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.

In 1964, Louis Armstrong knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts with his recording of “Hello, Dolly!” becoming, at age 62, the oldest artist to ever hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Sixty years later, Louis Armstrong remains a beloved cultural figure, his oft-imitated voice still instantly recognizable. But Armstrong is more than a source of levity — his artistry and innovations when he made his first recordings a century ago in 1923 set the template for the modern pop star.

On this centennial episode, hear Armstrong as you’ve never heard him: a defiant, pathbreaking musician whose voice resonates in every hit record.

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