Table of Contents

Introduction: Switched On Pop
Carly Rae Jepsen - "Call Me Maybe" (2011)
1: Y'all Don't Want To Hear Me, You Just Want To Dance
Meter: Outkast - "Hey Ya!" (2003)
2: A Star's Melodic Signature
Melody: Taylor Swift - "You Belong With Me" (2008)
3: The Harmonic Hero's Journey
Harmony: Fun Ft. Janelle Monae - "We Are Young" (2011)
4: How The Drop Broke The Pop Song
Form: Rihanna Ft. Calvin Harris - "We Found Love" (2011)
5: A Voice Without A Face
Timbre: Sia - "Chandelier" (2014)
6: Painting A Musical Masterpiece
Lyric: Justin Timberlake - "What Goes Around Comes Around" (2006)
7: What Makes Pop So Catchy
The Hook: Ariana Grande Ft. Zedd - "Break Free" (2014)
8: Sometimes The Truth Don't Rhyme
Rhyme: Drake - "God's Plan" (2018)
9: Drunk On Rhythm
Syncopation: Kendrick Lamar - "Swimming Pools" (2012)
10: Music Takes You Higher
Modulation: Beyoncé - "Love On Top" (2011)
11: The Performance of Identity
Counterpoint: Britney Spears - "Oops I Did It Again" (2000)
12: Is Collage A Crime?
Sampling: M.I.A. - "Paper Planes" (2008)
13: Shock, Awe & Synthesis
Sound Design: Skrillex - "Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites" (2010)
14: Finding Home In The Harmonic Diaspora
Tonal Ambiguity: Luis Fonsi Ft. Daddy Yankee - "Despacito" (2017)
15: Does Pop Have A Sound?
Genre: Kelly Clarkson - "Since U Been Gone" (2004)
16: I Like Everything... Except Country & Hip Hop
Musical Identity: Jay Z & Kanye West Ft. Frank Ocean
Conclusion: The Past, Present & Future Of Silly Little Love Songs
Paul Mccartney - "Get Enough" (2019)
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index

About the Author

Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding are the co-hosts of Switched on Pop and longtime musical collaborators. Nate is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Southern California. Charlie is Executive Producer of the show and a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.

Reviews

"Switched on Pop:How Popular Music Works, and Why it Matters is an important text in the growing cosmos of pop-culture-oriented criticism." -- Max McKenna, Pop Matters
"Switched On Pop is an essential text for anyone who imagines the song to be a curious machine, burrowing its way into our hearts and minds." -- Hanif Abdurraqib, author of Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes on a Tribe Called Quest
"As smart and playful as the podcast that preceded it, Switched On Pop finds inventive ways to put sound on paper." -- Linda Holmes, host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour and author of Evvie Drake Starts Over
"Switched On Pop is a unicorn of a book: a work of public scholarship that neither ignores the public nor skimps on the scholarship. It is musicology that thinks about feelings and feels about thinkings. A rare feat!" -- Phil Ford, Associate Professor, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and co-host of the Weird Studies podcast
"Through rigorous but accessible dissection...the pair don't just make the case for pop's relevance-they also illuminate the discrete layers that make it so fun." -- The Atlantic