Switched on Pop

Latest Episodes:

The Shakira Conspiracy Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

Shakira is back on the Billboard Hot 100 – thanks to the help of Argentinian producer Bizarrap. Together, their song “Shakira: BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” is layered with musical and lyrical references, from the callbacks to “She Wolf” to the multiple beat switches. It also works to play into something larger: something akin to a pop music conspiracy. On this episode of Switched On Pop, we take a closer look at Shakira’s latest, and how it’s indicative of a larger metatextual shift in pop music.

Songs Discussed:

Shakira, Bizarrap – Shakira: BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 53
Shakira – Vuelve
Alanis Morrisette – Not The Doctor
Shakira – Whenever, Wherever
Shakira, Alejandro Sanz – La Tortura
Shakira, Wyclef Jean – Hips Don’t Lie
Shakira – She Wolf
The Weeknd – Blinding Lights
Giorgio Moroder – Palm Springs Drive
LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
Pascal Letoublon – Friendships
Beyoncé – Sorry
Taylor Swift – All Too Well
Olivia Rodrigo – Driver’s License

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Reinventing Bach Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

If you’ve ever learned classical piano, you probably tried to play one of Bach’s Inventions. The composer wrote fifteen pieces containing the most important fifteen keys in order to teach his son the fundamentals of piano and composition. Today, they remain some of the most popular pieces of piano music. Acclaimed jazz pianist Dan Tepfer recently revisited his childhood music books seeing them in a way he’d never realized as a student: the Inventions are much more than novice piano works.

For Tepfer, each of the Inventions not only highlight masterful command over harmony and counterpoint, but also contain moving character arcs that resemble the hero’s journey. A character is introduced at home in place of safety in act I. And then they are thrust into chaos and must overcome unsurmountable challenges in Act II. Finally, in Act III, our hero overcomes their final battle and returns home transformed by the journey. Once Tepfer heard this character arc, he started to apply it to his own free improv.

Through studying Bach, Tepfer conceived a new album: Inventions / Reinventions. In this project Tepfer fills in the missing keys from the Bach to complete all twenty four keys (there are twelve major and twelve minor keys) while updating the music with modern improvisation. In this conversation Tepfer walks co-host Charlie Harding through his process of playing Bach and applying it to jazz improv.

Listen to Dan Tepfer’s Inventions / Reinventions on StorySound Records

Listen to Into It with Sam Sanders on Fair Use

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100 gecs and the new sound of hyperpop Mar 21, 2023

Show notes

Everyone will describe the music of 100 gecs differently. To some, Dylan Brady and Laura Les make deeply satisfying earworms, tracks able to scratch the itches that occupy the deepest memory-holed corners of the brain. To others, though, their music is an "anarchic assault on the ears,” a quilt of all of the genres historically ridiculed in the popular canon: nu-metal, scuzz-rock, ska and 90’s pop punk are all fair game in the world of gecs.

On their latest record, aptly titled 10000 gecs, Brady and Les double down on the crunchy distortion and harmonics, creating tracks equally influenced by Primus and Eddie Van Halen as they are by their hyperpop contemporaries. The album reflects a Internet-core approach to music as a whole, shedding notions of “good” and “bad” music in favor of catchy melodies and intricate song construction.

On this episode on Switched On Pop, we dig deep into the ethos of 100 gecs, and producer Reanna Cruz talks to the duo themselves about their eclectic sophomore record.

Songs discussed:

100 gecs – Hollywood Baby
100 gecs – Billy Knows Jamie
100 gecs – stupid horse
100 gecs – 745 sticky
100 gecs – Doritos & Fritos
Primus – Jerry Was A Racecar Driver
Ween – Bananas and Blow
Limp Bizkit – My Generation
Gorillaz – Dirty Harry
Future – I Been Drinking
J-Kwon – Tipsy
Justin Timberlake – Summer Love
Violent Femmes – Added Up
100 gecs – Dumbest Girl Alive
THX Deep Note
Cypress Hill – Insane in the Membrane
100 gecs – The Most Wanted Person in the United States
100 gecs – Frog on the Floor
Alan Jackson – Chattahoochee
Limp Bizkit – Dad Vibes

