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Switched on Pop: How Popular Music Works, and Why It Matters

by Nate Sloan

Listening Closely to 21st-Century Pop

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Hardcover New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Listening Closely to 21st-Century Pop

Built from the Switched on Pop podcast, this accessible music guide brings close listening to songs often treated as everyday background sound. Sixteen modern pop classics provide the framework for examining the musical ideas behind chart-topping hits across two decades. Musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding use contemporary pop as an entry point to concepts that can help listeners notice how songs are put together, placing artists from Britney Spears to Beyoncé within a wider discussion of what makes popular music worth attentive study. The book adapts the listener’s-guide model associated with classical music for a repertoire rooted in 21st-century radio and the Top 40.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Listeners interested in understanding the musical construction of contemporary pop
  • Fans of the Switched on Pop podcast
  • Music readers seeking an accessible introduction through chart hits

Themes

Pop music analysisClose listeningSongwritingTop 40 music21st-century popular music

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

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 Beyonc
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