Charlie Harding

A throwback kind of like 1980s bop with crossover Bruno Mars with Rosé from Blackpink K-pop group.

Like the charts aren't any one thing.

The charts are all the diversity of what everyone is listening to.

Here's the thing, Christian music has always been huge.

It doesn't get a lot of mainstream media attention, and so it might seem smaller than the actual listening audience is.

Now that we're seeing what people are listening to is streaming, it's very clear that there is great demand for songs like Ordinary by Alex Warren.

When you have that big of a breakout hit of something which is a little bit left field, we're not expecting it.

what you get are follow-ons.

It's like when Billie Eilish came out, you got a hundred mini Billie Eilishes the next year.

I think we're going to hear a lot of Alex Warren sound-alikes in the following year.

I think there is a desire for music that provides a connection to a higher calling, that at least gives us a reprieve from the otherwise constant barrage of challenging news.

And so I think we're going to hear a lot more of this kind of sound in the coming year.

Taylor Swift's latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, has only been out a week, and the discourse could not be more divided.

Some critics are calling it fake and cringe, others are giving it five stars, but almost everyone assumes it's autobiography.

What if they're all wrong?

What if every Easter egg, every lyric, is just part of the performance?

I'm Charlie Harding from Switched on Pop.

Join us as we listen closely to reveal how the life of a showgirl isn't confession, it's craft.

Hear it on Switched on Pop, wherever you get podcasts.

It follows the essential songwriting rules established by Irving Berlin, the great 20th century songwriter, wrote 1,500 songs in his life, including songs like Puttin' on the Ritz, God Bless America, White Christmas. He had nine rules. We're not gonna go through all of them, but it hits on some of the most important ones. For example, the song has to have an average range that anybody can sing.