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Switches Brew Mar 17, 2023

Show notes

Every week the Switched On Pop team gets together and everybody shares one song they’re loving right now. It is one of our favorite conversations each week because we hear music that is new and old, on and off the charts. We’re sharing that conversation with you as a new format we’re calling Switches Brew alongside friend of the show Brittany Luse, host of NPR's It's Been A Minute

Listen to Brittany Luse on NPR’s It’s Been A Minute: Web, Apple, Spotify

Songs Discussed

Little Freddie King - Messin' Around tha House
De La Soul - Tread Water
Nick Hakim - Qadir
Lana Del Rey - Born to Die (Marcus Intalex Remix) on Bandcamp
Madison Cunningham - Hospital (One Man Down) (feat. Remi Wolf)
Remi Wolf - Down the Line

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Modern Classics: Seal - Kiss From a Rose Mar 14, 2023

Show notes

“Kiss From a Rose” is one of the most unusual number one hits of all time. Seal’s song can’t decide if it’s in minor or major, it uses an old-fashioned waltz rhythm, and its lush orchestration and elaborate vocal harmonies support mysterious lyrics about a “greying tower alone on the sea.” Seal himself wasn’t sure about the song, and needed some convincing to include the composition on his 1994 album SEAL II. But once director Joel Schumacher decided to use the track for the end credits of the film Batman Forever, the song went global and has remained a cultural phenomenon ever since. Ahead of his upcoming 30th anniversary tour for the albums SEAL I and SEAL II, we speak with the singer and songwriter about the enduring appeal of “Kiss From A Rose.”

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How John Denver got huge in Asia Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

“Take Me Home, Country Roads” is a song about West Virginia, but its message of homecoming has resonance far beyond Appalachia. Songwriter and producer Ian Fitchuk found this out when he was requested to perform Denver’s music at a music festival in Tibet. Fitchuk discovered that Denver has a huge following in East and South East Asia, where Denver toured multiple times from the 70s through the 90s. Denver’s songs first came to the region through the US Armed Forces Network radio as well as a diplomatic performance for China’s leader Deng Xiaoping at the Kennedy Center in 1979. Denver performed alongside the Harlem Globetrotters and the Joffrey ballet, and he left such an impression, the show led to an invitation to be one of the first western musicians to tour China. To better understand Denver’s meaning in the region, Switched On Pop co-host Charlie Harding speaks with Ian Fitchuk about his performance and interviews journalist Jason Jeung who wrote about “Country Roads” in The Atlantic.

Songs Discussed

John Denver - Take Me Home, Country Roads
Kacey Musgraves - Oh, What A World
The East Is Red
John Denver - Rocky Mountain High
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son
James Taylor - Carolina in My Mind
Carpenters - (They Long To Be) Close To You
John Denver - Thank God I'm a Country Boy

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Chartbreakers: Jersey Club, Complicated Country, and 50s Crooners Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

Currently on Billboard’s hot 100 there is an unexpected UK Garage / Jersey House mashup, a disgraced country star making a questionable comeback, and an out of nowhere fifties ballad all jockeying for their moment on the charts. This week, we take a listen to the FEBRUARY 25, 2023 Hot 100, looking for triumphs, fumbles, and oddities.

Songs Discussed

PinkPantheress, Ice Spice - Boy's a liar Pt. 2
Ice Spice - Munch (Feelin’ U)
Drake - Currents
Lil Uzi Vert - Just Wanna Rock
Sweet Female Attitude - Flowers - Sunship Edit
Todd Edwards - Wishing I Were Home
Ice Spice - In Ha Mood
Morgan Wallen - You Proof
Morgan Wallen - Last Night
Tyler Childers - Way of the Triune God - Jubilee Version
Mac DeMarco - Heart To Heart
Miguel - Sure Thing
Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, 21 Savage - Creepin' (with The Weeknd & 21 Savage)
Mario Winans - I Don't Wanna Know
Fugees, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Pras - Ready or Not
Enya - Boadicea
Stephen Sanchez - Until I Found You
The Everly Brothers - Let It Be Me
Ritchie Valens - We Belong Together
The Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody
Patsy Cline, The Jordanaires - Crazy
Ray Charles - Georgia on My Mind - Original Master Recording
The Beatles - In My Life - Remastered 2009

