Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network
  • 4.6 (2.7K)
  • MUSIC COMMENTARY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Listen closer to pop music — hear how it moves us. Hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan & songwriter Charlie Harding. From Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

  1. Eurovision is back – but not without controversy

    12H AGO

    Eurovision is back – but not without controversy

    The flowers are blooming and the calendar says May. That can only mean one thing: the Eurovision Song Contest is upon us once again. This year, thirty-five countries face off to determine the best song that Europe and adjacent continents have to offer. However, the competition comes with a big asterisk: while Eurovision prides themselves on being “apolitical,” the inclusion of Israel in the competition has led to a massive boycott, and the nations of Ireland, Spain, Iceland, Slovenia, and the Netherlands all withdrawing their participation. These are very real concerns impacting the general tenor of the competition this year, and are worth deeply considering. Since  Eurovision is music news, and proves fundamental in discovering new sounds in global pop, as reporters, Nate, Charlie, and Reanna run down the top contenders according to bookmakers as of this recording. If you’re not watching this year, you’ll still know what’s going on.  But if Eurovision isn’t of interest, it’s all good. At the end of the episode, Nate, Charlie, and Reanna also take some time to run down the current state of Switched On Pop bingo. Get your own bingo card here. Links: ⁠Newsletter⁠, ⁠YouTube Songs discussed: Céline Dion – Ne partez pas sans moi ABBA – Waterloo Joost – Europapa JJ – Wasted Love Delta Goodrem – Eclipse Søren Torpegaard Lund – Før Vi Går Hjem Ariana Grande – One Last Time Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper – Shallow Akylas – Ferto Käärijä – Cha Cha Cha Linda Lampenius, Pete Parkkonen – Liekinheitin Windows95man – No Rules Erika Vikman – ICH KOMME DARA – Bangaranga Alexandra Cǎpitǎnescu – Choke Me Satoshi – Viva, Moldova! PinkPantheress, Zara Larsson – Stateside Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    55 min
  2. Samara Cyn is rap's best new writer

    4D AGO

    Samara Cyn is rap's best new writer

    How do you write a rap verse that's clever without saying so? Samara Cyn, one of the sharpest young writers in hip-hop, joins us to talk about Detour, her new EP about going analog. We get into wordplay versus narrative, the Missy Elliott blueprint behind "oooshxt!", and why she takes a knee in the vocal booth when a line won't come out. Songs Discussed Samara Cyn — "Sinner" Samara Cyn "BUSHWICK" Samara Cyn — "FREE" Samara Cyn — "Highest" Samara Cyn — "oooshxt!" Samara Cyn — "summer's turning" Samara Cyn — "over influence" Samara Cyn — "Nomad" Samara Cyn — "Bad Brain" Newsletter: https://switchedonpop.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    38 min
  3. Olivia Rodrigo and the second verse massacre

    MAY 5

    Olivia Rodrigo and the second verse massacre

    Olivia Rodrigo's chart-topping new single "drop dead," the lead single from her forthcoming third album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, breaks one of pop's oldest rules by abandoning the traditional second verse and replacing it with something entirely new. From Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" to Sabrina Carpenter's "Manchild" and Chappell Roan's "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl," a growing wave of today's biggest pop stars are ditching the verse-chorus formula listeners have been trained to expect for decades. Rodrigo didn't invent the second-verse switch-up, but on "drop dead" she may have just killed off the predictable second verse for good. Songs Discussed Frank Zappa "Charlene" Olivia Rodrigo "drop dead" The Cure "Just Like Heaven" Jean-Baptiste Lully "The Tragey of Armide" Ryan Brown conducting Opera Lafayette Olivia Rodrigo "drivers license" Olivia Rodrigo "good 4 u" Olivia Rodrigo "vampire" Olivia Rodrigo "ballad of a homeschooled girl" Arnold Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire — Patricia Kopatchinskaja Mariah Carey "Fantasy" (ft. Ol' Dirty Bastard) Blackstreet "No Diggity" (ft. Dr. Dre, Queen Pen) Peter Gabriel "Don't Give Up" (ft. Kate Bush) Kendrick Lamar, SZA "luther" Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars "Die With a Smile" Post Malone, Swae Lee "Sunflower" HUNTR/X "Golden" Joshua Bassett, Olivia Rodrigo "Start of Something New" Matt Cornett, Olivia Rodrigo "What I've Been Looking For" Olivia Rodrigo "All I Want" The Avett Brothers "I and Love and You" Sheryl Crow "Strong Enough" Sabrina Carpenter "Please Please Please" Sabrina Carpenter "Manchild" Chappell Roan "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl" Chappell Roan "HOT TO GO!" Chappell Roan "Red Wine Supernova" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    44 min
  4. Hrishikesh Hirway made an album about running out of time — in no time

    APR 28

    Hrishikesh Hirway made an album about running out of time — in no time

    Hrishikesh Hirway, host of Song Exploder, returns with his first album in fifteen years, In the Last Hour of Light, made under a premise that's almost contradictory for a podcaster built around isolated stems: session players who had never heard the songs, vocals tracked live in the room, no click track, and no overdubs.  The layered style that defines current pop production is itself a relatively recent development. Hirway's record  reaches back to the older live-tracking tradition that shaped the 1950s and 60s Bollywood recordings he grew up listening to in his parents' house. The album is about memory and so it’s appropriate that the music is recorded whole  in all its beautiful imperfections. Songs Discussed Hrishikesh Hirway "Things Change Even Now" Hrishikesh Hirway "Stray Dogs" Hrishikesh Hirway "The Ocean" Hrishikesh Hirway "Home Movies" Adrienne Lenker “Anything” Chuck Berry "Maybellene" The Beatles "Twist and Shout" James Brown "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" Sidney Bechet "The Sheik of Araby" Les Paul & Mary Ford "How High the Moon" The Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" The Beatles “A Day In The Life” Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody" Jacob Collier "With the Love in My Heart" Brandi Carlile "You and Me on the Rock" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    43 min
  5. BTS is back. But K Pop is not the same.

