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Vulture

Listen closer to pop music — hear how it moves us. Hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan & songwriter Charlie Harding. From Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Switched on Pop

Bruno Mars is back with a new album called The Romantic, his first solo release since 2016’s 24k Magic. At first listen, the lead single, “I Just Might,” sounds like an outtake from 2021’s collaborative album with Anderson Paak, the Philly soul-inspired An Evening with Silk Sonic. Listen closer though and another element emerges: a fast-paced conga drum line.

The rest of Mars’s nine-track confection chases that Latin influence. This is not just another retread of 70s funk and soul. In fact, The Romantic makes the case that Mars is pop’s great counter-programmer, finding styles of the past that no one else has yet mined.

Charlie and Nate break down all the new territory covered by Mars, from Latin boleros to Cuban cha chas, Nuyorican boogaloo to a mariachi “My Way.” The results may not change your mind about Mars, but they might make you appreciate the finer points of what is sure to be an omnipresent new release. 

Links: ⁠Newsletter⁠, ⁠YouTube

Songs discussed:

 Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars - Die With A Smile

 ROSÉ, Bruno Mars - APT.

 Bruno Mars - Risk It All

 Eydie Gormé, Los Panchos - Sabor a Mí

 Frank Sinatra - My Way 

 Bruno Mars - Cha Cha Cha

 JUVENILE, Soulja Slim - Slow Motion

 Pete Rodriguez - I Like It Like That

 Cardi B, Bad Bunny, J Balvin - I Like It

 Young-Holt Unlimited - Soulful Strut

 Bruno Mars - I Just Might

 Redbone - Come and Get Your Love

 Leo Sayer - You Make Me Feel Like Dancing

 Junior Senior - Move Your Feet

 Bruno Mars - God Was Showing Off

 Billy Paul - Me and Mrs. Jones

 Bruno Mars - Why You Wanna Fight?

 Bruno Mars - On My Soul

 Curtis Mayfield - Move on Up

 Bruno Mars - Something Serious

 Willie Bobo - Evil Ways

 Santana - Evil Ways

 Santana - Oye Como Va

 Tito Puente - Oye Cómo Va

 Bruno Mars - Nothing Left

 Bruno Mars - Dance With Me

 Stephen Sanchez - Until I Found You

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Can Bruno Mars counterprogram his way to another hit album?

Emerald Fennell's new adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1847 gothic romance "Wuthering Heights" is the most talked-about film of the year. But for pop lovers, the soundtrack is the real event: Charli xcx, asked to write one song, ended up recording an entire album for the movie while in the middle of the BRAT tour. 

If BRAT gave people permission to be messy on the dance floor, this score gives permission to be messy in your souls. But Charli isn't the first artist to channel "Wuthering Heights" into music. Line up her hyperpop strings and cavernous reverb against Kate Bush's winding harmonies, a Hollywood orchestral score from 1939, and Ryuichi Sakamoto's unsettled piano, and something surprising emerges: the most operatic, passionate, Wuthering Heights-obsessed recording of them all might belong to someone you'd never expect.Songs discussed:

 
Charli xcx “Everything is Romantic”

 
Charli xcx “Always Everywhere”

 
Charli xcx “House” (feat. John Cale)

 
Hans Zimmer “Inception score”

 
Charli xcx “Wall of Sound”

 
Ike & Tina Turner “River Deep, Mountain High”

 
Charli xcx “Chains of Love”

 
Charli xcx “Out of Myself”

 
Charli xcx “Funny Mouth” (co-written with Joe Curie)

 
Alfred Newman “Wuthering Heights score (1939)”

 
Ryuichi Sakamoto “Wuthering Heights score (1992)”

 
Kate Bush “Wuthering Heights”

 
Celine Dion “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”

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Charli XCX’s "Wuthering Heights" fever dream

It's the middle of award season, and Ryan Coogler's ode to the Black music canon Sinners has emerged as the Oscars frontrunner and the most nominated film in Academy Awards history. The love the movie has for the Delta blues is front and center, and begs the question: will the movie's legacy help bring the blues back into popular culture? There's already been a precedent for films reviving dead genres – think The Sting and its ragtime score, or O Brother Where Art Thou's relationship to bluegrass – and on this episode of Switched On Pop, Reanna and Nate talk with Vulture writer Fran Hoepfner about the times in which movie soundtracks have shifted the musical culture. 

