Switched on Pop
I'm not too sure how much you all are into podcasts, but if your an audiophile like me, love to listen to intelligent talk radio shows, then this may be the best way to introduce you to a podcast. Switched on Pop is a show where the musicologist (Nate Sloan) and the songwriter (Charlie Harding) celebrate and investigate popular music.
My first impression of these two gentlemen is that they are incredibly intelligent, have the ability to highly articulate and deconstruct what appears to be a fairly simple and surface deep pop track. This is furthest from the case. Nate Sloan has an incredible background and is a PhD candidate in musicology at Stanford University. He brings a pretty amazing point of view to the conversation and immediately you recognize this.
For essentially my first podcast listening in this general area of interest, pop music and a better understanding within, I have to say that I am immediately captivated. These guys know their stuff and really have a way of breaking it all down to the fundamentals in order to better understand what they are speaking about.
For my introductory episode of Switched on Pop, I listened to episode 20. The Weeknd: Dance of Deception. My listening experience with The Weeknd has been minimal but I welcome more time and a place within my record collection for these artists absolutely. The level of creativity alone has me really intrigued, and the layers within the few tracks analyzed are astounding. Nate Sloan talks about the dark self-desructive druggy tone found on the track Wicked Game, and for me this is an element that I absolutely require within a composition. I would have to say that a majority of my musical preferences contain this to a certain degree, some more than others but it is entirely a prevalent quality that I almost prefer over something super upbeat and winsome. Right away discovering that this is a theme for the artist's compositions, I am incredibly interested and will be critically listening to all their music based on this finding alone. I'm dark and weird like that. Nate breaks down one of The Weeknd's most successful tracks to date "Earned It" and points out the fact that it is in triple meter. Realizing that this is pretty rare to encounter let alone in a number one pop song, essentially a waltz timing. That was really impressive to hear.
The next song that the duo discusses is "Can't Feel My Face" produced by the tremendously successful producer Max Martin. Structurally this song has a parallel with the verse as well as the bass line. They reference that the track has a classical reference called the lament. This expression is used to express sorrow or regret and the way structurally that the song is broken down, this is the parallel between the sadness written in the vocals as well as how the descending bass line almost is essence drags you down in its progression. What’s fantastic is how Nate and Charlie reference an example; L’Arpeggiata – Monteverdi ‘s Amor, which is eerily similar in structure of the repetition of the scale from "Can't Feel My Face."
There is a term that was touched on and that I was not familiar with and that was the term, the pedal. Pedal notes or pedal points are notes that are held on while the harmony around them changes. You find this buried underneath a few major chords that has a minor pedal note existing. Really cool incorporation and stunning reminiscence of a disco feel is accomplished when he does this in the song.
I knew of the drug references buried within the lyrics quite like the pedal was an obvious one to a a musicologist, but to hear that Nate had to go home and Google information on the song after a friend asked him if he knew that the song was about narcotics was sort of funny to me. The drug reference brought up another term chromaticism, and it relates to the established key within the song and within that key the certain set of tones belonging to the scale that you expect to hear, the diatonic notes. Any tones that you would hear outside of this scale are called chromatic notes.
They reference another parallel between the chromaticism found in the prechorus and chorus. Tying together the fact that the lyrics create a subtle tension along with the chromatic dissonance found within the prechorus and chorus. It really take this song that we at first hear and think is really an uplifting and upbeat song, which in turn is actually an incredibly dark and sorrow filled descending pop song. That’s where I am hooked. If musicology is the doorway for me to understand how a pop song can be heard and felt deep and dark then through my first experience with a podcast, my revelation is, I am a new fan. Not only to the world of podcasts but now to the highly intelligent conversation between a mister Nate Sloan and a mister Charlie Harding.
The talked about how the chorus is this apotheosis to the song and that the "bridge" with these low filtered synth tones is "the come down" and that everything has gone numb in this section. Wow, these guys are so damn good at relating elements within a track, again I am hooked. The beauty behind the madness, the madness behind the beauty.
Here's a link to the Switched on Pop podcast, please have a listen and get submersed within the musical intellect of the duo, they are fantastic.
http://www.switchedonpop.com/?p=410
