2026 Pop Predictions: big beat, animated avatars, and Bruno Mars

2026 Pop Predictions: big beat, animated avatars, and Bruno Mars

Author: Switched on Pop January 6, 2026 Duration: 57:25
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.”  Get your own bingo card to play along through our ⁠Newsletter⁠! Find us on YouTube! 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 –...

Ever wondered how a pop song gets its hooks into you? Switched on Pop digs into that question, peeling back the glossy layers of mainstream music to explore the craft and theory that make hits work. Hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding, this podcast is a conversation that feels like eavesdropping on two friends who are deeply passionate about the music everyone is hearing. They break down the mechanics of a track, from a surprising chord progression in a Taylor Swift bridge to the rhythmic patterns driving a Dua Lipa anthem, all while keeping the discussion accessible and engaging. Each episode focuses on a specific song, artist, or trend, treating pop not just as entertainment but as a rich subject worthy of serious, playful analysis. You’ll hear audio examples that illustrate their points, making the musical concepts tangible even if you’ve never read a note. It’s for anyone who has ever found themselves humming a tune and then stopped to ask why it’s so compelling. By connecting music theory to cultural impact, Switched on Pop offers a fresh lens on the soundtrack of our daily lives, revealing the intelligence and intention behind the music on the charts. Tune in and you might just find your listening habits forever changed.
Author: Language: en-gb Episodes: 100

Switched on Pop
Podcast Episodes
A brief history of terrible lyrics (with Sam Sanders) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:35
Why do bad lyrics happen to good people? From "suckin' on a chili dog" to "making love to his tonic and gin," even the biggest hits from our favorite artists can feature lyrical turns that make us feel quizzical, offende…
Summer Bummer (with Commotion’s Elamin Abdelmahmoud) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:42
Every music critic seems to agree: 2025 has no true song of summer. Last August, Teddy Swims’s “Lose Control” dominated the charts. This year…Teddy Swims’s “Lose Control” dominates the charts. What’s going on? Why is the…
Justin Bieber's Lo-fi Bedroom Swag [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:38
Justin Bieber is back with his seventh studio album: the aptly-titled SWAG. The lo-fi, reverb-laden record is a remarkably candid look inside the world of Bieber, using the palette of both underground pop and 90's R&B to…
All podcast themes sound the same — why? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:06
What if the entire sound of modern podcasting can be traced back to a single Grateful Dead song uploaded in 2001? We uncover the musical lineage that connects NPR's classical gravitas to dubstep wobbles, from the very fi…
Is that new song you like AI? Here’s how you can tell [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:39
The robots have arrived, and they're making protest songs about boots on the ground. When an AI band called The Velvet Sundown fooled over a million Spotify listeners with their psychedelic folk anthems, it raised an uns…
The Benson Boone-Doggle [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:14
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Can Recession Pop predict the market? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:10
Why does the economy look great on paper but feel terrible in your wallet? There might be a more revealing economic indicator hiding in your Spotify queue. "Recession Pop" first emerged during the Great Recession and exp…
How Americana helped mainstream country find its soul [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:46
As we've been examining over the course of Country Week, country music has found a larger audience, in part by widening its sonic palette. For the final episode of this series, we take a look at a genre on the outskirts…
Country music is Mexican (Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:59
More often than not, country music is seen as an "American" genre – meaning that the music is seen as strictly from the United States. In some ways, that's true; but the genre's iconography, sound, and ethos can actually…
The Ballad of Lainey Wilson and Jessie Murph [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:49
There's often an unspoken (and deeply misogynistic) rule on country music radio: never play two female artists back to back. In this episode of Switched On Pop's country week, we aim to do just that. Looking at two artis…