Switched on Pop
Episodes
AJR Conjure Broadway on 'OK Orchestra'
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 at...
Return of the Funk Guitar: Cory Wong Breaks Down Dua Lipa, Jessie Ware and Nile Rodgers
23 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
What the 63rd Grammys say about the state of pop
16 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 loca...
Kimbra reflects on a song that we used to know
09 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 h...
Kaytranada's journey from basement beat-making to the Grammys
02 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kaytranada has what every producer strives for: an in-demand signature sound. His records glide fluidly between four-to-the-floor house beats, hip-ho...
JP Saxe Didn’t Mean for His Grammy Hit ‘If the World Was Ending’ to Be So Literal
23 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
JP Saxe wrote the song “If the World was Ending” with acclaimed songwriter Julia Michaels in 2019 about a fictional cataclysm. The record was rele...
Adrian Younge's new project sounds like James Baldwin meets Marvin Gaye
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 a...
The Scandalous Sounds of Bridgerton (w Kris Bowers)
09 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Netflix series Bridgerton has hooked audiences with its bodice-ripping sex scenes, a colorblind approach period drama casting, and a soundtrack fe...
How The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” used retro sounds and modern bass to break every record
02 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 i...
Epik High is our gateway into Korean hip hop (with Tablo)
26 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 th...
Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” is a full throttle power ballad
19 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
D.O.C. (Death of the Chorus) with Emily Warren
12 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 d...
ICYMI: The End Of Pop Music As We Know It: Fall Out Boy & Charli XCX
05 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
ICYMI: Do You Believe in Life After Autotune?
29 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 in...
Wham! Op. 84 “Last Christmas” with Chilly Gonzales
21 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Wham’s 1984 contribution to the holiday cannon, “Last Christmas,” has surprising staying power. When Grammy-winning pianist Chilly Gonzales set ...
Taylor Swift has "evermore" of a good thing
15 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Just five months after releasing her Grammy-nominated album “folklore,” Taylor Swift surprised fans with a continuation of sorts — her ninth stu...
Women's Rap Renaissance
08 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
Red Hot + Blue with Meshell Ndegeocello
01 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Cyndi Lauper Conspiracy (with Sam Sanders)
24 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 Wan...
ANTHEMS: Missy Elliott — Work It
17 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 D...
ANTHEMS: Smash Mouth — All Star
10 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 sp...
ANTHEMS: Jock Jams — Get Ready For This
03 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 a...
ANTHEMS: Queen — We Are The Champions
27 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Cory Henry has Something to Say
20 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 fir...
The Pop Music Forecast (with Lauren Michele Jackson)
14 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Brandy Clark's Life Is A Record
07 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Keith Urban on The Speed of Now Part 1
02 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 m...
Mickey Guyton sings truth to Country Music
29 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 mome...
Disclosure: Where Energy Flows
22 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Howard and Guy Lawrence, the brothers behind Disclosure, found global acclaim in 2012 with their song “Latch” ft. Sam Smith which blended house an...
THE 5TH — MOVEMENT IV, What Beethoven Would Have Wanted
18 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 sym...
THE 5TH — MOVEMENT III, Putting the Classism in Classical
15 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Before Beethoven’s time, classical music culture looked and sounded quite different. When Mozart premiered his Symphony 31 in the late 1700s, it was...
THE 5TH — MOVEMENT II, From Struggle to Victory
11 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 th...
THE 5TH — MOVEMENT I, A Battle Brewing
08 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You know Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. You’ve heard it in films, advertisements, parodied in Saturday morning cartoons and disco-ized in Saturday Ni...
The Resistance is Dancing in the Streets (ICYMI)
01 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Our Switched on Summer Throwback Series continues with “Dancing in the Street,” the 1964 Motown hit by Martha and the Vandellas that was co-writte...
Benee and the Art of the Sad Banger
26 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 quick...
90s Music Canon
18 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
Bruno Major restyles the Great American Songbook
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bruno Major blends old song structures from The Great American Songbook with contemporary production on his new album “To Let A Good Thing Die.” T...
Black Is King (ICYMI Beyoncé's Gift To Africa ft. Ivie Ani)
04 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 plac...
folklore: taylor swift's quarantine dream
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Taylor Swift has released folklore, her unexpected eighth studio album. It is an understated work that firmly puts celebrity gossip behind her (there ...
The Women Reclaiming Nu-Metal ft. Rina Sawayama
21 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Rosie: Investigating a Crime at the Heart of the Music Industry
14 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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:...
Song of Summer 2020: TikTok Jams, Protest Anthems, Breezy Bops & Bummer Bangers
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Many Colors of Lady Gaga’s ‘Chromatica’
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
I Am America (w Shea Diamond and Justin Tranter)
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Baz Luhrmann’s “Sunscreen Song” — The 90s’ Most Unlikely Hit (with Avery Trufelman)
23 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 1999 filmmaker Baz Luhrmann released the song “Everybody’s Free To Wear Sunscreen,” a 7-minute-long graduation speech set to downtempo electr...
Jacob Collier on staying creative and his 646 track song “All I Need”
19 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Quarantined in his family’s music room, musician Jacob Collier has been remarkably productive. Known for his polymathic musical talents, Collier has...
What it means to make music in 2020
16 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic has upended the art and business of making music. Producing, performing and releasing — every aspect is new and uncharted. The need for...
Big Floyd And The Influence Of Houston Chopped N Screwed Music
09 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In a Rolling Stone article titled “He Shook The World: George Floyd’s Legendary Houston Legacy”, writer Charles Holmes reveals the musical past ...
