Switched on Pop - Song of Summer 2020: TikTok Jams, Protest Anthems, Breezy Bops & Bummer Bangers

Episode Date: July 7, 2020

The 2020 song of summer competition is underway. We asked you for your favorite songs and put them in a head-to-head tournament. Find out which is the song for this very unusual summer.  ROUND 1 - TikTok Jams SAINt JHN - "Roses" Imanbek Remix  Megan Thee Stallion - Savage Remix (Feat. Beyoncé) The Weeknd - Blinding Lights ROUND 2 - Protest Anthems Beyoncé - Black Parade Anderson .Paak - Lockdown  YG - FTP ROUND 3 - Breezy Bops Dua Lipa - Physical Chloe x Halle - Do It Harry Styles - Watermelon Sugar ROUND 4 - Bummer Bangers Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness HAIM - Up From A Dream Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. It's a strange summer, Nate. Yeah. Typically around this time, we would be doing a show about the song of summer. Right. We would maybe have some sort of contest where each of us offered a contestant and then I would win.

That's usually what happens. But wait, Charlie, I thought summer 2020 was canceled. I mean, summer might be looking longingly out your window, but you can do that bumping a hot song. All right. So how are we going to do this? How are we going to pick the definitive song of summer? I've devised a tournament. Oh, have you? Yes. And I've done this by ceding a question on Twitter to our listeners who have offered up their suggestions of the best songs of this summer. I've created four brackets. Okay. Wow. Themed brackets. I love.

Love it. Each bracket has three songs. We are going to listen to each song. We are going to have a short discussion. We are going to choose which song in each bracket wins. We are going to take bracket to bracket to get to a semifinal. And we're going to have a final to choose a song of the summer. And I want to be clear, this is about how the song makes you feel.

This is not an objective method. But isn't that what summer is all about? It's all about feeling. You know it when you hear it. All right. I love it. So, bracket number one, TikTok hits. One of the main forces driving successful songs today, as we've discussed, ad nauseum.

Yes. It's TikTok. And there are some great tracks happening on TikTok. The right place to start would be St. John's Roses, the Ammonbeck remix. Man, never underestimate the power of a funky, repeated bass line. How does it make you feel? I like it. I dig it.

It moves me. I don't want to be rude. Uh-huh. People love the TikTok. But I think this is the most overplayed song on TikTok. Every dance is happening to this thing. That's not the song's fault. No, I think it's actually a testament to how catchy it is.

You know what I like about this? Yeah. It's like two extremes. It's an extremely low song. And then it's an extremely high song. And it's like, there's not much in between. And I think that's really effective. It's just you, your body, and your dance moves.

Yeah, it's like, I'm going to grab you at the low end. I'm going to grab you at the top, and, you know, the rest is up to you. Also, I could not understand a single lyric they were singing except for the word, roses, but onward. Blame it on the remix. All right, so that's Rose's. Next biggest song happening in TikTok hits is the weekend's, winding lights. I begrudgingly really enjoy this song, and I say that because, It's so pastiche, such a 80s synth pop redux.

Right. I want to be more critical, and yet I can't help but get swept up in it. I don't think you have to begrudgingly enjoy this song. I think a great summer anthem can make you feel like summers of the past. It's like a boy's a summer kind of feel. I feel like the song also breaks a fundamental rule that we set last year about how to succeed with a pop song. and streaming. Uh-huh.

This song has a ridiculously long intro and takes forever to get to the chorus. And I think where we totally failed to think about the role of the long intro is like, actually, it's a space that people can dance to and put TikTok memes over. This song probably succeeds because of its impossibly long introduction. Fascinating. Okay. What's next? You've got to know.

Savage. exactly. We're going to give it the remix, featuring Beyonce. We have here Houston rapper rapper Megan the Stalian paired up with the most famous Houstonian of all time,

Beyonce. there is so much to love about this track. This is probably the most the danced two song on TikTok, at least from my very subjective experience of scrolling through my TikTok feed. This is one I don't bore of ever. Wait, wait, wait, wait. You have TikTok? Yeah, of course I do. What are you doing on there? Are you doing dances? Wait, this, I can't. This is, we have to come back to this later. Okay, this track, I love this minimal beat.

