Switched on Pop

Swedish pop star Robyn emerged as a phenomenon in the mid 1990s, an ingenue whose work with Max Martin presaged the R&B crossover hits of acts like Britney and the Backstreet Boys. Since her debut, she’s released a string of albums that have shaped the sound of dance music as we know it.

Now, Robyn is releasing her first new album in eight years, Sexistential, and she’s given us three singles made up of her signature combination of thumping bass and ethereal vocals, while innovating into new personal –and vulnerable — territory. With raps about IVF, references to Blondie, a return to her collaboration with Max Martin, and our introduction of “drum n grace” to the lexicon, this episode is manna for Robyn fans and tyros alike.

Stick around as we unveil a new feature, “Quick Hits,” a down-and-dirty carousel ride through the most interesting new releases, from ASAP Rocky to Zach Bryan.

Songs discussed:

Robyn – Dopamine

Robyn – Show Me Love

Charli XCX, Robyn, Yung Lean – 360 remix

Jamie XX, Robyn – Life

Robyn – Konichiwa Bitches

Blondie – Rapture

Robyn – Honey

Robyn – Missing U

Robyn – Call Your Girlfriend

Taio Cruz – Dynamite

Robyn – Play

Robyn – Talk to Me

Robyn – Do You Know (What It Takes)

Robyn – Sexistential

Andre 3000 – I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time

Robyn – Cobrastyle

Robyn – Dancing On My Own

A$AP Rocky – PUNK ROCKY

Zach Bryan – Plastic Cigarette

David Byrne – Driver's License

Moonchild – Up From Here

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Two years ago, Audrey Hobert had never written a song. She was a staff writer on a Nickelodeon series and had recently moved in with her childhood friend Gracie Abrams in Los Angeles. About six months later, a phrase spoken by a heartbroken acquaintance caught their attention; Hobert and Abrams sang it back to each other and wrote a complete song that night. Within the following year, Hobert co-wrote songs including “I Love You, I’m Sorry” and “Risk” for Abrams’s number-two album The Secret of Us. When the television show she was working on was later canceled, Hobert made a hard pivot into her own music.

What happened was Who's the Clown, a debut album where every track came from Hobert's own pen. In this live conversation recorded at NYU Steinhardt's Music and Performing Arts Professions program at Chelsea Studios, Hobert traces her path from dance classes choreographed to One Direction to eight-hour writing sessions that yield two good lines on a lucky day. She explains why she can't write in front of anyone, why she refuses to repeat a chorus three times, and why the Steve Martin documentary made her open her album with the disarmingly strange declaration: "I like to touch people."

The conversation moves from craft to confession as Hobert reflects on what it means to finally be looked at, and whether the view from inside the spotlight is everything she'd imagined.

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SONGS DISCUSSED

Gracie Abrams "I Love You, I'm Sorry"

Gracie Abrams "That's So True"

Smash Mouth "All Star"

One Direction "Kiss You"

Audrey Hobert "Wet Hair"

Audrey Hobert "Chateau"

Audrey Hobert "I Like to Touch People"

Audrey Hobert "Sex in the City"

Audrey Hobert "Sue Me"

Audrey Hobert "Bowling Alley"

Semisonic "Closing Time"

Audrey Hobert "Silver Jubilee"

Audrey Hobert "Don't Go Back to His Ass"

Audrey Hobert "Shooting Star"

Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling"

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It’s a brand new year, and what better way to ring it in than with the second annual Switched On Pop bingo? Like last year, Charlie, Nate, and Reanna polish their crystal balls and play Popstradamus, each throwing out eight outlandish pop predictions for the coming months. This time, there’s piano ballads, cover songs, and what Charlie calls the impending “death of auto-tune.” 

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Songs discussed:

The Prodigy – Firestarter

The Chemical Brothers – Block Rockin’ Beats

Basement Jaxx – Jump ’N Shout

Fatboy Slim – The Rockafeller Skank

Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars – Die With A Smile

Benson Boone – Beautiful Things

Post Malone, Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Scott – Take What You Want

LCD Soundsystem – Losing My Edge

Anamanaguchi, Hatsune Miku – Miku

Crazy Frog – Axel F

Hampton The Hamster – Hampsters Get the Blues

K/DA – POP/STARS

Madison Beer – make you mine

Forrest Frank – YOUR WAY’S BETTER

Tate McRae – Sports car

Tata Taktumi, Timbaland – Pulse x Glitch

PARTYNEXTDOOR, Drake, Yebba – DIE TRYING

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression That I Get

Maddox Batson – Tears In The River

JAY-Z – D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune)

Adele – Someone Like You

Bruno Mars – When I Was Your Man

Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved

Rihanna, Mikky Ekko – Stay

Baauer – Harlem Shake

Billie Eilish – bury a friend

This Is Lorelei, MJ Lenderman – Dancing in the Club – MJ Lenderman Version

WITCH – Once In A Lifetime

MOLIY, Shenseea, Silent Addy, Skillibeng – Shake It To The Max (FLY) – Remix

Geese – Bow Down

Turnstile – LOOK OUT FOR ME

Rebecca Black – Sugar Water Cyanide

Bad Bunny – DtMF

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A scientist asked people to sit in a silent room for 15 minutes. Almost half of them decided to give themselves a painful electric shock instead. What is it about our brains that makes our relationship with silence so strange? And should we learn how to listen to it?

This is the third episode of the four-part Unexplainable series, The Sound Barrier.

Links: ⁠Newsletter⁠, ⁠YouTube
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Every Christmas season, pop stars far and wide throw their Santa hats into the ring to see who has the next "All I Want for Christmas Is You," and this year is no exception. It's a yearly tradition on Switched On Pop to explore the deluge of holiday hits, and 2025 sees formidable entries to the canon from folks like Kylie Minogue, Leon Bridges, and Willie Nelson.

Links: ⁠Newsletter⁠, ⁠YouTube

Songs discussed:

Ariana Grande – Santa Tell Me

Kelly Clarkson – Underneath the Tree

Cher – Christmas Is Here

Cher – Believe

Kylie Minogue – Hot in December

Zach Top – For You For Christmas

Willie Nelson – Christmas Love Song

Mickey Guyton – Sugar Cookie

Meghan Trainor – Gifts For Me

The Ronettes – Sleigh Ride

Gwen Stefani – Hot Cocoa

Train – Let's Stay in Tonight

Brenda Lee – Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Leon Bridges, Norah Jones – This Christmas I'm Coming Home

Elysia Biro – The Christmas Song

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