Podcasts · Music

Switched on Pop

Vulture

300 episodes

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

Episodes page 1 of 6

  1. The 'bummer hope' of midwest emo (ft. Yvette Young and Mike Kinsella)

    · 30 min

    A few months ago, Nate came across a glittering guitar riff unlike anything he had ever heard before; it managed to perfectly balance careful optimism with plaintive melancholy, stirring the spirit. That melody, played…

  2. The rise of surrealist pop: KATSEYE and ADÉLA

    · 49 min

    The music of global girl group KATSEYE might be confusing on first listen. A less-generous read might consider their songs to be rudimentary: the lyrics are mostly nonsense, the instrumentals evoke lesser 2010s pop…

  3. Why we need bad music

    · 1 h 02 min

    For the 500th(!) episode of Switched on Pop, Charlie and Nate try to answer the question that has stumped critics and philosophers since the dawn of sound: does bad music exist? Their quest to answer something so…

  4. Has Taylor Swift jumped the shark?

    · 48 min

    One year after the release of her twelfth studio album The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift is back with an encore. Specifically, The Encore, four tracks that have polarized critics and Swifties alike, from the…

  5. Carly Rae Jepsen’s pop pedagogy

    · 49 min

    Five years after her first appearance on Switched on Pop, Carly Rae Jepsen returns to the podcast to talk all things Day and Night, her latest album. Born out of Swedish disco, big emotion, and substantive life change…

  6. Tove Lo wants her music to sound out of control (ft. Tove Lo)

    · 38 min

    Swedish singer-songwriter Tove Lo’s new album ESTRUS can be summarized in the opening lyrics of the album’s closing track, “source of life”: “Feral, fragile, numb, ecstatic / sad, euphoric, catatonic / Horny, repulsed,…

  7. Lizzy McAlpine summons Nick Drake & Joni Mitchell

    · 58 min

    Lizzy McAlpine opens up about her 4th album Angel alongside collaborators Mason Stoops and Taylor Mackall. Recorded live at Power Station at Berklee NYC. Songs Discussed Lizzy McAlpine "Anybody's Fool" Lizzy…

  8. The power of singing together (ft. Tiny Habits)

    · 41 min

    Throughout pop history, groups from The Ink Spots to the Beach Boys to Fleetwood Mac all forged their sound in the alchemy of vocal harmonies, harnessing the magic that happens when different voices join as one. Then…

  9. Questionably Country

    · 35 min

    For the first time in history, five country songs were at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Ella Langley, Morgan Wallen, Taylor Swift and Stella Lefty all have songs that range from two-stepping hits to borderline…

  10. Phoebe Bridgers opens her Moleskine

    · 36 min

    Many of us keep a journal, but few of us are able to turn our unvarnished thoughts into cultural moments touching on love, death, and guitars quite like Phoebe Bridgers. Her new album Lost Weekend isn’t just throwing…

  11. We have Confessions to make...

    · 39 min

    Madonna has returned this summer with Confessions II: an album full of huge hooks, pounding bass, and sincere emotion. It’s the queen of pop's first record in seven years, and serves as a sequel to her 2005 smash hit,…

  12. A piano lesson that will change how you listen (ft. Lang Lang)

    · 37 min

    For many people – including Charlie and Nate – studying classical piano as a child always felt like a chore. Now, as adults, there’s a newfound appreciation for classical music, but the art form isn’t always…

  13. IV. Take It to the Bridge (ft. Tayla Parx)

    · 42 min

    Bridges open up the world of a song: they're a breath of fresh air and a point of contrast, typically delivered right before the final chorus. But sometimes they accomplish even more, changing the whole meaning of a…

  14. III. Preaching to the Chorus (ft. Cypress Hill and Trevor Horn)

    · 50 min

    The chorus was once the part of the song that brought us together, the place we gathered to sing. Now it's the most engineered thirty seconds in music. Legendary producer Trevor Horn and hip-hop icon B-Real of Cypress…

  15. II. Justice for the verse (ft. Audrey Hobert)

    · 34 min

    Everybody sings the chorus, but superfans quote the verse. On this episode of Switched on Pop, Charlie and Nate trace the verse from Shakespeare through opera to TikTok, and songwriter Audrey Hobert shares her…

  16. I. Let's get it started (ft. Aaron Dessner)

    · 41 min

    Research says you judge a song in under half a second. So why write an intro at all? On this episode of Switched on Pop, Charlie and Nate kick off their Netflix launch and probe what an intro means in today's musical…

  17. Switched On Pop on Netflix July 14th

    · 1:03 · Trailer

    We're coming to the big screen with a four part mini series starting July 14th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  18. Music only the World Cup could make

    · 38 min

    The quadrennial soccer (or fútbol, depending who you talk to) competition is upon us again: it's the FIFA World Cup! And while the World Cup is a sporting event, it's still relevant to the folks at Switched On Pop,…

  19. Why we can't resist Swedish pop (ft. Zara Larsson) ICYMI

    · 44 min

    In case you missed it: 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, Sweden has quietly engineered a kind of musical…

