Switched on Pop

Part two of the secret world of song camps looks at the different roles in a songwriting session. There are producers who sit behind a console desk or computer and record, arrange and craft the instrumental and track the vocal. Often they double as engineers who use their technical knowledge to select mics, set up signal chains, and ensure the best recording. Then there is the topliner, a singer who generates melodies on the fly, throwing ideas at the instrumental, looking for the best hooks. Often the top liner is also a songwriter who crafts chords and lyrics to fit the topline melody. And then there is of course the artist who performs the piece. 

These roles aren’t always clearly divided - most musicians have multiple skills. But for the sake of understanding how each role is essential to creating a song, we asked four musical luminaries to embody one of these roles and break it down: producer/engineer Alex Tumay, topliner Wolftyla, Songwriter and Walk the Moon frontman Nicholas Petricca and Artist Grace VanderWall.

This conversation happened live at the College of Performing Arts at The New School as part of Anti Social Camp 2023, the largest song camp in the world that is working to revive to the NYC songwriting scene. 

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Beginning in the nineties, pop songwriters have traveled to a 13th-century castle in the south of France for what’s come to be known as a “song camp” – a place where songwriters and collaborators can hunker down and spend a week together writing the next big hits.

The castle’s owner Miles Copeland, former manager of The Police, brought songwriters to this far-flung location for a dose of creativity, and yielded massive success through the process: artists like Celine Dion, Britney Spears and Miranda Lambert have all benefited from songs stemming from these retreats.

Over the last fifteen years, song camps have exploded in popularity from Peter Coquillard’s Bali Invitational, to Rihanna’s $200k LA camp, to the Anti Social Camp: a NYC-based event and the world’s largest songwriting retreat. This episode of Switched On Pop, we take a look at the secret world of song camps, and even manage to be a fly-on-the-wall in a camp with songwriter Nicholas Petricca of Walk The Moon, Julia Cumming of Sunflower Bean, engineer Will Campbell and producer Andrew Maury. 

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Recently while scrolling twitter we saw a clip from American Idol of judge Katy Perry admonishing an auditioner on the show to “Enunciate!”

The video went viral because of Perry’s incensed reaction, but also because the contestant’s performance of Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie” offered a crystalline example of a popular style of singing that has produced reactions of love and—like for Perry—hate. 

It’s a style that features elongated vowels, clipped consonants, and runaway phrasing associated with contemporary singers like Halsey, Jorja Smith, and Shawn Mendes, and like many things in the 21st century it got its name from a tweet—specifically by the user @trackdroppa who boasted in 2009, “Voice so smooth it’s like i’m singing in cursive”

In this episode we speak to vocal coaches and journalists to to ask: Where did this cursive style come from? What are the vocal techniques used to create this sound? And why does cursive singing create so much backlash?

Songs Discussed

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Ashaala Shanae

https://www.themahi.com/founder

Jumi Akinfenwa

https://www.vice.com/en/contributor/jumi-akinfenwa

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This past week, the film Barbie opened nationwide to massive success – and with it came a soundtrack, executive produced by Mark Ronson.

Functioning as both a companion to the movie and a stand-alone collection of hits, the album features everyone from Dua Lipa to reggaeton star Karol G to K-Pop group FIFTY FIFTY. This episode of Switched on Pop, we take a look at the singles from the soundtrack and see how well they embody the ethos of Barbie: plastic and all. 

Songs Discussed: 

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In 1964, Louis Armstrong knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts with his recording of “Hello, Dolly!” becoming, at age 62, the oldest artist to ever hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Sixty years later, Louis Armstrong remains a beloved cultural figure, his oft-imitated voice still instantly recognizable. But Armstrong is more than a source of levity — his artistry and innovations when he made his first recordings a century ago in 1923 set the template for the modern pop star. On this centennial episode, hear Armstrong as you’ve never heard him: a defiant, pathbreaking musician whose voice resonates in every hit record. 

