Switched on Pop
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Top 10 Switched on Pop Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Switched on Pop episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Switched on Pop for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Switched on Pop episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Beyoncé's Country
Switched on Pop
02/27/24 • 44 min
Renaissance Act II truthers, your time has come: There’s new music from Beyoncé, and boy, is it country. Her two new singles dropped two weeks ago, and in the time since, they’ve both climbed up the chart and taken the internet by storm. There’s the barnstorming stomp and holler ditty “TEXAS HOLD 'EM,” which just notched the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and the dark horse “16 CARRIAGES,” a autobiographical work song detailing Beyoncé’s roots in Houston, Texas. Charlie and Nate unpack both of these two songs, highlighting their structures, inspirations, and collaborators, from Raphael Saddiq to Rhiannon Giddens. Then, producer Reanna Cruz speaks to music journalist Taylor Crumpton, whose article for Time, “Beyoncé Has Always Been Country” lays out the cultural implications of this sonic pivot for one of the biggest artists of all time.
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Songs Discussed
- Beyoncé - Texas Hold 'Em, 16 Carriages, Break My Soul, Formation, Daddy Lessons
- Dink Roberts - Georgia Buck
- Carolina Chocolate Drops - Hit 'Em Up Style
- Elvis Presley - Mystery Train
- Unidentified African American Chain Gang - Waterboy, Run
- James Carter and the Prisoners - Po Lazarus
- Robert Randolph and the Family Band - Find a Way
- Vince Gill ft Justus West- High Lonesome Sound
More
Read Taylor Crumpton's article Beyoncé Has Always Been Country
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6 Listeners
1 Comment
1
We *do* talk about Bruno
Switched on Pop
02/01/22 • 26 min
The number one song on the charts is a bit of a mystery. “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is the unlikely hit from Disney’s sleeper animated musical Encanto. Set in a mountainous village in Colombia, the film was a middling commercial success when it was released in Nov 2021. But in recent months it has become a pop culture phenomenon for a confluence of reasons: an expansive discourse on Colombian representation in media, fan videos on TikTok, and of course it's ear-wormy hits.
The musical is yet another notch in the belt for Lin Manuel Miranda (the auteur behind Hamilton and In The Heights) who wrote the now chart-topping song book. While Disney certainly commands vast commercial success, its musicals rarely see such crossover attention. The last #1 Disney musical number was “A Whole New World” from the animated Aladdin back in 1993. Where that song was literally uplifting, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is quite the opposite.
Bruno is the uncle of the Madrigal family, whose skill for seeing the future portends gloom and sends him into exile. In his namesake song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” an ensemble cast trade verses about his ghostly presence (Bruno haunts the family home, living inside its walls). It is an odd ball song, with dark and bizarre lyrics. Sure it starts with a story about rain on a wedding day (which is not ironic), but then it takes a hard left into tales of dead fish, middle aged weight gain, and creeping rats. So then what makes it a hit? A distinctive concoction of salsa piano rhythms, familiar Lin Manuel Miranda-isms, and contemporary pop connections to Camila Cabello, Britney Spears, J Balvin, Bad Bunny and Cardi B.
Listen to Switched On Pop to solve the mystery of what makes “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” a hit.
Songs Discussed
- Lin Manuel Miranda - We Don’t Talk About Bruno, In The Heights, Helpless, Satisfied, My Shot, Wait For It, Say No To This
- Cardi B, J Balvin, I Like It
- Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee - Despacito
- Camila Cabello, Young Thug - Havana
- Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
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4 Listeners
1 Comment
1
Cowboy Carter: This Ain't Country
Switched on Pop
04/02/24 • 39 min
Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter is her foray into country music, but this isn't just dirt roads, blue jeans and whiskey. Her country music distills all of American pop: blues, gospel, R&B, soul, house, hip-hop and yes, country. If this ain't country, what is?
