Switched on Pop

Ten years ago, Maggie Rogers was a senior at NYU, scrambling to finish a song for a music production class she was close to failing. The guest critic that week happened to be Pharrell Williams. She played him "Alaska," a track she'd written in about fifteen minutes. It is a bit of folk songwriting crossed with the electronic music she'd fallen for studying abroad. Pharrell told her he'd never heard anything that sounded like it. Someone was filming. The clip went viral, and it launched Maggie into pop stardom. 

Ten years later, she's released three studio albums, earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and gone back to school to pick up a master's from Harvard Divinity School, where she studied the spirituality of public gatherings. And in the last few months she's been as visible offstage as on — advocating for free speech in DC, performing for 200,000 people at a protest in Minneapolis alongside Joan Baez, and delivering a haunting performance during the final run of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which CBS is ending in May.

This week host Charlie Harding got to sit down with Maggie live at Chelsea Studios, in front of a room of current NYU students. It’s the same school, ten years later, now with Charlie in the professor's chair and Maggie as the visiting artist.

SONGS DISCUSSED

Maggie Rogers "Alaska"

Maggie Rogers "Better"

Maggie Rogers "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)"

Maggie Rogers "Different Kind of World"

Marvin Gaye "What's Going On"

Bob Dylan "The Times They Are a-Changin'"

USA for Africa "We Are the World"

More

Newsletter
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Train is the kind of band that some people love to hate. Songs like "Meet Virginia" and "Hey Soul Sister" gave the band huge hits, and no small amount of snark. And then there's "Drops of Jupiter." Released in 2001, the song is almost impossible not to love, no matter how many lyrics about soy lattes and Tae Bo it includes.

"Drops of Jupiter" was released 25 years ago, so there's no more perfect time to plumb the secrets of this celestial smash, and there's no more perfect guest than Train's lead singer and songwriter, Pat Monahan. Pat breaks down the origin of the song, why he thought it would flop, how Train is like a rom com, and why he'd rather his songs be more famous than him. By the end of our conversation, you might find yourself learning to love Train.

Songs Discussed

Train - Drops of Jupiter, Meet Virginia, Hey Soul Sister

Taylor Swift - Drops of Jupiter
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Going for broke turned out to be the most honest thing Slayyyter ever made. After financial losses and a depressive episode that left her ready to quit music entirely, Slayyyter entered the studio planning to make one final album. In this conversation, she traces how that desperation shaped every decision on Worst Girl in America. This conversation will leave you feeling Daddy AF.

SONGS DISCUSSED

Slayyyter – "Daddy AF"

Slayyyter – "Brittany Murphy"

Slayyyter – "Dance"

Slayyyter – "Crank"

Slayyyter – "Gas Station"

Slayyyter – "Beat Up Chanels"

Slayyyter – "Old Technology"

Slayyyter – "Yes God"

Slayyyter – "Unknown Lovers"

Slayyyter – "Cannibalism"

Slayyyter – "Actually Kind of Famous"

Slayyyter – "What It's Like to Be Liked"

Slayyyter – "Mine"

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Charlie Puth joins Switched On Pop in Studio A at Power Station at Berklee NYC, live before a room of current students, ten days after performing the national anthem at Super Bowl 60 and weeks before releasing his fourth album, Whatever's Clever. The conversation is grounded in one question: how do you absorb the music you love and turn it into something that actually sounds like you?

Puth traces his national anthem arrangement through a lineage running from Jose Feliciano's 1968 World Series performance to Marvin Gaye's 808-driven 1983 All-Star Game version to Whitney Houston's 1991 Super Bowl rendition. The through-line: citation is letting your influences dissolve into your hands until they become unrecognizable. That principle runs throughout the new record, from the Quincy Jones guitar tone on "Cry" to the Chick Corea quotation buried in "Boy" that Puth didn't realize was there until after writing it.

