Switched on Pop

Latest Episodes:

Playing "Hide and Seek" with Imogen Heap Mar 04, 2025

Show notes

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 STOPPED working. In 2005, artist and innovator Imogen Heap released "Hide and Seek," a mysterious and emotional song featuring just her voice and a digital harmonizer. In this episode, Nate and Reanna dissect a song that launched a thousand memes and gave the world one of the defining sonic textures of our time.

Songs Discussed

Imogen Heap - Headlock

Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek

Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky

Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight

Daft Punk - Around the World

Imogen Heap - Getting Scared

Frou Frou - Let Go

Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say

Bon Iver - Woods

Coldplay - Hurts Like Heaven

Kacey Musgraves

gracias a la vida

Frank Ocean - Close To You

Zedd, Maren Morris, Grey - The Middle

Caroline Polachek - So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings

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The Umbrella Effect: How Rihanna’s Breakout Hit Changed Pop Music Forever Feb 25, 2025

Show notes

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 banger -- she changed the way pop music is made, and became the global superstar that we know Rihanna to be today. In this episode we go back in time to unearth the origins of "Umbrella," and how the song blossomed as a result of many shifting currents in the music industry, the democratization recording technology, and the persistence of Rihanna and her team to record the song instead of the artist for whom it was intended.

SONGS DISCUSSED

James Brown "Funky Drummer"
Funkadelic "Get Off Your Ass and Jam"
Soft Cell "Tainted Love"
N.W.A. "100 Miles and Runnin"
Mya "Case of the Ex (Whatcha Gonna Do?)"
Britney Spears featuring Madonna "Me Against the Music"
Nine Inch Nails "The Hand That Feeds"
Rihanna "Pon de Replay"
Rihanna "S.O.S."
Shakira "Hips Don't Lie"
Rihanna "Umbrella"
Justice "Stress"
Usher "Love in This Club"
Childish Gambino "Bonfire"
A$AP Rocky featuring Skepta "Praise the Lord (Da Shine)"
Asher Monroe "Synergy"
Justin Bieber & Lil Dicky "Running Over"
Sabrina Carpenter "Espresso"

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Learning to love: Tate McRae Feb 18, 2025

Show notes

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 of McRae’s third album So Close to What, out this Friday, we dissect McRae’s "SimplePop" formula, from her strategic, indescript vocal delivery to expert "vibe snatching" of Y2K sounds.

Through singles like "exes” and “sports car,” Charlie and Reanna trace her sonic lineage and discover why pop music needs artists who refine sounds as much as those who revolutionize them, seeing if there’s room to love her music in the process. This dancer-turned-singer might not be the next Britney Spears, but she could be this generation's Paula Abdul.

More

Watch Adam Neely's "Scotch Snaps in Hip Hop"

Songs Discussed

Tate McRae - "sports car"
Tate McRae - "greedy"
Tate McRae - "you broke me first"
Tate McRae - "One Day"
Tate McRae - "exes"
Lisa - "Money"
Halsey - "100 Letters"
Cardi B - "I Like It"
Beyoncé - "Drunk in Love"
Ariana Grande - "7 Rings"
Ariana Grande - "thank u, next"
Tate McRae - "it's okay im okay"
Ying Yang Twins - "Wait (The Whisper Song)"
The Lonely Island - "Bing Bong Brothers"
The Pussycat Dolls - "Buttons"
Missy Elliott - "Get Your Freak On"
Missy Elliott feat. Ludacris - "Gossip Folks"
Britney Spears - "Toxic"
Britney Spears - "Gimme More"
Cassie - "Me & U"
Paula Abdul - "Straight Up"

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Does It Trance? The Weeknd & FKA Twigs Feb 11, 2025

Show notes

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 electronic music popular around the turn of the century – would make a comeback on the charts in 2025. And even though we're less than two months into the year, we're already seeing the tides of nostalgia bring this club-oriented music come back into fashion. This episode of Switched On Pop, Nate, Charlie, and Reanna take a look at trance music: where it came from, what it sounds like, and if we can hear it in two of the year's most anticipated records: The Weeknd's Hurry Up Tomorrow and FKA Twigs's EUSEXUA. Does it trance?