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3 Listeners
Eternal Sunshine of Ariana Grande's Mind
Switched on Pop
03/19/24 • 44 min
Sidestep the gossip and focus on the music in Ariana Grande’s latest album Eternal Sunshine. The music is an exercise in nostalgia: 70s Disco, 90s R&B, and 00s pop and dance music. As she moves through the musical past, her lyrics tear through past relationship. But it's the way her lyrics interweave with the deft melodies and harmonies that reveal the meaning of the record.
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Songs Discussed
- Ariana Grande - Eternal Sunshine, Bye, Don’t Wanna Break Up Again, True Story, The Boy Is Mine, We Can’t Be Friends, Imperfect For You
- Isaac Hayes - Theme From Shaft
- Barry White - Can’t Get Enough of Your Love Babe
- Britney Spears - Oops I Did It Again, Gimme More
- Brandy, Monica - The Boy Is Mine
- Aaliyah - Are You That Somebody
- Ginuwine - Pony
- Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend, Show Me Love
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3 Listeners
Nicki Minaj's Roman Empire
Switched on Pop
12/12/23 • 50 min
Nicki Minaj is one of the most unique rappers of all time. She’s given us numerous iconic guest verses from “Monster” to “Flawless (Remix),” everlasting hits like “Super Bass” and “Starships,” and legions of loyal fans in the Barbz. She’s also given us over twenty alter-egos in the course of her career. However, no alter-ego of hers has been more impactful than Roman. The voice at the center of Nicki’s most unhinged music, the “Roman” persona serves a conduit for Nicki to put forward a high level of theatricality and character work in her music, from beats to bars. And to understand Nicki, you need to understand Roman.
This episode of Switched on Pop, producer Reanna Cruz takes us on a journey through the history of Roman, on the heels of Nicki Minaj’s latest record, Pink Friday 2.
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Songs Discussed:
- Nicki Minaj – Chun-Li
- Nicki Minaj – Red Ruby Da Sleeze
- Nicki Minaj – Itty Bitty Piggy
- Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver – Monster
- Nicki Minaj – Roman In Moscow
- Nicki Minaj – Pound the Alarm
- Nicki Minaj – Starships
- Ludacris, Nicki Minaj – My Chick Bad
- Nicki Minaj, PTAF – Boss A** B**** (with PTAF) – Remix
- Nicki Minaj, Eminem – Roman's Revenge
- Nicki Minaj – Come On A Cone
- Nicki Minaj – Beez In The Trap
- Nicki Minaj – Roman Holiday
- Eminem – The Way I Am
- Eminem – My Name Is
- Lil' Kim – Queen B****
- Nicki Minaj, Drake, Lil Wayne – Truffle Butter
- Trey Songz, Nicki Minaj – Bottoms Up (feat. Nicki Minaj)
- Nicki Minaj – Barbie Dreams
- Nicki Minaj – Super Freaky Girl – Roman Remix
- Nicki Minaj – My Life
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3 Listeners
Invasion of the Vibe Snatchers
Switched on Pop
09/13/22 • 26 min
Why do so many songs sound familiar? Because the number of chart topping interpolations — songs built off of old hits — has roughly doubled in the five years. It’s everywhere, you can’t escape because many people are embracing it.
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3 Listeners
07/26/22 • 23 min
Baz Luhrmann’s hit box office hit biopic Elvis has spurred new interest in the music of The King. Elvis Presley’s streaming subscribers has grown by two million listeners on Spotify since the film’s release according to ChartMetric, and if you’re hearing a lot more “Hound Dog” these days, it might be partially due to the success of Doja Cat’s hit song “Vegas,” which updates – and interpolates – the song for contemporary listeners.
Doja Cat’s version samples from the original 1953 “Hound Dog,” sung by Big Mama Thornton and written by acclaimed songwriter team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (whose credits also include Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” and Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”). The original is a sauntering blues song with a raunchy tale about a two timing man; Presley, who is frequently said to have stolen the song from Thorton, instead sings a tepid lyric about an actual dog, and radically changes the groove.
