Switched On Pop

Selena Gomez's "Bad Liar" stands out on the charts by doing things a little differently: it's a subtle, at times even awkward, summer surprise. Breaking down this pop morsel reveals it has teeth, though—and not just because it borrows a bass line from the Talking Heads' macabre "Psycho Killer." This is a fun one. Come along for the ride. 

Featuring:

• Selena Gomez - Bad Liar
• Julia Michaels - Issues
• Selena Gomez - Same Old Love
• Talking Heads - Psycho Killer

Author, critic and podcaster Andrea Warner joins for a throwback episode exploring politics in Lilith Fair, harmonic anger in Alanis Morissette's iconic "You Oughta Know," and the blind spots in your host's assessment of women in rock. 

Featuring:
•Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know

Artists mentioned by Andrea Warner:
SZA
Ibeyi
The Overcoats
Lizzo

Your brain can only hear three things at the same time. What you may not know is that musicians use this cognitive limitation to guide your listening all the time. Charlie and Nate are joined by Grammy Nominee music producer Morgan Page to reveal the secrets of this ubiquitous technique. Listening to Julia Michaels' hit "Issues," we unveil how the rule of three is used to draw our attention and keep us free from sonic distraction. And we look at how Maroon 5's "Cold" uses the same technique but creates an exceptionally different sound. Of course, it wouldn't be Switched On Pop if we didn't dig into the classical past to find out if this rule really holds up in the history of music. 

Featuring: 

• Morgan Page - Fight My Way
• Julia Michaels - Issues 
• Julia Michaels - Issues (Acoustic)
• Maroon 5 - Cold ft. Future
• Skrillex - First Of The Year (Equinox)
• Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You
• DJ Khaled - I'm The One
• Selena Gomez - Bad Liar
• The Beatles - When I'm Sixty Four
• Arnold Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire - III - Der Mondfleck
• Dead & Company - Live at the Hollywood Bowl 6-1-17
• The Beatles - A Day In The Life
• Ike & Tina Turner: Deep River Mountain High
• Swedish House Mafia - One

DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper, Quavo from Migos and Lil Wayne have allied for a new smash hit: "I'm The One." Despite the star power present, the resulting track is less than the sum of its parts—repetitive, derivative, uninventive. And yet, the lackluster "I'm The One" sits comfortably at the top of the charts, which raises the question: why?? Our answer: because Khaled and company understand the bewitching power of tonal harmony, and they've utilized the most surefire chord progression in pop history to ensure their success, a simple sequence of chords that has captivated listeners for almost a century: I - vi - IV - V.

Check out our playlist of songs using this progression — and please send us any others that you identify!

Featuring:
• DJ Khaled - I'm The One
• Dean Martin - Blue Moon
• Ben E. King - Stand By Me
• Hoagy Carmichael - Heart & Soul
• The Police - Every Breath You Take 
• Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
• fun. -  We Are Young
• Justin Bieber - Baby
• Jean-Philippe Rameau - Les Sauvages

Two new songs have captured the attention of your hosts—Charlie Puth's "Attention" and HAIM's "Want You Back." On the surface, these two songs appear to have little in common. A closer look, though, reveals the subtle musical architecture undergirding each track, a perfect balance of symmetry and asymmetry that keeps reeling us in for more. 

Featuring:
• Charlie Puth ft. Meghan Trainor - Marvin Gaye
• Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth - See You Again
• Charlie Puth ft. Selene Gomez - We Don't Talk Anymore
• Charlie Puth - Attention
• Haim - Want You Back
• Dvorak - Carnival Overture (United States Marine Band)

Is it true that all pop music sounds the same today? For the past year the “pop-drop” has dominated the airwaves. This new form of EDM infused pop came out of DJ culture and has infused its sound with every mainstream act like Lady Gaga and Coldplay. Tiring of this sound, some artists are finding creative ways to parody this pop trope. The rock outfit Fall Out Boy’s “Young And Menace” demonstrates equal parts mastery and mockery of the pop-drop. And PC Music, a rising art-music label out of London, skewers the whole of pop cliché on their mixtape collaboration with Charli XCX. After this episode, we promise you’ll be ready to move on to new sounds. Luckily, listeners have collaborated to create a new favorites playlist to help you cleanse your palette.