Read Fran's piece on movie scoring, The Death of the Classic Film Score, here.

Songs discussed:

 Miles Caton – I Lied to You

 Bee Gees – Stayin' Alive

 Underworld – Born Slippy (Nuxx)

 Marvin Hamlisch – The Entertainer

 Wu-Tang Clan – Fast Shadow

 Bee Gees – More Than A Woman

 Whitney Houston – I Have Nothing

 Harry McClintock – The Big Rock Candy Mountain

 Alison Krauss – Down To The River To Pray

 The Soggy Bottom Boys – I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow

 *NSYNC – Bye Bye Bye

 The Brian Setzer Orchestra – Jump Jive An' Wail

 Cab Calloway – Minnie the Moocher

 Royal Crown Revue – Hey Pachuco!

 Caravan Palace – Lone Digger

 Big Bad Voodoo Daddy – Go Daddy O

 Squirrel Nut Zippers – Hell

 Fergie, Q-Tip, GoonRock – A Little Party Never Killed Nobody

 Lana Del Rey – Young And Beautiful

 Max Richter – On the Nature of Daylight

 Kavinsky – Nightcall

 College, Electric Youth – A Real Hero

 M83 – Midnight City

 The Weeknd – Take My Breath

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Will Sinners do for blues what O Brother did for bluegrass?

A$AP Rocky’s latest album, Don’t Be Dumb, is a wild ride through a cacophony of sounds — punk, industrial, drum ‘n’ bass, indie rock, and of course, hip hop. But on one track, “Robbery,” he and the rising superstar Doechii sample the world of jazz, specifically Thelonious Monk’s 1955 cover of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan.” In the process, Rocky and Doechii don’t just loop and flow, they create a whole narrative of jazz age victors and villains inspired by the rhythms and harmonies of jazz greats. The result is a song, and album, that makes the case for why hip hop matters more than ever in 2026.

 A$AP Rocky – ROBBERY (feat. Doechii)

 A$AP Rocky – STOLE YA FLOW

 A$AP Rocky – ORDER OF PROTECTION

 A$AP Rocky – PLAYA

 A$AP Rocky – STFU (feat. Slay Squad)

 A$AP Rocky – AIR FORCE (BLACK DEMARCO)

 A$AP Rocky – THE END (feat. will.i.am & Jessica Pratt)

 Kendrick Lamar - For Free? - Interlude 

 Clairo - Sinking 

 Thelonious Monk - Caravan

 A$AP Rocky - L$D

 Lou Donaldson - Ode To Billie Joe 

 Thelonious Monk - Black And Tan Fantasy

 Wu-Tang Clan - Shame On a N**** 

 Duke Ellington, John Coltrane - My Little Brown Book 

 Ghostface Killah - Malcolm 

 Thundercat - Them Changes

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Jazz is A$AP Rocky’s secret weapon

What makes Weird Al songs so indelible? Why is Bo Burnham more than just a comic? How do the biggest pop hits make us crack up in the middle of a somber ballad? Humor is always present in music, but we rarely confront it head on. Until now. With the help of Comedian Chris Duffy, author of the book Humor Me: How Laughing Can Make You More Connected, Present, and Happy, and a series of lyrical submission from our listeners, we try to answer the question once posed by Frank Zappa, once and for all: Does humor belong in music?

