. They walk us through how Selena takes her personal emotions and translates them into public catharsis on her album “Rare.”
Songs Discussed
More
Watch Selena Gomez interviewed by Zane Lowe on Beats One.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The boy band One Direction has been on hiatus for nearly five years, yet only now have all of the members of the group released a solo album. But how do these efforts from Niall, Liam, Harry, Louis and Zayn stack up? Vox Writer (and One Direction fan) Alexa Lee compares albums as a challenge for each member to rise to their greatest artistic potential.
SONGS DISCUSSED
MORE
Read Alexa’s piece “2 winners and 3 losers from One Direction’s solo albums”
Listen to Nate convince Charlie to love One Direction in an early episode of Switched On Pop
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Post Malone has confounded your hosts since he emerged on the scene, so this week we sit down to try and get to the bottom of our cycles of attraction and repulsion through deep analysis of his current hit, "Circles." Along the way, we discuss trenchant questions such as: How is the minor IV always the saddest of all chords? Why does Posty tend to sound like a certain ruminant mammal? And, what happens when you plug Tchaikovsky into a Wu Tang name generator?
Songs Discussed:
And don't forget to enter the Wu Tang Name Generator
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Mac Miller, Future and Billie Eilish all have good and bad news to share. On Miller’s posthumous album, Circles, he exposes personal struggles with fame, addiction, and mental illness — sobering topics given his unintentional drug overdose last year. Yet at the same time we hear him searching for “good news,” practicing self care and accepting that “there's a whole lot more” waiting. Future & Drake’s celebration of material excess also finds them “working on the weekend” just to keep up appearances. Similarly, Billie Eilish has achieved “everything [she] wanted,” but dreams of death and darkness overwhelm her. But she’s buoyed by the support of her brother FINNEAS. Many pop songs are about a single emotion: love, heartbreak or exuberant joy. But these great songs evoke more complex emotions, existing somewhere in a liminal space between our hopes and fears.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Dua Lipa remembers the disco era in her hit “Don’t Start Now.” What may sound like just another dance floor track, upon deeper listening unfolds as a celebration of the genre. References to Gloria Gaynor, Chic, Giorgio Moroder and The Bee Gees are all waiting here for the curious listener to uncover. But so are the Italian and Daft Punk inspired bass lines. Yet the song is more than just one big disco ball cliché. It is brilliantly written too. We asked our listeners to help us highlight the best moments of the song as this is a song that continues to sound anew upon each playback. In 2020, the influence of Disco is still very much alive and Dua Lip’s “Don’t Start Now,” written with Caroline Ailin, Emily Warren and Ian Kirkpatrick, is a shining example of a great contemporary disco track.
Songs Discussed
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The sound of R&B is difficult to pin down. Since the 1950s, the label has been used both as a genre and as a catch-all for the entirety of black popular music. Soul, funk, disco and even hip-hop have at times been covered by this "R&B" umbrella. On Chance The Rapper's new album, The Big Day, all of these influences come through—and he's not alone. On recent Kehlani records, 90s R&B and 2000s trap both play a role. But both these artists are a far cry from the 50s R&B sounds of Sam Cooke. To understand how R&B has changed over time, we consult with Trevor Anderson, manager of Billboard's R&B/Hip Hop chart. Then we speak with R&B super-producer Oak Felder to understand how R&B is progressing and what it might become.
Songs Discussed
Chance The Rapper – Hot Shower
Chance The Rapper – I Got You
Sam Cooke – You Send Me
Elvis Presley – Crying In the Chapel
The Temptations – I Can’t Get Next To You
Mtume – Juicy Fruit
Biggie – Juicy
Toni Braxton – Breath Again
Janet Jackson – That’s The Way Love Goes
Boys II Men – I’ll Make Love To You
Lauryn Hill – Doo Wop (That Thing)
Diddy – I’ll Be Missing You (feat. Faith Evans & 112)
Nelly – Dilemma
Kehlani – Distraction
SWV – Weak
Aaron Hall – I Miss You
Usher – You Make Me Wanna
Brandy – Sit-in Up In My Room
Dru Hill – In My Bed
Silk – Freak Me
Demi Lovato – Sorry Not Sorry
Jodeci – Cry For you
Mariah Carey – Vision of Love
Kehlani Everything Is Yours
Chance The Rapper – All Day Long
Queen – Fat Bottom Girls
Diana Ross – I’m Coming Out
For an in depth history of R&B on Billboard, read Chris Molanphy's feature on Pitchfork.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On a trajectory to be one of the biggest pop stars for this generation, seventeen year old Billie Eilish is not, however, your typical pop star. Her music speaks to the real anxieties of young people without any veneer. She sings from the perspective of monsters and villains. Her hushed voice, baggy style, and direct demeanor subvert the norms of the pop princess. And her music is dark, but still catchy. Billie co-writes and produces her sound with her older brother Finneas O’Connell. Together this family duo have crafted the second biggest selling album of 2019, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” On this episode, we examine how Billie and Finneas crafted a cultural phenomenon, why their message speaks to this generation, and we speak with Finneas about the creation of their hit song “Bad Guy.”
MORE
MORE
Billie Eilish explained on Vox.com
Watch Billie and Finneas break down “Bury A Friend” on The New York Times
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>There are icons, and then there’s Dolly Parton. The country singer-turned-actress-turned-cultural phenomenon has produced a nearly unparalleled body of work, in both quantity (Parton is the sole or co-author of more than three thousand songs) and in legacy. Despite releasing her first album over 60 years ago, Parton’s songs are still covered and performed live by today’s pop artists. Presidential candidates are still selecting her songs as official walk-on music. So what is it exactly that makes her music so enduring? Today, we select four essential Dolly songs for dissection and try to answer that big question with the help of composer, longtime radio-maker and host of the new hit podcast, Dolly Parton’s America--Jad Abumrad. Whether or not you identify as a Dolly Parton fan, or even a country music fan, we think you’ll love this one.
Songs discussed
Thanks to Jad, producer Shima Oliaee and the rest of the Dolly Parton’s America team. You can check out the eight episodes they’ve released so far, and keep an eye out for the final one at www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Bass distorted to the edge of audibility; voices croaking out dark and violent lyrics; a hacked-together DIY aesthetic. This isn't a fringe musical movement, this is the sound of TikTok, the video app used by millions in Generation Z. And soon enough it might also be the sound of pop as we know it. Cat Zhang from Pitchfork stops by to clue us into the sonic reality of music's newest platform, from Gordon Ramsay to pumpkins screaming in the dead of night.
Songs Discussed
Check out Cat's article The Anatomy of a TikTok Hit on Pitchfork
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>We hand over the hosting duties to Constance Grady, book reviewer for Vox.com, to discuss our new book/baby - Switched on Pop: How Popular Music Works and Why it Matters, and go deep on two specific concepts we haven’t touched nearly enough on the show: timbre (with the help of Sia’s “Chandelier) and sampling (via M.I.A.’s iconic “Paper Planes). The book of course goes further, devoting a full chapter each to sixteen different concepts we’ve explored on the show (think harmony, modulation, syncopation, genre), and pairing those concepts with the pop tracks that really bring them to life.
There are so many people who helped us get this thing from concept to bound stack of papers that you can hold in your hands, but right now, right here, we want to shout out: our listeners. You all shape the show every week by suggesting incredible episode ideas and recommending songs for us to break down. You also inspired this book, when you asked us year in and year out for a definitive guide to the essential musical knowledge necessary to understand contemporary pop. We hope you like it, and know that your emails, tweets and analysis continue to delight and inspire us to no end.
SONGS DISCUSSED
MORE
Switched on Pop: How Popular Music Works and Why it Matters is available now! Find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound or buy directly from Oxford University Press.
Book illustrations by the indomitable Iris Gottlieb: https://www.irisgottlieb.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The East Coast / West Coast hip hop feud between Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls is full of tragedy and conspiracy, but what did it really sound like? For the third season of of the hit podcast Slow Burn, host Joel Anderson and producer Christopher Johnson dig up untold stories about this infamous rivalry, and they join Nate and Charlie to break down boom bap, G Funk, and the surprising points of overlap between two titans of rap.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Electric Guest (Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton) take a left turn towards pop on “Dollar" — a song about making more out of less, something too many people find themselves to do right now. The music follows the same principle, turning cheap synths and canned horns into a symphony of sound. We chat with Asa about how the track — equally inspired by Stevie Wonder and Bertolt Brecht —came to be and why pop can be a balm in dark times.
Songs Featured
Electric Guest - Dollar
Stevie Wonder - Uptight (Everything's Alright)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Nate doesn’t know much about the musical style known as emo. Sadly, he was too busy nerding out on jazz during his youthful years to catch the moment. That’s a shame, because emo is experiencing a revival right now - most surprisingly within the world of hip hop. All of which leaves Nate in the awkward position of not really having any idea what’s going on, so thank goodness for some schooling by Vox culture reporter Allegra Frank, who spent her teenage years the right way: getting emotional to the soundtrack of emo. Her first lesson about this endlessly fascinating subculture? It’s way more than just a sound.
Songs discussed:
Sunny Day Real Estate - Seven
Jawbreaker - Do You Still Hate Me?!
My Chemical Romance - I’m Not Okay (I Promise)
Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We’re Goin Down
Panic! At the Disco - I Write Sins not Tragedies
Jimmy Eat World - Lucky Denver Mint
Jimmy Eat World - A Praise Chorus
Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
American Football - Never Meant
Foxing - Lich My Prince
The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Heartbeat in the Brain
Check out more of Allegra’s work here: https://www.vox.com/authors/allegra-frank
And learn more about Tom Mullen and Washed Out Emo here: http://www.washedupemo.com/about
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Once upon a time, classical music was pop, so today it's worth stepping back and asking: where does one genre stop and the other begin? Can classical ever be popular again? And why do only some classical tracks makes for good samples? Luckily James Bennett II of classical station WQXR is on hand to break down these and other musical conundrums, including but not limited to: killer opera clowns, Bach hip hop hybrids, and the namesake album of this very podcast.
Songs discussed:
Dessa and the Minnesota Orchestra - Chaconne
Enrico Caruso - Vesti la Giubbia
Mario Lanza - Because You’re Mine
Wendy Carlos - Prelude and Fugue in C Minor
Jackie Evancho - Nessun Dorma
Jackie Evancho - Burn
Lindsay Stirling - Underground
Vitamin String Quartet - Shallow
Florence Price - Symphony 1
Nas - I Can
Black Eyed Peas - Back 2 Hip Hop
Victoria - Impropreia
Kanye West - Gone
Check out more of James's writing here: https://www.wqxr.org/people/james-bennett-ii/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Back in the fall of 2017, our producer Megan Lubin went for a stroll near her house, popped in earbuds, and heard a song that’s stuck with her ever since: “Si Tú Supieras Compañero” (“If you only knew, my friend”), by the Spanish pop star Rosalía. Since then, Rosalía’s star has continued, especially after the 2018 release of “El Mal Querer,” Rosalía’s genre-blending album of R&B and flamenco.
On this episode, we dig into Rosalía’s sound to try and figure out what stopped Megan in her tracks back then, and what keeps us coming back. With the help of New York Times Magazine writer Marcela Valdes, we break down key elements of the flamenco tradition, like the hard-to-define magic of duende, and count out some of the diabolical rhythms that keep us dancing.
Songs Discussed
Episode Spotify Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4zRce31m3RhCjVwmSSMz2Q
Read “Rosalía’s Incredible Journey from Flamenco to Megastardom” by Marcela Valdes: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/08/magazine/rosalia-flamenco.html
Watch Rosalía performing “Me quedo contigo”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32d1bq-kG5c
More coverage of Rosalía from The FADER magazine: https://www.thefader.com/artist/rosalia
**A previous version of this episode claimed that Alicia Key's "Fallin'", Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved a Man", "Marvin Gaye's "Here, My Dear" and Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" were all written in 3/4 time. That was in error, and we've edited the episode to reflect that.
CORRECTION
After airing this episode, listeners informed us that many Romani people consider the term “gypsy” to be antiquated, discriminatory and derogatory. We apologize for airing this this word in the episode, and will avoid its usage in all forgoing work. See the NOW foundation’s explanation for further detail: The “G” Word Isn’t for You: How “Gypsy” Erases Romani Women
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Last year, NPR Music ran an audacious headline: "Rihanna Is The 21st Century's Most Influential Musician." Millions and millions of fans the world over agree, and while we try to avoid overt expressions of pop favoritism, we think they’ve got a strong case. It’s for that reason and a dozen others that we were thrilled to welcome Gina Delvac of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend back to the show to discuss the legendary career of one Ms. Robyn Rihanna Fenty. As we all await her ninth studio album (R9), join us for a virtual* blunt-smoke-laced tour through the hit songs that defined her early sound, and a delectable deep dive into her most recent album, ANTI.
*Zero blunts were enjoyed at the time of recording.
Songs Discussed
Check out Jenny Gathright's NPR article “Rihanna Is The 21st Century's Most Influential Musician” here: https://www.npr.org/2018/08/15/638551793/rihanna-is-the-21st-centurys-most-influential-musician
And find even more work from our wonderful contributors this week down below:
Gina: http://ginadelvac.com/
Ivie: https://ivieani.contently.com/
Cate: https://www.cate-young.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Anil Dash is obsessed with Prince. Since he’s the host of the tech podcast Function, he has a unique perspective on the Purple One’s complicated relationship with technology. Anil joins the show to break down the many ways that Prince predicted the sound and science of modern pop, from drum machines to online distribution to internet culture. We’ll discuss how Michael Jackson jacked Prince’s electronic experimentation for Thriller, why Prince liked to lurk in fan chat rooms, and how he found ways to change his sound without ever sacrificing his integrity. We’re only beginning to understand Prince’s legacy, but Anil takes us one step closer to fully appreciating the ahead-of-their-time talents of a once-in-a-century artist.
Songs featured:
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Men singing high is so ubiquitous in modern pop that we might take it granted, never pausing to ask: has it always been this way? Estelle Caswell, who makes the Emmy-winning Earworm series for Vox, decided to find out, and she stops by to share results from her painstaking study of male falsetto in pop music from 1958 to today. Some of her findings may surprise, like 1996 was the peak year for falsetto, Justin Timberlake doesn't sing as you high at might think, and falsetto has been around as long as pop itself.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>NPR's Sam Sanders stops by to break down the tracks that Switched On listeners have been loving. Swedish dancefloor confessionals, songs that stop time, the specificity of Lana Del Rey, and the awkwardness of descending fourths: it's all on the table in this freewheeling conversation of deep musical nerdiness.
Songs DiscussedTove Lo ft Kylie Minogue - Really don’t like uCamila Cabello - LiarAce of Base - All That She WantsTyler the Creator - EARFQUAKETaylor Swift - Cruel SummerLana Del Rey, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus - Don’t Call Me AngelLana Del Rey - Happiness is a butterflyKing Princess - ProphetKim Petras - Hillside BoysIDK - PornoJai Paul - Str8 Outta MumbaiJai Paul - Genevieve (Unfinished)Many thanks to everyone who called in for this one: Amanda, Jackie, Melanie, Alec, Madeleine, John B, Steve, Courtney, Julia, Zach, Lee, Tara, Habbi, and of course - John from Baltimore.
For more of Sam's great takes on culture, check out It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders.
CORRECTION: A version of this episode incorrectly stated that Jack Antonoff was a writer on the song "Lover." Taylor Swift was the sole credited songwriter on that song, while Jack Antonoff has a production credit on the piece.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Dallas Taylor, host of the stellar sound design series Twenty Thousand Hertz, stops by to fill Nate in on the science and style of mastering: the subtle art that explains why Metallica had to re-release a controversial album, Kanye sounds so crisp, and why the best pop really pops.
Songs Discussed
Lizzo - Juice
Kanye West - Heartless
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to heaven
Pink Floyd - Money
Daft Punk - Get Lucky
Metallica - The Day That Never Comes
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper
The Beatles - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Intrigued by mastering? Get your fix with the Twenty Thousand Hertz episode The [Compressed] History of Mastering.
We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: https://voxmedia.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ewVXHPZIsQNlxCR?Source=note
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Charlie's out on parental leave, which means no one is here to stop Nate from going off the rails. And you know what means... JAZZ! As soon as dad left the room, Nate enlisted his favorite journalist, jazz and sports writer Natalie Weiner, to come on the show and discuss her incredible 1959 Project — a day-by-day chronicle of jazz during one of its most pivotal years. We listen to classic 1959 albums Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and Dave Brubeck's Take Out, discuss the complex legacy of Billie Holiday, and dig into some of the year's forgotten gems.
Sixty years later, jazz is no longer the cultural juggernaut is once was — but it still has much to teach us about pop culture of the present.
