Switched on Pop

Slayyyter might actually be the 'Worst Girl in America'

07 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 qui...

How Charlie Puth honored Whitney Houston for 125 million people (live at Berklee NYC)

03 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Charlie Puth joins Switched On Pop in Studio A at Power Station at Berklee NYC, live before a room of current students, ten days after performing the ...

RAYE’s maximalist masterpiece is the hope we need

31 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

RAYE names Amy Winehouse and Edith Piaf as her artistic predecessors on the opening tracks of new album This Music May Contain Hope. Both died young, ...

Where have all the white rappers gone?

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On a recent podcast interview, Kentucky rapper Jack Harlow said that, to craft his new album Monica, he “got blacker.” The problem is… Jack Harl...

Jacob Collier can make anyone sing

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jacob Collier is a rare musician: an expert in so many musical languages (western harmony, negative harmony, microtonalism) and a phenomenal communica...

Harry Styles loses himself to dance

10 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The dance floor is where Harry Styles does his therapy, and this album is the session notes. Four years after Harry's House, Styles returns with Kiss ...

Can Bruno Mars counterprogram his way to another hit album?

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Bruno Mars is back with a new album called The Romantic, his first solo release since 2016’s 24k Magic. At first listen, the lead single, “I Just ...

Charli XCX’s "Wuthering Heights" fever dream

24 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Emerald Fennell's new adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1847 gothic romance "Wuthering Heights" is the most talked-about film of the year. But for pop lov...

Will Sinners do for blues what O Brother did for bluegrass?

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It's the middle of award season, and Ryan Coogler's ode to the Black music canon Sinners has emerged as the Oscars frontrunner and the most nominated ...

Jazz is A$AP Rocky’s secret weapon

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A$AP Rocky’s latest album, Don’t Be Dumb, is a wild ride through a cacophony of sounds — punk, industrial, drum ‘n’ bass, indie rock, and o...

Does humor belong in music?

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What makes Weird Al songs so indelible? Why is Bo Burnham more than just a comic? How do the biggest pop hits make us crack up in the middle of a somb...

And the Grammy goes to…

27 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The ultimate gauntlet of popular music is upon us once again: it's Grammy season, and this year, the competition is pretty tight across the board. Big...

Robyn’s new songs bring “drum 'n' grace” to the dance floor

21 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Swedish pop star Robyn emerged as a phenomenon in the mid 1990s, an ingenue whose work with Max Martin presaged the R&B crossover hits of acts like Br...

Audrey Hobert says the quiet part out loud

13 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Two years ago, Audrey Hobert had never written a song. She was a staff writer on a Nickelodeon series and had recently moved in with her childhood fri...

2026 Pop Predictions: big beat, animated avatars, and Bruno Mars

06 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a brand new year, and what better way to ring it in than with the second annual Switched On Pop bingo? Like last year, Charlie, Nate, and Reann...

The Sound of Silence from Unexplainable

30 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A scientist asked people to sit in a silent room for 15 minutes. Almost half of them decided to give themselves a painful electric shock instead. What...

Naughty or nice? The 2025 holiday music round up

23 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every Christmas season, pop stars far and wide throw their Santa hats into the ring to see who has the next "All I Want for Christmas Is You," and thi...

The year that killed music

16 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From big-ticket albums by Taylor and Gaga, to a revival of the stomp-clap revival – 2025 had it all, for better and for worse. Now that the year has...

Why pop songwriters break the rules ft. Amy Allen

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Grammy-winning songwriter Amy Allen joins NYU Steinhardt students live to trace her path from early pitch songs to co-writing some of the decade's def...

How Sombr’s bedroom recordings became his biggest hits

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sombr went from crafting raw, reverb soaked songs alone in his Lower East Side bedroom to finding his life shifting in ways he never could have predic...

"It’s a Hail Mary every time" (with Marc Rebillet)

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to improvisational loop jams, few have gone as viral as Marc Rebillet. From his 2020 lockdown-era video “How to Funk in Two Minutes,”...

Quitting Spotify (ft Deerhoof)

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In June 2025, indie veterans Deerhoof scrubbed their entire catalog from the world’s dominant streaming platform. The catalyst wasn't low royalties,...

Is there a Disney curse?: Demi, Selena, and Miley

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This year, there were a few records that delivered less-than-optimal returns on either the Hot 100 or the Billboard 200 – and they all came from fo...

