Charlie Harding 11/15/22 Charlie Harding 11/15/22

Willow Smith rocks harder

Charlie and Willow chat about the making of the new record and the many multitudes of rock music.

Guest User 11/8/22 Guest User 11/8/22

The Sound of Sapphism

There’s a new emerging scene in “sapphic pop” – what is it and how do artists feel about it?

Nate Sloan 11/1/22 Nate Sloan 11/1/22

Scary Pockets funkify pop classics (with Lizzy McAlpine)

The viral funk outfit breathes new life into a Bee Gees classic

Charlie Harding 10/24/22 Charlie Harding 10/24/22

Up late with Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’

On Midnights Swift builds a lyrical and sonic world that takes place across “13 sleepless nights.” Nate and Charlie listen closely to hear how she constructs this late night feeling.

Guest User 10/18/22 Guest User 10/18/22

Steve Lacy brings bedroom pop to the Billboard top

It’s the song that launched a thousand TikTok videos – or over 500,000 to be exact: Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit.”

Charlie Harding 10/11/22 Charlie Harding 10/11/22

Why it hurts to release a record (with Sylvan Esso)

Sylvan Esso asks their favorite musicians about what it really feels like to release albums.

Nate Sloan 10/4/22 Nate Sloan 10/4/22

Santigold Sings Spirituals

The genre-defying performer walks the line between horror and beauty on her newest album

Charlie Harding 9/20/22 Charlie Harding 9/20/22

Lady Gaga & The Pequeños Monstruos

How Lady Gaga uses Latin influence to engage with her Latinx audience

Charlie Harding 9/13/22 Charlie Harding 9/13/22

Invasion of the Vibe Snatchers

Why do so many songs sound familiar? Because the number of chart topping interpolations — songs built off of old hits — has roughly doubled in the five years. It’s everywhere and you can’t escape it.

Nate Sloan 8/30/22 Nate Sloan 8/30/22

Learning to love the Killers (maybe)

Listening with open ears to the bands that confound us

Charlie Harding 8/23/22 Charlie Harding 8/23/22

K-Pop Chartbreakers: BLACKPINK, Girls’ Generation, NewJeans, IVE

Breaking down the K-pop charts: BLACKPINK, Girls’ Generation, NewJeans, IVE

Charlie Harding 8/16/22 Charlie Harding 8/16/22

Demi Lovato Searches for "Substance" In Pop-Punk Perfection

2022 finds Demi Lovato traveling back in time to the sound of the late 90’s and early 2000’s: pop-punk.

Charlie Harding 8/9/22 Charlie Harding 8/9/22

The ‘Renaissance’ Era

Sam Sanders discusses how Renaissance honors dance music innovators and finds new modes of expression in the genre.

Nate Sloan 8/2/22 Nate Sloan 8/2/22

"It's About Damn Time" for Another Lizzo #1

Lizzo channels retro soul and responds to fan feedback on her latest album

Charlie Harding 7/26/22 Charlie Harding 7/26/22

Elvis, Big Mama Thornton, Doja Cat, and the Long Legacy of “Hound Dog”

Baz Luhrmann’s hit box office hit biopic Elvis has spurred new interest in the music of The King.

Nate Sloan 7/18/22 Nate Sloan 7/18/22

We Won’t Go Back: Pop Music and the Fight For Reproductive Rights (w MILCK and Ann Powers)

Musicians speak out—and sing out—on the repeal of Roe v Wade

Charlie Harding 7/12/22 Charlie Harding 7/12/22

Harry Styles and the Sledgehammer Horns

Harry Styles’s latest album brings back the power and pomp of the 80s brass section

Charlie Harding 6/28/22 Charlie Harding 6/28/22

Beyoncé’s House

Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” is an ode to liberation and tribute to the pioneers of house.

