How does it feel to become a global pop star under lockdown? Benee’s “Supalonely” had been out for over 5 months when in March of 2020, it quickly became the second most popular song on TikTok. The song’s hook “I’ve been lonely… Supalonely” clearly reflected a global collective malaise about the pandemic—and people wanted to dance to it. She wrote this “sad banger” to help get over a breakup. And now the song changed her life. Not along before she’d dropped out of college to make music while working at a pizza place. Her first EP had found an audience in her home country, New Zealand. Now, with her TikTok success Benee has ascended the top 100 in 30 countries. All of this happened from the solitude of her childhood bedroom, where like so many people, she’s taking zoom calls all day. She tells Switched On Pop about using levity to overcome personal difficulty and what’s like to achieve global recognition from home.

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Matt Daniels, editor of the publication The Pudding, wanted to find out what songs from his youth would last into the future. So he designed a study that would test if Gen-Z had a grip on 90s culture. Hundreds of thousands of participants provided over 3 million data points. Daniels parsed through the data for insights. Sadly, the majority of his most beloved songs have not survived even one generation. Though most had been forgotten, he found that just a few songs had staying power across generations — what he defined as the emerging 90s music canon. Find out what songs make it and which have fallen to the wayside. 

MORE

The Pudding’s study on Defining the 90s Canon

Take The Pudding’s quiz yourself

SONGS DISCUSSED

Spice Girls - Wannabe 

Mariah Carey - Fantasy!

Lou Bega - Mambo #5

Los Del Rio - Macarena

Boys II Men - Motown Philly

Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You

Savage Garden - I Want You

The Barenaked Ladies - One Week

Jewel - You Were Meant For Me

Jennifer Lopez - If You Had My Love

Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On

Britney Spears - Baby One More Time

Smash Mouth - All Star

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

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Bruno Major blends old song structures from The Great American Songbook with contemporary production on his new album “To Let A Good Thing Die.” The result is a nostalgic, yet contemporary collection of love songs for the Netflix and chill generation. We speak with Bruno Major about how he draws inspiration from the past to craft something new. He breaks down his songs "Nothing," "To Let A Good Thing Die," and "The Most Beautiful Thing," which he wrote with Finneas. And we unpack how Bruno Major found success only after being dropped from his record label.

SONGS DISCUSSED

Bruno Major - Nothing

Autumn Leaves - Nat King Cole

Fly Me to The Moon - Frank Sinatra

Stella By Starlight - Tony Bennett

There Will Never Be Another You - Nat King Cole

Like Someone in Love - Chet Baker

Deep in a Dream - Frank Sinatra

All The things you are - Ella Fitzgerald

Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years

Wes Montgomery - In Your Own Sweet Way

Bruno Major - Wouldn't Mean A Thing

Bruno Major - Bad Religion (Live)

Bruno Major - I'll Sleep When I'm Older

J Cole - KOD

J Dilla - La La La

Bruno Major - The Most Beautiful Thing

Bruno Major - To Let A Good Thing Die

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Beyoncé' has released "Black Is King," a visual album based off of music that she released last year. We're rerunning that piece so that you can place the visual component of "Black Is King" in context to the music. For the live action remake of the Lion King, Beyoncé, (who voices Nala in the film), recorded and curated a companion soundtrack called The Gift. She worked with leading Afropop stars to expose the music of the continent to a global audience. In her piece, “Diversity Is in the Details: What Beyoncé’s ‘The Lion King: The Gift’ Gets Right and Wrong,” Okayplayer music editor Ivie Ani argues that the album highlights music while unintentionally treating the continent as a monolith. Ani joins Switched On Pop to break down this album and what it means for Afropop.

SONGS DISCUSSED

Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Childish Gambino, Oumou Sangaré – MOOD 4 EVA

Oumou Sangaré – Diaraby Nen

Burna Boy – JA ARA

Fela Kuti – Water No Get Enemy

Fena, MDQ, Mayonde, Kagwe, Blinky Bill – PARTY NATION

BONUS

Listen to Blinky and Ivie’s East African playlist recommendations

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Taylor Swift has released folklore, her unexpected eighth studio album. It is an understated work that firmly puts celebrity gossip behind her (there are no who's-dating-who easter eggs to be found). Instead we're gifted Swift's greatest strength: songwriting. The lyrics blur "fantasy and reality." There are imagined teenage love trysts, recreated dynasties and intimate reflections on modern love. We break down the sounds and lyrics that make up Swift's strongest album yet.