Rosalía's 'LUX' brings the symphony to the club

11 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Spanish pop star Rosalía is back with her new album, Lux. Over eighteen tracks, she trades in the dembow beats that filled her last record Motomami f...

Lily Allen and Tate McRae revive the revenge anthem

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

They say the best revenge is living well, but if you’re a pop star going through a break up, that’s false. The best revenge is releasing a searing...

Can “professor” Charlie Puth pass our qualifying exam?

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Charlie Puth breaks down his new single "Changes," a maximalist eighties production hiding a melancholy story about drifting friendships. As he prepar...

How D'Angelo changed music, in three songs

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On October 14th, the visionary musician D’Angelo passed away at 51 years old. Only releasing three albums during his lifetime, he synthesized influe...

What do John C. Reilly and Taylor Swift have in common? The Great American Songbook

14 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John C. Reilly joins to discuss Mr. Romantic, his theatrical tribute to the Great American Songbook that treats Irving Berlin and Tom Waits as equals ...

Taylor Swift’s Showgirl Sound: How to actually listen to the album

07 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Taylor Swift's twelfth album has sparked endless speculation about who each song is "really about," but that might be the wrong question entirely. The...

The Power of the Trio (ft. Trousdale live at USC)

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There's no lead singer in Trousdale. The trio of Quinn D'Andrea, Georgia Greene, and Lauren Jones, has shared vocal duties equally since they started ...

Doja Cat is the new Janet

30 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This summer, one singular artist could be heard everywhere from the new Cardi B album to the TikTok charts: Janet Jackson. The incomparable Queen of P...

Stockholm syndrome: Why we can't resist Swedish pop (ft. Zara Larsson)

23 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How does a country of 10 million people dominate the global pop charts? From ABBA's Eurovision breakthrough to Max Martin's methodical hit-making, Swe...

The music theory behind K Pop Demon Hunters' chart dominance

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's time. Nate and Charlie break down the K Pop Demonhunters soundtrack to uncover the musical secrets behind its unprecedented success. From West ...

The architecture of the album with Djo (Joe Keery live at NYU)

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Halfway through the opening track of Joe Keery's The Crux, a line emerges that sounds like casual conversation: "My dog is at my house again, but I li...

Finneas and Ashe want you to start a band

09 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone should be in a band at some point—and Finneas and Ashe prove why. The Grammy-winning producer and rising singer-songwriter discuss how thei...

Fleetwood Mac's Missing Link Album Returns After 50 Years

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fleetwood Mac has had a phenomenal resurgence in recent years, from TikTok viral fame to Broadway plays and streaming TV series inspired by the band. ...

The classical rebel who infiltrated pop music

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You've heard those shimmering disco strings in Miley Cyrus's "Flowers," the cinematic arrangements on Phoebe Bridgers' Punisher, and the orchestral fl...

All roads lead to Pharrell: Tyler, Clipse, and Cardi

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The conversation around the new music this summer has been a dour one. Some of the biggest songs in the country right now are downtempo stomp-clap ant...

A brief history of terrible lyrics (with Sam Sanders)

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why do bad lyrics happen to good people? From "suckin' on a chili dog" to "making love to his tonic and gin," even the biggest hits from our favorite ...

Summer Bummer (with Commotion’s Elamin Abdelmahmoud)

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every music critic seems to agree: 2025 has no true song of summer. Last August, Teddy Swims’s “Lose Control” dominated the charts. This year…...

Justin Bieber's Lo-fi Bedroom Swag

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Justin Bieber is back with his seventh studio album: the aptly-titled SWAG. The lo-fi, reverb-laden record is a remarkably candid look inside the worl...

How podcasting got its sound ft. Breakmaster Cylinder

22 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What if the entire sound of modern podcasting can be traced back to a single Grateful Dead song uploaded in 2001? We uncover the musical lineage that ...

Is that new song you like AI? Here’s how you can tell

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The robots have arrived, and they're making protest songs about boots on the ground. When an AI band called The Velvet Sundown fooled over a million S...

The Benson Boone-Doggle

08 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In which we explore the unlikely rise, and surprising backlash against, one Benson Boone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a...

Can Recession Pop predict the market?

01 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why does the economy look great on paper but feel terrible in your wallet? There might be a more revealing economic indicator hiding in your Spotify q...

How Americana helped mainstream country find its soul

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

 As we've been examining over the course of Country Week, country music has found a larger audience, in part by widening its sonic palette. For the ...