Nate Sloan 6/21/22 Nate Sloan 6/21/22

Robert Glasper on jazz, basketball, and his score for "Winning Time"

The polymath pianist breaks down Coltrane and Kareem

Charlie Harding 6/16/22 Charlie Harding 6/16/22

Scoring Stranger Things with Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

Why 80s films sounded so cheesy, but Stranger Things does not

Mini Series

Featured

Listening 2 Madonna: Ray of Light

The third essential aspect of Madonna's holy trinity is her ever-shifting spirituality.

Listening 2 Madonna: Spanish Eyes

To understand Madonna is to see her music as a cultural melting pot.

Listening 2 Madonna: Who's That Girl?

The way Madonna communicates gender is integral to understanding her and her music.

Featured

Newcomers: Porter Robinson

The new sound of Porter Robinson

Newcomers: Jhayco

Jhayco moves from the background to the foreground

Newcomers: Magdalena Bay

Few pop groups are making music as imaginative as Magdalena Bay.

Featured

Listening 2 Daft Punk: Random Access Memories

The robots gain a heart and soul - and self-destruct in the process

Listening 2 Daft Punk: Human After All / Alive 2007

The French duo’s anti-utopian disco-rock record makes us question, are they robot, or are they human?

Listening 2 Daft Punk: Discovery

On their second album Discovery, Daft Punk fully lean into the artificial – singing through robotic vocoders that correspond with their now-iconic robot helmets.

Listening 2 Daft Punk: Homework

On their first album, Homework, Daft Punk stretched the boundaries of electronic music and began wiring the circuits that would become their robot alter-egos, asking a fundamental question: where does the human end and the machine begin?

Featured

Listening 2 Britney: Gimme More

Leave Britney’s (voice) alone

Listening 2 Britney: Toxic

How Bollywood strings, surf guitar, and Britney’s ethereal vocals add up to pop perfection

Listening 2 Britney: I’m A Slave 4 U

Enter The Neptunes – Britney’s Virginia Beach Era

Listening 2 Britney: ...Baby One More Time

Breaking down the unmistakeable voice of Britney Spears

Featured

Modern Classics: Carina del Valle Schorske on Cat Power's "Manhattan"

Why every song about Manhattan is a pop song

Modern Classics: Mark Ronson on Ginuwine's "Pony"

The "Uptown Funk" hitmaker breaks down the innovations behind pop's biggest smashes

Modern Classics: Yola on Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” and the Longevity of Soul

“I realized that Classic Soul can exist with everything and somehow not lose its potency.”

Modern Classics: Labrinth's "Sexy MF" (with Sam Sanders)

“They're all these little secrets and surprises that pop up...it's like bespoke, maximalist, power pop.”

Featured

THE 5TH — MOVEMENT IV, What Beethoven Would Have Wanted

When we listen closely to the Fifth, we hear that's it more than a museum piece, it’s a living testament to self-expression and determination.

THE 5TH — MOVEMENT III, Putting the Classism in Classical

Before Beethoven’s time, classical music culture looked and sounded quite different. In episode III we explore how Beethoven’s symphony was used to generate the strict culture of classical music — and the politics that undergird those norms of behavior.

THE 5TH — MOVEMENT II, From Struggle to Victory

In movements II , III and IV, Beethoven keeps trying to overcome his dark fate with bright major melodies, and keeps getting defeated.

THE 5TH — MOVEMENT I, A Battle Brewing

The first four notes of the piece are more than a modern meme, they’re the main character in a drama life and death.

Featured

ANTHEMS: Missy Elliott — Work It

Cultural critic Ivie Ani breaks down how Missy Elliott broke into the pantheon of anthems, and how she changed the scope of who could belong.

ANTHEMS: Smash Mouth - All Star

How “All Star” became an anthem played in sports arenas, soundtracked by Hollywood, and embedded into seemingly every internet meme.

ANTHEMS: Jock Jams — Get Ready For This

n 1995, ESPN launched Jock Jams Volume 1, a compilation record that would define the sound of sports for the next quarter century.

ANTHEMS: Queen — We Are The Champions

Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles’ album “Something To Say” makes you want to get up and dance as much as it makes you want to take action.