Songs Discussed

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Read Terry Teachout’s brilliant biography of Armstrong, Pops

Visit the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, NY

Listen to Lil Hardin Armstrong’s 1968 interview with Chris Albertson for Riverside Records

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Taylor Swift is currently the most streamed artist in the world as she’s commandeered the media as she embarks on her Eras tour around the globe. It's likely to be the highest grossing tour of all time, crossing $1B in sales. What’s more, she’s just released her 6th studio album since 2020, and her 3rd re-recording of her older material called Taylor’s Versions. She famously got in a spat with the new owner of her master recordings. She decided to take back control with her own hands and voice, creating mostly true-to-the-original updates alongside a smorgasbord of bonus material.

First there was Fearless from 2008, then Red from 2012 and now Speak Now the last of her more country leaning albums having originally arrived in 2010. Switched On Pop listens to Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) for whats is and isn’t working musically, how the re-recordings are fairing, and where this ambitious project may go next.

Joining the conversation is Lauren Michele Jackson American cultural critic, assistant professor of English and African American studies at Northwestern, author of White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation and a contributing writer to the New Yorker in her review of Taylor Swift’s midnights said “I’ve always maintained that Swift is incapable of writing a bad song.”

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Pop Pantheon: Checking in on Taylor Swift's Re-Recordings So Far (with Charlie Harding, Larisha Paul & Nora Princiotti)

SONGS DISCUSSED

Taylor Swift - Fearless, Red, Speak Now, Never Grow Up, The Story Of Us, Sparks Fly, Mine, Mean, Superman, Karma, Better than Revenge, Electric Touch, Castles Crumbling, When Emma Falls in Love, I Can See You, Back, To December, Last Kiss

Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me

Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive 

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Us at Switched On Pop are off on vacation, but don't fret – this week we're still bringing you an episode, courtesy of the Vulture podcast Into It with Sam Sanders. If you've openly wondered why concert tickets seemingly have gotten more confusing and expensive, this episode's for you.

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Content creator and head of the Beyhive Kalen Allen is more than OK spending four thousand dollars on one ticket for Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour. 2023 feels like a big year for huge stadium tours for artists like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Ed Sheeran and more. But why are tickets so expensive, and how much are fans willing to put up with in order to go? Sam talks with music journalist Nate Rogers about why the touring industry might just be broken and what lawmakers and some artists are trying to do to fix it.

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Vulture might have killed the song of the summer back in 2016, but if you’re a member of the LGBTQ+ community, it’s hard to argue against “Padam Padam” by Kylie Minogue. The track, released this May, has taken the queer community by storm, quickly becoming ubiquitous and inescapable – it's hard to even scroll on Twitter without a well-timed meme about the "padam-ic" popping up on the timeline. However, Minogue's song hasn't even cracked the Billboard Hot 100; instead, its status has morphed into that of a "gay anthem," a song widely celebrated inside the community but unable to garner longstanding success outside of it.

This episode of Switched on Pop, producer Reanna Cruz tackles a question that the LGBTQ+ community has debated over for decades: what makes a gay anthem? Through talking with everyone from academics to their close friends, the answer takes us from Judy Garland to 1920s cabaret to, of course, "Padam Padam."

Songs Discussed:

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Another installment of Switches Brew the show where you get to hear from the larger team Switched On Pop team and community about what we're listening to old and new. With recommendations from editor Jolie Myers, producer Reanna Cruz, and listeners Micah Salkind and JT.

Songs Discussed

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As summer comes upon us, it’s time for some Billboard shake ups. On this week’s edition of Chartbreakers, we’re looking at the recent iterations of the Hot 100 and a trend that has slowly been creeping up in popularity over the past few months: the influx of regional Mexican music. The past two years have seen many songs by Mexican artists making their way onto Billboard, all managing to highlight different scenes and sounds from the different states in Mexico. 

We’re joined this week by the cohost of the NPR Music podcast Alt. Latino, Anamaria Sayre, who says that Mexican regional, or simply, regional, is a marketing “bucket term” that encompasses different Latin genres including everything from norteño to corridos, all genres that are comfortably finding a home in the top 20 of the Hot 100 in 2023.

Of course, there’s more happening outside of Latin music. Much of the chart has been stagnant since our last iteration of Chartbreakers, but, as always, there’s been some shake ups thanks to the world of the TikTok sped-up remix, the legacy artist, and on some occasions, a mix of both (we’re looking at you, Miguel).

Songs Discussed:

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