Both sharp in its analyzes and sensitive to popular music, this English-speaking program offers exciting moments and demonstrates astonishing diversity.
Produced in partnership with the New York Magazine and the website Vulture, this podcast is a real treasure for anyone with a keen interest in contemporary pop. Produced by musicologist Nate Sloan, journalist and producer Reanna Cruz and journalist and songwriter Charlie Harding, Switched On Pop each week addresses topics at the heart of current music events.
Alternating in-depth analysis in the form of a dialogue between the two hosts and interviews with artists (Caroline Polachek, Carly Rae Jepsen and the group Disclosure lent themselves to the exercise), this podcast from a duration of thirty to forty-five minutes shines for the finesse of its musical comparisons, its in-depth studies of the issues of the pieces and above all the relevance of its angles of approach.
Pop monuments
Not being choosy about the most mainstream objects (the episode analyzing the two singles Vampire And Bad Idea Right? of Olivia Rodrigo’s latest album, is edifying in this respect) while taking the time to measure the importance of pop monuments (the four-part series on Daft Punk is great), Switched On Pop also wonders what makes a gay anthem with for example Kylie Minogue’s latest hit, sifts through, title by title, the album taken from the film barbie or wonders if the latest albums by Post Malone and Travis Scott are not symptomatic of a mid-career crisis.
Their ultra-scholarly approach to fundamentally popular objects is the price of this podcast, which deploys a critical language talking about the texture or ethos of a title. In this way, it constitutes a real education in listening to music differently. Switched On Pop has no equal when it comes to measuring and deciphering the goldsmithery behind the greatest pieces of pop. A success which, we hope, will be emulated in the French podcast landscape.
Switched On Pop by Nate Sloan, Reanna Cruz and Charlie Harding, produced by Rock Ridge Productions, Vox Media Podcast Network, New York Magazine And Vulture.