But in an interview with Rolling Stone, Stoller says Presley didn’t steal the song at all. Rather, he adapted one of many covers of the song, specifically the version performed by the Las Vegas lounge act Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. Their “Hound Dog” borrows its upbeat rhythm from a song responding to the original “Hound Dog,” titled “Bear Cat.” It’s a similar rhythm to the one we hear on the contemporary Doja Cat version, “Vegas,” which heavily features samples of Thornton’s original vocals: listening closely reveals a song that synthesizes a complicated music history by uniting the best parts of the many versions of “Hound Dog.”
Listen to the latest episode of Switched On Pop and uncover the long legacy of “Hound Dog.”
Songs Discussed
- Big Mama Thorton - Hound Dog
- Elvis - Hound Dog
- Doja Cat - Vegas
- Esther Phillips - Hound Dog
- Jack Turner - Hound Dog
- Rufus Thomas - Bear Cat
- Freddie Bell and the Bellboys
- T.L.C. - No Scrubs
- Sporty Thievz - No Pigeons
- W.C. Handy - St. Louis Blues
- Duke Ellington - Conga brava
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Didn’t It Rain
- Fats Domino - Mardi Gras in New Orleans
- Dave Bartholomew - Country Boy
- Little Richard - Slipping’ And Sliding’
- Jack Harlow - Dua Lipa
- Future - Puffin on Zootiez
- Hitkidd, Gorilla - F.N.F. (Let’s Go)
- Bad Bunny - Después de la Playa
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2 Listeners
Freaking out about songwriting with Nile Rodgers
Switched on Pop
06/11/24 • 35 min
There is no contemporary pop music without Nile Rodgers. Born in 1952, Rodgers grew up playing classical music on flute and clarinet before picking up jazz guitar. And at age 20, alongside bass player Bernard Edwards, Rodgers formed the band Chic. They wrote the biggest disco hits of the 70s, like: “Dance Dance Dance,” “Everybody Dance,” “Le Freak," and "Good TImes," which formed the core of Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper's Delight”.
In his music career spanning six decades, Rodgers has produced and played on some of the biggest pop songs in history, for artists like Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Daft Punk, and Beyoncé. He is also the chair of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, so with the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony taking place this June, we invited him onto Switched on Pop to talk about the making of a great song.
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2 Listeners
Modern Classics: Seal - Kiss From a Rose
Switched on Pop
03/14/23 • 37 min
“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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2 Listeners
32 Albums in, Elvis Costello is Just Getting Started
Switched on Pop
01/25/22 • 34 min
Elvis Costello burst onto the music scene in 1977 with the album My Aim Is True. Songs like “Alison” established him as a powerful new voice in rock. His next album, This Year’s Model, introduced hits like “Pump it Up,” which has resounded through stadiums and arenas across the country ever since.
From then on he released album after album, decade after decade, becoming a force to be reckoned with in pop music. Now, Costello has released his 32nd studio album, The Boy Named If, and it's a kaleidoscopic journey through many of the sounds and styles that he's experimented with over the years.
We spoke with Elvis about his wrong notes and open-ended lyrics, his much-publicized defense of Olivia Rodrigo, and why he turned down working with Adele
Songs Discussed:
Elvis Costello - Farewell, OK, Magnificent Hurt, Alison, Pump It Up
Richie Barrett - Some Other Guy
Olivia Rodrigo - Brutal
Chuck Berry - Too Much Monkey Business
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
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2 Listeners
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FAQ
How many episodes does Switched on Pop have?
Switched on Pop currently has 478 episodes available.
What topics does Switched on Pop cover?
The podcast is about Music, Podcasts, Music Interviews and Music Commentary.
What is the most popular episode on Switched on Pop?
The episode title 'Beyoncé's Country' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Switched on Pop?
The average episode length on Switched on Pop is 39 minutes.
How often are episodes of Switched on Pop released?
Episodes of Switched on Pop are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Switched on Pop?
The first episode of Switched on Pop was released on Oct 27, 2014.
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