  20. 2hollis is the underground’s genre-hopping vampire

    · 32 min

    In the last episode of our feral pop miniseries, we take a look at the 22 year old rapper primed to take over the world: 2hollis. Splitting the difference between hardstyle and hip-hop while emanating an aura best…

  21. Pop music for an internet-pilled generation

    · 25 min

    This week on Switched On Pop, we’re looking at all things feral pop, the microgenre that takes pop music to its most wild extremes. And no feral pop artist is more tapped into that ethos than underscores. Her music…

  22. The new wave of pop is here, and it’s feral

    · 32 min

    What would it sound like if pop music was reverted to its most wild state of being? It would sound hyper-digital, influenced by the electronic vanguard of the 2010s, and speak to a post-genre audience. And while the…

  23. Olivia Rodrigo has The Cure for sadness

    · 43 min

    Olivia Rodrigo is back with her third studio album, you seem pretty sad for a girl in love. As the title might suggest, it’s a deeply personal affair, with moody soundscapes supporting hyper-detailed lyrics of…

  24. Paul McCartney went back to Liverpool for something new to say

    · 42 min

    Boys of Dungeon Lane, McCartney's collaboration with producer Andrew Watt, arrived when McCartney was 83 and and he came out swinging: the opening track greets listeners with a dissonant, unresolved guitar chord that…

  25. How a sci-fi dystopia became a personal utopia (ft. Arc Iris)

    · 13 min

    A sci-fi ballet imagined a 2080 where AI strips people of purpose, and the day before its New York premiere, an actual dystopia arrived. Arc Iris, the trio of Jocie Adams, Zach Tenorio and Ray Belli, built iTMRW as a…

  26. Why bands give us purpose (ft. MUNA)

    · 52 min

    A culture that rewards easily consumable individual identities produces plenty of pop stars and almost no bands. A significant exception: MUNA, the trio of Katie Gavin, Josette Maskin, and Naomi McPherson. MUNA treats…

  27. Drake's Slop Era

    · 56 min

    Canada’s favorite export Drake is back! This month, the Toronto singer-rapper extraordinaire released three albums simultaneously: the long-anticipated return to form Iceman, the sultry, R&B Habibti and the…

  28. Kacey Musgraves walks country’s borderlands

    · 39 min

    Kacey Musgraves' album Middle of Nowhere finds the country outlaw taking a break from exploring her inner life to look outward, back to her roots: the regional stylings of Texas. She says the album was inspired by a…

  29. Rostam reimagines American music

    · 54 min

    The pedal steel and the saz both live in the spaces between equal-tempered notes, and that gap is where Rostam built American Stories. Rostam joined Vampire Weekend at Columbia in 2006, produced the band's first three…

  30. Eurovision is back – but not without controversy

    · 55 min

    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…

  31. Samara Cyn is rap's best new writer

    · 38 min

    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…

  32. Olivia Rodrigo and the second verse massacre

    · 44 min

    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…

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

    · 43 min

    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…

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

    · 48 min

    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…

  35. Maggie Rogers: going viral is a trap

    · 38 min

    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,"…

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

    · 47 min

    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,…

  37. Slayyyter might actually be the 'Worst Girl in America'

    · 38 min

    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…

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

    · 56 min

    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 national anthem at Super Bowl 60 and weeks before releasing his…

  39. RAYE’s maximalist masterpiece is the hope we need

    · 43 min

    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, undone by the same darkness they sang about, and placing them there…

  40. Where have all the white rappers gone?

    · 51 min

    On a recent podcast interview, Kentucky rapper Jack Harlow said that, to craft his new album Monica, he “got blacker.” The problem is… Jack Harlow is white. The statement, while extremely tone-deaf, speaks to his…

  41. Jacob Collier can make anyone sing

    · 55 min

    Jacob Collier is a rare musician: an expert in so many musical languages (western harmony, negative harmony, microtonalism) and a phenomenal communicator about music. He's something like an Ambassador for Music,…

  42. Harry Styles loses himself to dance

    · 44 min

    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 All the Time, Disco Occasionally, a record built from minimal…

  43. Can Bruno Mars counterprogram his way to another hit album?

    · 45 min

    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 Might,” sounds like an outtake from 2021’s collaborative album with…

  44. Charli XCX’s "Wuthering Heights" fever dream

    · 48 min

    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 lovers, the soundtrack is the real event: Charli xcx, asked to write one…

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

    · 51 min

    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 film in Academy Awards history. The love the movie has for the Delta…

  46. Jazz is A$AP Rocky’s secret weapon

    · 36 min

    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 of course, hip hop. But on one track, “Robbery,” he and the rising superstar…

  47. Does humor belong in music?

    · 48 min

    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 somber ballad? Humor is always present in music, but we rarely confront…

  48. And the Grammy goes to…

    · 52 min

    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 ticket A-listers like Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar,…

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

    · 46 min

    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 Britney and the Backstreet Boys. Since her debut, she’s released a…

  50. Audrey Hobert says the quiet part out loud

    · 55 min

    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 friend Gracie Abrams in Los Angeles. About six months later, a phrase…

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