It's just four notes, and the fourth one is a half step higher than the prior. And that's it on a loop. This song is like such a lesson in musical economy and how little you need to create a hit. The only thing that changes in the chorus of this song, we double the bass drum. And every time it comes in, you're just like,

Whoa my God. So here's the first half of the chorus. And then here's the second half with that monstrous kick drum. Double the energy. I think that this is a really great pairing where Megan the Stallion has this really direct, dry vocal that is strong, it is in your face, it's just fantastic. And then Beyonce is almost like this ethereal being, not just because of her celebrity, but because she has one of the best vocal production techniques, I think, in pop music period.

she knows how to have a swarm of her voices surround you. You don't just get Beyonce right in the center. You've got her left, right, center above you, behind you everywhere. Please don't give me hype. Write my name and ice. Can't argue with these lazy bitches. I just raise my price. And so I think you have this really great pairing,

totally different styles of singing that work together to complement each other so well. I would describe her verses like as terrorist. It has three levels. Level one, it has a kind of rhythmic simplicity, and her voice is pianissimo. Soft. Level two, we start to introduce a little more rapid fire syncopation, and her voice starts to crescendo upwards. Gang, gang. If you don't jump to put jeans on, baby, you don't feel my pain.

Do you jump to put jeans on, Charlie? My jeans are dad jeans. Level three is just like Forte, Fortissimo, loud, gravely timbre. It's like building, building, building, hooking you in with every time she levels up. It's like building, building. It's like building, building, hooking you in with every time she levels up. it's pretty clear what song is going to win this TikTok bracket, but that's not going to stop me. So who's the winner of the TikTok bracket here?

I'm like this island of Beyonce's Savage Reimix. Savage remix, 100%. All right. Bracket 2. All right. Protest anthems. Oh, God. Is it going to be Beyonce again?

All right. Go ahead. You know, one trend of the pandemic has been every millennial like myself joining TikTok and driving up hits that way. But the other important thing that's been happening have been the protests for Black Lives. And there have been some amazing releases, some of which we've talked about in the show, others which we haven't got to.

And asking our listeners, what's the song of the summer? A handful of these tracks are the ones that popped up because they feel so potent to this moment. We're going to start off with YG's FTP. It's not subtle. I hate when they handcuffed me. I can tell for the vest and the gun he thinks he's cheap.

I hate when they handcuffed me acting tough calling for backup I think he weak Fuck the police Fuck the police fuck the police Fuck the police Fuck the police Fuck the police This chorus is so cathartic Because as you said it's not subtle

It's just this direct expression of anger and frustration and rage and sorrow And that's why it worked so well And that's why I could see people chanting this in the streets as they're actually protesting against police violence. This is a cool track. You know, it's both beautiful and frustrating that it has musical ties back to NWA's song of the same name. Fuck the police coming straight from the underground. A young nigger got it bad because I'm brown.

And not the other color so police think. It almost feels like a commentary on how is it possible that we've been saying the same thing. for 30 years. Yeah. And it goes even deeper, right? I mean, think of his lyrics about Ku Klux Kops. This is part of the fabric of American history. I feel like it would be totally appropriate to stay in that rage and stick with this song

for the rest of the show. But we got lots of other recommendations from listeners. There's some other great protest anthems. I want to take a listen to the next one, which is Anderson Pock's lockdown. You should have been downtown. The people are rising. We thought it was a lockdown. They opened a fire.

Them bullets was flying. Who said it was a lockdown. God damn lie. Woof, I cannot say enough about this musician. One of the best in the game right now. And this track is no exception. How powerful to connect the protests against police violence. with the lockdown related to the COVID pandemic and see the common thread of injustice and

racism that exists between those two phenomena. Like, we're still doing it, though, in a way that is incredibly funky and groovy and artful. Like, hats off. Nate, I'm with you on this track lockdown. I think the first time I heard it was just in a playlist and it was happening in the background. I wasn't tuned into the lyrics and I was nodding along. Like this is a really groovy track.

