Switched On P: How Popular Music Works, and Why it Matters

by Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding

Pop music surrounds us - in our cars, over supermarket speakers, even when we are laid out at the dentist - but how often do we really hear what's playing? Switched on Pop is the book based on the eponymous podcast that has been hailed by NPR, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and Entertainment Weekly for its witty and accessible analysis of Top 40 hits. Through close studies of sixteen modern classics, musicologist Nate Sloan
and songwriter Charlie Harding shift pop from the background to the foreground, illuminating the essential musical concepts behind two decades of chart-topping songs. In 1939, Aaron Copland published What to Listen for in
Music, the bestseller that made classical music approachable for generations of listeners. Eighty years later, Nate and Charlie update Copland's idea for a new audience and repertoire: 21st century pop, from Britney to Beyonce, Outkast to Kendrick Lamar. Despite the importance of pop music in contemporary culture, most discourse only revolves around lyrics and celebrity. Switched on Pop gives readers the tools they need to interpret our modern soundtrack. Each chapter
investigates a different song and artist, revealing musical insights such as how a single melodic motif follows Taylor Swift through every genre that she samples, Andre 3000 uses metric manipulation to get listeners to "shake
it like a Polaroid picture," or Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee create harmonic ambiguity in "Despacito" that mirrors the patterns of global migration.Replete with engaging discussions and eye-catching illustrations, Switched on Pop brings to life the musical qualities that catapult songs into the pop pantheon. Readers will find themselves listening to familiar tracks in new waysDLand not just those from the Top 40. The timeless concepts that Nate and Charlie define
can be applied to any musical style. From fanatics to skeptics, teenagers to octogenarians, non-musicians to professional composers, every music lover will discover something ear-opening in Switched on Pop.

• ISBN10: 0190056657
• ISBN13: 9780190056650
• Publish Date: 13 December 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kevin Costain]

Thanks to Oxford press and the book’s authors for the free copy of Switched on Pop. I appreciate it.

Switched is dense, but accessible, Sloane and Harding have crafted a book that seems worthy of a songwriter’s attention but with enough fundamentals to help along someone who knows nothing of this world. Me.

The incredible thing is, I’m know very little about music construction- but it didn’t matter. This book hooked me into the world of beat, measure, octave, harmony, and timbre in a way that made sense; not as a bunch of arcane terms I was expected to just understand. This wasn’t done, as far as I’m concerned, condescendingly. Rather, you’re taken on a journey of musical ideas where the chosen songs seem to fit the narrative well - a narrative of ever-expanding musical knowledge. I’m not an expert after reading this either, but it helped me actually have a conversation with my singer/songwriter girlfriend and not sound stupid. That’s my kind of book.

Switched on Pop takes a sort of listicle approach by diving into one song per chapter. This, however, feels perfect because with each song, I’m introduced to new musical concepts. The beauty of this is the effect of building knowledge of musical parts, one song analyzed at a time. The chapters are short and concise enough that you feel like forward progress is there.

This book is emanatly readable, proof of concept: on my first sitting, I had read 30% of the book. It just finds ways to propel you to the next chapter, the next song. Not with a cliffhanger, but with anticipation for what you’ll learn next. Hoping the next song is a song you’ll know, and then -boom- it’s Love on Top by Beyonce (one of my favourites).