Switched On Pop: Once An Indie, Always An Indie

  How do you keep a 12-year-old podcast humming along at peak efficiency? After all, haven't you done everything there is to cover after 12 years? The answer is that Switched on Pop is still playing that sweet tune of success and innovation. In fact, the show keeps topping itself year after year. One reason may be that Harding and Sloan didn't sell out to a corporation but kept skin in the game.

Harding says, "Nate and I actually produce and own the show as a co-publication with New York Magazine. We’ve been lucky to own the show outright our whole history, which has really helped with our long term success."

Switched on Pop launched in 2014, quickly growing a devoted audience before joining Vox in 2019, where it moved from a biweekly to a weekly schedule and more than tripled its downloads.

Switched On Pop is hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding.

Harding is a music journalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. He is the executive producer and co-host of Switched on Pop and the co-author of Switched on Pop: How Popular Music Works and Why it Matters, published by Oxford University Press in 2019, and nominated for a 2021 PROSE Award for Excellence in Humanities by the Association of American Publishers.

Nate Sloan is an assistant professor of musicology at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, and the co-author of Switched on Pop: How Popular Music Works and Why it Matters, published by Oxford University Press in 2019, and nominated for a 2021 PROSE Award for Excellence in Humanities by the Association of American Publishers. 

Besides the strong chemistry between Harding and Sloan -- sometimes funny, sometimes sarcastic, and other times competitive -- the podcast is an "under the hood" look at the music world. 

What makes the show so energizing for any music fan after 12 years is the intellectual curiosity of Messrs. Harding and Sloan and the drive to turn over every rock in the music industry to find points of discussion. For example, in the June 17th episode, the co-hosts explored feral pop, the microgenre that takes pop music to its most wild extremes. 

Harding says: "And no feral pop artist is more tapped into that ethos than underscores. Her music synthesizes dubstep, trance, and Timbaland with ease, and her latest album U is filled with boundless energy. She’s already opened up for 100 gecs, PinkPantheress, and Porter Robinson; this fall, she’ll open up for Charli XCX on her upcoming music, fashion, and film tour. She said it best on her debut album, Fishmonger: 'it’s the new wave of the future!'"

Here's what makes Switched on Pop such a premier music podcast. Take elements of Song Exploder, in which artists detail how they recorded their song to One Song, where two musical experts dissect one iconic song, Hit Parade, where the most popular songs are examined. All those elements are ingrained into the Switched On Pop DNA.

 Harding and Sloan can analyze a new album from a massive star like Olivia Rodrigo. "Olivia Rodrigo is back with her third studio album, you seem pretty sad for a girl in love. As the title might suggest, it’s a deeply personal affair, with moody soundscapes supporting hyper-detailed lyrics of soul-wrenching depth. This album is a meditation on desire, and intriguingly, the letdown that can occur when desire is fulfilled. Each track is haunted by a band that basically invented the idea of unfulfilled longing, The Cure, who receive multiple direct shout-outs and numerous subtle references."

Then, the duo can dedicate an episode to a sci-fi ballet imagined a 2080 where AI strips people of purpose, and the day before its New York premiere, an actual dystopia arrived. Of course, there is the annual year in review in late December. Here's the 2025 edition: "From big-ticket albums by Taylor and Gaga, to a revival of the stomp-clap revival – 2025 had it all, for better and for worse. Now that the year has come to a close, it's time to take a look back at the past twelve months: what happened in the zeitgeist, what we loved listening to, and what we missed here on the show. Reanna, Charlie, and Nate talk about it all, including a look back at our predictions from January to check off boxes for Switched On Pop bingo."

In addition, Harding and Sloan also are flexible enough to master two podcasting formats inside their show. Here's what I mean. In many episodes of the show, Harding and Sloan discuss a musical topic with no guests. In essence, it's a narrative podcast. Other times, they have a guest, or guests, and conduct an interview show. That skill to switch between formats is called a high degree of difficulty. Harding and Sloan score a 10, except for the Russian judge, who gives them an 8.9. 

I think what makes Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan so distinct and refreshing with their music podcast is their constant refusal to be intellectually and emotionally limited to familiar themes in the music industry.

There like two-year-olds that have to touch everything. Their curiosity is insatiable, and the audience is the winner in that search for musical Shangri-La. 

Two weeks ago, Netflix announced that Switched On Pop would be released on its platform every Tuesday. Netflix was giddy, announcing: "Hosts Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan Begin New Era With Four-Part Series, The Art of The Song, exploring The Intro, Verse, Chorus & Bridge With Special Guests Aaron Dessner, Audrey Hobert, Trevor Horn, Cypress Hill, Tayla Parx and More."

 Switched on Pop may be 12 years old, but it's not showing its age, and, in fact, hosts Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan may be indeed hiding their own Picture of Dorian Gray, as they bask in their eternal adolescence of inquisitiveness about all things musical.