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Five years later, the legacy of Nipsey Hussle's "Victory Lap" Feb 22, 2023

Show notes

Five years ago, Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle released Victory Lap, his only full length album. It was the high point of a career stretching back to the mid 2000s, when Hussle started releasing mixtapes on his own record label — mixtapes that brought him respect from artists like Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar, but were not widely heard.

Victory Lap brought him both the critical acclaim and commercial success he deserved — It hit #2 on the Billboard 200, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album. But only a little over a year after its release, Hussle was shot to death outside his clothing store and community center in Crenshaw. In some ways, Hussle’s tragic end has overshadowed his incredible life as a musician and community activist.

In this conversation with Justin Tinsley, host of the podcast King of Crenshaw, we listen deeply to Victory Lap to hear Nipsey’s identity as an artist and consider the legacy of his debut album on its 5th anniversary.

Songs Discussed

Nipsey Hussle - Victory Lap, Dedication, Hussle and Motivate, Last Time That I Checc'd, Real Big

Arctic Monkeys - Knee Socks

Jay-Z - Hard Knock Life

Snoop Dogg - Y'all Gone Miss Me

More

Listen to the King of Crenshaw podcast.

Check out more of Justin's work

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“Flowers” and the art of the response song Feb 14, 2023

Show notes

“Flowers” by Miley Cyrus is spending another week on top of the Billboard 100 – quite fitting for Valentine’s Day.

The disco-country track has gotten people talking for a few reasons, but most notably, Cyrus invokes Bruno Mars’ classic “When I Was Your Man” in both lyrical and melodic allusions. The connection between the two songs is not one of interpolation, but rather, Miley is responding to Bruno’s hit through her own words: making “Flowers” an answer song.

This episode of Switched On Pop, we take a deeper look at “Flowers” and how it fits in the canon of response songs throughout history, from classics like “This Land is Your Land” to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.”

Songs Discussed:

Miley Cyrus – Flowers
Kacey Musgraves – High Horse
Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive
Dua Lipa – New Rules
Bruno Mars – When I Was Your Man
Ed Sheeran – Shape of You
TLC – No Scrubs
Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg – California Girls
JAY-Z, Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind
Big Mama Thornton – Hound Dog
Rufus Thomas – Bear Cat
Hank Thompson – The Wild Side of Life
Kitty Wells – It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
Ray Charles – Hit the Road, Jack
Nina Simone – Come on Back Jack
The Chantels – Well, I Told You
UTFO – Roxanne, Roxanne
Roxanne Shanté – Roxanne’s Revenge
UTFO – The Real Roxanne
New Edition – Candy Girl
The Jackson 5 – ABC
Sir Mix-A-Lot – Baby Got Back
Nicki Minaj – Anaconda

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Rihanna Party! ICYMI Feb 12, 2023

Show notes

In case you missed it, “Rihanna Is The 21st Century’s Most Influential Musician” according to NPR. Millions and millions of fans the world over agree, and while we try to avoid overt expressions of pop favoritism, we think they’ve got a strong case. It’s for that reason and a dozen others that we were thrilled to welcome Gina Delvac of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend back to the show to discuss the legendary career of one Ms. Robyn Rihanna Fenty. As we all await her ninth studio album (R9), join us for a virtual* blunt-smoke-laced tour through the hit songs that defined her early sound, and a delectable deep dive into her most recent album, ANTI.

MORE CONTENT

Check out Jenny Gathright’s NPR article “Rihanna Is The 21st Century’s Most Influential Musician.”

And find even more work from our wonderful contributors this week down below:

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