Songs discussed:

Sabrina Carpenter – ManchildMarcia Belsky – 100 TamponsBo Burnham – From God’s PerspectiveSnoop Dogg – Gin and JuiceThe Gourds – Gin and JuiceTaylor Swift – All Too Well (10 Minute Version)“Weird Al” Yankovic – Amish Paradise“Weird Al” Yankovic – My BolognaStevie Wonder – Pastime ParadiseCoolio – Gangsta’s ParadiseBo Burnham – That Funny FeelingBo Burnham – FaceTime With My MomElaine Stritch – Are You Having Any Fun?Barenaked Ladies – If I Had $1,000,000Kendrick Lamar – Not Like UsEminem – The Real Slim Shady2 Chainz – Birthday SongLil Jon – Snap Yo FingersOlivia Rodrigo – Get Him BackChappell Roan – CasualAudrey Hobert – I like to touch peopleAudrey Hobert – Bowling alleyJensen McRae – Immune
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Does humor belong in music?

The ultimate gauntlet of popular music is upon us once again: it's Grammy season, and this year, the competition is pretty tight across the board. Big ticket A-listers like Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar, and Lady Gaga occupy three of the four big categories (Song, Record, and Album of the Year), while folks like Olivia Dean, Lola Young, Leon Thomas, and Addison Rae duke it out in Best New Artist. 

On this episode of Switched on Pop, Charlie, Nate, and Reanna take a look at the "big four" categories, and stump for their respective frontrunners in order to predict who will be taking home a golden phonograph (or two). 

Links: ⁠Newsletter⁠, ⁠YouTube

Songs discussed:

 Bad Bunny – DtMF

 Lady Gaga – Abracadabra

 Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

 Kendrick Lamar – squabble up

 Olivia Dean – Nice To Each Other

 Olivia Dean – Man I Need

 Lola Young – Messy

 Addison Rae – Headphones On

 Addison Rae – New York

 Addison Rae – Fame is a Gun

 Kendrick Lamar, SZA – luther

 Billie Eilish – WILDFLOWER

 HUNTR/X – Golden

 Chappell Roan – The Subway

 Kendrick Lamar – tv off (feat. lefty gunplay)

 Justin Bieber – ALL I CAN TAKE

 Bad Bunny – NUEVAYoL

 Bad Bunny – VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR

 Bad Bunny – LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii

 Bad Bunny – LA MuDANZA

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And the Grammy goes to…

Swedish pop star Robyn emerged as a phenomenon in the mid 1990s, an ingenue whose work with Max Martin presaged the R&B crossover hits of acts like Britney and the Backstreet Boys. Since her debut, she’s released a string of albums that have shaped the sound of dance music as we know it. 

Now, Robyn is releasing her first new album in eight years, Sexistential, and she’s given us three singles made up of her signature combination of thumping bass and ethereal vocals, while innovating into new personal –and vulnerable — territory. With raps about IVF, references to Blondie, a return to her collaboration with Max Martin, and our introduction of “drum n grace” to the lexicon, this episode is manna for Robyn fans and tyros alike. 

Stick around as we unveil a new feature, “Quick Hits,” a down-and-dirty carousel ride through the most interesting new releases, from ASAP Rocky to Zach Bryan.

Songs discussed:

 Robyn – Dopamine

 Robyn – Show Me Love

 Charli XCX, Robyn, Yung Lean – 360 remix

 Jamie XX, Robyn – Life

 Robyn – Konichiwa Bitches

 Blondie – Rapture

 Robyn – Honey

 Robyn – Missing U

 Robyn – Call Your Girlfriend

 Taio Cruz – Dynamite

 Robyn – Play

 Robyn – Talk to Me

 Robyn – Do You Know (What It Takes)

 Robyn – Sexistential

 Andre 3000 – I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time

 Robyn – Cobrastyle

 Robyn – Dancing On My Own

 A$AP Rocky – PUNK ROCKY

 Zach Bryan – Plastic Cigarette

 David Byrne – Driver's License

 Moonchild – Up From Here

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Robyn’s new songs bring “drum 'n' grace” to the dance floor

Two years ago, Audrey Hobert had never written a song. She was a staff writer on a Nickelodeon series and had recently moved in with her childhood friend Gracie Abrams in Los Angeles. About six months later, a phrase spoken by a heartbroken acquaintance caught their attention; Hobert and Abrams sang it back to each other and wrote a complete song that night. Within the following year, Hobert co-wrote songs including “I Love You, I’m Sorry” and “Risk” for Abrams’s number-two album The Secret of Us. When the television show she was working on was later canceled, Hobert made a hard pivot into her own music.

