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PODCAST

Switched on Pop

Switched on Pop

A podcast about the making and meaning of popular music hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding. Episodes every other Wednesday.

music

All Episodes

34:15

230: Modern Classics: Yola on Childish Gambino’s...

Switched on Pop ·

2021/07/27

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

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27:01

229: L’Rain asks “what have you done to change?”...

Switched on Pop ·

2021/07/23

L’Rain is the musical persona of the singer and multi-instrumentalist Taja Cheek. Her new album Fatigue begins with a lyrical quandary: “what have you done to change?” The music that follows takes us on a journey of self discovery with 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 pathway out of darkness. An unexpected sample of a preacher at a friend’s

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25:25

228: Summer Hits: City Girls - Twerkulator (with Kyra...

Switched on Pop ·

2021/07/20

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

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32:12

227: Summer Hits: Lorde - Solar Power (w Hanif...

Switched on Pop ·

2021/07/16

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, Melancholy, 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

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35:23

236: Summer Hits: Olivia Rodrigo - good 4 u (with...

Switched on Pop ·

2021/07/13

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

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31:40

225: Modern Classics: Labrinth's "Sexy MF" (with Sam...

Switched on Pop ·

2021/07/06

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

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30:18

224: Growing Pains with Lucy Dacus

Switched on Pop ·

2021/07/02

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

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36:54

233: Summer Hits: BTS - Butter (with Jenna Andrews)

Switched on Pop ·

2021/06/29

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 butter. BTS member Jimin told Variety that they wanted to make an “easy-listening,” fun song, and it arrived as a

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28:19

222: Pop’s Worst Kept Secret ft. Emily Warren

Switched on Pop ·

2021/06/22

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

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30:43

221: 40 Years Later, Japanese City Pop is Still...

Switched on Pop ·

2021/06/15

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 1979, it sold 10,000 copies. Today, it’s racked up over 65 million views since its posting in 2017. How did the relatively obscure

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31:00

220: J Cole’s The Off Season and the Power of the...

Switched on Pop ·

2021/06/08

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

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19:49

ICYMI Rina Sawayama Reimagines the 00s

Switched on Pop ·

2021/06/01

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

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30:53

219: Vijay Iyer on why jazz has always been political

Switched on Pop ·

2021/05/25

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

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34:50

Introducing Galaxy Brains

Switched on Pop ·

2021/05/18

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

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30:15

218: Turns out Willow Smith rocks

Switched on Pop ·

2021/05/11

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,

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42:50

217: Julia Michaels’ Songwriting Superpowers

Switched on Pop ·

2021/05/04

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 aspire to the simplest, almost nursery rhyme level lyrics, Michaels does the opposite. She crams as many words possible into each phrase. Her lyrics sound spoken. On her own hit

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39:20

126: How Take A Day Trip took off (full interview)

Switched on Pop ·

2021/04/30

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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

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37:17

216: The Mystery of Montero AKA Lil Nas X (feat. Take...

Switched on Pop ·

2021/04/27

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

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35:26

215: Pop On A Perilous Planet (with Kyle Devine)

Switched on Pop ·

2021/04/20

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

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31:34

214: Inside the songwriting session with Teddy Geiger...

Switched on Pop ·

2021/04/13

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

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306 results

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