Country music is Mexican (Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera)

26 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

More often than not, country music is seen as an "American" genre – meaning that the music is seen as strictly from the United States. In some ways...

The Ballad of Lainey Wilson and Jessie Murph

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There's often an unspoken (and deeply misogynistic) rule on country music radio: never play two female artists back to back. In this episode of Switch...

The hick hop renaissance (BigXthaPlug and Bailey Zimmerman)

24 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One of the biggest country hits of the year has been "All The Way," by Texas rapper BigXthaPlug and country rocker Bailey Zimmerman, which peaked at #...

Is Morgan Wallen the problem with country music?

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Country music stands at a crossroads between tradition and evolution, and no artist embodies this tension better than Morgan Wallen. His song "I'm the...

"Manchild" and other songs about male incompetence

17 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Looking for relationship advice? Skip the self-help books and turn to Sabrina Carpenter's latest single "Manchild" instead. This deep dive into the ar...

Frankly, Sinatra still matters (with Seth MacFarlane)

10 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What if the Chairman of the Board's biggest contribution to music wasn't his voice, but the blueprint he created for modern pop stardom? Frank Sinatra...

Is the future of pop...heavy metal?!

03 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The UK outfit Sleep Token has done what we once thought impossible: Found commercial success playing heavy metal music in 2025 AD. Their fourth studi...

Charli XCX threw this party 4 us

27 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Five years ago, Charli XCX released the track "party 4 u," a melancholic ode to throwing a function for that one specific person. Now, in 2025, the so...

808: The drum machine that changed music forever (Twenty Thousand Hertz)

25 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The 808 is arguably the most iconic drum machine ever made. Even if you’ve never heard of it, you’ve definitely heard it. It’s in dozens of hit ...

Chartbreakers: Lorde & Drake reboot, Worship Pop, and the shortest song ever

20 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when worship anthems climb the charts alongside soul revivals and nostalgia-driven comebacks? The May 2025 Billboard charts reveal a fasc...

‘Sinners’ summons the demons of American music

13 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We rarely cover movies here at Switched On Pop. But after seeing Ryan Coogler's new vampire musical Sinners, we knew we had to make an exception. Th...

Eurovision feast: Poison Cake, Milkshake Man, and Espresso Macchiato (featuring Tommy Cash)

06 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's that time of year again: Eurovision Song Contest is upon us. And with the competition comes a tradition at Switched On Pop, where Charlie and Nat...

Put your headphones on for TikTok's Addison Rae

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Despite TikTok defining this decade's music landscape, the app hasn't spawned a bonafide pop superstar – yet. 24-year-old Addison Rae is trying to b...

Generation Taylor: Gracie, Maisie, Phoebe (with Jensen McRae)

22 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Taylor Swift isn't just a world-conquering pop star at the top of her game, her approach to songwriting has also proven massively influential for an u...

Music's New Success Model

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Specialized platforms and social media have empowered musicians to tap into niche audiences, igniting a quiet revolution in the music industry. Despit...

Miley Cyrus goes avant-garde

08 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Miley Cyrus just released three singles from her ninth studio album, Something Beautiful. Inspired by Pink Floyd's The Wall—specifically the 1982 fe...

Chappell Roan is giving country... and hair metal?

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why was Chappell Roan's band dressed like an 80s hair metal act during her Grammy performance? The answer unlocks the surprising secret behind her #1 ...

Writing The Who’s ‘My Generation' With Pete Townshend

25 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Who's "My Generation" wasn't born from inspiration—it was commissioned. In a rare interview, Pete Townshend reveals how six fans at London's Gol...

Lady Gaga's Monster Return

18 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2022, Lady Gaga embarked on The Chromatica Ball – a stadium tour featuring a stage that Gaga herself referred to as her "museum of brutality." T...

How Missy Elliott and Timbaland Freaked the World

11 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When the song “Get Ur Freak On” hit radio in 2001, it set the world of popular music on fire. Missy Elliott and Timbaland’s first crossover hit ...

Playing "Hide and Seek" with Imogen Heap

04 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It may be hard to believe it in this technology-driven day and age, but one of the most pervasive sounds in popular music came about when a computer S...

The Umbrella Effect: How Rihanna’s Breakout Hit Changed Pop Music Forever

25 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2007, a 19-year-old Barbadian pop singer released the lead single off her third album. By doing so, she didn't just give us a timeless, undeniable ...