What happened was Who's the Clown, a debut album where every track came from Hobert's own pen. In this live conversation recorded at NYU Steinhardt's Music and Performing Arts Professions program at Chelsea Studios, Hobert traces her path from dance classes choreographed to One Direction to eight-hour writing sessions that yield two good lines on a lucky day. She explains why she can't write in front of anyone, why she refuses to repeat a chorus three times, and why the Steve Martin documentary made her open her album with the disarmingly strange declaration: "I like to touch people."

The conversation moves from craft to confession as Hobert reflects on what it means to finally be looked at, and whether the view from inside the spotlight is everything she'd imagined.

Subscribe to the ⁠Newsletter⁠ to play along with our annual bingo predictions (last episode)

SONGS DISCUSSED

 Gracie Abrams "I Love You, I'm Sorry"

 Gracie Abrams "That's So True"

 Smash Mouth "All Star"

 One Direction "Kiss You"

 Audrey Hobert "Wet Hair"

 Audrey Hobert "Chateau"

 Audrey Hobert "I Like to Touch People"

 Audrey Hobert "Sex in the City"

 Audrey Hobert "Sue Me"

 Audrey Hobert "Bowling Alley"

 Semisonic "Closing Time"

 Audrey Hobert "Silver Jubilee"

 Audrey Hobert "Don't Go Back to His Ass"

 Audrey Hobert "Shooting Star"

 Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling"

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Audrey Hobert says the quiet part out loud

It’s a brand new year, and what better way to ring it in than with the second annual Switched On Pop bingo? Like last year, Charlie, Nate, and Reanna polish their crystal balls and play Popstradamus, each throwing out eight outlandish pop predictions for the coming months. This time, there’s piano ballads, cover songs, and what Charlie calls the impending “death of auto-tune.” 

Get your own bingo card to play along through our ⁠Newsletter⁠!

Find us on YouTube!

Songs discussed:

 The Prodigy – Firestarter

 The Chemical Brothers – Block Rockin’ Beats

 Basement Jaxx – Jump ’N Shout

 Fatboy Slim – The Rockafeller Skank

 Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars – Die With A Smile

 Benson Boone – Beautiful Things

 Post Malone, Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Scott – Take What You Want

 LCD Soundsystem – Losing My Edge

 Anamanaguchi, Hatsune Miku – Miku

 Crazy Frog – Axel F

 Hampton The Hamster – Hampsters Get the Blues

 K/DA – POP/STARS

 Madison Beer – make you mine

 Forrest Frank – YOUR WAY’S BETTER

 Tate McRae – Sports car

 Tata Taktumi, Timbaland – Pulse x Glitch

 PARTYNEXTDOOR, Drake, Yebba – DIE TRYING

 The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression That I Get

 Maddox Batson – Tears In The River

 JAY-Z – D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune)

 Adele – Someone Like You

 Bruno Mars – When I Was Your Man

 Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved

 Rihanna, Mikky Ekko – Stay

 Baauer – Harlem Shake

 Billie Eilish – bury a friend

 This Is Lorelei, MJ Lenderman – Dancing in the Club – MJ Lenderman Version

 WITCH – Once In A Lifetime

 MOLIY, Shenseea, Silent Addy, Skillibeng – Shake It To The Max (FLY) – Remix

 Geese – Bow Down

 Turnstile – LOOK OUT FOR ME

 Rebecca Black – Sugar Water Cyanide

 Bad Bunny – DtMF

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2026 Pop Predictions: big beat, animated avatars, and Bruno Mars

A scientist asked people to sit in a silent room for 15 minutes. Almost half of them decided to give themselves a painful electric shock instead. What is it about our brains that makes our relationship with silence so strange? And should we learn how to listen to it?

This is the third episode of the four-part Unexplainable series, The Sound Barrier. 

Links: ⁠Newsletter⁠, ⁠YouTube
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Can Bruno Mars counterprogram his way to another hit album?

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