More

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Songs Discussed

KLF "What Time is Love? (Pure Trance Mix)"
Sven Väth "L'Esperanza"
Robert Miles "Children"
Paul van Dyk "For an Angel"
Ian Van Dahl "Castles in the Sky"
Tiësto "Adagio for Strings"
Darude "Sandstorm"
Charlotte De Witte "Universal Consciousness"
FKA twigs "Two Weeks"
FKA twigs "Cellophane"
FKA twigs "Tears in the Club" feat. The Weeknd
FKA twigs "EUSEXUA"
FKA twigs "Drums of Death"
FKA twigs "Perfect Stranger"
FKA twigs "Room of Fools"
FKA twigs "Childlike Things"
The Weeknd "Wake Me Up" feat. Justice
The Weeknd "Open Hearts"
The Weeknd "The Abyss" feat. Lana Del Rey
The Weeknd "Timeless" feat. Playboi Carti
The Weeknd "Give Me Mercy"
The Weeknd "Red Terror"
The Weeknd "Sao Paulo" feat. Anitta
The Weeknd "Reflections" feat. Travis Scott & Florence + The Machine
The Weeknd "Enjoy the Show"
The Weeknd "I Can't Wait to Get There"
The Weeknd "Hurry Up Tomorrow"
The Weeknd "Blinding Lights"
The Weeknd "Save Your Tears"
The Weeknd "Until I Bleed Out"
The Weeknd "Take My Breath"
The Weeknd "Out of Time"

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How Spotify hacked our ears (and our data) Feb 04, 2025

Show notes

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. Journalist Liz Pelly's explosive new book "Mood Machine" rips away the curtain on streaming's biggest player, revealing how its algorithms and backroom deals dictate the soundtrack to our lives. With major labels controlling 70% of streams and Spotify commanding over 600 million users, the stakes couldn't be higher. As artists like Björk decry streaming as "the worst thing that's happened to musicians," Pelly uncovers the true cost of our perfect playlists - and what we're really sacrificing for the illusion of endless choice.

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25 Predictions for 2025: Grammys, J-pop, kazoos and more Jan 28, 2025

Show notes

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 into the crystal ball of pop music to create a (playable) bingo card of predictions for the coming year – including AI songs on the Hot 100, a return of boy bands, and... kazoos? The Album of the Year race for this upcoming Grammys is similarly unpredictable, with a stacked nomination list including Grammy darlings Beyoncé and Billie as well as Gen-Z favorites like Charli and Chappell. The team takes a crack at guessing who will take home the award by debating the nominees, bracket-style.

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Songs discussed:

The Traveling Wilburys – Handle With Care
Ghostwriter – Heart On My Sleeve (ft. AI Drake and AI The Weeknd)
Songs from Silvio Berlusconi, Imelda Marcos, and Randi Zuckerberg
Chino Pacas, Drake, Fuerza Regida – Modo Capone
Elton John – Your Song
Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee – Despacito
Jack Black – Peaches
Tyla – Water
Rema, Selena Gomez – Calm Down
Bloodhound Gang – The Bad Touch
Megan thee Stallion, Yuki Chiba – Mamushi
Joan Osborne – One of Us
FKA Twigs – Eusexua
Katy Perry – Woman's World
David Bowie – Moonage Daydream
Jimi Hendrix – Crosstown Traffic
Jack Harlow – Lovin On Me
Billie Eilish – CHIHIRO
Billie Eilish – BIRDS OF A FEATHER
Charli XCX – guess
Charli XCX – 360
Charli XCX – i think about it all the time
Charli XCX – 365
Beyoncé – TEXAS HOLD 'EM
Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus – II MOST WANTED
Beyoncé – YA YA
Taylor Swift – I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
Sabrina Carpenter – Espresso
Chappell Roan – HOTTOGO
Chappell Roan – Pink Pony Club
Chappell Roan – Red Wine Supernova
Outkast – Hey Ya!
Andre 3000 – That Night In Hawaii When I Turned Into A Panther And Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn't Control ... Sh*t Was Wild
Andre 3000 – I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A "Rap" Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time
Jacob Collier – 100,000 Voices

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Bad Bunny's love letter to Puerto Rico Jan 21, 2025

Show notes

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 reggaetonero crafts an intertextual, anti-colonial tome of a record, incorporating sounds from across his island and the boricua diaspora. From his use of salsa classics on "NUEVAYoL," to his pointed interpolations on "VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR," and his detour into folk melodies and songwriting on tracks like the somber "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii," the record features some of Bad Bunny's most creative, intense, and direct work yet. On this episode of Switched On Pop, producer Reanna Cruz takes Charlie and Nate on a journey through Bad Bunny's love letter to Puerto Rico, with additional insight from journalist and translator Carina del Valle Schorske.