    APR 21

    BTS is back. But K Pop is not the same.

    BTS is back. The best selling K Pop group of all time has been on hiatus for four years. They haven’t released an album in six. They were once the biggest band in the world. Can they regain their throne? Or has the world moved on. Leaning on traditional Korean sounds and a bevy of international producers, from Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker to JPEGMafia, is their album Arirang the future or the past of K Pop? Hye Jin Lee, communications professor at USC and K Pop scholar, joins to break down the album's references and ponder how longtime fans will respond. Songs Discussed BTS - Body to Body Koreana - Hand In Hand Lee Chun-Hee - Arirang BTS - Hooligan Michel Magne - Yang Tse Kiang - Bande originale du film "Un singe en hiver" ROSALÍA - MALAMENTE - Cap.1: Augurio Prefuse 73 - The End of Biters - International BTS - Aliens Kim Young-gil and Yoon Ho-Se - Ajaeng sanjo - Jungmori BTS - FYA Junior Sanchez - Lookin 4 Love - Extended Mix BTS - No. 29 BTS - SWIM BTS - Merry Go Round Tame Impala - New Person, Same Old Mistakes BTS - NORMAL BTS - they don’t know ’bout us The Four Freshmen It's A Blue World BTS - Paldogangsan BTS - No More Dream BTS and Zara Larsson - A Brand New Day Agust D - Haegeum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    48 min
  6. Maggie Rogers: going viral is a trap

    APR 17

    Maggie Rogers: going viral is a trap

    Ten years ago, Maggie Rogers was a senior at NYU, scrambling to finish a song for a music production class she was close to failing. The guest critic that week happened to be Pharrell Williams. She played him "Alaska," a track she'd written in about fifteen minutes. It is a bit of folk songwriting crossed with the electronic music she'd fallen for studying abroad. Pharrell told her he'd never heard anything that sounded like it. Someone was filming. The clip went viral, and it launched Maggie into pop stardom.  Ten years later, she's released three studio albums, earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and gone back to school to pick up a master's from Harvard Divinity School, where she studied the spirituality of public gatherings. And in the last few months she's been as visible offstage as on — advocating for free speech in DC, performing for 200,000 people at a protest in Minneapolis alongside Joan Baez, and delivering a haunting performance during the final run of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which CBS is ending in May. This week host Charlie Harding got to sit down with Maggie live at Chelsea Studios, in front of a room of current NYU students. It’s the same school, ten years later, now with Charlie in the professor's chair and Maggie as the visiting artist. SONGS DISCUSSED Maggie Rogers "Alaska" Maggie Rogers "Better" Maggie Rogers "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" Maggie Rogers "Different Kind of World" Marvin Gaye "What's Going On" Bob Dylan "The Times They Are a-Changin'" USA for Africa "We Are the World" More Newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    38 min
  7. Learning to Love Train: "Drops of Jupiter" is back in the atmosphere

    APR 14

    Learning to Love Train: "Drops of Jupiter" is back in the atmosphere

    Train is the kind of band that some people love to hate. Songs like "Meet Virginia" and "Hey Soul Sister" gave the band huge hits, and no small amount of snark. And then there's "Drops of Jupiter." Released in 2001, the song is almost impossible not to love, no matter how many lyrics about soy lattes and Tae Bo it includes. "Drops of Jupiter" was released 25 years ago, so there's no more perfect time to plumb the secrets of this celestial smash, and there's no more perfect guest than Train's lead singer and songwriter, Pat Monahan. Pat breaks down the origin of the song, why he thought it would flop, how Train is like a rom com, and why he'd rather his songs be more famous than him. By the end of our conversation, you might find yourself learning to love Train. Songs Discussed Train - Drops of Jupiter, Meet Virginia, Hey Soul Sister Taylor Swift - Drops of Jupiter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    47 min
  8. Slayyyter might actually be the 'Worst Girl in America'

    APR 7

    Slayyyter might actually be the 'Worst Girl in America'

    Going for broke turned out to be the most honest thing Slayyyter ever made. After financial losses and a depressive episode that left her ready to quit music entirely, Slayyyter entered the studio planning to make one final album. In this conversation, she traces how that desperation shaped every decision on Worst Girl in America. This conversation will leave you feeling Daddy AF. SONGS DISCUSSED Slayyyter – "Daddy AF" Slayyyter – "Brittany Murphy" Slayyyter – "Dance" Slayyyter – "Crank" Slayyyter – "Gas Station" Slayyyter – "Beat Up Chanels" Slayyyter – "Old Technology" Slayyyter – "Yes God" Slayyyter – "Unknown Lovers" Slayyyter – "Cannibalism" Slayyyter – "Actually Kind of Famous" Slayyyter – "What It's Like to Be Liked" Slayyyter – "Mine" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    38 min
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Listen closer to pop music — hear how it moves us. Hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan & songwriter Charlie Harding. From Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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