Lil Nas X: Country at the Crossroads

Everybody sings the chorus, but superfans quote the verse. On this episode of Switched on Pop, Charlie and Nate trace the verse from Shakespeare through opera to TikTok, and songwriter Audrey Hobert shares her philosophy of specific verses and anthemic choruses: you can't have th ...  Show more

Research says you judge a song in under half a second. So why write an intro at all? On this episode of Switched on Pop, Charlie and Nate kick off their Netflix launch and probe what an intro means in today's musical landscape, alongside special guests like Aaron Dessner (Taylor ...  Show more

Billboard's 2019 Songs of the Summer chart is only in its second week, but we're already wondering: Can any song gallop in and take this year's cowboy crown from Lil Nas X's wildly dominant "Old Town Road," featuring Billy Ray Cyrus? On this week's Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, we ...  Show more

YEE-TO-THE-MOTHERFUCKIN-HAW!!!!! Today on the podcast, we're doing something we've never done before, and punching up a brand new song that hasn't even been out for a WEEK! We discuss the memetic culture of the internet, the changing state of the music industry, whether or not th ...  Show more

After the country star’s “Try That in a Small Town” video was criticized as offensive, right-wing support sent the song to No. 2 on the singles chart. Guests: The Tennessean's Marcus K. Dowling; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Amanda Marie Martinez Subscribe tod ...  Show more

When Lil Nas X released his viral hit "Old Town Road" last year, he sparked a conversation about what country music is and who is welcome in the genre. To better understand the deep and often misunderstood history of country music, we sat down with renowned filmmaker Ken Burns to ...  Show more