Playlist:
•Miles Davis - So What
•Dave Brubeck - Take Five
•Billie Holiday - Blue Moon
•Billie Holiday - Billie's Blues
•Erykah Badu - On & On
•Amy Winehouse - There Is No Greater Love
•Muriel Roberts - Sleigh Ride
•Terry Pollard - Laura
•Willene Barton and her Trio - Rice Pudding
Check out the 1959 and 2019 jazz cuts we're listening to.
We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: https://voxmedia.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ewVXHPZIsQNlxCR?Source=note
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The pace of new music releases these days is dizzying. Sometimes it’s like watching someone do a magic trick--we *swear* those songs weren’t there a second ago! But then, there they are, popping up in batches right out of thin air. Of course, behind each individual release sits months of decision-making by the artist: who to collaborate with and when, how to structure the musical product of that collaboration, what to call it, how to release it, when, and on what platform. The list is long, and each of those choices has a big impact on how we hear the song.
The Verge’s Dani Deahl recently sat down with reigning Princess of Pop, Charli XCX, to discuss how she approaches those decisions, and how that approach is bucking long-established norms in popular music. In this special bonus episode of Switched on Pop, Dani rings up Charlie (not XCX) to recap that conversation and put Charli (XCX)’s artistry in context. Via Dani, we learn that for Charli collaboration is more than just an artistic choice; and release strategy is much more than a major label playbook. There’s a total freedom in the way Charli releases music, and we love it. Huge thanks to Dani for bringing us this peek into her world.
Songs discussed:Charli XCX - Boom ClapCharli XCX, Christine and the Queens - GoneCharli XCX ft. Lizzo - Blame It On Your LoveLizzo - Truth HurtsCatch the rest of Dani’s conversation with both Charli/es in the newest episode of The Verge’s ‘Future of Music’ video series,
We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: https://voxmedia.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ewVXHPZIsQNlxCR?Source=note
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>For most parents, “Baby Shark” is the nightmare that will not end. Ever since the South Korean educational company Pinkfong released the song earlier this year, it’s almost impossible to avoid.
The infectious children’s tune has more than 2.3 billion views on YouTube and made it onto the Billboard Top 40 list. So what makes this song so catchy and irresistible to children? And how do the rest of us cope with the unavoidable hit while keeping our sanity?
Andrea Silenz, host of the parenting podcast The Longest Shortest Time, and Charlie explore the phenomenon that is “Baby Shark.
Songs DiscussedPinkfong - Baby SharkFrank Zappa - Baby SnakesStevie Wonder - Isn’t She Lovely Suzanne Vega - Tom’s DinerBaby Shark/ Tom’s Diner mashup “Baby Diner”The Weeknd - I Can’t Feel My FaceRadioheadPinkfong - The Penguin DancePinkfong - Lions in LoveDrake - God’s PlanMicheal Jackson - Billie JeanWhitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With SomebodyBruno Mars - Uptown FunkBeastie Boys - Brass MonkeyVanilla Ice - Ice Ice BabyJosh Groban - River The Beatles - All You Need Is LoveHarry Potter theme Raffi - Baby Beluga
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Ross Golan is no stranger to Switched on Pop. This week, the songwriter and host of the hit podcast And The Writer Is… joins Charlie for a BONUS episode (cue siren) about the surprising lessons learned from a collective seven years behind the interview mic. Tune in as Ross and Charlie discuss the infinite shelf-life of classic songwriting techniques, the happy accidents behind some of your favorite hit songs, and the essential qualities of a good listener.
Find more Ross on Switched on Pop in Episode 58, ‘What’s to Love About Ed Sheeran?’, and catch more of And The Writer Is… when Season 5 premiers this Monday, September 9th — anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Episodes discussed:#80 How to ‘Make Me Feel’ with Lizzo#123 What BTS’s “Boy With Love” ft. Halsey Can Teach Us About K-pop#99 Entering Beard Phase (with Mike Posner)#107 How Streaming Changed the Sound of PopSongs Discussed:Lizzo - Truth HurtsSister Nancy - Bam BamPaul Anka - Put Your Hand on My ShoulderBTS ft. Halsey - Boy with LuvAriana Grande - Break Free
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On this very special episode, we join forces with the hilarious podcast OFF BOOK. When our powers combine, Zach and Jess of Off Book, plus their killer backing band of Scott, Dana and Brett create an improvised musical, while Nate and Charlie break down the sound and structure of a Broadway show. Stay tuned for deep thoughts about what separates pop music from musicals, wild speculation about the origin of the word “vamp,” and an ENTIRE FREAKING MUSICAL COMPOSED FROM SCRATCH that will make you laugh your face off. This is not one to miss.
Find more episodes of Off Book on their website h.earwolf.com/off, or anywhere you find podcasts.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>"Make Me Feel," is the first hit from Janelle Monáe's 2018 album Dirty Computer, and a sensual song about the fluidity of desire. In the pre-chorus, the singer proudly expresses that she is a "sexual bender." Fans have embraced the song for breaking free of normative sexual expectations. But these non-binary statements aren't limited to the lyrics. The message is reinforced with musical concepts drawn from the blues, Prince and Michael Jackson. To help break down this track, Nate and Charlie are joined by singer/rapper Lizzo. She and Monáe both collaborated with Prince, making Lizzo uniquely qualified to unwind his influence on the song. We also discuss Lizzo's song "Truth Hurts" and her podcast "Good As Hell" where she talks to the queens of hip hop. Hands down, Lizzo is one of the most talented, knowledgable and fun guests. You don't want to miss this episode.
Songs DiscussedJanelle Monáe - Make Me FeelMichael Jackson - The Way You Make Me FeelMichael Jackson - Beat ItFats Domino - Blueberry HillPrince - KissYing Yang Twins - Wait (The Whisper Song)Lizzo - Truth HurtsSister Nancy - Bam
Don't miss Lizzo's podcast "Good As Hell" on Spotify
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Today we're revisiting an episode inspired by a pair of classic VH1 shows: “Behind the Music” and “Where Are They Now?”
Our subjects are two songs representing the lunatic fringe of 90s culture, “Cotton Eyed Joe” and “How Bizarre.”
In the course of our musicological investigation, we uncover dark truths about these seemingly anodyne hits that will make you question everything you know about pop music.
And in the end, we reach a definitive answer to a perennially vexing question: “WTF was 90s music so weird?”
Songs Discussed
Rednex:
Cotton Eye Joe
Pop in an Oak
The Way I Mate
Cotton Eyed Joe:
Fiddlin John Carson
Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys
Karen Dalton
Chieftains
Nina Simone
OMC:
How Bizarre
Right On
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Every year, critics and media outlets the world over put out definitive song-of-summer guides based on... well, we’re not always entirely sure. Certainly popularity, as measured by streams and radio play; not to mention that bewildering feeling that creeps up some time mid-July, prompting whispered exclamations of: “man, this song is everywhere.” But the most ubiquitous track isn’t necessarily the one you’ll have on repeat on those steamy summer commutes to work, nor is it the song you’ll want soundtracking this year’s vacations, graduations, summer flings and backyard cookouts.
In this episode, we abandon the pursuit of a single song of summer, and ask the question we’re more interested in: What does summer sound like? To answer that question, we asked you, our listeners, and got some downright awesome suggestions in return. Your voicemails covered everything from Hot Girl Summer anthems and nostalgia-inducing dance jams, to globally infused collaborations and just-released future-feeling indie rock cuts. Today, we travel across the full spectrum of summer feels, and the music that comes through when we need it the most.
Songs DiscussedMUNA - Number One FanAmber Mark - Put You OnJonas Brothers - Only HumanShawn Mendes, Camila Cabello - SeñoritaCharlie XCX, Christine and the Queens - GoneBTS, Zara Larsson - Brand New DayKaty Perry - Teenage DreamPost Malone - SunflowerLil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus - Old Town RoadPinkfong - Baby Shark Khalid - BetterMegan Thee Stallion - Big ol’ FreakMegan Thee Stallion, Juicy J - Simon SaysSaweetie - My TypePetey Pablo - Freak-A-LeakCity Girls - Act UpMegan Thee Stallion, DaBaby - Cash ShitClairo - Sofia HAIM - Summer GirlLou Reed - Walk on the Wild SideMother’s Daughter - Miley CyrusRosalía - Aute CutureAriana Grande - NASABANKS - GimmeGrimes, Hana - We appreciate powerLizzo - Truth HurtsPaul McCartney - JetDon Henley - The Boys of SummerSantana, Rob Thomas - SmoothBritney Spears - ToxicThe Slits - I Heard it Through the Grapevine Missy Elliott - SlideFreddie Gibbs, Madlib - CataractsVampire Weekend - 2021
Misc extras
Listen to all of these songs and more on the Switched on Pop Songs of Summer 2019 Playlist.
Note
In this episode we made light of PTSD by using the term irreverently - thanks to listener feedback we're better aware of how destructive such diminishing comments can be to people dealing with trauma. We apologize for the misuse and will strive to avoid it in the future.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The sound of R&B is difficult to pin down. Since the 1950s, the label has been used both as a genre and as a catch-all for the entirety of black popular music. Soul, funk, disco and even hip-hop have at times been covered by this "R&B" umbrella. On Chance The Rapper's new album, The Big Day, all of these influences come through—and he's not alone. On recent Kehlani records, 90s R&B and 2000s trap both play a role. But both these artists are a far cry from the 50s R&B sounds of Sam Cooke. To understand how R&B has changed over time, we consult with Trevor Anderson, manager of Billboard's R&B/Hip Hop chart. Then we speak with R&B super-producer Oak Felder to understand how R&B is progressing and what it might become.
Songs Discussed
Chance The Rapper – Hot Shower
Chance The Rapper – I Got You
Sam Cooke – You Send Me
Elvis Presley – Crying In the Chapel
The Temptations – I Can’t Get Next To You
Mtume – Juicy Fruit
Biggie – Juicy
Toni Braxton – Breath Again
Janet Jackson – That’s The Way Love Goes
Boys II Men – I’ll Make Love To You
Lauryn Hill – Doo Wop (That Thing)
Diddy – I’ll Be Missing You (feat. Faith Evans & 112)
Nelly – Dilemma
Kehlani – Distraction
SWV – Weak
Aaron Hall – I Miss You
Usher – You Make Me Wanna
Brandy – Sit-in Up In My Room
Dru Hill – In My Bed
Silk – Freak Me
Demi Lovato – Sorry Not Sorry
Jodeci – Cry For you
Mariah Carey – Vision of Love
Kehlani Everything Is Yours
Chance The Rapper – All Day Long
Queen – Fat Bottom Girls
Diana Ross – I’m Coming Out
For an in depth history of R&B on Billboard, read Chris Molanphy's feature on Pitchfork.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>For the live action remake of the Lion King, Beyoncé, (who voices Nala in the film), recorded and curated a companion soundtrack called The Gift. She worked with leading Afropop stars to expose the music of the continent to a global audience. In her piece, “Diversity Is in the Details: What Beyoncé’s 'The Lion King: The Gift' Gets Right and Wrong,” Okayplayer music editor Ivie Ani argues that the album highlights music while unintentionally treating the continent as a monolith. Ani joins Switched On Pop to break down this album and what it means for Afropop.
Songs DiscussedBeyoncé, Jay-Z, Childish Gambino, Oumou Sangaré – MOOD 4 EVAOumou Sangaré – Diaraby NenBurna Boy – JA ARAFela Kuti – Water No Get EnemyFena, MDQ, Mayonde, Kagwe, Blinky Bill – PARTY NATIONListen to Blinky and Ivie’s East African playlist recommendations
Leave us a voicemail about your favorite songs of summer: 385-626-6179
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Why is it that every hip restaurant plays the same music? When Eater restaurant editor Hillary Dixler Canavan kept hearing similar songs while dining for work assignments, she compiled a playlist of what she heard. It included songs by LCD Soundsystem, M83, Grimes, Biggie, Beck and the like. Her subsequent article about this music, “This Is Every Generically Cool Restaurant’s Playlist,” went viral.
She’d captured the elusive sound of small plate dining. But what left her guessing was why this sound? And how did it reach so many restaurants in cities across the U.S.? She brought this question to Switched On Pop to understand why this 00s mostly indie sound was the ideal background for post-industrial chic establishments.
Investigating the issue, she discovered a small bubble of music selectors who curate these lists for businesses. She spoke with Yvette Bailhache, a D.C. based music selector for restaurants and bars about how these lists are made. And she asked Jonathan Shecter, founder of the Las Vegas based background music service Playback Prodigy, about what makes an ideal background sound. What she discovered is surprising. The sounds in the background may dictate more of our foreground than you’d expect.
Music DiscussedLCD Soundsystem - I Can ChangeM83 - Midnight City Grimes - GenesisIce Cube - It Was A Good DayWu-Tang Clean - CREAMThis Will Destroy You - KitchenListen to Hillary’s Every Restaurant Playlist and for more stories and news on food, subscribe to Eater's podcast Upsell
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Lil Nas X licensed the beat for “Old Town Road” from an e-commerce platform. He originally bought a non-exclusive copy of the backing track for just $29.99 from a 19 year old Dutch record producer called YoungKio. And he’s not the first hitmaker to do so. Desiigner, Bryson Tiller and Queen Naija have all made hit songs from internet beats. These beats are big business. The arguable market leader, BeatStars, has paid its producers over $50M since its inception in 2008. The platform allows producers to market their beats to MCs and singers, boasting 340,000 active sellers and 1.5M tracks. BeatStars CEO Abe Batshon originally created the company to connect artists who may not live in the music industry hubs in L.A., N.Y., Nashville and Atlanta. His global ambitions were realized—producers on the platform come from all over the world. They release a steady stream of new music, marketing their original and sound-a-like beats to aspiring and emerging artists everywhere turning into ad music, Instagram stories and even Billboard Hot 100 hits. While BeatStars increases access to music, could this commoditization of music devalue the creative process? We speak with Abe as well as producers on the platform—songwriter Breana Marin and producer Dansonn—to understand how online beat selling is effecting the sound of pop music.
Music Discussed:Lil Nas X - Old Town RoadBryson Tiller - Don’tYBN Nahmir - Rubbin off the PaintDesiigner - Panda’Queen Naija - MedicineCERTIBEATS - MojoBEATDEMONS - NohoBrytiago ft Bad Bunny - NETFLIXXXBreana Marin’s BeatStars pageDansonn’s BeatStars pageListen to “Bouncing On The Band Stand” by Marian Hill’s Jeremy Loyd (Clear Eyes) and Charlie (Charlatan). You can even license it for $29.99 for your own production.
Vote for Switched On Pop in this year's People's Choice Podcast Awards!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Shawn Mendes’ hit song “If I Can’t Have You” is so ridiculously catchy that Charlie had it stuck in his head after the first chorus. How is that possible?! Declamation, or the way that text is set to music, is a big part of the song’s appeal—every word that Mendes sings is perfectly in rhythm. In this episode we use Mendes’ latest track to explore creative declamation throughout history. How do artists from Whitney Houston to Queen to Taylor Swift keep finding new ways to sing the word “somebody”? Why did the composer Georg Friedrich Handel get in trouble for a bit of awkward text setting in one of the most famous pieces of Baroque music? And, does Beyoncé even know how to pronounce “sandcastles”? Finally, Mendes’ hit leads us to ask: is “incorrect” declamation is something to celebrate, or criticize?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Find out how music creates a feeling of space in this three part episode. First, we may not realize it when we listen to Madonna's new record, but the location of her music is essential. In exploring her catalogue we hear the sound of different eras by just the space evoked in a song. Second, the same is true for Stephen Puth who uses spacial effects for brilliant creative purposes on his song "Look Away." When music is recorded in a studio with perfect acoustics, engineers manipulate that audio to place it in a 3D virtual space using reverb, delay, volume, panning and filters. Each of those effects changes our relationship to the music, and in Steven's case, the lyric. Finally, when we get outside the studio, like with Found Sound Nation and Make Music Day's “Street Studios”, music can echo the geography it is made in. Take this wild journey with us and truly expand your listening.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>How should we listen to K-pop? This music has become a global phenomenon, charting on the Billboard Hot 100, taking over social media feeds, and touring the world. In particular, the group BTS has captured the ears of millions, building an Army of fans along the way. As uninitiated listeners, the language and culture barrier left us uncertain about how to approach listening to, let alone breaking down their music. So we sought out the support of Dr, Suk-Young Kim, Professor of Critical Studies and the Director of the Center for Performance Studies at UCLA, and KCON's Vanessa Augsbach. Dr. Kim's research on K-pop helps to expand our ears and understand the genre's history and aesthetics, while Augsbach helps us better appreciate the fandom. Applying their insights, we listen to "Boy With Luv" as a first foray into the wonders of K-pop.
