Lost & Found: The Drama of Pop Form with Emily King
Live from SXSW: Grammy nominee songwriter Emily King didn’t set out to write a perfect pop song with “Remind Me.” Instead, she bent the rules […]
Author: switchedonpop@gmail.com
How Streaming Changed the Sound of Pop
Streaming hasn’t just changed the way we listen to music, it’s changed the way that pop music sounds. After years of losses due to the […]
Top 40 Activism with Justin Tranter
Can political protest exist within the confines of commercial popular music? Songwriter Justin Tranter is equal parts songwriter and activist. You’ve likely heard his contributions […]
What Makes An Award Winning Song?
What if music awards were given out for only musical qualities? It may seem like celebrity and spectacle are more important than ever at the […]
Valentines Day Special: What Makes a Song Sexy?
Author Courtney Smith joins to offer her expertise on an urgent topic in advance of Valentine’s Day: Can we abstract the sexiest songs of all […]
The Deep History of ‘7 Rings’
“7 Rings” is Ariana Grande’s latest smash, a glittering banger that owes much to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1959 classic “My Favorite Things.” 60 years later, […]
Do You Believe in Life After Autotune?
Auto-Tune may be the most divisive effect in music. Artists have protested it publicly at the Grammys, and critics have derided the effects for its […]
Slay Bells, All Year Long
This winter season unwrap a deep dive through a pop subgenre of monumental importance: non-holiday songs that feature sleigh bells, from Bonnie Tyler to Nas, […]
Look What You Made Us Do
Four years into Switched On Pop, Charlie and Nate finally reveal what was behind the entire series. We may have not been totally honest with […]
Entering Beard Phase (with Mike Posner)
Mike Posner has written hits for himself (“I Took a Pill in Ibiza”) and for stars from Justin Bieber (“Boyfriend”) to Maroon 5 (“Sugar”), so […]