Charlie Harding 5/7/26 Charlie Harding 5/7/26

Olivia Rodrigo and the second verse massacre

A growing wave of today's biggest pop stars are ditching the verse-chorus formula

Charlie Harding 4/29/26 Charlie Harding 4/29/26

Hrishikesh Hirway made an album about running out of time — in no time

The host of Song Exploder on rediscovering his voice by making his album In The Last Hour of Light the hard way.

Nate Sloan 4/20/26 Nate Sloan 4/20/26

BTS is back. But K Pop is not the same.

BTS is back. Is their album Arirang the future or the past of K Pop?

Charlie Harding 4/17/26 Charlie Harding 4/17/26

Ten years of "Alaska": Maggie Rogers on going viral and singing for 200,000 protestors

Maggie Rogers on 10 years of Alaska

Nate Sloan 4/14/26 Nate Sloan 4/14/26

Learning to Love Train: "Drops of Jupiter" is back in the atmosphere

Learning to love Train

Charlie Harding 4/8/26 Charlie Harding 4/8/26

Slayyyter might actually be the 'Worst Girl in America'

Going for broke turned out to be the most honest thing Slayyyter ever made.

Charlie Harding 4/3/26 Charlie Harding 4/3/26

How Charlie Puth honored Whitney Houston for 125 million people (live at Berklee NYC)

Charlie Puth breaks down his national anthem performance live at Berklee NYC.

Charlie Harding 3/31/26 Charlie Harding 3/31/26

RAYE’s maximalist masterpiece is the hope we need

For RAYE, hope is something you have to build, genre by genre, track by track

Reanna Cruz 3/24/26 Reanna Cruz 3/24/26

Where have all the white rappers gone?

Jack Harlow's new album is a rejection of hip-hop. It mirrors several other “white rapper” pivots over the past decade.

Charlie Harding 3/18/26 Charlie Harding 3/18/26

Jacob Collier can make anyone sing

Jacob Collier on why musical permission is more important than skill — live at On Air Fest with guest host Sam Sanders

Charlie Harding 3/10/26 Charlie Harding 3/10/26

Harry Styles loses himself to dance

The dance floor is where Harry Styles does his therapy, and this album is the session notes.

Charlie Harding 3/6/26 Charlie Harding 3/6/26

Can Bruno Mars counterprogram his way to another hit album?

Bruno Mars is back with a new album called The Romantic, his first solo release since 2016

Charlie Harding 2/25/26 Charlie Harding 2/25/26

Charli XCX's "Wuthering Heights" fever dream

Charlie XCX wrote an entire album for “Wuthering Heights” and boy oh boy does it Wuther

Reanna Cruz 2/18/26 Reanna Cruz 2/18/26

Will Sinners do for blues what O Brother did for bluegrass?

There’s a precedent for movies bringing dead genres back into popular culture

Nate Sloan 2/12/26 Nate Sloan 2/12/26

Jazz is A$AP Rocky’s secret weapon

On “Robbery,” A$AP Rocky and the rising superstar Doechii sample the world of jazz

Charlie Harding 2/6/26 Charlie Harding 2/6/26

Does humor belong in music?

Is it too much to sing and laugh?

Reanna Cruz 1/27/26 Reanna Cruz 1/27/26

And the Grammy goes to…

Charlie, Nate, and Reanna take a look at the "big four" Grammy categories, and stump for this year’s respective frontrunners.

Nate Sloan 1/20/26 Nate Sloan 1/20/26

Robyn’s new songs bring “drum 'n' grace” to the dance floor

Robyn is releasing her first new album in eight years, Sexistential, and she’s given us already three remarkable singles

Charlie Harding 1/14/26 Charlie Harding 1/14/26

Audrey Hobert says the quiet part out loud

Audrey Hobert spent her twenties standing next to the hot person, writing songs about the unglamorous ache of wanting to be seen. Now that everyone's looking, she's learning that observation was the thing that made her interesting in the first place.

Reanna Cruz 1/6/26 Reanna Cruz 1/6/26

2026 Pop Predictions: big beat, animated avatars, and Bruno Mars

It’s a brand new year, and what better way to ring it in than with the second annual Switched On Pop bingo?

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.