Read Dr. Kim's book K-pop Live: Fans Idols, and Multimedia Performance,
Watch Vox's Netflix series Explained on the history of K-pop
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Fans are not happy with Will Smith's update of the classic Disney song "Prince Ali" in the live-action Aladdin. Their complaint? The new "Prince Ali" is slow, sluggish, and dull. Indeed, the Smith version is 8 BPM (beats per minute) slower than Robin Williams's 1992 original—a subtle musical detail. We dig into the properties of tempo and key to understand why people have such a visceral reaction to a relatively small change and consider whether it suggests that we—meaning all of us humans, from musicians to amateurs—are more musically literate than we think.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Ever notice that wobbly, drunken and underwater sound common in so many contemporary pop songs? In an era of pristine recording quality, music producers are referencing old and impure technologies to add character to their recordings. Digital cassette hiss, tape wobble, and vinyl crackle are intentionally added to productions as a facsimile of "authentic" recording technology. Why the sudden nostalgia? Where does this underwater sound come from? What does it mean? How is it made? Find out on a live episode of Switched On Pop, recorded at Recode's annual Code conference with guest host Estelle Caswell, creator of Vox's Earworm video series.
Listen to Estelle's Spotify playlist of underwater intros.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Rocketman is a spectacle the size of Elton John, four films in one. It contains a biopic, jukebox musical, addiction recovery story and a romance between friends. The soundtrack ties the story together by taking historical liberties to tell a fantastical story about one of the best living songwriters. Charlie is joined by Vox’s film critic, Alissa Wilkinson to breakdown the film and deconstruct how its melodic themes create an emotional arc. He also speaks with Giles Martin (son of 5th Beatle George Martin) who music directed the film and soundtrack about how he assembled an entire life’s work into a singular narrative.
Songs Discussed
Taron Egerton - RocketmanQueen - Bohemian RhapsodyTaron Egerton, Jamie Bell - Goodbye Yellow Brick RoadKit Connor & Gemma Jones & Bryce Dallas Howard & Steven Mackintosh - I Want LoveTaron Egerton - Crocodile RockTaron Egerton - Your SongTaron Egerton - Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest WordMozart - Requiem
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On the KRCW series Lost Notes, Jessica Hopper plumbs pop music history for the most important stories never told. She brings us a bevy of lost gems, from Fanny, an all-female quartet of rockers that was one of David Bowie's favorite bands, to the Freeze a late-70s punk outfit now coming to terms with the offensive lyrics of their youth. Tune in to discover another side of pop, one that's rarely been heard.
Songs Discussed:Fanny - Charity Ball (Live Version)Fanny - Ain't that PeculiarThe Freeze - I Hate TouristsCat Power - The Greatest
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>A pop star collaboration is a foolproof way to grab the attention of two audiences at once. But do more collaborators actually make a better song? Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber put this question to the test in their new song "I Don't Care." The track takes us inside the head of an antisocial party hopper, who'd rather be back home with his lover. Nate and Charlie investigate how the songwriters works that message into their music and speak with Ross Golan about Ed Sheeran's songwriting brilliance.
Songs Discussed
• Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber - I Don't Care
• Ed Sheeran – Shape of You
• Justin Bieber – Love Yourself
• Kygo ft. Ella Henderson – Here For You
• Maroon 5 – Don’t Wanna Know
Check out And The Writer Is… With Ross Golan: https://www.andthewriteris.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>What do Bach and smooth jazz have in common? Both score the unmistakable theme song for NPR's flagship show Morning Edition, listened to by millions across the country every day since 1979. This is undeniably pop music, a daily soundtrack to the lives of many. So why does it sound the way it does? And why, after forty years, why does NPR want to change it?
Featuring:
BJ Leiderman - Morning Edition
Chuck Mangione - Feels So Good
Herbie Hancock - Chameleon
George Benson - Breezin'
Kenny G - Songbird
Don Voegeli/Wycliffe Gordon - All Things Considered
Take 6 - All Things Considered
Phish - All Things Reconsidered
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Many people write us with musical maladies and conspiracies. A recent one caught our attention. Daniel Armbruster, lead vocalist of indie band Joywave, has been hearing the same melody in tracks across the Alternative Songs charts. He believes that this hook could be the secret to securing a spot on the Billboard 100. Nate and Charlie investigate this issue, traveling from the contemporary charts all the way back to a fundamental musical scale. The stakes are high: is it possible to hack your way into a hit alt-rock song?
Songs Discussed Young The Giant - SuperpositionCold War Kids - FirstSir Sly - &RunJoywave, KOPPS - TonguesMaroon 5 - Moves Like JaggerLady Gaga - Bad Romance AJR - Burn the House DownTwenty One Pilots - ChlorineThe Black Keys - Lo/HiBillie Eilish - Bury A FriendCatfish and the Bottlemen - LongshotCage The Elephant - Ready To Let GoPanic! At The Disco - High HopesSHAED - TrampolineOliver Tree - HurtThe Lumineers - Ho Hey
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On her new album, Cuz I Love You, Lizzo shows off her genre bending musicality. We speak with X Ambassadors lead singer, Sam Harris, who helped co-write three songs on the album, including its eponymous track. We discuss how Lizzo's songs glide across sixties soul, seventies rock rock, eighties new wave, and nineties hip-hop. But we find that her music is much more than a history lesson in genre. Lizzo's writes vulnerable and courageous lyrics about self love, body positivity, female empowerment, and black identity. Rather than craft a singular sound for her album, Lizzo utilizes the genre that best fits the message of any given song. Her subversion of genre to the mood of her lyric matches changes in music consumption. According to Chartmetric, more people than ever are listening across genres to context based playlists. Does this mean genre no longer matters? Nate and Charlie try to find out with the help of Lizzo's genre busting music.
Songs DiscussedLizzo - Better In ColorLizzo - Cuz I Love YouLizzo - JuiceLizzo - TempoMissy Elliott - Get Ur Freak OnLizzo - JeromeRadiohead - CreepLed Zeppelin - Royal OrleansPrince - When Doves CryLizzo - Exactly How I Feel (ft. Gucci Mane)Aretha Franklin - RespectAretha Franklin - Say A Little PrayerAretha Franklin - Chain Of FoolsAretha Franklin - I Knew You Were WaitingEurythmics ft. Aretha Franklin - Sisters Are Doin' It For ThemselvesListen to our Lizzo playlist that pairs each song on her new album with a song from the past.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>When a listener asked us about the "sorcery" behind Taylor Swift's new song "ME!" we knew we had to investigate. And because the track features Brendon Urie of Panic! At the Disco, we couldn't resist digging into their concurrent hit "High Hopes." Along the way we cover baby talk, dreamy augmented chords, drumlines, and songs with exclamation points in their titles — all to explain why you can't get these two out of your head.
Featuring:
Taylor Swift featuring Brendon Urie - ME!
Swift - Shake it Off
Swift - The Way I Loved You
Gustav Mahler - Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!
Shania Twain - Up!
Panic! At the Disco - High Hopes
Western Carolina University Drumline - High Hopes
Check out two great pieces on "High Hopes," one by Top 40 Theory and the other by Rolling Stone article citing Flypaper's Dean Olivet.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Pop is inseparable from reality TV singing competitions. From Eurovision to American Idol, scores of stars got their start in singing competitions. We’ve long overlooked this influence on pop, but were inspired to look into the phenomenon by the release of Teen Spirit, a pop-musical film about a fictional singing competition .
What is the history of these shows? Who got their big break on one? Is there a singing show musical aesthetic? We hit the books and records to find out, and the answers might surprise. Finally we speak with Elle Fanning, who plays contestant Violet in the film, about what it takes to train to be a singer primed for national fame.
Songs DiscussedElle Fanning - Dancing On My OwnFrank Sinatra with The Hoboken Four on the Major Bowes Amateur HourGladys Knight on the Original Amateur HourAbba - WaterlooCeline Dion - Ne Partez Pas Moi Alanis Morisette on Star Search Girls Tyme with Beyoncé on Star SearchKelly Clarkson - A Moment Like ThisWhitney Houston - I Have NothingNina Simone - Feeling GoodJanis Joplin - Piece of My HeartSusan Boyle - I Dreamed A DreamElle Fanning - Don't Kill My Vibe (originally by Sigrid)Recommended listeningMavis Staples - AnytimeAnderson Paak - VenturaThe Beths - Future Me Hates MeMax, Quinn XCII - Love Me LessKhalid, John Mayer - Outta My Head* Correction: Though non-European countries do compete in Eurovision, Canada has not competed in the contest. Celine Dion represented Switzerland in her performance of "Ne Partez Pas Moi Celine" in 1988.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Lil Nas X currently holds the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with his surprise hit “Old Town Road.” But though the song is dripping with country twang, you won’t find it anywhere on the country charts. That’s because Billboard removed it, on the grounds of not having enough “musical elements” of country—a move that in turn left many wondering if the vanishing had something to do with Lil Nas X, a black artist, venturing into a field dominated by white musicians. We dig deep into the history and musical matter of “Old Town Road,” then pit it against other country hits to test its deep fried bonafides.
Songs DiscussedLil Nas X - Old Town RoadNine Inch Nails - 34 Ghosts IVBeba Rexa - Mean to Be (feat. Florida Georgia Line)Kelsea Ballerini - Miss You MoreSam Hunt - Speakers / Ghetto Cowboy - Bone Thugz N' HarmonyFilmore - Love That About You Lil Nas X - Old Town Road (feat. Billy Ray Cyrus) Mason Ramsey - Walmart Yodeling KidHank Williams - Love Sick BluesEmmett Miller & His Georgia Crackers - Lock Sick Blues
Other LinksTanya Texas Tucker's list of Black artists and their collaborations with country starsJezebel interview with Bri Malandro, originator of the "Yee Haw Agenda"
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On a trajectory to be one of the biggest pop stars for this generation, seventeen year old Billie Eilish is not, however, your typical pop star. Her music speaks to the real anxieties of young people without any veneer. She sings from the perspective of monsters and villains. Her hushed voice, baggy style, and direct demeanor subvert the norms of the pop princess. And her music is dark, but still catchy. Billie co-writes and produces her sound with her older brother Finneas O’Connell. Together this family duo have crafted the second biggest selling album of 2019, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” On this episode, we examine how Billie and Finneas crafted a cultural phenomenon, why their message speaks to this generation, and we speak with Finneas about the creation of their hit song “Bad Guy.”
Songs Featured: Billie Eilish - Ocean EyesBillie Eilish - BoredBillie Eilish - You Should See Me In A CrownBillie Eilish - Bad GuyBillie Eilish - Bury A FriendMarilyn Manson - The Beautiful PeopleThe Doors - People Are StrangeNine Inch Nails - CloserBillie Eilish - ilomiloBillie Eilish - All Good Girls Go To HellBillie Eilish - XannyFrank Sinatra - Dream A DreamBillie Eilish - I love youJohn Carpenter - Halloween ThemeBillie Eilish - Bellyache Watch Billie Eilish and Finneas break down “Bury A Friend” on The New York Times
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Switched on Pop is pleased to present Episode 1 of Peace of Mind --
the new album (released as a podcast) by singer/songwriter Bhi Bhiman.
In this episode Bhi digs into the fear and madness that characterizes
so much of this crazy time in America. Guests include author Dave
Eggers, Snap Judgement's Glynn Washington and renowned social
psychologist, Lee Ross. The song for this episode is “Brother Can You
Spare Some Peace of Mind?” Subscribe to Peace of Mind here:
https://fanlink.to/PeaceofMind
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Bhi Bhiman joins to explain the "nerd punk rock" behind releasing his new album Peace of Mind with an accompanying podcast. Since Bhiman explores issues like deportation on the track "Beyond the Border," there's a lot to say about each song. Even though he tackles tough topics, Bhiman make sure he puts music before the message. "Beyond the Border" summons a vast range of funky influences, from Van Halen to the Allman Brothers, to ask what America really means.
Featuring
•Bhi Bhiman:
Beyond the Border,
Moving to Brussels,
Bread and Butter,
There Goes the Neighborhood,
Guttersnipe
•Van Halen - Jump
•Allman Brothers - Ramblin' Man
Listen to our Spotify playlist of contemporary politically motivated music.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>After a six year hiatus, Nick, Joe, and Kevin Jonas are back with a new single and the stakes couldn't be higher. With each brother attaining a higher plane of celebrity during their time off, the three must achieve pop success or face public humiliation.
How do they do it? With three ingredients that ensure a hit song in 2019: 1) whistle while you work, 2) Homer the funky drummer, and 3) tune in, turn in, drop out.
Songs Featured: Jonas Brothers – SuckerEdward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – HomeFlo Rida – WhistleDaya – Sit Still Look PrettySharon Jones – How Long do I Have to Wait for you?Bruno Mars – 24k MagicEmily King – Remind MeJason Derulo – Want to Want MeRina Sawayama – CherryPost Malone and Swae Lee – SunflowerSurvey
We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than three minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3X6WMNF
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Live from SXSW: Grammy nominee songwriter Emily King didn’t set out to write a perfect pop song with “Remind Me.” Instead, she bent the rules of song structure to fit her message: the magical feeling when you find something you’ve been long missing. Mirroring this theme, the chorus doesn’t come when you expect it. The climax arrives late, after an “aha” moment that fills in the forgotten details. Each instrument fits perfectly together like a lost memory coming into focus. Even after she finds what she’s been missing in her life, she deceived us once again with a diminutive ‘down chorus.’ At every turn, King shows how songwriting mastery opens up immense creative freedom, even within the constraints of a prototypical pop song.
Featured Songs:Emily King - Remind MeZedd, Maren Morris, Grey - The MiddleSam Smith, Normani - Dancing With A StrangerTaylor Swift - DelicateSurvey
We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than three minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3X6WMNF
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Streaming hasn't just changed the way we listen to music, it's changed the way that pop music sounds. After years of losses due to the death of the CD and the rise of file sharing, the music industry has finally found a profitable business in streaming services. Streaming has overtaken all other music sales. Digital music platforms are the new Virgin megastore. But these services are more than just a distribution mechanism, they have created a whole new music economy. Album sales have been replaced by "album equivalent units," a business fiction that equates 1,500 streams to one physical sale. Artists are now effectively paid by the song. With ad-supported and subscription based business models, these platforms have upended incentives so significantly that it can be heard in the songwriting. Songs are getting shorter, albums are getting longer, and there is an entirely new section of the song that draws from the classical past: the "pop overture." In this episode, Nate and Charlie are joined by Aisha Hassan and Dan Kopf to unpack the sound of pop in the streaming era. Be sure to check out their article on Quartz: "The Reason Why Your Favorite Pop Songs Are Getting Shorter."
Songs FeaturedLil Pump - I Love ItBenny Blanco - Eastside ft. Khalid & HalseyKodak Black - Calling My SpiritPost Malone - Better NowLeonard Bernstein - West Side Story OvertureDua Lipa - One KissDrake - God’s PlanPost Malone - I Fall ApartAriana Grande - NasaTommy Dorsey - All The Things You Are
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Can political protest exist within the confines of commercial popular music? Songwriter Justin Tranter is equal parts songwriter and activist. You've likely heard his contributions to songs by Britney Spears, Julia Michaels, Selena Gomez, Janelle Monae and Ariana Grande, but unless you were paying close attention, you may have missed the essential subtext in his work. As an LGBTQ activist and board member of GLAAD, Justin brings his activism into Top 40 pop music lyrically and otherwise. On this episode, he breaks down his newest hit "Swan Song" which was co-written with Dua Lipa. This song is a triple threat serving as the end credits for the film Alita: Battle Angel, a Billboard hit, and a protest against the silencing of marginalized people. Justin shows us how representation in songwriting is inseparable from politics. And he's creating an open mic for new voices and stories that have been historically ignored by the pop industry.
Songs Discussed:
Dua Lipa - "Swan Song"Charlie Puth - "Attention"Selena Gomez - "Good For You"Imagine Dragons - "Believer"Taylor Swift - "Love Story"Halsey - "Bad At Love"Haydn - "Farewell" Symphony No. 45Shea Diamond - "Seen It All"
Listen to D. Orxata's Queering Pop Music playlist.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>What if music awards were given out for only musical qualities? It may seem like celebrity and spectacle are more important than ever at the 61st Grammy Awards, but we believe many of this years winners earned their accolades with noteworthy music. Still, we thought the winners should be heralded by new, more musical categories. Find out how
And The Awards Go To:
Best Chord Progression: H.E.R. - "Hard Place" & "Focus"
Best Throwback: Silk City & Dua Lipa ft. Diplo & Mark Ronson - "Electricity"
Worst Metaphor: Lady Gaga ft. Bradley Cooper "Shallow"
Best Conceptual Song: Childish Gambino - "This Is America"
Best Bridge: Kacey Musgraves - "Rainbow"
Also Featured
The Weeknd - "Often"
Khalid - "Location"
Alison Limerick - "Where Love Lives"
Cher - "Strong Enough"
Elton John - "Mellow"
Bonus
Listen to Ezra Klein's discussion with Jill Lepore on America's two revolutions
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Author Courtney Smith joins to offer her expertise on an urgent topic in advance of Valentine's Day: Can we abstract the sexiest songs of all time into a universal list of arousing musical qualities? We try our best by examining five decades of pop sexiness, discovering lyrical lingerie, and consider the most (and least) seductive instruments.
