Tate McRae's billions of streams and perfectly crafted hits can feel almost algorithmic, like an AI trained on 20 years of pop music. In anticipation of McRae’s third album So Close to What, out this Friday, we dissect McRae’s "SimplePop" formula, from her strategic, indescript vocal delivery to expert "vibe snatching" of Y2K sounds. 

Through singles like "exes” and “sports car,” Charlie and Reanna trace her sonic lineage and discover why pop music needs artists who refine sounds as much as those who revolutionize them, seeing if there’s room to love her music in the process. This dancer-turned-singer might not be the next Britney Spears, but she could be this generation's Paula Abdul.

More

Watch Adam Neely's "Scotch Snaps in Hip Hop"

Songs Discussed

• Tate McRae - "sports car"
• Tate McRae - "greedy"
• Tate McRae - "you broke me first"
• Tate McRae - "One Day"
• Tate McRae - "exes"
• Lisa - "Money"
• Halsey - "100 Letters"
• Cardi B - "I Like It"
• Beyoncé - "Drunk in Love"
• Ariana Grande - "7 Rings"
• Ariana Grande - "thank u, next"
• Tate McRae - "it's okay im okay" 
• Ying Yang Twins - "Wait (The Whisper Song)"
• The Lonely Island - "Bing Bong Brothers"
• The Pussycat Dolls - "Buttons"
• Missy Elliott - "Get Your Freak On"
• Missy Elliott feat. Ludacris - "Gossip Folks"
• Britney Spears - "Toxic"
• Britney Spears - "Gimme More"
• Cassie - "Me & U"
• Paula Abdul - "Straight Up"

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In last month's episode predicting the coming year in pop, one of the team's predictions was that trance music – the ethereal, dreamy subgenre of electronic music popular around the turn of the century – would make a comeback on the charts in 2025. And even though we're less than two months into the year, we're already seeing the tides of nostalgia bring this club-oriented music come back into fashion. This episode of Switched On Pop, Nate, Charlie, and Reanna take a look at trance music: where it came from, what it sounds like, and if we can hear it in two of the year's most anticipated records: The Weeknd's Hurry Up Tomorrow and FKA Twigs's EUSEXUA. Does it trance?

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Songs Discussed

• KLF "What Time is Love? (Pure Trance Mix)"
• Sven Väth "L'Esperanza"
• Robert Miles "Children"
• Paul van Dyk "For an Angel"
• Ian Van Dahl "Castles in the Sky"
• Tiësto "Adagio for Strings"
• Darude "Sandstorm"
• Charlotte De Witte "Universal Consciousness"
• FKA twigs "Two Weeks"
• FKA twigs "Cellophane"
• FKA twigs "Tears in the Club" feat. The Weeknd
• FKA twigs "EUSEXUA"
• FKA twigs "Drums of Death"
• FKA twigs "Perfect Stranger"
• FKA twigs "Room of Fools"
• FKA twigs "Childlike Things"
• The Weeknd "Wake Me Up" feat. Justice
• The Weeknd "Open Hearts"
• The Weeknd "The Abyss" feat. Lana Del Rey
• The Weeknd "Timeless" feat. Playboi Carti
• The Weeknd "Give Me Mercy"
• The Weeknd "Red Terror"
• The Weeknd "Sao Paulo" feat. Anitta
• The Weeknd "Reflections" feat. Travis Scott & Florence + The Machine
• The Weeknd "Enjoy the Show"
• The Weeknd "I Can't Wait to Get There"
• The Weeknd "Hurry Up Tomorrow"
• The Weeknd "Blinding Lights"
• The Weeknd "Save Your Tears"
• The Weeknd "Until I Bleed Out"
• The Weeknd "Take My Breath"
• The Weeknd "Out of Time"

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Behind Spotify's promise of infinite music lies a carefully engineered system that shapes not just what we hear, but how music itself gets made. Journalist Liz Pelly's explosive new book "Mood Machine" rips away the curtain on streaming's biggest player, revealing how its algorithms and backroom deals dictate the soundtrack to our lives. With major labels controlling 70% of streams and Spotify commanding over 600 million users, the stakes couldn't be higher. As artists like Björk decry streaming as "the worst thing that's happened to musicians," Pelly uncovers the true cost of our perfect playlists - and what we're really sacrificing for the illusion of endless choice.

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2024 was an unpredictable year, and 2025 seems to be cut from the same cloth. So for this episode of Switched On Pop, Nate, Charlie, and Reanna look into the crystal ball of pop music to create a (playable) bingo card of predictions for the coming year – including AI songs on the Hot 100, a return of boy bands, and... kazoos? The Album of the Year race for this upcoming Grammys is similarly unpredictable, with a stacked nomination list including Grammy darlings Beyoncé and Billie as well as Gen-Z favorites like Charli and Chappell. The team takes a crack at guessing who will take home the award by debating the nominees, bracket-style.

