Switched on Pop

A podcast all about the making and meaning of popular music. Musicologist Nate Sloan & songwriter Charlie Harding pull back the curtain on how pop hits work magic on our ears & our culture. From Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Music Commentary
Music Interviews
Music History
101
Beyoncé's ‘Renaissance’ Era
Into It’s Sam Sanders on Beyoncé's new album
28 min
102
Into It: The Business of Beyoncé
Introducing Sam Sanders's new Vulture podcast
38 min
103
"It's About Damn Time" for Another Lizzo #1
Lizzo channels retro soul and responds to fan feedback on her latest album
27 min
104
Elvis, Big Mama Thornton, Doja Cat, and the Lon...
You Ain’t Nothing but a Tresillo
20 min
105
We Won’t Go Back: Pop Music and the Fight For R...
Musicians speak and sing out on the repeal of Roe v Wade
27 min
106
Harry Styles and the Sledgehammer Horns
Harry Styles's latest album brings back the power and pomp of the 80s brass section
21 min
107
ICYMI: The 90s’ Most Unlikely Hit (with Baz Luh...
Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen
50 min
108
Beyoncé's House
"Break My Soul" is an ode to liberation and tribute to the pioneers of house.
29 min
109
Robert Glasper on jazz, basketball, and his sco...
The polymath pianist breaks down Coltrane and Kareem
21 min
110
Scoring Stranger Things with Kyle Dixon & Micha...
Why 80s films sounded so cheesy, but Stranger Things does not
18 min
111
Kate Bush, Stranger Things, and a hit song four...
Why "Running Up That Hill" is doing better in 2022 than 1985
28 min
112
So your song went viral on TikTok. What’s next?
Why did Charlie Puth collaborate JVKE?
31 min
113
The 1980s jam that gave Latto and Mariah Carey ...
How Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love" powered decades of pop hits
24 min
114
Kendrick Lamar and the big samples
Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers
28 min
115
Modern Classics: PJ Morton made Nas’s Stevie Wo...
Collaborating on "Be Like Water" from Watch the Sun
26 min
116
Will Ukraine win Eurovision 2022?
Power ballads, Europop, folk music and kitsch
25 min
117
Belle and Sebastian on the value of staying "yo...
Stuart Murdoch on why the Glasgow band has "no themes, schemes, or plans" when making new music
25 min
118
The New Alternative
Chartbreakers: Nirvana, Halsey, Wet Leg, Willow, Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Wayne, Beabadoobee
28 min
119
Jump-starting the creative process with Allison...
"I'm more creative and more daring if I have the proper tools to wrangle my thoughts and feeling"
17 min
120
A Higher Power Ballad
Justin Bieber & Maverick City Music
24 min
121
How sound becomes hearing
Unexplainable: a series on Making Sense
38 min
122
Listening 2 Britney: Gimme More
Leave Britney's (voice) Alone!
24 min
123
Listening 2 Britney: Toxic
How Bollywood strings, surf guitar, and Britney’s ethereal vocals add up to pop perfection
25 min
124
Listening 2 Britney: I'm a Slave 4 U
Enter The Neptunes – Britney’s Virginia Beach Era
26 min
125
Listening 2 Britney: ...Baby One More Time
Breaking down the unmistakeable voice of Britney Spears
27 min