Featuring:
Nina Simone - I Want Some Sugar in My Bowl
Donna Summer - Love to Love You Baby
INXS - Need You Tonight
Portishead - Glory Box
Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire
The Weeknd - Often
Check out Courtney's article Let's Talk About Sex, Baby: Every Trick You Need to Seduce Someone with a Playlist on Refinery29
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>"7 Rings" is Ariana Grande's latest smash, a glittering banger that owes much to Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1959 classic "My Favorite Things." 60 years later, Grande updates the track for a modern audience, making her the latest artist to repurpose this anthem from the "Sound of Music." When it comes to Ari's flow, however, questions of appropriation arise. Author Lauren Michele Jackson joins to break down who has the right to repurpose sonic history.
Featuring:
• Ariana Grande - 7 Rings
• Julie Andrews - My Favorite Things
• John Coltrane - My Favorite Things
• The Doors - Light My Fire
• Lauryn Hill - Black Rage
• Migos - Bad and Boujee
• Princess Nokia - Mine
• Two Chainz - Spend It
• Soulja Boy - Pretty Boy Swag
Check out Lauren Michele Jackson's article, "To Whom Does '7 Rings' Owe its Sound?," hear more connections between Coltrane and the Doors in this NPR story, and discover the triplet Migos flow on Vox's Earworm.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Auto-Tune may be the most divisive effect in music. Artists have protested it publicly at the Grammys, and critics have derided the effects for its inauthentic reproduction of the voice. And yet, nearly a decade since Jay-Z prophesied the death of Auto-Tune, the sound is alive and thriving in contemporary pop and hip-hop. Journalist Simon Reynolds has written a definitive history of Auto-Tune for Pitchfork that fundamentally changed how we hear this sound. This deep dive criss crosses geology, technology, and the evolution of pop as we know it.
Songs Discussed:Cher - BelieveKaty Perry - FireworkRihanna - DiamondsFuture - F*ck Up Some CommasEmma Robinson - Stay (Cover) Imogen Heap - Hide And Seek Zapp & Roger - Doo Wa Ditty (Blow That Thing) T. Pain - Chopped N Screwed ft. Ludacris Lil Wayne - “How To Love”Kanye - “Heartless”The Black Eyed Peas “Boom Boom Pow”Jay-Z - Death Of Auto-TuneElvis - Mystery TrainThe Beatles - Tomorrow Never KnowsWhispering Jack Smith - Baby FaceKesha - Tik Tok Bon Iver - WoodsFuture & Juice WRLD - Jet Lag ft. Young Scooter Shek Wes - Mo BambaThe Carters - Apeshit
Further Reading:Simon Reynolds - “How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music" Simon Reynolds -Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>This winter season unwrap a deep dive through a pop subgenre of monumental importance: non-holiday songs that feature sleigh bells, from Bonnie Tyler to Nas, On Side B, we rebroadcast our episode on Mariah Carey's classic "All I Want for Christmas Is You"...and more sleigh bells.
Featuring:
•The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
•Gustav Mahler - 4th Symphony, I
•Michael Jackson - Jam
•Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart
•Miles Davis - On the Corner
•Nas - Halftime
•Kygo ft. Conrad Sewell - Firestone
•Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas Is You
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Four years into Switched On Pop, Charlie and Nate finally reveal what was behind the entire series. We may have not been totally honest with you from the beginning. Back in 2014 we were more pop skeptics than fanatics. The genre was, to some degree, the sugar that made the musical analysis medicine go down. And then something happened. Just as people started to listen to the show, we too began to open our ears. Now, in our 100th episode, Charlie interviews Nate about how transforming the way you listen to pop can truly make life better. And we get raw about the constraints of pop and where we plan to go in our next 100 episodes.
Songs discussed:
Beethoven's 7 & 9Santana - "Smooth" Martha and the Vandellas - "Heat Wave" Zedd - "Stay" Pink Floyd - "The Great Gig in the Sky" Adelle - "Hello"
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Mike Posner has written hits for himself like "I Took a Pill in Ibiza," and for stars from Justin Bieber ("Boyfriend") to Maroon 5 ("Sugar"), so he has insights for days on what makes a pop song work.
We dig into Mike's excellent new track "Song About You," which leads to an exploration of songs that reuse the same melody for verse and chorus—from Prince to The Boss to Post Malone. Last, we consider "beard phase": a moment of artistic reinvention that every artist has in their career, whether you're Mike Posner, Ludwig van Beethoven, or Taylor Swift.
Featuring:
Mike Posner - Song About You
Jean Ritchie - Barbary Allen
Original Sacred Harp Singers - New Britain (Amazing Grace)
Prince - I Wanna Be Your Lover
Prince - Let's Go Crazy
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A.
Post Malone - Rockstar
Beethoven - String Quartet No 1 Op. 18/1
Beethoven - String Quartet No 10 Op. 74/III
Beethoven - String Quartet "Grosse Fuge"
Taylor Swift - Teardrops on My Guitar
Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Taylor Swift - ...Ready For It?
Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
Dennis Wilson - River Song
Peaches ft. Iggy Pop - Kick It
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Dirty Projectors are known for their kaleidoscopic soundscapes. They make strange bedfellows of music techniques like 14th vocal harmonies and African guitar rhythms. But in the backdrop of their obscure orchestrations you will hear the indelible marks of pop music. Longstreth has recently collaborated on songs with Solange, Rihanna, Kanye and Paul McCartney. On his new track "I Feel Energy" we can hear that pop influence shine through. Together we break down his unpredictable 808s to see what gives you energy. We also build connections between Dirty Projectors and other artists in the top 100 including Marshmello, Ella Mai and Khalid.
Songs Featured:Dirty Projectors - I Feel EnergyDirty Projectors - Up In HudsonMarshmello ft. Bastille - HappierElla Mai - TripKhalid - Better
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Classic rock climaxed a half century ago, yet it still survives in two places: FM radio & Greta Van Fleet. The later are an upstart of four boys from Michigan who have found stardom by dusting off the mantle of guitar driven rock. Their latest album, Anthem Of The Peaceful Army, bares an uncanny sonic resemblance to Led Zeppelin. Jeremy D. Larson, senior editor of Pitchfork, gave the album a 1.6 out of 10 calling it "stiff, hackneyed, overly precious retro-fetishism." His vicious and hilarious takedown went viral and caused a rift amongst music fans on the internet. We ask Jeremy to join us to reveal what it means to earn such a bad review. After, we do something we've never done before: a track-by-track album breakdown. In a game of musical Pictionary, Charlie challenges Nate to find every Led Zeppelin reference on the album to answer the question: is it a copy or an homage? We have a feeling this will be a divisive episode...
Songs Discussed:
Greta Van Fleet - Age of Man
Led Zeppelin - Rain Song
Led Zeppelin - In The Light
Led Zeppelin - What Is And What Should Never Be
Led Zeppelin - Your Time Is Gonna Come
Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song
Led Zeppelin - Kashmir
Greta Van Fleet - The Cold Wind
Led Zeppelin - Custard Pie
Greta Van Fleet - When the Curtain Falls
Led Zeppelin - Wanton Song
Greta Van Fleet - Watching Over
Led Zeppelin - Since I've Been Loving You
Greta Van Fleet - Lover, Leaver
Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love
Spirit - Taurus
Muddy Waters - You Need Love
Small Faces - You Need Love
Willie Dixon - I Can't Quit You Babe
Greta Van Fleet - You're the One
Led Zeppelin - What Is And What Should Never Be
Greta Van Fleet - The New Day
Led Zeppelin - Over The Hills And Far Away
Greta Van Fleet - Mountain of the Sun
Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day
Greta Van Fleet - Brave New World
Led Zeppelin - Achilles Last Stand
Greta Van Fleet - Anthem
Led Zeppelin - Tangerine
Lover Leaver (Taker, Believer)
Read the Pitchfork review of Greta Van Fleet's Anthem Of A Peaceful Army
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Charli XCX and Troye Sivan conjure late 90s nostalgia in their latest banger. "1999" drips with lyrical nostalgia for the last decade of the millennium — but does the music follow suit? We think the pair are missing prime opportunities to bring back some neglected musical tricks from the early oeuvre of Britney Spears.
The 90s bug goes beyond Charli and Troye. Anne-Marie and Lauren Alaina also pine for the Clinton era in their millennial bops. Which makes one ask: is the present so bad that we miss the paranoia of Y2K? As usual, Prince has the answer.
Featuring:
Charli XCX ft Troye Sivan - 1999
DJ Bobo - Somebody Dance with Me
Real McCoy - Another Night
Paradisio - Bailando
Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time
Britney Spears - Oops! I Did it Again
Anne-Marie - 2002
Lauren Alaina - Ladies in the 90s
Prince - 1999
Check out Megan Lavengood's examples of the complementary chorus.
Marshall Jefferson's "Move Your Body" from 1986 might be the ur-source of the ubiquitous 90s house piano. Jefferson recorded the original in his Chicago prophet on a Prophet 2000, but never got the rights to the song and saw little proceeds from its success.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Four songs on the Hot 100 pop chart reveal the new directions in which music is headed. Travis Scott's "Sicko Mode" boasts an unprecedented formal structure that points to the future of hip hop. Meanwhile, in the world of country, Jason Aldean, Mitchell Tenpenny, and Dan + Shay are putting a modern spin on one of the style's oldest tropes: drinking bourbon. Together these tracks make up the vanguard of their respective genres, but are fans willing to take the plunge?
Featuring:
Travis Scott - Sicko Mode
Skrillex - Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
John Zorn - Cat o Nine Tails
Jason Aldean ft Miranda Lambert - Drowns the Whiskey
Mitchell Tenpenny - Drunk Me
Adele - Hello
Justin Bieber - Sorry
Dan + Shay - Tequila
Recommend Reading: Kathryn Schulz on Chris Janson's "Drunk Girl"
Recommended Viewing: Rich Redmond's studio drumming
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Emily Warren is one of the great rising stars of contemporary songwriting. Her song "Side Effects" with The Chainsmokers is currently rising up the charts. You’ve also heard her writing on Dua Lipa’s "New Rules." She’s collaborated with many of the best performers in music earning her a Grammy and multi-platinum success with “Don’t Let Me Down.” She's also recently released her single "Paranoid." Emily is a real songwriters songwriter. Her process is as much therapy as art. Together we break down her latest work and uncover her creative process. Her album "Quiet Your Mind" is out on October 5th.
Songs discussedThe Chainsmokers - Side EffectsBach - Prelude in F# Minor from the Well Tempered ClavierEmily Warren - Paranoidbülow - You & JenniferTeyana Taylor - Gonna Love MeNick Jonas - Touch
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Drake, per usual, has been inescapable this summer. "In My Feelings" and "Nice For What" top the charts, but there's depth to these bangers. We argue for hearing one as a meditation on fragile masculinity, the other as a paean to NOLA Bounce.
Continue the conversation with us on Instagram and Twitter: @SwitchedOnPop
Songs discussed:Drake - In My FeelingsDrake - Nice For WhatLauryn Hill - Ex FactorThe Showboys - Drag Rap (Triggaman)Cameron Paul - Brown BeatCheeky Blakk - Let Me Get That OutchaBeyonce ft. Big Freedia - FormationBig Freedia - Karaoke ft Lizzo
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The final episode of our Switched on Summer throwback series finds us deconstructing more early aughts bangers.
Under consideration: two of the biggest hits since Y2K, Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" and the Black Eyed Peas' "I Got a Feeling." Tune in to dig how these tracks keeps the temperature rising through harmonic suspension, and to ask if will.i.am cribbed "Chopsticks."
Switched On Summer Winner: Slow Dance
Congrats to Slow Dance for winning our Switched On Summer contest with their song "I'm Your Guy Tonight." Listen to the whole track here: https://soundcloud.com/slowdancemusic/im-your-guy-tonight
You can get all of our song of summer chord loops, song packs and listen to the awesome entires to our Splice Firestarter competition on <a href="https://splice.com/">Splice</a> here: http://splice.com/onpop
Songs Discussed:
• Beyoncé - Crazy in Love
• The Chi-lites - Are You My Woman
• Jay Z - 99 Problems
• Black Eyed Peas - I Got a Feeling
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>What made summer jams of the aughties like Nelly's "Hot in Herre" and Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" so hot? The answer: big, sweaty, doses of harmonic tension. Specifically, each track relies on the Baroque technique of the ground bass. Wait, we mean: the Baroque technique of PEDAL POINT! When the chords in these songs don't match up with their bass notes, the ratcheting tension adds heat—fueling both dance moves, and controversy.
Featuring:
Nelly - Hot in Herre
Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
All summer Switched On Pop & Splice have been diving into the DNA of summer hits, and now we want you to show us what you’ve learned. Get inspired by sound packs and chord progressions created by Switched on Pop and share your best song of summer with us and the world. Hosts Nate & Charlie will be listening and will choose their favorite submission to win a year of Splice Sounds and have their track played on the podcast.
Check out all the details at http://splice.com/onpop-fire
And, read Owen Pallett's excellent article on the use of harmonic tension in Teenage Dream.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The Switched on Pop Summer Throwback Series continues! This time, with a deep dive into the musical detritus of the 1990s.
In true 90s fashion, our episode is inspired by a pair of classic VH1 shows; "Behind the Music" and "Where Are They Now?"
Our subjects are two songs representing the lunatic fringe of 90s culture, "Cotton Eyed Joe" and "How Bizarre."
In the course of our musicological investigation, we uncover dark truths about these seemingly anodyne hits that will make you question everything you know about pop music.
And in the end, we reach a definitive answer to a perennially vexing question: "WTF was 90s music so weird?"
Songs Discussed
Rednex:
Cotton Eye Joe
Pop in an Oak
The Way I Mate
Cotton Eyed Joe:
Fiddlin John Carson
Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys
Karen Dalton
Chieftains
Nina Simone
OMC:
How Bizarre
Right ON
Start making your summer hit track on Splice and check out our chord pack at splice.com/onpop-chords
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Our Switched on Summer Throwback Series continues with "Dancing in the Street," the 1964 Motown hit by Martha and the Vandellas that was co-written by none other than Marvin Gaye.
Over 50 years and countless covers later, we explore how this song still manages to get people off their feet and onto the streets—not just to dance, but also to raise their voices in joy, catharsis, and protest.
Also, start making your own summer hits with our Switched On Summer repack on Splice at www.splice.com/onpop-pack and use promo code ONPOP for a 1 month free trial.
Featuring:Martha and the Vandellas - Dancing in the StreetMarvin Gaye - Stubborn Kind of FellowThe Mamas and the Papas - Dancing in the StreetThe Grateful Dead - Dancing in the StreetVan Halen - Dancing in the StreetMick Jagger and David Bowie - Dancing in the StreetKendrick Lamar - AlrightPharrell Williams - Happy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Our Switched on Summer throwback mini-series begins in the heart of the 1960s, with the Beach Boys' perennial school's-out jam "I Get Around."
We explore how every aspect of Brian Wilson's two-minute-long masterpiece is perfectly calculated to literally "get around"—harmonically, melodically, and lyrically—creating that unbeatable feeling of cruising all over town with the top down on a hot summer's night.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Part I: The Doctors Are In! We diagnose a listener's musical malady, namely: "why does Charlie Puth's new jam 'BOY' make us feel so weird?!"
Part II: Guest Hanif Adburraqib, author of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, helps break down Carly Rae Jepsen's epic "Cut to the Feeling" to understand why CRJ is a different kind of pop star.
Featuring:
•Charlie Puth - BOY
•Ismael Miranda - Recordando
•Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - Nobody's Baby
•The Beatles - She's a Woman
•The Cars - Since You're Gone
•Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No 5 in C Minor, I
•Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut to the Feeling
Check out more of Hanif's work at his website.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Parliament Funkadelic has had waves of influence on popular music. Their Afrofuturist message and infectious grooves built the backbone of 70s funk, was revived in the 90s with Dr. Dre's G-Funk, and is once again in vogue with in the music of Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino and Kali Uchis. Bootsy Collins, bass player of Parliament Funkadelic, collaborated with Kali Uchis and Tyler the Creator on the track "After The Storm," which draws on the P-Funk sound. Similarly, Clipping pay homage to the P-Funk lineage through their Hugo nominated song "The Deep," which was produced in collaboration with This American Life. The story explores a mythology created by the band Drexciya. In the story, an underwater civilization birthed from African slaves crossing the Atlantic battles their makers to save their habitat. Listen to hear what makes both infectious tracks so effective.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Ariana Grande has returned with a track that is jarring yet simultaneously catchy. She uses sophisticated musical techniques to tell a story of healing, resiliency, and hope after the attack at her concert in Manchester. Listeners will learn techniques like tempo rubato, modal interchange and amen breaks, which weave together this equanimous narrative.