It works because I feel like a song that you want to hear in a protest is a song that carries you along, that the music itself is energizing. This is one where it is just undeniably a funky track. And then you zoom into the lyrics. And it just punches you in the face. It's so powerful. Never understand why they do it.

Someone cut the channel off the news for I lose it. I ain't even tripping if you're with it, then we looting. Let me put this Louie in the back of Suzuki. Oh, he'd have to break it down so smoothly. They're going to say it's not about race, but we're moving. What you're saying reminds me of a line from his song, King James. He sings, there's a movement we've been grooving on. You can move or stay your ass to sleep.

So there's a movement we've been grooving on. You can move or stay your ass asleep. So there's this conflation of, you know, bodily movement and dance with protest and activism. Just as there's this conflation in the lyrics between like this literal lockdown of us staying in our houses and needing to lock down this situation in our minds. He is a very powerful performance. and writer. We're going to keep on moving. We've got one other song in this bracket,

and you were right. It's Beyonce and her track, Black Parade. Speechless. Two for two. Is she just going to win every one of these categories? It's a good thing we're not doing this after her just announced album came out because she probably would sweep this whole darn thing. She's putting out an album Black as King next month.

I mean, this is so great. There are these lyrical lines that just kind of dig into your brain and you can't get them out, you know. It's not really a rhyme, but this sort of assonance between Motherland and Melanin. That is like something that you'll always remember after hearing this. She's constantly switching up her delivery, showing all these different sides of what she can do, singing, rapping, everything in between. Okay, here's the thing that gives me pause here, which is, is there enough of a chorus for this to constitute a summer jam?

I can slip to my foe, light, light, oh, hypo. Hey, I'm storming right. Please is known about. The song takes a moment to get to its exceptional chorus, but for me, this is an obvious winner. I mean, we have the turning of a protest into a parade, showing that this is ultimately about the aspiration for the celebration of equality for also claiming heritage. And here she is inciting her whole hive to get out there and celebrate in this parade where we have New Orleans-style horns carrying people along in their protest parade.

All right, you're right. I'm sold. It's Beyonce, Black Parade. Something similar going on here with the Anderson Pock track. All three of these tracks you've selected, actually. They're real, and they pay attention to the events that are happening right now. But there's also something celebratory about them. And it's really a call to action. Right. Not a call to wallow. It's like, do something. And these songs are going to give you the beat and the groove and the joy to make that happen. It seems as though what's happening is we have a head-to-head in two brackets of Beyonce and Beyonce. Yeah.

Let's finish out the first round. We're going to come back and we're going to see who's going to win after the break. Maria, you have a podcast now and you need to start acting like it. What's the first step as a podcaster? Well, you have to ask lots of questions. I'm Maria Sharpova and I'm hosting a new podcast called Pretty Tough. Every week I'm sitting down with trailblazing women at the top of their game to discuss ambition, work ethic, and the ups and downs that come on the path to achieving greatness. I have a few pretty tough questions for you.

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and other individuals who have inspired me so much in my own journey. Pretty tough is your front row seat to the women who have demonstrated the power in being unapologetic in their pursuits. I hope you'll join us. New episodes drop Wednesdays on YouTube or in your favorite podcast app. Immigration may be Donald Trump's signature issue. President Trump is now targeting predominantly democratic cities for ice raids and deportations. Dozens of protesters clashing with immigration and customs enforcement agents in Minneapolis Tuesday.

We will begin to first. of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. But what we want to do in this space is talk about America and politics beyond the current president. So what do most Americans think about deportation and border security, period? I think that Americans are definitely against the kind of violent displays that we've seen in the street from ICE. When it comes to the question of deportation, the answer is more complicated. My sense is that people want order at the border. They don't like the idea of having no idea who's coming into the United States at any given time.

