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.

John C. Reilly joins to discuss Mr. Romantic, his theatrical tribute to the Great American Songbook that treats Irving Berlin and Tom Waits as equals in the canon of timeless American song. Reilly recorded live in one room with his band using vintage ribbon microphones, embracing the squeaks and imperfections while layering in cinematic sound effects—crickets outside a lover's window, a collect call from prison—to transform each standard into an immersive scene. But what makes a song from the 1920s feel eternal? Music data scientist Chris Dalla Riva, author of the forthcoming Uncharted Territory and the newsletter Can't Get Much Higher, breaks down how composers like the Gershwins wrote for amateur musicians playing sheet music at home, creating universal lyrics and AABA structures where the hook comes first. That accessibility is precisely what draws Reilly to this repertoire. He sees himself in the lineage of interpreters like Sinatra, not selling his own story but passing along music that already belongs to all of us, like holding up a seashell and saying, "Isn't this one beautiful?"

More

  Get Chris Dalla Riva's book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves

  Subscribe to Chris Dalla Riva's Can't Get Much Higher

Songs Discussed

  Taylor Swift "The Last Great American Dynasty"

  George Gershwin "I Got Rhythm"

  Village People "Y.M.C.A."

  Billie Eilish "Bad Guy"

  Frank Sinatra "On the Sunny Side of the Street"

  Judy Garland "Over the Rainbow"

  Ella Fitzgerald "My Romance"

  George Gershwin "But Not for Me"

  Elvis Presley "Are You Lonesome Tonight"

  The Beatles "We Can Work It Out"

  The Beatles "Get Back"

  The Beatles "Yesterday"

  John C. Reilly "Moonlight Serenade"

  John C. Reilly "Dreams"

  John C. Reilly "Johnsburg, Illinois"

  John C. Reilly "Falling in Love Again"

  John C. Reilly "What'll I Do"

  John C. Reilly "Picture in a Frame"

  John C. Reilly "Just Another Sucker on the Vine"

  Randy Newman "Ragtime"

  John C. Reilly & David Garza "What's Not To Love"

  Harry Nilsson "Coconut"

  Judy Garland "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

  Dooley Wilson "As Time Goes By"

  The New Vaudeville Band "Winchester Cathedral"

  Andy Williams "The Days of Wine and Roses"

  Nat King Cole "The Frim Fram Sauce"

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Switched on Pop

What do John C. Reilly and Taylor Swift have in common? The Great American Songbook

Taylor Swift's twelfth album has sparked endless speculation about who each song is "really about," but that might be the wrong question entirely. The Life of a Showgirl isn’t biography, it’s polyphonic auto-fiction, where Swift writes from multiple character perspectives while blurring the lines between autobiography and theatrical performance. The album's "showgirl sound" traces from Shakespearean tragedy (Ophelia's drowning rewritten as salvation) through Golden Age Hollywood orchestration to contemporary pop production with Max Martin and Shellback. Unusual musical choices like the jarring five-measure phrase in "Fate of Ophelia" reinforce the album's central theme: the tension between public performance and private reality. By treating the album as a theatrical show rather than a celebrity tell-all, listeners can finally hear what Swift is actually saying… or can they?

Vote for Switched On Pop in this year's Signal Awards! We're nominated for ⁠Best Music Podcast⁠ and ⁠Best Original Score/Music⁠, linked here. Thank you!

Songs Discussed

  Taylor Swift "Love Story"

  Taylor Swift "Blank Space"

  Taylor Swift "The Fate of Ophelia"

  Taylor Swift "Elizabeth Taylor"

  Irving Berlin "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody"

  Fred Astaire "Puttin' on the Ritz"

  Taylor Swift "Opalite"

  George Michael "Father Figure"

  Taylor Swift "Father Figure"

  Taylor Swift "Eldest Daughter"

  Taylor Swift "Tim McGraw"

  Taylor Swift "Ruined the Friendship"

  Weezer "Beverly Hills"

  Pixies "Where Is My Mind"

  Charli XCX "Sympathy Is a Knife"

  Charli XCX "Everything Is Romantic"

  Taylor Swift "Actually Romantic"

  Mean Girls "Meet the Plastics"

  Taylor Swift "Wi$h Li$t"

  Stevie Wonder "Superstition"

  The Jackson 5 "I Want You Back"

  Taylor Swift "Wood"

  Nirvana "Lithium"

  Nirvana "Something in the Way"