Songs featured:Ariana Grande - No Tears Left To CryAriana Grande - Into YouAriana Grande - Break Free ft. ZeddThe Winstons - Amen BrotherThe Prodigy - MinefieldN.W.A. - Straight Outta ComptonOasis - Do You Know What I meanFuturama Theme Song
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>There is a lot of scare about the impending future of artificial intelligence making humans irrelevant. Musician Taryn Southern examines this narrative through her song “Life Support,” written with the aid of AI composition tools. We dispel current myths about AI music and discuss its future opportunities. In the second half of the show we run a musical 'Turing test' to see if you can identify music made by a bot from that composed by the hand of a human.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Samantha Gongol and Jeremy Lloyd are songwriting duo Marian Hill and they are here to share their annoyingly sharp insights on music. They come bearing the wistful pop of Lorde's "Ribs," and we deconstruct its primordial roots in classical composers like Scelsi, Beethoven and Haydn. Then, we turn to Marian Hill's new single "Differently" to uncover the subtle musical shifts that outline a complex dialogue lurking among the track's sparse, funky textures.
Songs Discussed:
Lorde - Ribs
Broken Social Scene - Lover's Spit
Giacinto Scelsi - Memories
Ludwig van Beethoven - 9th Symphony
Franz Josef Haydn - Creation
Kid Rock - All Summer Long
Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA
Marian Hill - Mistaken
Marian Hill - Differently
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On her single 'Butterflies,' Kacey Musgraves demonstrates a tour de force of songwriting. This song is a wild success because it incessantly reinforces one core emotional concept: that queasy anxious feeling in your stomach. No we're not talking about your leftover lunch, we're talking about love. But this is not just a simple little love song. It is a masterclass of creativity. Musgraves uses every element of music to reinforce her core idea. The lyrics fold back onto themselves with dual meanings as the harmony, melody, orchestration and rhythm all interweave to literally give the listener butterflies. Caution: this song may induce feeling of tender sorrow and longing for mutual crushes and anxious kisses.
Songs Discussed:Kacey Musgraves - Merry Go RoundKacey Musgraves - Butterflies
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In which Nate tries to convince Charlie that Lil Pump's SoundCloud Rap hit "Gucci Gang" warps the perceptual present.
Featuring:
Lil Pump - Gucci Gang
Gustav Mahler - Der Abschied / Das Lied von der Erde
Franz Schubert - String Quintet / Adagio
Conlon Nancarrow - Study for Prepared Piano 21
Check out Jonathan Berger's article on musical time in Nautilus.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>"Make Me Feel," is the first hit from Janelle Monáe's upcoming album Dirty Computer. It is a sensual song about the fluidity of desire. In the pre-chorus, the singer proudly expresses that she is a "sexual bender." Fans have embraced the song for breaking free of normative sexual expectations. But these non-binary statements aren't limited to the lyrics. The message is reinforced with musical concepts drawn from the blues, Prince and Michael Jackson. To help break down this track, Nate and Charlie are joined by singer/rapper Lizzo. She and Monáe both collaborated with Prince, making Lizzo uniquely qualified to unwind his influence on the song (Prince was recently named as a collaborator on the track). We also discuss Lizzo's song "Truth Hurts" and her podcast "Good As Hell" where she talks to the queens of hip hop. Hands down, Lizzo is one of the most talented, knowledgeable and fun guests. You don't want to miss this episode.
Songs DiscussedJanelle Monáe - Make Me FeelMichael Jackson - The Way You Make Me FeelMichael Jackson - Beat ItFats Domino - Blueberry HillPrince - KissYing Yang Twins - Wait (The Whisper Song)Lizzo - Truth HurtsSister Nancy - BamBonus MaterialGet tickets for Lizzo's Sister Sister Sister tour with Haim: www.lizzomusic.comDon't miss Lizzo's podcast "Good As Hell" on SpotifyAlso if you haven't read it, Quincy Jones Vulture interview is utterly mad
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In Camila Cabello's "Havana" we hear both her Cuban roots and the modern sounds of Atlanta. Though the singer and featured guest Young Thug reference these two geographic identities, the song says so much more through its core musical elements. A Roland TR-808 kick drum evokes an entire repertoire of Atlanta Hip Hop, while the track's supporting piano montuno descends from a Cuban style lamenting the loss of one's traditional home.
Also in this episode, we discuss Camila's unlikely path to number one with writer Hannah Steinkopf-Frank — and the musical glass ceiling that holds so many young women artists back.
RecommendationsSwitched On Pop recommends the podcast about sound: Twenty Thousand Hertz Hannah recommends the book: Girl Groups Girl Culture by Jacqueline WarwickCheck out more music and writing from Kwami Coleman at his websiteYou can listen to you playlist of 808s and Montunos on Spotify
Featured SongsCamila Cabello - HavanaTI - Whatever You Like2NE1 - I Am The BestMarvin Gaye - Sexual HealingMariah Carey, Jermaine Dupri - Always Be My BabyOutkast - So Fresh, So CleanLil Jon - Get LowGucci Mane ft. Migos - I Get The BagCompay Segundo - Guajira GuantanameraCuarteto Caney - Guajira GuantanameraBig Mama Thorton - Hound DogElvis - Hound DogLittle Mix & Missy Elliott- How Ya Doin?The Shangri Las - Leader Of The PackSleater-Kinney - I Wanna Be Your Joey RamoneSpice Girls - WannabeSpice Girls - Spice Up Your LifeThe Ronettes - Be My BabyThe Shirelles - Will You Love Me TomorrowTLC - No Scrubs
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Gina Delvac of the Call Your Girlfriend podcast and Darryl W Bullock, author of David Bowie Made Me Gay, join Nate and Charlie to dig into the poetry of Troye Sivan's "My My My!", the history of LGBT pop music, and the songs we love to hate.
And also be sure to check out:
Darryl Bullock's playlist of LGBT pop, from his book David Bowie Made Me Gay
and the brilliant Call Your Girlfriend podcast, produced by Gina.
Featuring:
•Troye Sivan - My My My!
•Taylor Swift - Style
•West Side Story - Cool
•Billy Murray - Pretty Baby
•Ma Rainey - Prove it on Me
•Irving Kaufman - Masculine Women, Feminine Men
•Lesley Gore - You Don't Own Me
•Jackie Shane - Any Other Way
•Lavender Country - Back in the Closet Again
•John Grant - Glacier
•Alex Clare - Too Close
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The 90s are back. It is as if pop music entered a black hole and came out 25 years in the past. Today's artists are reviving the new jack swing and vocal R&B, creating a wave of 90s nostalgia. Uncover how they trick us into somehow loving those days when we got beat up in the middle school parking lot.
Spotify 90s Nostalgia playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/switchedonpop/playlist/3beUwxOxzbTZ8M3aymZlg5
Featuring:Bruno Mars ft. Cardi B - FinesseCharlie Puth ft. Boyz II Men - If You Leave me NowGuy - Groove MeEternal - StayBell Biv Devoe - PoisonCardi B - Bodack YellowChristopher Williams - I'm DreaminBoyz II Men - MotownphillyBoyz II Men - On Bended KneeHamilton - The Room Where It Happened
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>What's up with Justin Timberlake? Two years ago he gifted us the ebullient family-friendly jam "Can't Stop the Feeling," now he's on the cusp of a deeply serious new record called "Man of the Woods," whose first single, strangely, is a bit of electro-funk snarl expertly produced by long-time collaborators Timbaland and Danja. What's going on here—who is JT trying to be? We listen deep to his latest, "Filthy," to try and understand its creator's conflicting musical worlds.
Featuring:
Justin Timberlake - Filthy
Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
Bernard Hermann - Psycho
Ken Nordine - My Baby
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Charlie talks laments, Baroque opera, and gender politics in Dua Lipa's sleeper hit "New Rules" with writer Emily Bootle.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Charlie and Nate breakdown Mariah Carey's classic "All I Want for Christmas is You" and revisit their favorite tracks of 2017. Sleigh bells abound.
Featuring
• Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas
• Laura Marling - Semper Femina
• Lorde - Melodrama
• Khalid - Location
• Dua Lipa - New Rules
• Logic - Everybody / 1-800-273-8255
• Childish Gambino - Redbone
• Sampha - (No One Knows Me) Like the piano in my mothers house
• Father John Misty - Pure Comedy
• Jay-Z: 4:44
• Perfume Genius - No Shape
• Aimee Mann - Mental Illness
And more...
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Björk is uniquely both a pop star and avant-garde composer. Though her music often challenges our ears, underneath her records you'll find more in common with today's pop music than you'd expect. Pieced together, you'll hear that she paints emotional landscapes composed of all the complexities of human experience. We give you a way to enjoy listening to her music. Using this hybrid pop/modernist method, we deconstruct her latest album Utopia. Plus Nate & Charlie fall in love all over again.
Featured Clips
Björk - Losss
Björk - Human Behaviour
Björk - It's Oh So Quiet
Björk - Hyperballad
Björk - Joga
Björk - Thunderbolt
Björk - Lionsong
Björk - Arisen My Senses
Björk - Stonemilker
Björk - Quicksand
Björk - Notget
Björk - Utopia
Björk - Blissing Me
Björk - The Gate
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Taylor Swift unveils a new, darker identity on her latest album "Reputation," and many have read the lyrics on her latest as not-so-subtle volleys in an ongoing celebrity feud. Still, a question remains: how does Swift cast this dark personality in music? Two songs offer evidence. Melodic drops and temporal gaps in "I Did Something Bad" signal the album's themes of descent and decay. On "Getaway Car," however, some of Swift's old songwriting tricks may betray her new persona.
We also dug into Reputation and other great listener questions in our Reddit AMA.
Featuring:
Taylor Swift:
• I Did Something Bad
• Getaway Car
• Trouble
• Love Story
• You Belong With Me
• Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys - Away Out There
• Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek
• The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>At the top of the pop charts, Taylor Swift and Cardi B, two artists with seemingly little in common, exploit the same compositional technique to hook listeners in. Meanwhile, across time and space, electro producers Clean Bandit ft. Julia Michaels, channel the thematic tricks of French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz in his 1830 Symphonie Fantastique.
FeaturingTaylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do Cardi B - Bodak YellowRight Said Fred - I'm Too SexyClean Bandit ft. Julia Michaels - I Miss YouBerlioz - Symphonie Fantastique performed by Berliner PhilharmonikerBerlioz - Symphonie Fantastique performed by DuPage Symphony Orchestra
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>With Charlie off the grid, Nate sits down with singer/producer Amber Mark to explore the different levels of Kendrick's hit HUMBLE.. Then, they turn to the diverse influences (including house music, Carnatic samples, and autodidactic piano chords) behind Mark's own track "Lose My Cool."
Featuring:
Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE.
Amber Mark - Lose My Cool
Amber Mark - SPACE
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Demi Lovato's latest, "Sorry Not Sorry" is at once an unapologetic anthem of defiance and a super catchy mashup of multiple genres. As we'll see, every small musical choice is here for a reason, together fostering Lovato's message of ascension—or even, transcendence. And as we pick apart "Sorry Not Sorry," we'll go to some surprising places ourselves including: Klezmer melodies, spiritual pretzels and musical dementors.
Featuring:
•Demi Lovato - Sorry Not Sorry
•Cardi B - Bodak Yellow
•Dave Tarras - Freilach Yidelach
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>How does a song with nonsense lyrics capture our attention, making us want to move? It is called the groove. Enter Calvin Harris' "Feels" (ft. Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams and Big Sean). Known for mainstreaming EDM, Harris throws out the software and picks up hardware instruments on this track. Upon first listen, this might seem like a sleeper hit, but as the loop repeats, you're going to want to move your feet. With intricate rhythmic interplay, the bass, drums, keys and guitar seem to talk to each other. Listen closely to hear how he does it. Also, we'll reveal why Katy Perry is so into going fishing.
FeaturingCalvin Harris - Feels (ft. Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams and Big Sean)James Brown - I Got The FeelingJames Brown - Get Up Offa That ThingDNCE - Cake By The OceanGeorge & Ira Gershwin - Blah Blah Blah (performed by 2012 Original Broadway Cast)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>This episode of Switched on Pop comes at you live from Block Island, RI, recoded in front of an audience of friends and family following a solar eclipse. Fittingly, the two songs discussed that day formed their own kind of syzygy. Kesha's "Praying" and Imagine Dragon's "Believer" are inverse anthems of resilience. Both tracks seek catharsis - one through prayer, the other through pain.
FeaturingKesha - Tik TokKesha - PrayingMozart - The Queen of the Night AriaWhitney Houston - I Will Always Love YouMariah Carey - EmotionsLalah Hathaway - SomethingImagine Dragons - RadioactiveImagine Dragons - Believer
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>What has catapulted Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito" to the top spot on the Billboard charts? Sorry, typo—to its status as the biggest song in the world? Your hosts explore the many worlds of "Despacito" in search of an answer.
Featuring:
Lusi Fonsi ft Daddy Yankee - Despacito
Luis Fonsi ft Daddy Yankee y Justin Bieber - Despacito (Remix)
Luis Fonsi y Juan Luis Guerra - Llegaste Tú
Major Lazer ft Justin Bieber - Cold Water
Los Del Rio - Macarena
Daddy Yankee - Gasolina
Avril Lavigne - Complicated
Toto - Africa
Further reading:
Petra River-Rideau Interview in The Atlantic
Remezcla Roundtable on Despacito w Isabel Herrera and Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Selena Gomez's "Bad Liar" stands out on the charts by doing things a little differently: it's a subtle, at times even awkward, summer surprise. Breaking down this pop morsel reveals it has teeth, though—and not just because it borrows a bass line from the Talking Heads' macabre "Psycho Killer." This is a fun one. Come along for the ride.
Featuring:
• Selena Gomez - Bad Liar
• Julia Michaels - Issues
• Selena Gomez - Same Old Love
• Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Author, critic and podcaster Andrea Warner joins for a throwback episode exploring politics in Lilith Fair, harmonic anger in Alanis Morissette's iconic "You Oughta Know," and the blind spots in your host's assessment of women in rock.
Featuring:
•Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know
Artists mentioned by Andrea Warner:
SZA
Ibeyi
The Overcoats
Lizzo
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Your brain can only hear three things at the same time. What you may not know is that musicians use this cognitive limitation to guide your listening all the time. Charlie and Nate are joined by Grammy Nominee music producer Morgan Page to reveal the secrets of this ubiquitous technique. Listening to Julia Michaels' hit "Issues," we unveil how the rule of three is used to draw our attention and keep us free from sonic distraction. And we look at how Maroon 5's "Cold" uses the same technique but creates an exceptionally different sound. Of course, it wouldn't be Switched On Pop if we didn't dig into the classical past to find out if this rule really holds up in the history of music.
Featuring: Morgan Page - Fight My WayJulia Michaels - Issues Julia Michaels - Issues (Acoustic)Maroon 5 - Cold ft. FutureSkrillex - First Of The Year (Equinox)Ed Sheeran - Shape Of YouDJ Khaled - I'm The OneSelena Gomez - Bad LiarThe Beatles - When I'm Sixty FourArnold Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire - III - Der MondfleckDead & Company - Live at the Hollywood Bowl 6-1-17The Beatles - A Day In The LifeIke & Tina Turner: Deep River Mountain HighSwedish House Mafia - One
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper, Quavo from Migos and Lil Wayne have allied for a new smash hit: "I'm The One." Despite the star power present, the resulting track is less than the sum of its parts—repetitive, derivative, uninventive. And yet, the lackluster "I'm The One" sits comfortably at the top of the charts, which raises the question: why?? Our answer: because Khaled and company understand the bewitching power of tonal harmony, and they've utilized the most surefire chord progression in pop history to ensure their success, a simple sequence of chords that has captivated listeners for almost a century: I - vi - IV - V.
Check out our playlist of songs using this progression — and please send us any others that you identify!
Featuring:
• DJ Khaled - I'm The One
• Dean Martin - Blue Moon
• Ben E. King - Stand By Me
• Hoagy Carmichael - Heart & Soul
• The Police - Every Breath You Take
• Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
• fun. - We Are Young
• Justin Bieber - Baby
• Jean-Philippe Rameau - Les Sauvages
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Two new songs have captured the attention of your hosts—Charlie Puth's "Attention" and HAIM's "Want You Back." On the surface, these two songs appear to have little in common. A closer look, though, reveals the subtle musical architecture undergirding each track, a perfect balance of symmetry and asymmetry that keeps reeling us in for more.