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Songs discussed:

• The Traveling Wilburys – Handle With Care
• Ghostwriter – Heart On My Sleeve (ft. AI Drake and AI The Weeknd)
• Songs from Silvio Berlusconi, Imelda Marcos, and Randi Zuckerberg
• Chino Pacas, Drake, Fuerza Regida – Modo Capone
• Elton John – Your Song
• Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee – Despacito
• Jack Black – Peaches
• Tyla – Water
• Rema, Selena Gomez – Calm Down
• Bloodhound Gang – The Bad Touch
• Megan thee Stallion, Yuki Chiba – Mamushi
• Joan Osborne – One of Us
• FKA Twigs – Eusexua
• Katy Perry – Woman's World
• David Bowie – Moonage Daydream
• Jimi Hendrix – Crosstown Traffic
• Jack Harlow – Lovin On Me
• Billie Eilish – CHIHIRO
• Billie Eilish – BIRDS OF A FEATHER
• Charli XCX – guess
• Charli XCX – 360
• Charli XCX – i think about it all the time
• Charli XCX – 365
• Beyoncé – TEXAS HOLD 'EM
• Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus – II MOST WANTED
• Beyoncé – YA YA
• Taylor Swift – I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
• Sabrina Carpenter – Espresso
• Chappell Roan – HOTTOGO
• Chappell Roan – Pink Pony Club
• Chappell Roan – Red Wine Supernova
• Outkast – Hey Ya!
• Andre 3000 – That Night In Hawaii When I Turned Into A Panther And Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn't Control ... Sh*t Was Wild
• Andre 3000 – I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A "Rap" Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time
• Jacob Collier – 100,000 Voices

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The first great release of 2025 is already here: Bad Bunny's newest album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. Over the course of its 17 tracks, the Puerto Rican reggaetonero crafts an intertextual, anti-colonial tome of a record, incorporating sounds from across his island and the boricua diaspora. From his use of salsa classics on "NUEVAYoL," to his pointed interpolations on "VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR," and his detour into folk melodies and songwriting on tracks like the somber "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii," the record features some of Bad Bunny's most creative, intense, and direct work yet. On this episode of Switched On Pop, producer Reanna Cruz takes Charlie and Nate on a journey through Bad Bunny's love letter to Puerto Rico, with additional insight from journalist and translator Carina del Valle Schorske.

Read Carina's NPR Music review of the record: Bad Bunny's politics of presence.

Songs Discussed:

• Bad Bunny, "DtMF"
• Bad Bunny, "NUEVAYoL"
• Bad Bunny, "BOKeTE"
• Bad Bunny, "EL CLúB"
• El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico, "Un verano en Nueva York"
• Bad Bunny, "PIToRRO DE COCO"
• Bad Bunny, "BAILE INoLVIDABLE"
• Rauw Alejandro, "Tú Con Él"
• Bad Bunny, "VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR"
• Wisin & Yandel, Héctor "El Father," "La Barría"
• Alexis y Fido, "Me Quiere Besar"
• Angel y Khriz, "Cazando Voy"
• Bad Bunny, "El Apagón"
• Bad Bunny, Kendo Kaponi, Arcángel, "P FKN R"
• Bad Bunny, "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii"
• Bad Bunny, "CAFé CON RON"

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What happens when your podcast’s theme song—cobbled together from GarageBand loops—gets called “game show music” and likened to a cereal commercial? You rewrite it. In this episode, we take you behind the scenes of Switched on Pop’s sonic makeover, from scathing critiques by music industry heavyweights to the creation of a lush, layered soundscape inspired by Wendy Carlos and PBS science shows. With expert advice from sonic branding maestro Dallas Taylor (Twenty Thousand Hertz) and the composers Zach Tenorio and Jocie Adams (Arc Iris), we dissect every step of transforming our theme into a timeless sonic identity. Tune in for the full story and hear how we turned a jingle crisis into a musical triumph.

More

• Musicares.org is supporting LA based musicians in need of assistance from the destruction of the fire
• Billboard has compiled more forms of support and assistance

Recommendations

• Read Cat Zhang at The Cut
• Read Lauren Michelle Jackson’s White Negros and columns at The New Yorker
• Listen to Ian Fitchuk’s work
• Listen to Song Exploder hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway
• Listen to NYTimes Popcast hosted by Jon Caramanica
• Listen to Twenty Thousand Hertz hosted by Dallas Taylor

Songs Discussed

• The Monkees: "Theme Song (Hey, Hey, We're The Monkees)"
• Radiohead: "Kid A"
• No Name: "Yesterday"
• Mort Garson: "Ode to an African Violet"
• Wendy Carlos Switched On Bach
• Whitney Houston: "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1991 Super Bowl performance)
• Jimi Hendrix: "The Star-Spangled Banner" (Woodstock performance)
• Friends theme Song "I'll Be There for You" by The Rembrandts
• Reading Rainbow theme song “Butterfly in the Sky” by Steve Horelick, Dennis Neil Kleinman, and Janet Weir
• Bill Nye the Science Guy theme Song composed by Mike Greene 
• 3-2-1 Contact theme Song composed by Tom Anthony

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Critics are not feeling the love tonight when it comes to Disney's latest sequels, Mufasa and Moana 2. They've called the animated films "lifeless and bland." But save some sympathy for the composers behind these blatant IP grabs. Lin Manuel Miranda and the duo Barlow and Bear had to match the original, iconic numbers from the Lion King and Moana, songs written by Elton John and Miranda himself. Are critics of the sequels' soundtracks being too harsh? We compare the new songs to their iconic predecessors, like "Circle of Life" and "How Far I'll Go," and ask whether Disney new composers face an impossible task in trying to extend franchises through song.