Featuring:

• The Chainsmokers - Closer
• Kygo & Selena Gomez - It Ain’t Me
• Lady Gaga - The Cure
• Fall Out Boy - Sugar We’re Going Down
• Fall Out Boy - Young And Menace
• Jay Z - D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)
• Ariana Grande - Into You
• Katy Perry feat. Skip Marley - Chained To The Rhythm
• Drake - Passionfruit
• Postmodern Jukebox - Sugar We’re Going Down Swinging
• Britney Spears - Oops! I Did It Again
• Skrillex - Bangarang
• DJ Snake - Middle
• Beyoncé - Love On Top
• Icona Pop - I Love It (feat. Charlie XCX)
• Iggy Azalea - Fancy ft. Charli XCX
• Selena Gomez - Same Old Love
• Charli XCX - 3AM (Pull Up) (feat. MØ)
• Hannah Diamond - Every Night
• Bronze - Thy Slaughter
• Danny L Harle - Super Natural (ft. Carly Rae Jepsen)
• SOPHIE - JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE
• A.G. Cook - Superstar
• Ariana Grande - Side To Side
• Coon Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra - I'm Gonna Charleston Back To CharlestonSpotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/switchedonpop/playlist/1LeUhwRJfMGdlPkSMR9Uxu

One Direction wunderkind Harry Styles has just released his first ever single, "Sign of the Times," and it's a doozy. Strap in for a discussion of the apocalypse, late Beatles, teen wisdom, and the amen cadence—among other demons exorcised in this most peculiar pop tune. 

Featuring:
•Beethoven 5th Symphony - Scherzo
•Harry Styles - Sign of the Times
•Prince - Sign o' the Times
•David Bowie - Space Oddity
•Zayn Malik - Pillowtalk
•Steve Aoki + Louis Tomlinson - Just Hold On
•John Lennon - #9 Dream
•George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
•The Beatles - The End
•British Pathe Broadcast
•Meg Says YouTube Channel
•Megan Elizabeth YouTube Channel

Songwriter Ross Golan comes over to start up a conversation, encouraging us to follow his lead and give Ed Sheeran's chart-annihilating record "Shape of You" a chance. Ross, a studio vet with multiple #1 hits (including  numbers discussed on this very podcast, such as Ariana Grande's "Dangerous Woman" and Selena Gomez's "Same Old Love") is the ideal guest to convince a skeptical Charlie and Nate that Sheeran might have a song handmade for somebodies like them. Plus, Ross takes us behind the scenes of his own podcast, "And the Writer Is...", in which the industry's best writers break down their trials and triumphs on the way to the top.

Featuring:
• Ed Sheeran - Shape of You
• Justin Bieber - Love Yourself
• Kygo ft. Ella Henderson - Here For You
• Maroon 5 - Don't Wanna Know

Check out And The Writer Is... With Ross Golan: http://www.andthewriteris.com/

Charlie and Nate sit down with up-and-coming producer duo Grey—fresh off their hit "Starving" with Zedd and Hailee Steinfeld—to uncover the secrets behind Alessia Cara and Zedd's dramatic dance track "Stay" and Grey's own deep cut "I Miss You" (ft Bahari). Snare drums as currency, Game of Thrones samples and screaming into the void are all discussed in this deep dive into the world of pop orchestration and 21st century songwriting.   

Featuring:

Zedd + Alessia Cara - Stay
Hailee Steinfeld + Grey ft. Zedd - Starving
Grey ft. Bahari - I Miss You
Earth, Wind and Fire - Kalimba Story
Maroon 5 - Don't Wanna Know
Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition
Ravel - Pictures at an Exhibition
Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Pictures at an Exhibition
Grey - Do You Remember (Remix)
Grey - You're Not There (Remix)

Two artists who haven't released new music since 2013 recently remerged into the limelight: Katy Perry, with her dystopian disco banger "Chained to the Rhythm" and Lorde, with the melodramatic-yet-uplifting anthem "Green Light." 

Listening carefully, a fact becomes apparent, despite Lorde's insistence that she "hears new sounds" in her mind: there's something familiar lurking beneath both these tracks. And indeed, both were co-written and produced by key figures of the modern pop music firmament. Who are they, and how do we detect their fingerprints on the latest from these two low-voiced chanteuses? Tune in and test your acumen in a high-stakes game of musical forensics. 

Featuring:
Katy Perry - Chained to the Rhythm
Lorde - Green Light
...and some secret songs