Learning to love: Tate McRae

18 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tate McRae's billions of streams and perfectly crafted hits can feel almost algorithmic, like an AI trained on 20 years of pop music. In anticipation ...

Does It Trance? The Weeknd & FKA Twigs

11 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In last month's episode predicting the coming year in pop, one of the team's predictions was that trance music – the ethereal, dreamy subgenre of e...

How Spotify hacked our ears (and our data)

04 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Behind Spotify's promise of infinite music lies a carefully engineered system that shapes not just what we hear, but how music itself gets made. Journ...

25 Predictions for 2025: Grammys, J-pop, kazoos and more

28 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

2024 was an unpredictable year, and 2025 seems to be cut from the same cloth. So for this episode of Switched On Pop, Nate, Charlie, and Reanna look i...

Bad Bunny's love letter to Puerto Rico

21 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The first great release of 2025 is already here: Bad Bunny's newest album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. Over the course of its 17 tracks, the Puerto Rican ...

The biggest theme song fail

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when your podcast’s theme song—cobbled together from GarageBand loops—gets called “game show music” and likened to a cereal com...

Have Disney musicals lost their edge?

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Critics are not feeling the love tonight when it comes to Disney's latest sequels, Mufasa and Moana 2. They've called the animated films "lifeless and...

Going Off Book

31 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 kill...

Auto-Tune always and forever

24 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Popular music changes all the time, but there’s been one consistent element in practically everything released in the last two decades: Auto-Tune is...

Santa Claus is coming to town and stalking America

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The first time you hear "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," it probably registers as just another cheery holiday standard. But hiding within this seeming...

Breaking Through: Doechii, Mk.gee, Rosé

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Three artists quietly reshaped pop music in 2024, though you might not know it from your Spotify Wrapped. As listeners question the accuracy of their ...

The best (and worst) of holiday music in 2024

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's an annual tradition: Every December, artists release their bids to join the hallowed halls of holiday music history. The gold standard remains Ma...

Kendrick Lamar: from Pulitzer to pop

10 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2024, Kendrick Lamar pulled off what seemed impossible: winning hip-hop's biggest rap battle in recent history, securing the Super Bowl halftime sh...

We're off to see the "Wicked"

03 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The year's hottest movie is, against all odds, a musical. Wicked, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, just hit theaters, and tells the tale of h...

Listening 2 Madonna: Ray of Light

29 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

TIME Magazine once said, “there are few figures more closely associated with religion in pop culture than Madonna.” And looking at her catalog, it...

Listening 2 Madonna: Spanish Eyes

27 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout her forty-year career, Madonna has managed to travel the globe, both literally and musically. Despite being a white woman from the midwest ...

Listening 2 Madonna: Who's That Girl?

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Madonna is the world's biggest female pop star. She's influenced everyone from Beyoncé to Britney Spears; is the most successful solo artist in Hot 1...

Fleetwood Mac perfected turning drama into hits

19 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1973, before their ascent to rock superstardom with Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were just two young lovers making music in L...

Still Freaky After All These Years: Gaga, Tyler, The Cure

12 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 fre...

Did Kendrick Lamar kill hip-hop?

05 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the summer, the culture was shaken by the biggest rap beef this decade, between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. From “First Person Shooter” to “N...

Where are all the scary songs?

29 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the spookiest time of the year; Halloween is right around the corner. But unlike the winter holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah, Halloween see...

The virtuosity of Stevie Wonder

22 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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. ...

The last decade of pop explained

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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, w...

Learning to love: Coldplay

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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, despi...

Fall Out Boy and the worst earworm ever

01 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Mexican pop is bigger than you think

24 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 Me...

How Megan Thee Stallion brought Japanese hip hop to the Hot 100

17 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"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 bec...

Learning to love: Oasis

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Oasis, the Manchester band led by brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher, conquered the charts in the 1990s with rock anthems like "Wonderwall." This month,...

Newcomers: Porter Robinson

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 int...

Sabrina Carpenter is more than Short n' Sweet

03 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On her sixth studio album, Short n' Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter moves seamlessly between pop, country, folk and R&B. For Carpenter, genre is merely a mus...

Newcomers: Jhayco

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jhayco, the artist formerly known as Jhay Cortez, feels different from the rest of the Latin music machine. He considers himself a “melody freak,”...

Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars bring back the duet

27 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 succ...