Songs Discussed

Elton John, Tim Rice, Lebo M. - “Circle of Life”

Elton John, Tim Rice - “Circle of Life” (Radio Version)

Elton John, Tim Rice - “Hakuna Matata”

Lin-Manuel Miranda - “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”

Lin-Manuel Miranda - “Melele”

Lin-Manuel Miranda - “I Always Wanted a Brother”

Lin-Manuel Miranda - “How Far I’ll Go” ft. Auli’i Cravalho

Ariana Grande - “Imperfect For You”

Barlow & Bear - “Beyond” feat. Auli’i Cravalho

Barlow & Bear - “Can I Get a Chee Hoo” feat. Dwayne Johnson

More

Brett Boles’s wonderful analysis of “How Far I’ll Go,” referenced in the episode

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On this very special episode, we join forces with the hilarious podcast OFF BOOK. When our powers combine, Zach and Jess of Off Book, plus their killer backing band of Scott, Dana and Brett create an improvised musical, while Nate and Charlie break down the sound and structure of a Broadway show. Stay tuned for deep thoughts about what separates pop music from musicals, wild speculation about the origin of the word “vamp,” and an ENTIRE FREAKING MUSICAL COMPOSED FROM SCRATCH that will make you laugh your face off. This is not one to miss.

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Popular music changes all the time, but there’s been one consistent element in practically everything released in the last two decades: Auto-Tune is everywhere. What started as a simple audio processing tool in the 1990s has become the dominant force in music. Artists are training to sing with Auto-Tune; songs sound like Auto-Tune. Like it or hate it, Auto-Tune is everywhere. And to be clear, most people like it.

On this episode of The Vergecast music journalist and Switched on Pop co-host Charlie Harding tells us the story of Auto-Tune. (Disclosure: Switched on Pop is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network, as is The Vergecast.) It starts, of all places, in the oil and gas industry. It involves artists like Cher and T-Pain, spreads like wildfire throughout the music business, and quickly becomes so utterly ubiquitous that you probably notice when Auto-Tune isn’t used more than when it is.

As we barrel toward whatever the “AI era” of music will be, we also look for clues in Auto-Tune’s story that point to what’s coming next. We talk about the distinct sound that comes from tools like Suno and Udio, how artists will use and abuse AI, and whether we should be worried about what it all means. We haven’t yet found the “Believe” of the AI music era, but it’s probably coming.

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The first time you hear "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," it probably registers as just another cheery holiday standard. But hiding within this seemingly simple song is a remarkable story of American transformation - musical, technological, and social. Each time artists reimagine the song over its 90-year history, they leave an imprint not just of their own style, but of their entire cultural moment.

Correction: Last week, we mistakenly credited Jermaine Jackson with playing bass on The Jackson 5’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” The bass on the studio recording was performed by Wilton Felder, a renowned session musician from The Crusaders. Jermaine played bass in live performances.

Artists Discussed:

• Eddie Cantor
• Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters
• The Crystals
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Fred Astaire
• The Jackson Five
• Bruce Springsteen
• Justin Bieber

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Three artists quietly reshaped pop music in 2024, though you might not know it from your Spotify Wrapped. As listeners question the accuracy of their year-end streaming stats, we explore the innovative sounds bubbling up just below the algorithmic radar. Tampa's "Swamp Princess" Doechii brings narrative depth back to hip-hop through her chameleonic vocal approach. Bedroom producer Mk.gee discovers entirely new possibilities for the electric guitar by deliberately recording "wrong." And BLACKPINK's ROSÉ challenges K-pop industry constraints while building bridges to Western pop on her revolutionary solo album. These artists point toward an exciting future where pop continues to evolve in unexpected ways, even as streaming platforms try to predict and package our musical tastes. Plus: Our producer Reanna Cruz presents evidence that their Spotify Wrapped might be fibbing, and Nate reveals his most-played track of 2024 was... Jeremy Irons singing "Be Prepared" from The Lion King? The algorithm works in mysterious ways.

Songs Discussed

• Doechii: "Girls," "Yucky Blucky Fruitcake," "NISSAN ALTIMA," "Denial Is A River," "Boom Bap"
• Mk.gee: "I Know How You Got," "Big Mics," "Are You Looking Up," "Alesis"
• BLACKPINK"Boombayah," "Kill This Love," "How You Like That," "Pink Venom,"
• ROSÉ: "On The Ground," "APT." (featuring Bruno Mars), "Toxic Till The End"
• Taylor Swift: "Shake It Off"
• Avril Lavigne: "Girlfriend"
• Toni Basil: "Mickey"
• Tom Petty: "American Girl"
• Bo Diddley: "Bo Diddley Beat"

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