Switched on Pop

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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In 1999 filmmaker Baz Luhrmann released the song “Everybody’s Free To Wear Sunscreen,” a 7-minute-long graduation speech set to downtempo electronic music. It was a highly unlikely hit that made its way across continents and eventually into the ears of a young Avery Trufelman via the album NOW That’s What I Call Music Volume 2. For over 20 years, Trufelman has applied the song’s advice to her daily life: “wear sunscreen… be nice to your siblings… do one thing every day that scares you.” This unusual song has left a lasting impression, and yet for Trufelman, it makes no sense that “The Sunscreen Song” was commercially successful. We investigate the song’s many architects — novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich and Baz Luhrmann himself — to unpack one of the internet’s first conspiracy theories that turned into Billboard’s greatest outlier. 

SONGS DISCUSSED

Baz Luhrmann - Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

Think - Once You Understand

MORE

The BBC documentary on “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszvtr

Another speech set to music, Byron MacGregor/Gordon Sinclair’s “Americans,” peaked at #4 in 1974

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Quarantined in his family’s music room, musician Jacob Collier has been remarkably productive. Known for his polymathic musical talents, Collier has used this time to reflect on, and release new music. His latest song “All I Need,” was created with new technology that let him record remotely with his collaborators Mahalia and Ty Dolla $ign. The song is uplifting. It modulates into arcane keys that evoke the euphoria of newfound love. Collier’s also been convening live streams with artists like Tori Kelly and Chris Martin where Collier seemingly defies the laws of physics to collaborate, in time, over long-distance video chat. Collier is a hopeful voice, demonstrating how music can boost our spirits in dark times.

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