Music
Switched On Pop | Hopes and Fears of Mac Miller, Future, Drake and Billie Eilish
A podcast breaking down the music of pop hits.
Switched On Pop
Published 21 January 2020
Mac Miller

Pop music surrounds us, but how often do we really listen to what we’re hearing? Switched on Pop is the podcast that pulls back the curtain on pop music. Each episode, join musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding as they reveal the secret formulas that make pop songs so infectious. By figuring out how pop hits work their magic, you’ll fall in love with songs you didn’t even know you liked.

Mac Miller,
Future and Billie Eilish all have good and bad news to share.

On Miller’s posthumous album, Circles, he exposes personal struggles with fame, addiction, and mental illness — sobering topics given his unintentional drug overdose last year. Yet at the same time we hear him searching for “good news,” practicing self care and accepting that “there's a whole lot more” waiting.

Future & Drake’s celebration of material excess also finds them “working on the weekend” just to keep up appearances.

Similarly, Billie Eilish has achieved “everything [she] wanted,” but dreams of death and darkness overwhelm her. Yet she’s buoyed by the support of her brother FINNEAS.

Many pop songs are about a single emotion: love, heartbreak or exuberant joy. But these great songs evoke more complex emotions, existing somewhere in a liminal space between our hopes and fears.

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