SONGS DISCUSSED

Taylor Swift - the 1, illicit affairs, my tears ricochet, august, epiphany, cruel summer, this is my trying, hoax, peace, you belong with me, mirrorball, epiphany, our song, cardigan, the last great american dynasty, betty

The National - Light Years

Bon Iver - 666

BONUS

The correct term for the piano line is a "turn"

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Nu-Metal, the mid 90s creation that blended metal, rap and pop, is one of the most critically derided pop genres. So it is strange that this genre is having a comeback. But whereas its first incarnation was dominated by men, now women are leading the way. Artists like Poppy, Grimes and Rina Sawayama have recast the heavy guitars, sung-rap lyrics and gaudy aesthetic to fight back the patriarchy.

CORRECTION: Charlie does not play pinch harmonics, but rather natural harmonics

SONGS DISCUSSED

MORE

Check out Finn McKenty's YouTube channel The Punk Rock MBA starting with his video on what killed Nu-Metal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATllyNXF3Kg&t

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Listen closely to the start of the 2015 hit "Hey Mama" by David Guetta, Nicki Minaj, Afrojack, and Bebe Rexha and you'll hear voices intoning a chant: "Be my woman, girl, I'll be your man." It's sample from a 1948 recording called "Rosie," and it's the propulsive hook of "Hey Mama," driving the song to over a billion views on YouTube. The voices in the sample belong to CB Cook and ten other unidentified prisoners at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, aka Parchman Farm. These men never got credit for their work, even though it's been reused by everyone from Guetta to the Animals to Nina Simone. We investigate the story of "Rosie" to understand an inequity that lies at the heart of the music business and our national consciousness.

Songs Discussed

David Guetta ft Nicki Minaj, Bebe Rexha, and Afrojack - Hey Mama

CB Cook and Axe Gang - Rosie

The Animals - Inside Looking Out

Grand Funk Railroad - Inside Looking OUt

KRS-One - Sound of Da Police

Jay Z - Takeover

Nina Simone - Be My Husband

Check out Kembrew McLeod's and Peter DiCola's book Creative License to learn more about the law and culture of digital sampling.

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The 2020 song of summer competition is underway. We asked you for your favorite songs and put them in a head-to-head tournament. Find out which is the song for this very unusual summer. 

ROUND 1 - TikTok Jams

SAINt JHN - "Roses" Imanbek Remix 

Megan Thee Stallion - Savage Remix (Feat. Beyoncé)

The Weeknd - Blinding Lights

ROUND 2 - Protest Anthems

Beyoncé - Black Parade

Anderson .Paak - Lockdown 

YG - FTP

ROUND 3 - Breezy Bops

Dua Lipa - Physical

Chloe x Halle - Do It

Harry Styles - Watermelon Sugar

ROUND 4 - Bummer Bangers

Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer

Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness

HAIM - Up From A Dream

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Lady Gaga’s 6th album is a conceptual release about a future that is neither utopian nor dystopian. Despite its sci-fi visuals, the album looks more to the past and present than the future. Chromatica gives us a world that sounds like 90s house music made for this summer’s cancelled Pride parties. It is lyrically somber, but musically upbeat, a productive tension that inspires hope. Gaga shared that she made this album to help her and her ‘little monsters’ dance through the pain. So we called on our listeners to dig up the most meaningful moments on the album and help us tour the world of Chromatica.

SONGS DISCUSSED

MORE

"Welcome To Chromatica" playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6nIb85jPqtjhjuOB3DUI49?si=Vy9LLNWcSAeih_V2Amq6Aw

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Shea Diamond has experienced so many facets of America as a black trans woman, and with songwriter Justin Tranter, she's woven those experiences into "I Am America," a blistering, funky anthem about community and belonging. Her track is also the theme song for the new HBO show "We're Here," which follows a team of a drag queens bringing drag shows to small towns across the country, challenging our assumptions about who makes up the "real America."

We sit down with Diamond and Tranter to discuss singing as preaching, what it means to release this track during Pride month, why the flat seventh hits so good, and how the horns on the song feature producer Eren Cannata's dad Richie on sax, making this bop a true family affair.

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