Switched on Pop’s Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding love fresh vegetables and guitar pedals

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As if you needed more reason to love Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” beyond its pop perfection, it is also, according to lore, the genesis for Switched on Pop, one of the best music podcasts out there. Cohosts Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding obsessively dissect pop songs, from the theory behind their musical choices to their production techniques. If you’re a student of pop music, then this is a must-listen podcast.

Sloan is a composer and professor of musicology at USC Thornton School of Music, where he researches pop, but also jazz and even Tin Pan Alley. Harding is a songwriter, music journalist, and a professor as well. Their combined knowledge is near encyclopedic. Whether they’re talking about text painting in Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” or Taryn Southern’s AI experiments, the two reveal the rich tapestry of even the most simple-seeming songs.

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