Featuring:
• Charlie Puth ft. Meghan Trainor - Marvin Gaye
• Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth - See You Again
• Charlie Puth ft. Selene Gomez - We Don't Talk Anymore
• Charlie Puth - Attention
• Haim - Want You Back
• Dvorak - Carnival Overture (United States Marine Band)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Is it true that all pop music sounds the same today? For the past year the “pop-drop” has dominated the airwaves. This new form of EDM infused pop came out of DJ culture and has infused its sound with every mainstream act like Lady Gaga and Coldplay. Tiring of this sound, some artists are finding creative ways to parody this pop trope. The rock outfit Fall Out Boy’s “Young And Menace” demonstrates equal parts mastery and mockery of the pop-drop. And PC Music, a rising art-music label out of London, skewers the whole of pop cliché on their mixtape collaboration with Charli XCX. After this episode, we promise you’ll be ready to move on to new sounds. Luckily, listeners have collaborated to create a new favorites playlist to help you cleanse your palette.
Featuring:The Chainsmokers - CloserKygo & Selena Gomez - It Ain’t MeLady Gaga - The CureFall Out Boy - Sugar We’re Going DownFall Out Boy - Young And MenaceJay Z - D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)Ariana Grande - Into YouKaty Perry feat. Skip Marley - Chained To The RhythmDrake - PassionfruitPostmodern Jukebox - Sugar We’re Going Down SwingingBritney Spears - Oops! I Did It AgainSkrillex - BangarangDJ Snake - MiddleBeyoncé - Love On TopIcona Pop - I Love It (feat. Charlie XCX)Iggy Azalea - Fancy ft. Charli XCXSelena Gomez - Same Old LoveCharli XCX - 3AM (Pull Up) (feat. MØ)Hannah Diamond - Every NightBronze - Thy SlaughterDanny L Harle - Super Natural (ft. Carly Rae Jepsen)SOPHIE - JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYEA.G. Cook - SuperstarAriana Grande - Side To SideCoon Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra - I'm Gonna Charleston Back To CharlestonSpotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/switchedonpop/playlist/1LeUhwRJfMGdlPkSMR9Uxu
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>One Direction wunderkind Harry Styles has just released his first ever single, "Sign of the Times," and it's a doozy. Strap in for a discussion of the apocalypse, late Beatles, teen wisdom, and the amen cadence—among other demons exorcised in this most peculiar pop tune.
Featuring:
•Beethoven 5th Symphony - Scherzo
•Harry Styles - Sign of the Times
•Prince - Sign o' the Times
•David Bowie - Space Oddity
•Zayn Malik - Pillowtalk
•Steve Aoki + Louis Tomlinson - Just Hold On
•John Lennon - #9 Dream
•George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
•The Beatles - The End
•British Pathe Broadcast
•Meg Says YouTube Channel
•Megan Elizabeth YouTube Channel
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Songwriter Ross Golan comes over to start up a conversation, encouraging us to follow his lead and give Ed Sheeran's chart-annihilating record "Shape of You" a chance. Ross, a studio vet with multiple #1 hits (including numbers discussed on this very podcast, such as Ariana Grande's "Dangerous Woman" and Selena Gomez's "Same Old Love") is the ideal guest to convince a skeptical Charlie and Nate that Sheeran might have a song handmade for somebodies like them. Plus, Ross takes us behind the scenes of his own podcast, "And the Writer Is...", in which the industry's best writers break down their trials and triumphs on the way to the top.
Featuring:
• Ed Sheeran - Shape of You
• Justin Bieber - Love Yourself
• Kygo ft. Ella Henderson - Here For You
• Maroon 5 - Don't Wanna Know
Check out And The Writer Is... With Ross Golan: http://www.andthewriteris.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Charlie and Nate sit down with up-and-coming producer duo Grey—fresh off their hit "Starving" with Zedd and Hailee Steinfeld—to uncover the secrets behind Alessia Cara and Zedd's dramatic dance track "Stay" and Grey's own deep cut "I Miss You" (ft Bahari). Snare drums as currency, Game of Thrones samples and screaming into the void are all discussed in this deep dive into the world of pop orchestration and 21st century songwriting.
Featuring:
Zedd + Alessia Cara - Stay
Hailee Steinfeld + Grey ft. Zedd - Starving
Grey ft. Bahari - I Miss You
Earth, Wind and Fire - Kalimba Story
Maroon 5 - Don't Wanna Know
Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition
Ravel - Pictures at an Exhibition
Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Pictures at an Exhibition
Grey - Do You Remember (Remix)
Grey - You're Not There (Remix)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Two artists who haven't released new music since 2013 recently remerged into the limelight: Katy Perry, with her dystopian disco banger "Chained to the Rhythm" and Lorde, with the melodramatic-yet-uplifting anthem "Green Light."
Listening carefully, a fact becomes apparent, despite Lorde's insistence that she "hears new sounds" in her mind: there's something familiar lurking beneath both these tracks. And indeed, both were co-written and produced by key figures of the modern pop music firmament. Who are they, and how do we detect their fingerprints on the latest from these two low-voiced chanteuses? Tune in and test your acumen in a high-stakes game of musical forensics.
Featuring:
Katy Perry - Chained to the Rhythm
Lorde - Green Light
...and some secret songs
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>With the Academy Awards around the corner, Charlie and Nate try something new: a break down of the movie musical La La Land through two of its key songs, "City of Stars" and "Start a Fire." These numbers, one by composer Justin Hurwitz, the other by Hurwitz and John Legend, might represent the two poles of the film's dramatic structure. But a deep dive into their musical construction reveals leitmotifs and left turns that leave us staggered at the different levels to La La Land's score. Special guest Genevieve Koski, deputy culture editor for Vox and co-host of the film podcast The Next Picture Show, joins to help our hosts journey through the uncharted terrain of cinema.
Featuring:
• Start a Fire - John Legend
• City of Stars - Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone
• John Legend - Ordinary People
• Backstreet Boys - Everybody
• Ariana Grande - Side To Side
• Die Walkure, The Ring Cycle - Richard Wagner
• Engagement, Planetarium, Epilogue, Mia + Sebastian's Theme - Justin Hurwitz
• Générique, Dans le magasin de parapluies, Final - The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
• Tie Fighter Theme - John Williams
Check out Genevieve Koski's writing on Vox and her great podcast on La La Land here.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>"I Don't Wanna Live Forever," the new track from Zayn and Taylor Swift, finds two members of the pop pantheon joining forces with producer Jack Antonoff to craft an inexorable hit song. But this duet—between a former One Direction heartthrob aiming to avert the sophomore slump and a megastar returning to the limelight—is far from triumphant. Instead, "Forever" delves into themes of loss and separation—emotions in turn embedded in the very structure and melody of this most unusual duet. Also, Charlie and Nate discuss what upcoming Grammy nominations have them most excited, From Chance the Rapper to Radiohead, Bowie to Solange, there's much to celebrate from 2016. Musically speaking, that is.
Featuring:
• Zayn & Taylor Swift - I Don't Wanna Live Forever
• Giovanni Gabrieli - Symphoniae Sacrae II
• Solange - Cranes in the Sky
• Chance the Rapper - All We Got
• David Bowie - Lazarus
• Radiohead - Burn the Witch
• Tycho - Glider
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>"Into You" was one of the biggest hits of 2016, the stellar production of reclusive legend Max Martin combining with the acrobatic vocals of Ariana Grande to create an undeniable, ubiquitous earworm. With "Into You" still burning up the charts, we dive deep to uncover the insane puzzles, Trompe-l'oiel tricks and Baroque games that lie under the surface of this morsel of pop perfection.
PLUS, brilliant rocker and rapper K. Flay joins to discuss the mysteries of Ariana Grande and takes us through the composition of her own, bass-heavy anthem of catharsis, "Blood in the Cut."
Featuring
• Ariana Grande - Into You
• K Flay - Blood in the Cut
• Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive
• J.S. Bach - A little hocket example
• Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman
• The Chainsmokers - Closer
• The Rolling Stones - Can't Get No Satisfaction
• The Rolling Stones - Paint It Black
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>"I Feel it Coming" might be the slowest burning jam to hit the charts in ages, in which the Weeknd enlists the robotic hum of Daft Punk to help craft a perfectly calibrated climate of desire. Brilliant, sexy songs don't just appear out of thin air, though, so we reveal how this song's perpetual excitement is hard-won through references to past stars of sultriness like Michael and Marvin while employing its own bag of tricks to turn up the heat.
Featuring:
•The Weeknd + Daft Punk - I Feel it Coming
•Marvin Gaye - Let's Get it On
•Michael Jackson - Rock With You
•Chic - Good Times
•Ike and Tina Turner - Doin' It
For an excellent playlist of listener-submitted sexy songs, direct your dirty self here:
http://spoti.fi/2ieEeul
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>White Christmas holds the Guinness World Record for most singles sold and has been covered over 500 times. Pop stars from Elvis to Ella have recorded it, with interpretations from doo-wop to country to punk rock. With new covers each year, it seems listeners have not grown tired of this Tin Pan Alley chestnut. We use our scientific formula for holiday hit success to break down what makes this song so timeless.
FeaturingBing Crosby - White ChristmasThe Beatles - Christmas Time Is HereWhitney Houston - Have Yourself a Merry Little ChristmasJackson 5 - Santa Clause Is Coming to TownThe Beatles - In My LifeFrank Sinatra - White ChristmasKenny G - White ChristmasNashville Cast - White ChristmasLady Gaga - White ChristmasThe Drifters - White ChristmasElvis - White ChristmasElla Fitzgerald - White ChristmasBeach Boys - White ChristmasDean Martin - White ChristmasKaty Perry - White ChristmasKelly Clarkson - White ChristmasRascal Flatts - White ChristmasMichael Bolton - White ChristmasMichael Bublé and Shania Twain - White ChristmasCarol Of The Bells by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Deck the Hall, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Angels We Have Heard by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?collection=004&page=1Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>50 episodes in, hosts Charlie and Nate take a step back to think about how they listen to music and try to define what might be called The Switched on Method™. "Hallelujah," by the late, great Leonard Cohen, acts as a perfect test case for breaking down listening into four key layers: 1) The Liner Notes, 2) The Needle Drop, 3) The Scratch, and 4) The Remix. Through this patented process, artistic revelations are all but guaranteed, with Cohen's opus no exception — his modern classic is not all it appears to be.
Featuring:
•Leonard Cohen - "Hallelujah"
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>On the surface, Tove Lo's new hit "Cool Girl" boasts a snappy, earworm chorus and an empowering message of self-reliance. Beneath its chill exterior, though, Lo's song burns with a passion bordering on rage, and sinister sonic undertones suggest an unreliable narrator who doesn't always mean what she says. The more layers one pulls back from this song, the more Lo's source material—the novel and film "Gone Girl"—comes to the fore, turning "Cool Girl" into the kind of pop smash that sticks in your head in more ways than one.
Featuring:
Tove Lo - Cool Girl
Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster
Alessia Cara - Scars To Your Beautiful
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Back in 2011, two pop songs dropped with the same patriotic title: "Made in America." But the similarities pretty much end there. Toby Keith's country smash and Jay Z, Kanye West and Frank Ocean's soulful hip hop anthem have little in common except a firm conviction that each song knows what it really means to be American. Five years later, these tracks have a lot to tell us about the role music plays in shaping our national identity, and begs the question: does music truly bring us together?
FeaturingToby Keith - Made In AmericaJay Z and Kanye West ft. Frank Ocean - Made in AmericaSisqo - Thong SongUsher - Yeah!Beyoncé - Daddy LessonsJimmie Rodgers - Blue Yodel No. 9Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys - Ida Red Likes to Boogie
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Host Charlie spent the last two weeks listening to every song on the Billboard Hot 100. What did he discover? That the sonic similarities of most chart-toppers sound closer than ever. Except for the #1 song in America, as of this episode's release - "Closer" by The Chainsmokers, ft. Halsey. This one is different than the rest...or is it? We dive into the styles of the moment to re-learn the old maxim that "great artists steal" - whether that artist is a 2016 DJ duo or an 18th century Classical master.
Featuring:
•Tory Lanez - LUV
•Shawn Mendes - Treat You Better
•Frenship - Capsize
•Maroon 5 - Don't Wanna Know
•Cheat Codes - Sex
•The Chainsmokers ft. Halsey - Closer
•Charlie Puth ft. Selena Gomez - We Don't Talk Anymore
•Jack U ft. Justin Bieber - Where Are U Now
•Drake - Know Yourself
•Amine - Caroline
•MO - Final Song
•Mike Posner - I Took a Pill in Ibiza (Seeb remix)
•The Weeknd - I Can't Feel My Face
•The Chainsmokers ft. Phoebe Ryan - All We Know
•Antonio Vivaldi - "La Primavera" Concerto
•Vivaldi - Giustino
•Vivaldi - Dorilla in Tempe
•Vivaldi - Orlando Furioso
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The Nokia ringtone used to be heard more than a billion times per
day, making it one of the most popular songs in the world. We tend to
consider cellphone rings as somewhat antithetical to
music. There is a whole subset of YouTube videos dedicated to the perverse thrill of
watching a delicately beautiful musical moment ruined by the harsh cry
of a default ringtone. In this episode, we zoom in on one of these
annoying melodies to see if there's not some hidden musical craft
present in the ubiquitous bleeps and bloops that envelop us. Later,
Charlie shares a piece made solely of this sonic detritus, and a data
scientist locates surprising musical patterns in a most unexpected
source.
Featuring:The Nokia TuneThe Beatles - She's So HeavyOne Direction - Live While We're YoungFrancisco Tarrega - Gran ValsLinks:Charlie Harding - Bowl ArrowJonathan Berger's Article in Nautlius: How Music Hijacks our Perception of TimeFamous Cell Phone Rings Played on the Piano by Tony AnnGreg Hochmuth's work
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Lady Gaga's new single "Perfect Illusion" is the apotheosis of her artistic statement. She is well known for her visual style that too often overshadows her music. But when taken together, it is evident that Lady Gaga is playing all of us because the non-conformity of her outward appearance is reflected back in her compositions. On first listen, her songs may sound like just another catchy pop tune and this is intentional. Gaga lures us close with the sound of pop fame and then hooks us and reels us into into her dungeon of monstrous sounds.
FeaturingLady Gaga - Perfect IllusionLady Gaga - Just DanceLady Gaga - Government HookerQueen - Radio GagaLady Gaga - Love GameLady Gage - ScheisseMichael Jackson - ThrillerPhantom Of The Opera - OvertureJohn Carpenter - Halloween Theme (Main Title)Lady Gaga - Bad RomanceLady Gaga - AlejandroAce Of Bass - I Saw The SignLady Gaga - SpeechlessQueen - Don’t Stop Me NowLady Gaga - So Happy I Could DieNatasha Bedingfield - Pocket Full of SunshineLady Gaga - Born This WayMadonna - Express YourselfLady Gaga - TeethLady Gaga - Bloody MaryLady Gaga - Dance In The DarkTony Bennett and Lady Gaga - Anything GoesTony Bennett - I Wish I Were In Love Again
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Certain pop songs have that moment, when everything seems to change but still remain the same, when the drama gets ratcheted up, when the tension increases and our emotions take an elevator ride to the heavens. From Beyoncé to Johnny Cash, savvy pop songwriters know a well-placed harmonic modulation can leave listeners reeling. But what is this mysterious musical trick, and how does it work? Tune in and let us take you higher, and higher, and higher, as we explore the wild world of modulation.
FeaturingOne Direction - Night ChangesTaylor Swift - Love StoryBackstreet Boys - I Want it That WayStevie Wonder - Knocks Me Off my FeetBeyonce - Love On TopWhitney Houston - I Will Always Love YouMozart - Queen of the Night AriaMichael Jackson - Man in the MirrorThe Beatles - Penny LaneJohnny Cash - Walk the Line
Hear more of Dru Cutler's work at www.drucutler.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>A strange syndrome is wreaking havoc on the voices of our biggest pop stars. From Rihanna to Justin Bieber, no one is safe from having their beautiful vocals chopped up, screwed down, repitched and repurposed. As dance music takes over the charts and new software grants vocal manipulation at the click of a button, this uncanny production technique has become nearly ubiquitous. But is this ultramodern sound really that new? We dig deep into the roots of the sound of the moment.
Featuring:
• Kiaara - Gold
• Coldplay - Hymn for the Weekend (Seeb remix)
• Hailee Steinfeld ft. Grey & Zedd - Starving
• Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna - This is What You Came For
• Mike Posner -I Took a Pill in Ibiza (Seeb remix)
• DJ Snake ft. Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
• Cold Crush Brothers - MC Battle (Live)
• Cerrone - Rocket in the Pocket
• Wu Tang Clan - Tearz
• Wendy Rene - After Laughter
• Kanye West - School Spirit
• Whistle - Just Buggin
• Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>This episode marks something of a departure from the norm. With Charlie away, host Nate, aka "Hubcap," takes us on a home-show tour of the Scottish Highlands with his traveling minstrel act, The Gideon and Hubcap Show. It's an entirely different kind of summer music spectacle.
