For decades, hip hop has been the most successful genre on the charts. Then, in 2023, a shift occurred. For the first time, the country songs outnumbered hip hop songs on the year end charts. Last year, country’s boom was led by hyper-partisan hits like Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” and Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond.” In 2024, country has taken a left turn. Beyoncé’s genre-busting album Cowboy Carter pushed the limits of what country can sound like, and who can make it. Two of her collaborators have since charted #1 hits: Shaboozey with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Post ..read more

For decades, hip hop has been the most successful genre on the charts. Then, in 2023, a shift occurred. For the first time, the country songs outnumbered hip hop songs on the year end charts. Last year, country’s boom was led by hyper-partisan hits like Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” and Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond.” In 2024, country has taken a left turn. Beyoncé’s genre-busting album Cowboy Carter pushed the limits of what country can sound like, and who can make it. Two of her collaborators have since charted #1 hits: Shaboozey with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Post ..read more

The Verge's Nilay Patel and David Pierce chat with Switched on Pop's Charlie Harding about the RIAA lawsuit against Al music startups Udio and Suno. Later, Nilay and David discuss the rest of this week's tech and gadget news. Subscribe to Vergecast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices ..read more

Long live the song of the summer with Today Explained. But wait! Switched on Pop's Charlie Harding disagrees. And Rolling Stone's Brittany Spanos says maybe it never existed at all. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Be sure to subscribe to Today Explained. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a ..read more

The first half of 2024 has been for the “pop girlie.” It seems like every major artist who’s dominated the discourse this year has been a woman, ostensibly making music about what it means to be a woman. There’s Camila Cabello's "Chanel no.5,” Lorde and Charli XCX working out the labyrinth of emotions that come with female friendship on the “Girl, so confusing” remix, and Sabrina Carpenter’s ode to the female ego, “Please Please Please." On this episode, Charlie, Nate, and Reanna – with some insight from journalist Ilana Kaplan – unpack these tracks at length, exploring what these artists are ..read more

There’s many things to love about Los Angeles: low-rider cars, roadside taco stands, and, come awards season, the omnipresent “For Your Consideration” billboard. Nobody knows this better than lifelong L.A. resident Lorely Rodriguez, also known as Empress Of. The indie-pop darling’s latest record, aptly titled For Your Consideration, is her take on what it means to have your full self considered, in all of its guises. The almost genreless record is so wildly catchy and remarkable in scope (all of the percussion on the record is actually Rodriguez’s voice) that Switched On Pop host Nate Sloan an ..read more

Where were you when you learned that the McDonald's jingle "I'm lovin' it" was originally part of a full-fledged pop song by Justin Timberlake and Pharrell that flopped on the charts but found staying power as a slogan? For us, it was recording our live episode about sponsored content in pop back in March 2024, and we have not been the same since. Shaken by this revelation, we found ourselves asking, "What else don't we know about fast food jingles?" Turns out, it's a lot. From Taco Bell to Popeye's to Chili's, the music of fast food represent some of the most familiar melodies in society, ac ..read more

Bootsy Collins is, perhaps, the funkiest man of all time. Over the course of his nearly six decade career, Collins has given up the funk in the iconic Parliament Funkadelic, helmed Bootsy’s Rubber Band, and lended his slaparific talents to songs from everybody from James Brown to Dee-Lite to Fatboy Slim. His new album, aptly titled Album of the Year #1 Funkateer, is on the way, so in celebration of his illustrious career, we invited Bootsy Collins – aka Casper the Funky Ghost – onto Switched on Pop to reminisce on some of his greatest hits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastc ..read more

There is no contemporary pop music without Nile Rodgers. Born in 1952, Rodgers grew up playing classical music on flute and clarinet before picking up jazz guitar. And at age 20, alongside bass player Bernard Edwards, Rodgers formed the band Chic. They wrote the biggest disco hits of the 70s, like: “Dance Dance Dance,” “Everybody Dance,” “Le Freak," and "Good TImes," which formed the core of Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper's Delight”. In his music career spanning six decades, Rodgers has produced and played on some of the biggest pop songs in history, for artists like Sister Sledge, Di ..read more

There's no music writer like the essayist and poet Hanif Abdurraqib: whether he's narrating the beautiful awkwardness of a Carly Rae Jepsen concert or talking jazz and eastern spirituality with Andre 3000, he manages to coax stories and insights out of songs in a way that never fails to surprise. His latest book, There's Always This Year, is a free flowing meditation on basketball, childhood, his home state of Ohio, and of course, music – so on the precipice of the NBA finals, Hanif returns to Switched On Pop to discuss classic soul, sports, and sound with musicologist Nate Sloan. You can ..read more