Read Carina's NPR Music review of the record: Bad Bunny's politics of presence.

Songs Discussed:

Bad Bunny, "DtMF"
Bad Bunny, "NUEVAYoL"
Bad Bunny, "BOKeTE"
Bad Bunny, "EL CLúB"
El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico, "Un verano en Nueva York"
Bad Bunny, "PIToRRO DE COCO"
Bad Bunny, "BAILE INoLVIDABLE"
Rauw Alejandro, "Tú Con Él"
Bad Bunny, "VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR"
Wisin & Yandel, Héctor "El Father," "La Barría"
Alexis y Fido, "Me Quiere Besar"
Angel y Khriz, "Cazando Voy"
Bad Bunny, "El Apagón"
Bad Bunny, Kendo Kaponi, Arcángel, "P FKN R"
Bad Bunny, "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii"
Bad Bunny, "CAFé CON RON"

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The biggest theme song fail Jan 14, 2025

Show notes

What happens when your podcast’s theme song—cobbled together from GarageBand loops—gets called “game show music” and likened to a cereal commercial? You rewrite it. In this episode, we take you behind the scenes of Switched on Pop’s sonic makeover, from scathing critiques by music industry heavyweights to the creation of a lush, layered soundscape inspired by Wendy Carlos and PBS science shows. With expert advice from sonic branding maestro Dallas Taylor (Twenty Thousand Hertz) and the composers Zach Tenorio and Jocie Adams (Arc Iris), we dissect every step of transforming our theme into a timeless sonic identity. Tune in for the full story and hear how we turned a jingle crisis into a musical triumph.

More

Musicares.org is supporting LA based musicians in need of assistance from the destruction of the fire
Billboard has compiled more forms of support and assistance

Recommendations

Read Cat Zhang at The Cut
Read Lauren Michelle Jackson’s White Negros and columns at The New Yorker
Listen to Ian Fitchuk’s work
Listen to Song Exploder hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway
Listen to NYTimes Popcast hosted by Jon Caramanica
Listen to Twenty Thousand Hertz hosted by Dallas Taylor

Songs Discussed

The Monkees: "Theme Song (Hey, Hey, We're The Monkees)"
Radiohead: "Kid A"
No Name: "Yesterday"
Mort Garson: "Ode to an African Violet"
Wendy Carlos Switched On Bach
Whitney Houston: "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1991 Super Bowl performance)
Jimi Hendrix: "The Star-Spangled Banner" (Woodstock performance)
Friends theme Song "I'll Be There for You" by The Rembrandts
Reading Rainbow theme song “Butterfly in the Sky” by Steve Horelick, Dennis Neil Kleinman, and Janet Weir
Bill Nye the Science Guy theme Song composed by Mike Greene
3-2-1 Contact theme Song composed by Tom Anthony

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Have Disney musicals lost their edge? Jan 07, 2025

Show notes

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 bland." But save some sympathy for the composers behind these blatant IP grabs. Lin Manuel Miranda and the duo Barlow and Bear had to match the original, iconic numbers from the Lion King and Moana, songs written by Elton John and Miranda himself. Are critics of the sequels' soundtracks being too harsh? We compare the new songs to their iconic predecessors, like "Circle of Life" and "How Far I'll Go," and ask whether Disney new composers face an impossible task in trying to extend franchises through song.

Songs Discussed

Elton John, Tim Rice, Lebo M. - “Circle of Life”

Elton John, Tim Rice - “Circle of Life” (Radio Version)

Elton John, Tim Rice - “Hakuna Matata”

Lin-Manuel Miranda - “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”

Lin-Manuel Miranda - “Melele”

Lin-Manuel Miranda - “I Always Wanted a Brother”

Lin-Manuel Miranda - “How Far I’ll Go” ft. Auli’i Cravalho

Ariana Grande - “Imperfect For You”

Barlow & Bear - “Beyond” feat. Auli’i Cravalho

Barlow & Bear - “Can I Get a Chee Hoo” feat. Dwayne Johnson

More

Brett Boles’s wonderful analysis of “How Far I’ll Go,” referenced in the episode

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Going Off Book Dec 31, 2024

Show notes

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 killer backing band of Scott, Dana and Brett create an improvised musical, while Nate and Charlie break down the sound and structure of a Broadway show. Stay tuned for deep thoughts about what separates pop music from musicals, wild speculation about the origin of the word “vamp,” and an ENTIRE FREAKING MUSICAL COMPOSED FROM SCRATCH that will make you laugh your face off. This is not one to miss.

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