Carly Rae Jepsen: Meeting The Muse
26 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 Car...
Why lo-fi is the perfect background music
19 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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-strea...
Eurovision Lives! (with Netta)
12 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Like many events, the international song competition Eurovision 2020 has been canceled. Sadly, there will be no champion crowned this year... or will ...
How To Soundtrack A Villain: Killing Eve
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 unpr...
Did Fiona Apple Just Release a Perfect Album?
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Since 1996, Fiona Apple has only ever had one hit, “Criminal.” Nonetheless, every album she’s released has been nominated for a Grammy. Her newe...
Doja Cat’s “Say So” is a Masterclass in Good Times
21 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 “...
Were We Wrong About Kanye West?
14 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 Pa...
Aussie2Aussie: 5SOS on Tame Impala (with Luke Hemmings & Calum Hood)
07 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ab...
The (murder) Ballad of Joe Exotic “Tiger King” (with Robert Moor)
05 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scandal and intrigue surround Joe Exotic, the central character of the new Netflix documentary Tiger King. Among the many bizarre traits of this zoo k...
D’Angelo and the Legacy of Voodoo (with Faith Pennick)
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 h...
"Happy Birthday" is the Worst (with Anne-Marie)
24 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 reason...
Bad Bunny Has A Message For Your Mom
17 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 i...
The Fire & Fury Of Overcoats
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gone are the days of a clear dividing line between “mainstream pop” and “conscious” music. Many of the world’s highest-grossing pop stars ar...
Can't Help Falling in Lauv (the interview)
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Charlie talks to Lauv, the singer, songwriter and producer behind unfailingly catchy tracks such as “Mean It” and “I Like Me Better.”...
What Happens When Justin Bieber Samples Your Music
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Bristol-based producer Laxcity logged onto Twitter to find out that Justin Bieber sampled his music, he was at first unphased. The sampled materi...
Return Of The Guitar: Halsey, 5 Seconds of Summer, Joji
18 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 gui...
Look At Selena Gomez Now with Justin Tranter & Ian Kirkpatrick
11 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ch...
Five Directions: How do the solo efforts of One Direction stack up?
04 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Post Malone has us Running in Circles
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Hopes and Fears of Mac Miller, Future, Drake, and Billie Eilish
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Dua Lipa’s Disco Fever
14 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
ICYMI: Chance The Rapper, Kehlani, & The Shifting Sound of R&B — with Oak Felder
07 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 popul...
ICYMI: Billie Eilish is a Different Kind of Pop Star (ft. FINNEAS)
31 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 m...
Dolly Parton's America (with Jad Abumrad)
24 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There are icons, and then there’s Dolly Parton. The country singer-turned-actress-turned-cultural phenomenon has produced a nearly unparalleled body...
Who's Afraid of the Sound of TikTok? (w Cat Zhang)
17 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 mo...
Paper Planes, Chandelier & What the #@%! is Timbre? (with Constance Grady)
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 Work...
Prelude & Feud on a 'G' Thang: Biggie vs Tupac
03 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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? ...
Pop is the Sound We Need Right Now (with Electric Guest)
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 ma...
The Past, Present, and Future of EMO (with Allegra Frank)
19 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 momen...
When Pop and Classical Collide (with James Bennett II)
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Unlocking the Rhythms of Rosalía
05 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Rihanna Party! (with Gina Delvac)
29 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, NPR Music ran an audacious headline: "Rihanna Is The 21st Century's Most Influential Musician." Millions and millions of fans the world ove...
Why U Love 2 Listen 2 Prince (with Anil Dash)
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 r...
A Brief History of Men Singing Really High
15 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Total Request Live! Taylor, Lana, Kim, and More (with Sam Sanders)
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
NPR's Sam Sanders stops by to break down the tracks that Switched On listeners have been loving. Swedish dancefloor confessionals, songs that stop tim...
Mastering Music (with Dallas Taylor of Twenty Thousand Hertz)
01 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 subt...
Jazz 1959
24 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 lef...
BONUS: Charli XCX and The Future of Music (with Dani Deahl)
22 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The “Baby Shark” Phenomenon (with Andrea Silenzi)
17 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For most parents, “Baby Shark” is the nightmare that will not end. Ever since the South Korean educational company Pinkfong released the song earl...
BONUS: Who are the Picassos of pop? (with Ross Golan)
13 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 epi...
Switched Off Book the Improvised Musical (with Jess McKenna and Zach Reino)
10 Sep 2019
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 kille...
ICYMI: How to 'Make Me Feel' with Lizzo
03 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
"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...
ICYMI: Why is 90s Pop so Bizarre?
27 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 s...
Songs of Summer Call-in Special
20 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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. Cert...
Chance The Rapper, Kehlani, & The Shifting Sound of R&B — with Oak Felder
13 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 popul...
Beyoncé's Gift To Africa (with Ivie Ani)
06 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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...
LCD Soundsystem and the Unbearable Sameness of Restaurant Playlists
30 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Why is it that every hip restaurant plays the same music? When Eater restaurant editor Hillary Dixler Canavan kept hearing similar songs while dining ...
The $50M Beat Marketplace That Broke the Billboard
23 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 ju...
Shawn Mendes and the Rhythm of Rhyme
16 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 th...
Space, The Final Frontier: Madonna, Stephen Puth and Street Studios
09 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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...
What BTS's "Boy With Love" ft. Halsey Can Teach Us About K-pop
02 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 touri...
"Prince Ali" and Why We're All Music Theorists
25 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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" ...