Featuring:
•13,000 Miles - Gideon Irving
•Oh Wow - Gideon Irving
•Ida Done - Gideon and Hubcap
•Safe Word - Gideon and Hubcap
•Hebrides Overture – Felix Mendelssohn
•Mouth Music - From the Smithsonian Folkways Collection, Scottish Drinking and Pipe Songs
•Breabach - Gig Face
•Cuyahoga - Gideon and Hubcap
Check out www.mynameisgideon.com and www.gideonandhubcap.com for more.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The fingerprints of house music are all over mainstream pop, but much of its sound has been whitewashed. That ubiquitous four-to-the-floor kick and synth bass sound draws from Chicago's queer, black and latinx warehouse club culture. Micah Salkind is working on a book on the history of these communities. Together we break down the sonic origins of this music through a modern track that fully embraces its cultural nexus: "Hideaway" by Kiesza. Micah takes us back to Chicago in the 1980s, and we explore how this sound came to be and where it is going today.
FEATURINGKiesza - HideawayLoleeta Holloway - Love SensationBlack box - Ride On TimeMadonna - VogueMr. Fingers - The JuiceKanye West - FadeRythim Is Rythim - Strings Of LifePaul Oakenfold - You Could Be HappyFrankie Knuckles - Your LoveMFSB ft The Three Degrees - T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia)Jesse Saunders - On and OnDiplo - Be Right There Justin Bieber - SorryCalvin Harris - This Is What You Came ForShaun J. Wright & Alinka - Love Inspired
MORE STUFFFind more of Micah's work at micah-salkind.squarespace.com/about/ and his DJ sets at www.mixcloud.com/micahjacksonListen to Shaun J. Wright & Alinka on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/aalinkaa/shaun-j-wright-alinka-love
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>How do you create a hit that both breaks sound barriers and chart records? Drake has done this with a unique mix of international sounds from Africa, the Caribbean, the U.K. and Canada. But is his chart topping success musical appropriation or celebration? A deep listening reveals diverse influences and musical rhythms that have crossed oceans centuries before "One Dance" was even conceived. Plus, we debut Blinky Bill's "So Strong," his first single off his upcoming solo album.
FEATURING
- Drake - One Dance (feat. Whizkid & Kyla)
- Ojuelegba Remix - Wizkid ft. Drake & Septa
- 2Baba - Coded Tinz ft. Phyno, Chief Obi
- DJ Maphorisa - Soweto Baby feat Wizkid & Dj Buckz
- Crazy Cousinz - Do You Mind ft. Kyla
- The Revolutionaries - General For General
- Barrington Levy - Dance Are Changing
- Joh Thomas - Ghetto Dance
- Papa Biggie - Youth Them Have To Grow
- Yellowman - Adam & Eve
- Mighty Diamonds - Love Me Girl
- Drake - Hotline Bling
- Timmy Thomas - Why Can’t We Live Together
- D.R.A.M. - Cha Cha
- Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX - Take Care Of You
- Drake - Take Care ft. Rihanna
- Drake - JunglePaul Simon - Graceland
- Paul Simon - I Know What I Know
- Moby - Natural Blues
- Vera Hall - Trouble So Hard
- David Guetta - Hey Mama (ft. Nicki Minaj)
- Sangkala - Gamelan Degung
- Joel Francisco Perri - Las llamas de Potosi
- Habib Koité - Africa
- Kwaa Mensah - Odo Me, Me Sum No DoChico O’farrell - Sin Titulo
- Trio Matamoros - El Que Siembra Su Maíz
- Joseph Kabasele - Africa Bola Ngombi
- E.T. Mensa & The Tempos - Fom Fom
- Fela Kuti - Lagos Baby
- Fela Kuti - Elbe Moi (Carry Me)
- Fela Kuti - LadyWizkid - Show You The Money
- Blinky Bill - So Strong
Check out Blinky's music at www.soundcloud.com/blinkyb
Supported by Casper and Amazon Prime Music's Song of Summer Playlist Amazon www.amazonsongsofsummer.com/pop
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>We have more information about pop stars lives than ever before, but this transparency is not always uplifting for music lovers. Just as we may enjoy following the intimate lives of celebrities on Instagram, we simultaneously uncover how stars abuse their power to marginalize others, commit heinous crimes and inspire mass atrocity. Sometimes skeletons in the closet turn our to be literal skeletons. As listeners, this undoubtedly colors the way we hear our old favorite songs. Join us as we explore how to listen to good music that happens to bad people.
FEATURING
Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls Of Fire
The Righteous Brothers - You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling
Garry Glitter - Hey
R. Kelly - Ignition (Remix)
Wagner - Ride Of The Valkyries
The Ronettes - Be My Baby
Queen - You’re My Best Friend
Drake - Keep The Family Close
Wagner - Tristan Und Isolade: Prelude
Wagner - Tristan Und Isolade: Liebestod
Wagner - Lohengrin: Bridal Chorus
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Summer heat is upon us and so are the jams. Our ears are hooked on Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop The Feeling." What you may not know is that this song leans on the success of mononymous giants: Pharrell, Michael and Handel. If you think that pop is a modern phenomenon, you may be surprised by medieval references and techniques comped by JT. Join us as we break down the hidden hooks and musical tricks that make this song an ear worm.
Featuring
Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop The Feeling!
Pharrell Williams - Happy
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Michael Jackson - Rock With You
Elvis Costello - Allison
M.C. Hammer - U Can't Touch This
Electric Six - Improper Dancing
Nicki Minaj - Feeling Myself ft. Beyonce
Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around
Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
Bernart De Ventadorn - Can Vei La Lauzeta
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>With Meghan Trainor's new singles "No" and "Me Too" ubiquitous on the radio dial, a larger discussion about the uneasy relationship between social movements and selling records takes a feminist bent. Memories of the polarizing 2014 hit "All About that Bass" come to the surface, reigniting debates over whether Trainor's songs express radical thought or package it for mass consumption. Or is that distinction a distraction, forgetting that manufactured pop can still pack a political punch? That might depend on how you listen. Andi Zeisler, author of "We Were Feminists Once," professor Robin James, blogger Jenny Trout and writer Andrea Warner join for a dive into the complexities of feminist pop politics. FEATURING Meghan Trainor - Me Too Meghan Trainor - No Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass Spice Girls - Wannabe Big Sean - Dance (A$$) Taylor Swift - Shake It off Demi Lovato - Confident Grimes - Flesh Without Blood The Slits - Typical Girls Sleater-Kinney - #1 Must Have Jonathan Hoyle - Never Ending Road Lizzo - Good As Hell
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>A battle between brothers is playing out on the pop charts, a sibling rivalry the likes of which the music industry hasn't seen since 1987, when Michael and Janet Jackson's 1987 "Bad" and "Let's Wait Awhile" jockeyed for peak position on the Hot 100. Today, Nick, the youngest of the Jonas Brothers, looks for redemption from their boy band past in the moody, adult love song "Close" ft. Tove Lo, while middle brother Joe and his band DNCE use the explosive, retro "Cake By the Ocean" to replace a squeaky-clean look with a profane party anthem. Tune in to learn how these two songs, sounding so different on the surface, have something very surprising in common. Then, stick around for a deep dive through the wonders of the Jonas back catalog, along with a detour to the life and music of another troubled child prodigy named Wolfgang, that will leave you thinking of the frère Jonas in a whole new light. FEATURING - Nick Jonas - Close - DNCE - Cake By The Ocean - Beach Boys - Misirlou - Jonas Brothers - Mandy - Jonas Brothers - Burnin’ Up - Demi Lovato - La La Land - Mozart - Laureate Dominum - Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - Mozart - Batiene Und Bastienne - Mozart - Bona Nox! bist a rechts Ox, K. 561 - Jonas Brothers - Bounce - Mozart - Requiem in D minor K626: I Requiem - Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Mozart - Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492: Overture: Wiener Philharmoniker
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>It has been a period of musical loss and celebration. On the same week we lost Prince, the world was gifted Beyoncé’s Lemonade. Both artists contain multitudes of musical traditions, collaborators and themes that weave throughout their song. In the first half of the show, we break down Beyoncé's “Hold Up,” an exemplary piece about Lemonade's main theme of marital distress. But the song is not as simple as it may seem. Its compositional restraint suggests more complex ideas about love. Speaking of love, Prince may have published more songs on the subject than any other recording musician. In the second half of the show, we speak with scholar and Musiqology contributor Matthew Valnes about Prince’s musical legacy. Featuring - Beyoncé - Pray You Catch Me - Beyoncé - Freedom - Beyoncé - Formation - Beyoncé - Love Drought - Beyoncé - Sorry - Beyoncé - All Night - Beyoncé - Daddy Lessons - Beyoncé - Hold Up - Major Lazer & DJ Snake - Lean On - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps - Vampire Weekend - Obvious Bicycle - Beyoncé - Don’t Hurt Yourself - Prince - Musicology - Joshua Redman - How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore - Prince - How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore - Prince - When Doves Cry - Sly & The Family Stone - Thank You - Prince - Super Bowl Press Conference Performance - Marcus Miller - Jean Pierre (live at North Sea Jazz Festival) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Q8Ual3coM You can read Matthew Valnes' article "When Doves Cry" over at Musiqology: http://musiqology.com/blog/2016/04/25/when-doves-cry-prince-and-black-popular-music-history/ Also check out Behind The Linear Notes’s latest episode on the history of the Castrati featuring a clip from our episode on One Direction: http://www.betweenthelinernotes.com/episodes-1/castrato
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The Life Of Pablo is Kanye West’s latest album. Despite its lack of hits, it has been at the fulcrum of pop music for months. With its gradual online release and its changing track lists, this shapeshifting album is difficult to grasp. We recruit Andrew Marantz from The New Yorker Magazine to break down Pablo and the “Wolves,” a song that embodies the multiplicities of West’s larger project and connects his work to the classical past of Bach and Prokofiev. Featuring: - Kanye West: Wolves - Jay Z: Where's Th e Love - Kanye West: All Falls Down - Kanye West: Gold Digger - Kanye West: Heartless - Kanye West: All Of The Lights - Kanye West: Black Skinhead - Gary Glitter: Rock N Roll Part 2 (Hey!) - Kanye West: I Love Kanye - Bach: Canon Perpetuus - Prokofiev: Peter And The Wolf (narrated by David Bowie) - Paul McCartney: Driving Rain - Drake: Jumpman (featuring Future) - Missy Elliot: Work It - R. Kelly: The Zoo - Justin Timberlake: Give Me What I Don't Know - DJ Snake: Birdsong - Pink Floyd: Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Out of nowhere, Twenty One Pilots has rocketed to the top of the charts with their surprise hit "Stressed Out." Charlie and Nate pull this millennial anthem apart to discover a deep political resonance, the kind that rarely hits the Hot 100. Tracing this sound back in time reveals further connections, to Compton, Motown, and the alternate universe of Parliament/Funkadelic. And, a trip further down the chart suggests that political pop still has no party affiliation. Featuring: •Twenty One Pilots—Stressed Out •NWA—Alwayz Into Somethin' •Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg—Nuthin' but a G Thang •Parliament/Funkadelic—Aquaboogie •Stevie Wonder—Livin' for the City •G-Eazy x Bebe Rexha—My Myself and I •Iggy Azalea—Team
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>How do you collaborate with five people to write a song that captures that national temperature? The stakes may seem high with stars like Alex Da Kid, Candice Pillay, Kanye West and Rihanna, but Sam Harris from X Ambassadors has unlocked the secret. Having penned much of Rihanna's hit American Oxygen, Sam gives an honest account of his process to create a hit and capture the American Dream. And we also get an exclusive peak at X Ambassador's version of the song. Featuring X Ambassadors - Renegades Rihanna - American Oxygen Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A. Radiohead - Pyramid Song X Ambassadors - American Oxygen You can download X Ambassador's newly released version of American Oxygen from Interscope Records and KIDinaKORNER on iTunes: http://smarturl.it/AmericanOxygenXA
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Listen carefully to almost any hit song these days and you’ll hear musicians screaming “Hey!” What’s the matter with them? Do they really need our attention? We uncover the reason and history behind this phenomenon with guest host Alex Kapelman, producer of the narrative music podcast Pitch. We also listen to new music by Aoife O’Donovan in a new segment called Off The Charts. And we have the fourth and final installment of Nate’s journey back into the popular music of the 20s and 30s. Featuring Katy Perry - Roar Carly Rae Jepsen - I Really Like You Grimes - Venus Fly (ft. Janelle Monáe) Arian Grande - Break Free (ft. Zed) One Direction - Steal My Girl Scenes from the film Get On Up James Brown - Cold Sweat James Brown - Get Up Off That Thing Little Richard - Hey Hey Hey Hey The Lumineers - Hey Ho Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks Edward Sharpe and the Magnetics - Home One Direction - Perfect Kanye West - Black Skinhead Justin Bieber - Sorry Duke Ellington and Ivie Anderson - Raisin’ The Rent Harold Arlen - We’re Off To See The Wizard Ethel Waters - Stormy Weather Frank Sinatra - I’ve Got The World On A String Maxine Sullivan - Primitive Premadonna Check out Pitch at www.pitchpodcast.org Listen to the Say Hey playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/switchedonpop/playlist/2w4BPUPQBMWhMeVefSMDvr
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>One of the biggest voices in pop music has no face: Sia. She started her career as a ghostwriter for stars like Rihanna and Beyoncé. Recently she found pop star success with her hit "Chandelier." So with her new album, "This Is Acting," you'd expect to see her front and center. Instead, she hides her face from the media spotlight, covered by wigs, hats and other foreign objects. Lindsay Zoladz from NYMag joins us to discuss Sia's the musician and Sia the media spectacle. Featuring: Sia - Chandelier Rihanna - Diamonds Sia - Alive Sia - Reaper Rihanna - Work (ft. Drake) Sia - Bird Set Free Duke Ellington - Cotton Club Stomp Duke Ellington - East St. Louis Toodle-O Duke Ellington - Ko-Ko JC Burnett - Amazing Grace Charlie Johnson - The Boy In The Boat
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>What do Usher, The Band Perry and Bieber have in common? They all sing with Mama Jan, one of the best vocal coaches and producers in the music business. On this mini episode, Mama Jan talks about what happens backstage before the biggest performance of a lifetime.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Is it a love song or is it a breakup song? Charlie joins the women of the Call Your Girlfriend podcast to break down their namesake song by Robyn. Also, advice on how to build the perfect wedding playlist. And we check back in with Nate to listen to Cab Calloway on a time traveling adventure back to the 1930s. Featuring Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend Whitney Houston - Dance With Somebody (cappella) Eddie Johns - More Spell On You TLC - Waterfall (Bixel Boy's Remix) Village People - YMCA The O’Jays - Love Train David Bowie - Lets Dance Daft Punk - Get Lucky R. Kelly - Ignition (remix) Beyoncé - Love On Top Elvis Presley - Hound Dog Don Redman - Gee Ain’t I good to you Don Redman - Gotcha Cab Calloway - Minnie The Moocher Cab Calloway - Kicking The Gong Around Cab Calloway - Reefer Madness Louis Armstrong - St. James Infirmary Frankie “Half-Pint” Jackson - Willie The Weeper Naughty By Nature - Hip Hop Hooray Check out more Call Your Girlfriend at www.callyourgirlfriend.com Listen to Zach’s DJ sets at soundcloud.com/zachseely
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>What do presidential candidates, professional wrestlers and improv comics have in common? Walk on theme music. As the primary season heats up we dig into the history, meaning and controversies of campaign anthems. Also, comedian and guest co-host Chris Duffy shares some of his favorite lyrics with hidden humor. And we time travel with Nate to 1931 to visit late night Harlem jazz clubs. FEATURING Baha Men - Who Let The Dogs Out? String Quartet No. 19 in C Major K 465 IV Ride Of The Valkyries - Wagner Conducted by George Szell John Williams - The Imperial March Howard Da Silva - Tippacanoe and Tyler Too Oscar Brand - Rockabye Baby Peter Janovsky - Get On The Raft With Taft Woodie Gutherie - This Land is Your Land The Police - Every Breath You Take Tom Petty - Won’t Back Down Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run Metallica - Enter Sandman Mozart String Quartet No15 D Minor K. 421 I. Allegro Moderato Metallica - Master Of Puppets Kelly Clarkson - Stronger Zac Brown Band - Homegrown REM - End of the world Phantom of the Opera (Single Album Version) Carly Simon - You’re So Vain Beck - Devil’s Haircut Brad Paisley - Working On A Tan Quindon Tarver - Free To Wear Sunscreen Neil Young - Rockin’ In The Free World Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein Lil’ Jon - Get Low Lil’ Jon - Snap Your Fingers Rihanna - What’s My Name (ft. Drake) Van Halen - Why Can’t This Be Love Pitbull - Give Me Everything David Guetta - Sexy Bitch (ft. Akon) Don Redman - Song Of The Weeds Don Redman - Shacking the African Sir Mix Alot - Big Butts Nikki Minaj - Anaconda Flo Rida - Low Project Pat - Twerk It Don Redman - Nagasaki Don Redman - Song Of The Weeds Don Redman - The Man From Harlem Don Redman - Gee, Ain’t I Good To You
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Charlie and Nate reveal the life changing magic of how to tidy up the music you missed from last year. Annually, hundreds of publications release best of lists. These lists are supposed to make it easier to discover and celebrate the year in music. But with so many lists how can we know what is truly the best? Well we’ve found the definite source what’s great: Rob Mitchum’s Top Albums in 2015. Also, the major trends you might have missed and Jake Birch’s Mixed On Pop about The Weeknd’s “I Can’t Feel My Face.” Featuring: Wiz Khalifa – See You Again Taylor Swift – Blank Space Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk Adele – Hello Carly Rae Jepsen – I Really Like You The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face Duke Ellington – Prelude To A Kiss