Songs Discussed

Bruce Springsteen – "Born in the USA"

Madonna – "Like a Virgin"

David Bowie – "Let's Dance"

Charlie Puth ft. Wiz Khalifa – "See You Again"

Charlie Puth – "We Don't Talk Anymore"

Charlie Puth – "Attention"

Charlie Puth – "Light Switch"

Whitney Houston – "The Star-Spangled Banner"

Babyface – "Whip Appeal"

Jose Feliciano – "The Star-Spangled Banner"

Jimi Hendrix – "The Star-Spangled Banner"

Marvin Gaye – "The Star-Spangled Banner"

Marvin Gaye – "Sexual Healing"

Soulja Boy – "Crank That (Soulja Boy)"

DeBarge – "Who's Holding Donna Now"

Charlie Puth ft. Jeff Goldblum – "Until It Happens to You"

Charlie Puth – "Changes"

Charlie Puth – "Cry"

Kenny G – "Lullaby"

SOPHIE – "It's Okay to Cry"

Michael Jackson – "Human Nature"

Johnny Hates Jazz – "Shattered Dreams"

Madonna – "Into the Groove"

Joshua Redman – "St. Thomas"

Charlie Puth – "Boy"

Chick Corea – "Spain"

Charlie Puth – "How Long (Has This Been Going On)"

Bell Biv DeVoe – "Poison"

Elton John – "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"

Prince – "When Doves Cry"

Schoolly D – "PSK What Does It Mean"

Rick Astley – "Never Gonna Give You Up"

Charlie Puth – "Beat Yourself Up"

Britney Spears – "Lucky"

George Benson – "Give Me the Night"

No Doubt – "Hella Good"

Michael Jackson – "Beat It"

Michael Jackson – "Billie Jean"

Charlie Puth – "Washed Up"

Charlie Puth – "I Used to Be Cringe"

Richard Smallwood – "Center of My Joy"

Richard Smallwood – "Total Praise"
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RAYE names Amy Winehouse and Edith Piaf as her artistic predecessors on the opening tracks of new album This Music May Contain Hope. Both died young, undone by the same darkness they sang about, and placing them there reads as a dare to herself. The album that follows is her attempt to find a different ending: a 17-track, 75-minute work featuring Al Green, Hans Zimmer, the London Symphony Orchestra, and over 80 collaborators, structured around the four seasons as a journey from autumn despair toward summer light.

Every genre shift on the record, from Vivaldi's Winter to post-bop jazz combo to gospel choir, serves that arc: small emotional truths get cinematic treatment, most strikingly when the click of heels on pavement becomes the central rhythm of an anthem about getting dressed to go out with friends. The episode serves as a field guide to the album's vast musical language, and to the argument that hope is something you have to build, genre by genre, track by track.

Links: ⁠Newsletter⁠, ⁠YouTube

RAYE – "WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!" 

Nat King Cole – "Let There Be Love" 

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – "Summertime" 

RAYE (ft. 070 Shake ) – "Escapism." 

RAYE – "Intro: Girl Under the Grey Cloud." 

RAYE – "I Will Overcome." 

Edith Piaf – "La Vie en Rose" 

RAYE – "Nightingale Lane." 

RAYE – "Fin." 

RAYE – "The WhatsApp Shakespeare." 

Mark Ronson & RAYE – "Suzanne" 

RAYE – "I Hate The Way I Look Today." 

RAYE – "Winter Woman." 

Vivaldi – "The Four Seasons: Winter" 

RAYE (ft. Hans Zimmer) – "Click Clack Symphony." 

RAYE (ft. Al Green) – "Goodbye Henry." 

Al Green – "Love and Happiness" 

Aretha Franklin – "Rock Steady" 

RAYE – "Skin & Bones." 

Fred Wesley and The J.B.'s (ft. James Brown) – "Damn Right I Am Somebody" 

RAYE – "Beware.. The South London Lover Boy." 

The Supremes – "You Can't Hurry Love" 

Iggy Pop – "Lust for Life" Jet – "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" 

Mark Ronson (ft. Amy Winehouse) – "Valerie" 

Charles Albert Tindley – "I'll Overcome Someday" 

Prince - “Purple Rain" 

Beyoncé – "Love on Top" 

RAYE (ft. Amma & Absolutely) – "Joy."

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