The view on immigration from the bottom up instead of the top down. That's this week on America Actually. Every Saturday in your audio and video feeds. Okay, Nate, we're going to take a reprieve. We're going to step out into the summer breeze. We have some great recommendations of things that just make us feel great. We're to start with Dualipa's physical.

Who needs to go to sleep when I got you next to me? This is so much fun. I wish we had put this head to head with blinding lights because I feel like they're in the same universe. Yeah, like they're both kind of minor key with a little sort of sinister synth thing happening. And yet they clearly are connecting with people on this like summer joy level.

This is one where like if I had a car that had a top that went down, I would go out in the evening and let my COVID hair fly out in the wind. It's like it's definitely a sunset kind of song, but it's like in the breeze, driving along, Pacific Coast, you know, that's where I am. I love that image. That sounds like some good material for your TikTok account, Charlie. Dua Lipa, her album Future Nostalgia has probably been the thing that

listeners have written us about more than maybe any other music we've covered on the show. This album has been connecting with people and it's been doing it since like January. It's pretty amazing. You know, a lot of great summer hits are often sleeper hits. There are songs that have been around for a little while and they come back around right when it's feeling hot outside. I think another one of those would be Harry Stiles watermelon sugar. I don't know if I could ever... Harry Styles, one of the

revelations of producing this show has been how much we love this musician. This track is really fun. It's got a great mix of like kind of classic rock and also some very modern electronic touches. It's definitely a contender. I don't know if for me, the chorus really reaches that apex of

just like letting everything go that you need your summer jam to successfully do. It's not enough of a sugar high. Perhaps. All right. I feel like I've been a little bit of a chorus czar in this conversation, but you know, I think it's important.

I think the summer sign needs to have that like, ah, and this is more like, teka, tica, tica, ta'a. And it's like, no, I don't know. All right. Fair enough. Yeah.

You know, for me, I love it. We've dedicated an entire episode to most of this track. It's one I like to revisit, and it's one that has grown on me over the many months. When I first heard it, I was like, no. But I like it. It has that breezy feeling for me. Speaking of breezy feelings,

we've got to keep on moving. The wind is catching us. We're going to go listen to you. No, no, no, bad. No, God, just play the song. Just play the song. That was brutal. Here's Chloe and Halley's do it. No complaints, Nate.

Is that enough of a chorus for you? That's, yeah, I'm sold, man. This is really, this is really fun. This is a homie's only kind of mood, Charlie. I like this, I like this track. Celebrating your friends in the meaning that a night out has, which is something that seems more poignant than ever right now. Their vocals are like effervescent.

They just kind of float along. We've got this like watery lift, this incredible synthesized pad that's happening. It feels like they're just floating on this really shiny, ethereal. There's no words to describe how beautiful the thing is. I mean, think about all. the elements here, right? There's these bright, spacious synth pads, these light, drum beats, and then they're lelting vocal tones. The whole thing is just like a breath of fresh air.

It's like a zephyr. And then the beat hits and the chorus and I'm just totally sold. All right, we've got summer breeze tracks. We've got physical watermelon sugar. Do it. What are you feeling? This is a toughie, man. feel like it's between Dua and Chloe and Halley for me. Okay. So how do we decide? Physical's an evening song. Do it to out in the summer breeze and the sun song.

But there can only be... You're right, but there can only be one. You know, when the sun is setting on summer, I'll choose physical. But for me, it's to do it. All right. I'm with you. Do it it is. Final bracket.

Round four. This is the anti-summer song. There were a lot of jokes about what the song of summer was. I found this one to be particularly funny. Oh my God, is that Carmina Varana by Carl Orff? Oh, man. It's like, yeah. This is the summer that's not happening.

Summer is canceled and there are some rough news. That's like the track that scores the scene in a sci-fi movie where they like blow up a planet or something. It's just like nothing good is going to come of this. That's very funny. There was another submission which was quite comic. I don't think it makes the bracket, but you got to hear it anyway. This is the Beach Boys in my room. There's nothing more summary than the Beach Boys, and I'm not leaving my room for the foreseeable future.

