After Billboard removed Lil Nas X’s surprise hit “Old Town Road” from country charts, we decided to dig deep into the song’s musical matter and pit it against other country hits to test its deep fried bonafides.

On this episode, we examine how Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas crafted a cultural phenomenon, why their message speaks to this generation, and we speak with Finneas about the creation of their hit song “Bad Guy.”

Bhi Bhiman joins to explain the “nerd punk rock” behind releasing his new album Peace of Mind with an accompanying podcast. Since Bhiman explores issues like deportation on the track “Beyond the Border,” there’s a lot to say about each song.

After a six year hiatus, Nick, Joe, and Kevin Jonas are back with a new single and the stakes couldn’t be higher. With each brother attaining a higher plane of celebrity during their time off, the three must achieve pop success or face public humiliation.

Live from SXSW: Grammy nominee songwriter Emily King didn’t set out to write a perfect pop song with “Remind Me.” Instead, she bent the rules of song structure to fit her message: the magical feeling when you find something you’ve been long missing.

Songs are getting shorter, albums are getting longer, and there is an entirely new section of the song that draws from the classical past: the “pop overture.” In this episode, Nate and Charlie are joined by Aisha Hassan and Dan Kopf to unpack the sound of pop in the streaming era.

Can political protest exist within the confines of commercial popular music? Songwriter Justin Tranter breaks down “Swan Song,” which he co-wrote with Dua Lipa, working in themes of protest against the silencing of marginalized people.

It may seem like celebrity and spectacle are more important than ever at the 61st Grammy Awards, but we believe many of this years winners earned their accolades with noteworthy music. Still, we thought the winners should be heralded by new, more musical categories.

Author Courtney Smith joins to offer her expertise on an urgent topic in advance of Valentine’s Day: Can we abstract the sexiest songs of all time into a universal list of arousing musical qualities?

“7 Rings” is Ariana Grande’s latest smash, a glittering banger that owes much to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1959 classic “My Favorite Things.” When it comes to Ari’s flow, however, questions of appropriation arise. Author Lauren Michele Jackson joins to break down who has the right to repurpose sonic history.

Nearly a decade since Jay-Z prophesied the death of Auto-Tune, the sound is alive and thriving in contemporary pop and hip-hop. Journalist Simon Reynolds has written a definitive history of Auto-Tune for Pitchfork that fundamentally changed how we hear this sound.

This winter season unwrap a deep dive through a pop subgenre of monumental importance: non-holiday songs that feature sleigh bells, from Bonnie Tyler to Nas. On Side B, we also rebroadcast our episode on Mariah Carey’s classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

Back in 2014 we were more pop skeptics than fanatics. Now, in our 100th episode, Charlie interviews Nate about how transforming the way you listen to pop can truly make life better. And we get raw about the constraints of pop and where we plan to go in our next 100 episodes.

Mike Posner has written hits for himself (“I Took a Pill in Ibiza”) and for stars from Justin Bieber (“Boyfriend”) to Maroon 5 (“Sugar”), so you better believe he has insights for days on what makes a pop song work.

Dirty Projectors are known for their kaleidoscopic soundscapes, but in the backdrop of their obscure orchestrations you will hear the indelible marks of pop music.

Greta Van Fleet’s latest album, Anthem Of The Peaceful Army, bears an uncanny sonic resemblance to Led Zeppelin. Jeremy D. Larson, senior editor of Pitchfork, gave the album a 1.6 out of 10 calling it “stiff, hackneyed, overly precious retro-fetishism.”

Charli XCX and Troye Sivan conjure late 90s nostalgia in their latest banger. “1999” drips with lyrical nostalgia for the last decade of the millennium — but does the music follow suit?

Four songs on the Hot 100 pop chart reveal the new directions in which music is headed. Together these tracks make up the vanguard of their respective genres, but are fans willing to take the plunge?

Emily Warren is one of the great rising stars of contemporary songwriting. Together we break down her latest work and uncover her creative process.

Drake, per usual, has been inescapable this summer. “In My Feelings” and “Nice For What” top the charts, but there’s depth to these bangers. We argue for hearing one as a meditation on fragile masculinity, the other as a paean to NOLA Bounce.