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Celebrate 50 years of A Charlie Brown Christmas and his eponymous holiday album. If you’re feeling worn out on holiday music, this one never wears old. Its gone triple platinum and charts almost every year on the holiday Billboard. Join us as we dive deep into the brilliance of Vince Guaraldi, the pianist and composer behind Linus and Lucy. We bet you might be hearing the song all wrong. Featuring Vince Guaraldi – What Child Is This, Christmas Is Coming, Linus and Lucy, O Tannenbaum, Christmas Time Is Here, El Matador, Cast Your Fate To The Wind The Supremes – Oh Holy Night Leonard Bernstein – Carol Of The Bells Bobby Timmons – This Here Lee Morgan – The Rumproller Julian “Cannonball” Adderley – One For Daddy-O (featuring Miles Davis) Jack Gleason – Unforgettable This episode was sponsored by VNYL. Subscribe at my.vnyl.org.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Two unlikely anthems of individuality are rocketing up the charts: Selena Gomez’s “Same Old Love” and Alessia Cara’s “Here.” One is from an established star, the other from a total unknown, but both use similar musical techniques to make their voices heard against the madding crowd. Tune in to hear how the radio dial is richer for the presence of such non-conformist and anti-social jams. Featuring: Lady Gaga – Just Dance Selena Gomez – Same Old Love Alessia Cara – Here Michael Jackson – Billie Jean Kesha – Tik Tok Katy Perry – Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) George Bizet – Carmen Suite No. 2. Habanera Purcell – Dido’s Lament L’Arpeggiata – Amor
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The most omnipresent figure in pop music is also the most elusive: Karl Sandberg, AKA Max Martin, the mad Swedish genius who’s ruled the charts for 20 years. With the help of New Yorker writer John Seabrook, author of The Song Machine, and comedian Chris Duffy, host of You’re The Expert, we go deep into a 21st century pop classic to try and locate the secret formula behind Max Martin’s success. FEATURING Taylor Swift – Blank Space The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face Backstreet Boys – I Want It That Way Kelly Clarkson – Since You Been Gone Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps Kelly Clarkson – My Life Would Suck Without You Katy Perry – California Girls Taylor Swift – We Are Never Getting Back Together Ariana Grande – Problem N’Sync – It’s Gonna Be Me Britney Spears – Oops I Did It Again Taylor Swift – Bad Blood Icona Pop (ft. Charlie XCX) – I Love It Tove Lo – Talking Body Backstreet Boys – We’ve Got It Going On
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Drake and Adele are two megastars who may not seem to share much in common on the surface, but their recent hits exhibit some surprising parallels. Both revisit past relationships over the phone and both conceal inner anguish beneath subtle musical shifts. Featuring special appearances by the game Snake, Lord Byron and Drake and Adele themselves*, you don’t want to miss this episode. Plus, we check in with Justin Bieber as he completes his epic existential pop suite. For more songs about love on hold, check out our Spotify playlist. And check out Sean Rameswaram’s final episode of Sideshow on Studio 360. Featuring Drake – Hotline Bling Adele – Hello Timmy Thomas – Why Can’t We Live Together Justin Bieber – Sorry Jack Ü – Where Are Ü Now? Justin Bieber – What Do You Mean? Breakmaster Cylinder & Charlie Harding – Why Am I Here? *not really
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>As much as we might have crazy love for pop music, pop music also loves to drive us crazy. Earworms that grab you and won’t let go; cookie-cutter compositions that bedevil in their unoriginality; strange new sounds that vex, rankle, confound. How does pop music possess the unique ability to get under our skin? We pull apart some of the stickiest songs to try and find out. And listen to our playlist of songs that drive you mad on Spotify. FEATURING The Fine Young Cannibals – She Drives Me Crazy The Backstreet Boys – I Want It That Way Katy Perry – California Girls Kesha – Tik Tok Mozart – Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, K.466 Grady Smith – Why Country Music Was Awful in 2013 Grady Smith – Country Stars Who Don’t Like Their Own Records Fletcher Hederson – The Stampede Skrillex – Bangarang Elvis Presley – Jailhouse Rock Kylie Minogue – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Bieber’s two new hits, “Where Are Ü Now” and “What Do You Mean,” showcase the prodigal pop star’s soberer side. In each, his realization of the fictive nature of relationships is musicalized through slippery piano chords and disembodied voices. But just two songs does not make a true existential suite, so we collaborated with the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder to propose a third stanza for Bieber’s epic poem of love and loss. FEATURING Jack Ü – Where Are Ü Now (ft. Justin Bieber) Justin Bieber – What Do You Mean Justin Bieber – Boyfriend Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk Want to finish Justin Bieber’s trilogy? Listen to “Why Am I Here?” and download the track on Breakmaster Cylinder’s Soundcloud. Then, record your vocal and send it to [email protected]. We’re looking at you Justin.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The Weeknd’s deliriously funky chart topper “Can’t Feel My Face” has sparked sweat-soaked dance sessions across the country, but dark notes lurk at the outskirts of this ebullient jam. Chromatic intrusions and Classical laments crowd the scene and invite more clandestine interpretations. What’s this song really about? The secret lies in the scale. FEATURING The Weeknd – Wicked Games The Weeknd – Earned It The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face L’Arpeggiata – Monteverdi ‘s Amor (Lamento Della Ninfa, Rappresentativo) Skrillex & Diplo – Where Are Ü Now (with Justin Bieber) * You can find more deceptively addictive songs in our Spotify playlist. **Alex Ross’s great chapter on the long lineage of the Lament is indispensable. Find it in his book Listen to This and a précis of it at his blog The Rest is Noise.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>The sax is back. This surprisingly funky reed keeps popping up in pop hits from Derulo to Grande. But where did the sax come from? And where did it go? Tighten your embouchure, because we journey to the center of sax in this week’s episode. Also, songs featured in this episode and other great sax tracks are in our Spotify Playlist. *In this episode we incorrectly identified Mr. Sax’s home country as Germany (face palm). He was a native of Belgium. Our apologies to the Sax family. FEATURING Katie Perry – Last Friday Night John Coltrane – Giant Steps M83 – Midnight City Bill Clinton on Arsenio Hall Ariana Grande – Problem Flo Rida – GDFR WAR – Low Rider Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street George Michael – Careless Whisper George Gershwin – Rhapsody In Blue conducted by Leonard Bernstein Jules Demersseman – Fantasie Sur On Theme Original Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five – Muskrat Rumble Fletcher Henderson – Stampede Duke Ellington – Prélude To A Kiss King Curtis – Sister Sadie Sonny Rollings – St. Thomas Jason Derulo – Talk Dirty The Klezmer Lounge Band – Hava Nag ila Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna – Bhajare Sriramam – Vakulabharanam Sami Shawa – Jordan – Mawam Bayati Selim Sesler & Orchester – Saniye’m Spanish Tapas Bar, Vol. 2 – Malaguena Balkan Beat Box – Hermetico Fifth Harmony – Worth It Too Many Zooz – To The Top The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Can you be a country star and critical of the country at the same time? Grammy Award Winner, Kacey Musgraves, has two hit albums that challenge the small-town clichés of modern country music. Is she bucking the trend of big trucks and dirt roads, or embracing an old tradition of transgressing social norms? To answer […]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>In the first-ever LIVE edition of Switched on Pop, Charlie and Nate enter an epic debate over what track should be crowned 2015’s definitive Song of Summer. Charlie’s candidate is the retro anthem “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon, while Nate argues for Jason Derulo’s hot and heavy “Want to Want Me.” Meanwhile, the studio audience on Block Island has their own ideas about what makes a true Song of Summer, raising the stakes even higher. Who will emerge victorious? Only one song can beat the heat and rule the dog days of August. You don’t want to miss this epic Summer Jam Showdown.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Fetty Wap’s Trap Queen is an unlikely contender for the top 10. It straddles genres between hip-hop and pop in subtle yet mesmerizing ways. Is it a drug song? Is it a love song? Or is it both at the same time? Join us to find out why you can’t get this ear worm out of your head. FEATURING Fetty Wap – Trap Queen Dr. Dre – Still Dre Peter Gabriel – In Your Eyes
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>One Direction is one of the biggest bands in pop, but unless you’re a preteen or the parent of one, like us you’ve probably never heard a second of their music. Until now. Let’s see if we’ve been missing out, on the latest from Switched on Pop. FEATURING One Direction – Story Of My Life One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful One Direction – Live While We’re Young One Direction – You And I One Direction – Night Changes The Wanted – Glad You Came Alessandro Moreschi (The Last Castrato) – Ave Maria
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>How does a good pop song end? With a bang, right? As it turns out, explosive endings are kinda over. Songwriters are instead opting to end with a final dropout. Even the biggest pop anthems close with a quiet final moment. In this musical short, Nate, our resident musicologist, offers some theories as to why. FEATURING Taylor Swift – Blank Space One Republic – Counting Stars One Direction – Kiss You Rihanna – Don’t Stop the Music Mozart – Symphony No.41 in C K.551 “Jupiter” 4. Motto Allegro Taylor Swift – Trouble Lady Gaga – Alejandro
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>FourFiveSeconds is one of the more surprising collaborations in recent pop history. Rhianna, Kanye, Sir Paul McCartney. The motley lineup doesn’t dissapoint, serving up one of the most unexpected songs of the year—though not for the reason you’d think. Tune in and wile out while we wax on this whale of a power ballad. FEATURING Rihanna, Kanye West & Paul McCartney – FourFiveSeconds Kanye West – Gone Rihanna – We Found Love Rihanna – Don’t Stop the Music The Beatles – Revolution 9 & I’m So Tired (in reverse)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Carly Rae Jepsen might be the patron saint of Switched on Pop, the show first hatched by Charlie and Nate on a trip down CA-1 while the stereo blasted “Call Me Maybe.” So when we heard she had a new single out we knew we had to stop everything, put off our taxes for one more day, and dig into “I Really Like You” to see if Saint Jepsen could ward off the beguiling sophomore slump. You’ll really really really really really really like this one. Special thanks to the high school students from Nate’s “Why Music Matters” course at Stanford University Summer Institutes, who helped develop the analysis of “Call Me Maybe.” FEATURING Carly Rae Jepsen – I Really Like You Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe The Cardigans – Lovefool Don Henley – The Boys of Summer
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Written in the Hozier family basement, Take Me To Church has risen up to be one of the biggest pop hits of the year. But this is not a typical pop song. The unsettling music and provocative lyrics about faith and relationships irk many listeners. But this marriage of form and content also strikes a chord with our own foibles of faith. FEATURING Hozier – Take Me to Church Wintley Phipps – Amen
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Taylor Swift’s Blank Space is about emptiness of the heart. This motif of Blank Space is contained through the entire piece: from the drums, to the melody, to the lyrics. We pull away the sonic structures to show how Taylor recreates that empty feeling and explores the predictable devolution of fiery romance.
FEATURING
Taylor Swift – Blank Space
NY Magazine – Why You Keep Mishearing That Taylor Swift Lyric
This episode first broadcast on the Very Loose Women podcast on Resonance 104.4FM
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>A cappella, Italian for in the style of the church, refers to music for unaccompanied voices. Just a decade ago it was nowhere near the radio dial. Now it’s everywhere: college campuses, Hollywood blockbusters, prime time reality television, and the Grammys. A cappella hasn’t been this big since Gregorian chant. Why has a cappella returned with such a vengeance? We try to find out why in this four part episode. [Introduction] The Tallis Scholars – Missa Brevis: Kyrie Middlesex A Cappella – Sound of Silence Pentatonix – Daft Punk [Act 1: Undercover Barbershop, featuring journalist Kevin Roose] Buffalo Bills Barbershop Quartet – The Only Girl In The World Dion & The Belmonts – I Wonder Why Barbershoptags.com – I Love to Sing ‘Em The Barbershop Singers – My Wild Irish Rose Buffalo Bills – As Time Goes By Vocal Spectrum – When I See An Elephant Fly OC Times – Come Fly With Me [Act 2: How To Become A Youtube Star In 3 Easy Steps, featuring musician Matthias Harris] Halestorm – Bad Romance (Lady Gaga cover) Matthias Harris – Somebody That I Used To Know (Gotye a cappella arrangement) The Stiff Dylands – Ultraviolet Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra) Mike Tompkins – Teenage Dream & Just The Way You Are (Katy Perry a cappella arrangement) Matthias Harris – Boyfriend (Justin Bieber arrangement) Matthias Harris – Home [Act 3: Sing On / Sing Off featuring Manjula Raman from Element] Element – Royals (Lorde a cappella arrangement) Element – Raise Your Glass (Pink a cappella arrangement) [Act 4: A New Golden Era] Pentatonix – Daft Punk
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Reporting live from Kenya, we search for African pop that is making its way into global dance music. The barriers to producing high quality audio are reduced to merely owning a laptop. Now, regional artists are reaching a global audience. We speak to Blinky Bill, leader of the dance/pop/hip-hop group Just A Band, about their unique sound that attracts fans from Tokyo to Nairobi. And we also speak to Jeff Maina, lead designer at Waabeh, the Spotify for African content. FEATURING Fuse ODG – Azonto (learn the dance!) Sauti Sol – Sura Yako Diplo – Crown Just A Band – Looking for Home Just A Band – Life of the Party Just A Band – Probably for Lovers Just A Band – Huff + Puff Just A Band – Dunia Ina Mambo Charlie’s high school a cappella group – Give Up the Funk
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Did you know the melody to the Star Spangled Banner was once a British drinking song? In preparation for the Super Bowl, we uncover how the national anthem has been co-opted and reinterpreted by mega pop-stars. Our understanding of how this song sounds has been shaped by sporting events and the spin pop artists put on it has altered our conception of the national song. FEATURING Beyoncé, Jose Feliciano, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston – The Star Spangled Banner Iceland Symphony Orchestra – Finlandia, Op. 26 Ensemble Almageste – La Mantovana Songs from the the Star Spangled Music Foundation Sura Yako – Sauti Sol
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Did you know the melody to the Star Spangled Banner was once a British drinking song? In preparation for the Super Bowl, we uncover how the national anthem has been co-opted and reinterpreted by mega pop-stars. Our understanding of how this song sounds has been shaped by sporting events and the spin pop artists put on it has altered our conception of the national song. FEATURING Beyoncé, Jose Feliciano, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston – The Star Spangled Banner Iceland Symphony Orchestra – Finlandia, Op. 26 Ensemble Almageste – La Mantovana Songs from the the Star Spangled Music Foundation Sura Yako – Sauti Sol
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>You’ve heard it a million times, you know how to sing it, its ubiquitous during the holiday season, but you’ve never heard a definitive recording. Where does it come from, why is it so catchy, and why of all holiday songs is Jingle Bells the most widely played song? FEATURING She & Him The Cast of Glee Nate Sloan’s Madrigal Singers
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Pop music and youth go together like peanut butter and pickles. The music we hear when we’re young shapes our identities forevermore. In this episode we take three songs that promise an eternal adolescence and put them under microscope to see what makes them tick. Featuring Kesha – Die Young Fun – We Are Young Wiz Khalifa – Young, Wild and Free
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>We look at the Rhythms that make us dance, those primal beats, the “Boom Bang Pow” that make us want to move. We’ll ask what makes them work and why is that we’re hearing that untz untz everywhere we go from the dance floor, to the coffee shop, to the insides of our minds? FEATURING Charli XCX – Boom Clap Vengaboys – Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!! Jessie J – Bang Bang The Blacked Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow Little Richard – Tutti Frutti John Lee Hooker – Boom Boom Cher – Bang Bang Richard Savino & El Mundo: Il primo libro di canzone: Ciaconna The King’s Singers – La Guerre
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>We uncover the common songwriting techniques and chart the musical evolution of Taylor Swift. Featuring songs from her early country period, transitional indie period and her latest pop album, 1989.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>Why do we love listening to heartbreak songs? What do songwriters do to emote such strong feelings?
FEATURING
Adele – Someone Like You
Kacey Musgraves – I Miss You
CeeLo Green – F*** You!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
]]>