So I do get some pleasure out of this. That's pretty great, actually. All right, let's get him with the real stuff. All right, well, this category could just be called Cruel Summer. Here's Taylor This is Taylor Devils roll the dice Angels roll their eyes

What doesn't kill me makes me want you more I This is one of my favorite tracks Off lover That malisma She hits in the chorus Ooh Like taking the word

Cruel and making it crew Like that is You know That just sends me I think this is a viable contender Yeah, I mean, not only does it have that sad summer vibe, but it still has enough of that forward momentum. The sequenced bass, that's just the... That thing.

Yeah. Leave a dream high in the quiet of the night. You know that I caught it. It's got that same sort of quality of like, we're in the car, we're moving down the highway, we're going somewhere. You really do need to get out of your room, I can tell. I have it left in months. I'm going to get you a power wheels, and you can just drive around your studio. Okay, what's next?

This bracket could also be called Summertime Sadness by Lina Leray. Okay, this is not quite as retro as the Beach Boys. This is a 2012 song, though. I think it has found its moment. For this track, I propose the summertime sadness remix by Cedric Jervais. Ooh, I don't know it. Check it out. This is a great song.

I have to say, it genuinely bums me out in a way that Cruel Summer doesn't. Cruel Summer has like this defiant edge to it. Whereas summertime sadness is just like There's no coming back from this There's like a deep pain there, right? Yeah, I feel like I need to have hope Coming out of the summer for sure. All right, that brings us to the final song in our tournament

And it actually comes from a friend. We have a call-in. My name's Sean Ramosferam. I host Today Explain from Vox.com And I'm always searching for that song in the summer. So I saw that you posted on Twitter a candidate for a so-called song of summer this year. What is it and why? You know, we've all been staying put.

We've all been staying six feet away and quarantining at home. And I finally got out last weekend and I listened to the Haim album on the road probably five or six times in a row. and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there wasn't just a song of the summer on that album. They made an entire album for the summer that got canceled. It's great. It's called Women in Music Part 3, and it's hard to pick just one song off of it, Charlie. I will if you want me to. You got to give me one song.

I mean, Summergirl's the obvious candidate, but it's actually a bonus track on the album. Right. And I kind of wish it weren't here because Summer Girl is just kind of like a Lou Reader. rip-off and the other two bonus tracks are respectively like a Savage Garden rip-off and a Fleetwood Mac rip-off. So I'm going to give you a different pick, not the obvious one, not the one that's clearly about summer. It's called Up From a Dream. Up From a Dream is an amazing track. It opens with a big yawn from Danielle Heim. when I snapped again.

It's just got this rhythm and this pace that makes you want to like jump out of your skin. And then in the middle of the song, I don't know what it is actually. Maybe you can explain to me, but they do this thing with the guitars. They just like, they slam the guitars from like left to right and back to forth. And it's just like surrounding you and slapping you in the face. And it's just, oh my gosh. The first time I heard it, I was driving and I had this visceral. and I had this visceral reaction just like, what is that? It's amazing.

But is this, so I guess the question is, is this an album slash song of summer or is it an album slash song of this summer? You know, I think what's amazing about this album is that it's a summer album filled with summer songs, filled with bangers, filled with pop bangers and rock bangers and and, you know, acoustic bangers. But it really is sort of maudlin, the time. tone of the album is sad. There's wistful songs about, you know, lost love, about being sad while being in love, about places you miss, about about longing for more, about being confused. It's really vulnerable more so, I feel like, than the prior Haim albums. And it's, it feels like in that way, sort of perfect for this summer where, you know, almost everything

has gone wrong for so many people in so many different ways. And yet, it feels like somehow 2020 has been a really great year for music in a very good year for music from you know destroyer Fiona apple eves two more run the jewels megand thee stallion there's so many great songs and albums that have come out this year i feel like this one is the one for summer 2020 and if you close your eyes while you're listening to it it feels like oh maybe we didn't lose summer after all that is beautiful this is a great candidate thank you so much sean Thank you, Charlie. And, you know, if you can find out how they did that thing that they do with the guitars on Up From a Dream, I would love to know what that is.