  Taylor Swift "Canceled"

  Taylor Swift "Honey"

  Taylor Swift feat. Sabrina Carpenter "Life of a Showgirl"

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Taylor Swift’s Showgirl Sound: How to actually listen to the album

There's no lead singer in Trousdale. The trio of Quinn D'Andrea, Georgia Greene, and Lauren Jones, has shared vocal duties equally since they started singing together as students at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. Since then, they've touring the world and released a sophomore album, Growing Pains, that features the trio's impeccable harmonies over 70s-inflected country-rock grooves. In this episode,  Trousdale returns to their alma mater to play acoustic versions of  "Growing Pains" and "Secondhand Smoke" and then speak to Professor Nate (plus an audience of music students) about how they forged their indivisible sound. 

Songs Discussed 

Trousdale - Growing Pains, Over and Over, Lonely Nights, Movie Star

Jackson Browne - Doctor My Eyes

MIKA - Grace Kelly
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The Power of the Trio (ft. Trousdale live at USC)

This summer, one singular artist could be heard everywhere from the new Cardi B album to the TikTok charts: Janet Jackson. The incomparable Queen of Pop has had her fingerprints all over pop music for the past few months, and it’s never been more apparent than on Doja Cat’s “Jealous Type.” The lead single from Doja’s new album Vie has all the hallmarks of the Janet Jackson sound, from breathy and percussive vocals to nods to iconic production from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

This episode of Switched on Pop, we go on a journey guided by Janet, and discover the implicit connections to Doja Cat – the so-called “queen of pop-rap” – in the process.

Vote for Switched On Pop in this year's Signal Awards! We're nominated for Best Music Podcast and Best Original Score/Music, linked here. Thank you!

Songs discussed:

  Janet Jackson – Someone To Call My Lover

  Sabrina Carpenter – House Tour

  Cardi B, Janet Jackson – Principal (feat. Janet Jackson)

  Doja Cat – Jealous Type

  Janet Jackson – What Have You Done For Me Lately

  Janet Jackson – Nasty

  Janet Jackson – Feedback

  Janet Jackson – What About

  Prince – 1999

  Janet Jackson – Throb

  Janet Jackson – Control

  Janet Jackson – When I Think Of You

  Janet Jackson – Go Deep

  Doja Cat – Cyber Sex

  Doja Cat – Rules

  Doja Cat – Boss Bitch

  Doja Cat – Woman

  Doja Cat – Agora Hills

  Janet Jackson – Let’s Wait Awhile

  Janet Jackson – Escapade

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Doja Cat is the new Janet

How does a country of 10 million people dominate the global pop charts? From ABBA's Eurovision breakthrough to Max Martin's methodical hit-making, Sweden has quietly engineered a kind of musical Stockholm Syndrome: we've all become captives to their sound without realizing it. Listen to the crystalline vocal production and deceptively simple chord progressions in tracks by Lisa, Childish Gambino, and Addison Rae, and you're hearing Sweden's sonic fingerprint so embedded in pop's DNA that it now defines the genre itself. We sit down with pop star Zara Larsson to explore her love letter to home, "Midnight Sun." As she puts it, "I can't really leave Sweden; it's just something that's like a part of who I am," a sentiment that captures how Swedish pop's unique blend of melancholy and euphoria, mirroring the country's extreme seasons, has made us all willing prisoners of Stockholm's musical empire.

Songs Discussed

  Lisa ft. Rosalia: "New Woman"

  Childish Gambino: "Lithonia"

  Addison Rae: "Fame Is a Gun"

  Bleachers: "Tiny Moves"

  Zara Larsson: "Midnight Sun"

  Robyn: "Show Me Love"

  Robyn: "Dancing on My Own"

  Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

  Brad Mehldau "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

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Stockholm syndrome: Why we can't resist Swedish pop (ft. Zara Larsson)

It's time. Nate and Charlie break down the K Pop Demonhunters  soundtrack to uncover the musical secrets behind its unprecedented success.  From West Side Story to Gregorian chant, Phrygian modes to  musical theater clichés,  we 'll  explain why you can't stop listening to  the sounds of Huntr/x and Saja Boys.

Songs Discussed

Huntr/x - How It's Done, Golden, What it Sounds Like

Saja Boys - Soda Pop, Your Idol

Aldred Deller and the Deller Consort - Dies Irae

West Side Story - Jet Song

Aespa - Drama

Riize - Get a Guitar

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