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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

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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The Sound of Silence from Unexplainable

Every Christmas season, pop stars far and wide throw their Santa hats into the ring to see who has the next "All I Want for Christmas Is You," and this year is no exception. It's a yearly tradition on Switched On Pop to explore the deluge of holiday hits, and 2025 sees formidable entries to the canon from folks like Kylie Minogue, Leon Bridges, and Willie Nelson.

Links: ⁠Newsletter⁠, ⁠YouTube

Songs discussed:

 Ariana Grande – Santa Tell Me

 Kelly Clarkson – Underneath the Tree

 Cher – Christmas Is Here

 Cher – Believe

 Kylie Minogue – Hot in December

 Zach Top – For You For Christmas

 Willie Nelson – Christmas Love Song

 Mickey Guyton – Sugar Cookie

 Meghan Trainor – Gifts For Me

 The Ronettes – Sleigh Ride

 Gwen Stefani – Hot Cocoa

 Train – Let's Stay in Tonight

 Brenda Lee – Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

 Leon Bridges, Norah Jones – This Christmas I'm Coming Home

 Elysia Biro – The Christmas Song

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Naughty or nice? The 2025 holiday music round up

From big-ticket albums by Taylor and Gaga, to a revival of the stomp-clap revival – 2025 had it all, for better and for worse. Now that the year has come to a close, it's time to take a look back at the past twelve months: what happened in the zeitgeist, what we loved listening to, and what we missed here on the show. Reanna, Charlie, and Nate talk about it all, including a look back at our predictions from January to check off boxes for Switched On Pop bingo.

Links: Newsletter, YouTube

Songs discussed:

 Taylor Swift – The Fate of Ophelia

 Alex Warren – Ordinary

 HUNTR/X – Golden

 Morgan Wallen – I'm The Problem

 Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga – Die With A Smile

 Bruno Mars – 24K Magic

 ROSÉ, Bruno Mars – APT.

 Olivia Dean – Man I Need

 Ravyn Lenae – Love Me Not

 Justin Bieber, Dijon – DEVOTION

 Bon Iver, Dijon, Flock of Dimes – Day One

 Dijon – Baby!

 Dijon – Yamaha

 CA7RIEL – SHIPEA2

 Paco Amoroso – Viuda Negra

 CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso – EL ÚNICO - Live at NPR MUSIC's Tiny Desk

 CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso – EL DÍA DEL AMIGO

 CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso – #TETAS

 Breaking Rust – Walk My Walk

 Jack Black – Steve's Lava Chicken

 Saja Boys – Soda Pop

 Snocaps – Coast

 Miley Cyrus – Something Beautiful

 Bad Bunny – DtMF

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

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The year that killed music (best and worst of 2025)

Grammy-winning songwriter Amy Allen joins NYU Steinhardt students live to trace her path from early pitch songs to co-writing some of the decade's defining hits. She explains why Halsey's "Without Me" needed an extended chorus but no pre-made chord loops, how Harry Styles' "Matilda" required character-driven writing for emotional safety, and what made the hypnotic groove of Tate McRae's "Greedy" demand a rare third verse. Allen also unpacks the spoken hook in Rosé and Bruno Mars' "APT" and the three-step key change powering Sabrina Carpenter's recent work. The result is a masterclass in why songs work—and why the rules worth breaking are the ones you've already learned.

SONGS DISCUSSED

 
Halsey "Without Me"

 
Harry Styles "Adore You"

 
Harry Styles "Matilda"

 
Tate McRae "greedy"

 
Rosé and Bruno Mars "ATA"

 
Sabrina Carpenter "Please, please, please"

 
Selena Gomez "Back to You"

 
Justin Timberlake "Cry Me A River" (Interpolated in "Without Me")

 
Olivia Rodrigo "Driver's License"

 
Sabrina Carpenter "Espresso"

 
Sabrina Carpenter Short and Sweet (Album)

 
Sabrina Carpenter Man's Best Friend (Album)

 
Beyoncé "Love on Top"

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Why pop songwriters break the rules (ft. Amy Allen)

Sombr went from crafting raw, reverb soaked songs alone in his Lower East Side bedroom to finding his life shifting in ways he never could have predicted across 2024 and 2025. His biggest tracks kept their imperfections even as world class players at Sound City added new layers, and a disco groove he began as a late night joke transformed into a breakout moment that changed his career’s trajectory. He explains how he writes, why distortion carries emotional weight for him, how he navigates the pull between bedroom recordings and studio polish, and what it felt like to watch childhood dreams come true on national stages. The result is a portrait of an artist whose rise has been so quick and so unlikely that even Sombr is still piecing together how it all happened.

Watch the interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Switched-On-Pop

Songs Discussed

 
Sombr “12 to 12”

 
Sombr “Back to Friends”

 
Sombr “Undressed”

 
Lizzo “About Damn Time”

 
Chic “Good Times”

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Naughty or nice? The 2025 holiday music round up

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