Is that an effect? Is that a Pro Tools plug-in I need to get? What exactly did they do there? I would love to hear that broken down by you and Nate. All right. I'll get back to you. All right, thanks, buddy. Bringing out some heavy hitters here in the late innings.

Sean always appreciate his musical insight. bringing us the dark horse of the Heim Sisters. This is a strong pick, I think. Yeah, this is definitely a relatable one, right? This is like dreaming of being on the beach, then you wake up and you know, you gotta do the dishes. It feels really, oh, too real.

Yeah. This is the one. I mean, yeah. I mean, Sean, he's persuasive AF. And that might be because I'm always listening to report, the news, like, I'll just do whatever he says. But this is also, you know, out of all these contenders, summertime sadness, too sad.

Cruel summer, maybe not perky enough. It's time. It's got it all. It's going to lift you up without really telling you everything's going to be okay. Yeah, I mean, it feels like we're waking up into the dream. Then you get this distorted guitar solo, which is basically to answer Sean's question, you have a super gated fuzz pedal on a distorted guitar,

one that you almost associate with like a Neil Young guitar solo. And you've got two of them. One happening in the left ear, one happening in the right ear, just like fighting for your attention. Sometimes I feel like a wake-up for my dreams, and that's what it sounds like. All right, hymn, it is.

All right, so that means we have got four winners. Yes. And we're going to do a quick head-to-head. we're going to get to the final in like one minute. So here's how we're going to do it. Round one and two. Yes. Megan the Stalian, Beyonce, Savage Remix versus Beyonce's Black Parade.

Charlie? This is a terrible task. My head is telling me Black Parade, but my heart is telling me Savage. Ooh, really? Yeah. No matter what, we're going to make a decision that will come back and bite us in the butt. And either way, we're going to come back and revisit Beyonce's new album. So I'm going to give it to you.

We're going with Savage. All right. Round three and four. We've got Do It by Cloan Halley. We've got Up from a Dream, Haim. Impossible silence. This is so I hate this. I hate everything about this.

I'm second-guessing my first choice. Why did you make us do this? This is terrible. The only winners are all of these songs, and we are the losers. It's got to be Do-It. It's Do-It. Okay, so we've got Do It versus Savage. And there's just no question.

If that's the head-to-head for me, it has to be savage. It has to be savage. All right. It always had to be savage. It always had to be savage. I'm actually feeling really good about this. You know, there's part of me that's like, we should be celebrating these protest anthems. This is an unprecedented moment in pop.

popular music where these artists are responding to a crisis, like, immediately and with tracks that are actually really good. Like, that's rare. And yet, I wonder if Savage doesn't accomplish some of that work in a more subtle way. You know, this is a statement by two black women from Houston that has become the number one song in the country. Like, that's something to celebrate on its own, I think. Yeah.

So I feel pretty good about banging Savage through the rest of summer. So does that mean that I have to do the Savage dance on my TikTok account? Yes, you do. It's never going to happen. Okay, then you have to do a video of you driving around in power wheels. That sounds like it's in my future. Switched on Pop is produced by Bridget Armstrong, Megan Lubin, Nate Sloan, myself, Charlie Harding.

We're mixed mastered and engineered by Brandon McFarland, illustrations by Iris Gottlieb, social media by Abby Barr, And our executive producers are Nashok Karwa and Liz Nelson. We're a member of the Vox Media Podcast Network. You can find more podcasts anywhere you listen to podcasts. Podcast, podcast, podcast. Not redundant, just a fact. Hit us up on social media at Switch on Pop.

We love hearing from you. What do we get right? What do we get wrong? Or just what we got right. That's fine too. We'll be back in another week with a brand new episode. Until then, thanks for listening. Attention, Spotify.

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