Switched on Pop - The biggest theme song fail

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

What happens when your podcast’s theme song—cobbled together from GarageBand loops—gets called “game show music” and likened to a cereal commercial? You rewrite it. In this episode, we take you behind the scenes of Switched on Pop’s sonic makeover, from scathing critiques by music industry heavyweights to the creation of a lush, layered soundscape inspired by Wendy Carlos and PBS science shows. With expert advice from sonic branding maestro Dallas Taylor (Twenty Thousand Hertz) and the composers Zach Tenorio and Jocie Adams (Arc Iris), we dissect every step of transforming our theme into a timeless sonic identity. Tune in for the full story and hear how we turned a jingle crisis into a musical triumph. More Musicares.org is supporting LA based musicians in need of assistance from the destruction of the fire Billboard has compiled more forms of support and assistance Recommendations Read Cat Zhang at The Cut Read Lauren Michelle Jackson’s White Negros and columns at The New Yorker Listen to Ian Fitchuk’s work Listen to Song Exploder hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway Listen to NYTimes Popcast hosted by Jon Caramanica Listen to Twenty Thousand Hertz hosted by Dallas Taylor Songs Discussed The Monkees: "Theme Song (Hey, Hey, We're The Monkees)" Radiohead: "Kid A" No Name: "Yesterday" Mort Garson: "Ode to an African Violet" Wendy Carlos Switched On Bach Whitney Houston: "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1991 Super Bowl performance) Jimi Hendrix: "The Star-Spangled Banner" (Woodstock performance) Friends theme Song "I'll Be There for You" by The Rembrandts Reading Rainbow theme song “Butterfly in the Sky” by Steve Horelick, Dennis Neil Kleinman, and Janet Weir Bill Nye the Science Guy theme Song composed by Mike Greene  3-2-1 Contact theme Song composed by Tom Anthony Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Switched on Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan.

Nate, what do you think of when I play you this song. You know the TV show from the 60s about the band, The Monkeys? Yeah. It had that theme song, Hey, hey, with the monkeys.

I never loved it, but I found it sort of comforting when it would come on. I feel like this is similar. I'm like, I don't know. It's not a great, masterful piece of music, but I've kind of like grown to love it over the years, I guess. Thanks. You know, because I wrote it. in like an hour. I don't remember the moment exactly,

but I knew that we had our very first episode. We needed some kind of theme song. Yeah. And I literally just dragged together a bunch of garage band loops. I don't think there's an original piece of music in there. It's literally just a bunch of stuff that anybody has on an Apple computer.

We've recorded 400 episodes. I feel like every time you've cringed through our theme music. Not to mention the emails we've gotten from people saying, what is with your theme music? So let's give yourself a little bit of credit, though. What are we hearing? We have this radio dial changing stations at the beginning.

That's symbolic, right? That represents our willingness to listen across genre and style, Charlie, to find common musical material. That's beautiful. Thank you. Now, does anyone listen to the radio anymore? Perhaps a question worth asking. I just feel like 400 episodes, 10 years. of making this show, we need a change. And so today, we're going to rewrite the theme and we're

going to make it better. Or at least we're going to make it different. And frankly, if by the end of this episode, you are not satisfied, the lucky thing is there's actually 400 episodes. You can go and listen to that original theme song. This is smart, Charles, because even if we end up with a theme song that still doesn't work, you will have let everyone in on the process. And they can see how hard you tried, if nothing else. And maybe when they listen, they'll listen with sympathetic ears because they know you did everything you could. I appreciate it because I think one of the great challenges with changing any kind of identity

is that there's all of this loaded nostalgia for the thing you already knew. And familiarity bias is real. In case, you know, you do feel particularly attached, I want to let you know, I think you're wrong. And so do some of the best voices in the world of music. My name is Lauren Michelle Jackson. I am a professor of English at Northwestern University and a critic at The New Yorkers. Lauren is one of my favorite music writers.

I literally teach her work in my classes. And when I played her, the theme, this is what she said. Yeah, it's trying maybe a bit too hard, right? It's not cool. It's not cool enough. Here's culture and music critic Kat Zing of the cut, formerly of Pitchfork. It sounds like game show music. It also sounds like it wouldn't even make it to demo status

it pitched as a pop song. Ian Fitchuk currently nominated for a Grammy for producer of the year. It gives me the feeling of hearing one of my kids' least favorite video game, maybe circa 2007 or 8, from another room and just being like, oh no, here we go again, this game. It really just in no way mirrors the legitimacy of this wonderful podcast. If we need podcast musical legitimacy, well, I know just the person who knows a lot about great music and great podcasts. I'm Rishi K. Sherway. I'm a singer-songwriter and the host of Song Exploder.

And when I played up the theme, I mean, it's, it's cute. I like it because you made it. But if I didn't know that you made it, my eyebrows might have gone up. It makes me smile. and it kind of makes me laugh, which, you know, some people might see that as a positive thing, but it might not be the feeling that you want from a listener. That's very generous of you. I think I'm going to get rid of the vocals.

I think I'm just going to go, bum, bum, bum, bum, bump, bum, bum, bum, because that is kind of the melodic theme. Can I live with that? I think you can. I think if you change the bass sound to make it slightly less, I think I think that would be good

but I think you should keep the vocals Switch I think having the words in there it does feel like an iconic part of the theme in my mind Okay some useful feedback from Friends of the podcast But I feel like we could use some really unvarnished criticism John Caramonica

Host of Popcast at the New York Times John doesn't hold back All right I can tell you have a fondness For the game shows of Eastern Europe Look look what I'm I want to say is that were you thinking of like a breakfast cereal spinoff of the show to have that kind of sound? Like, is that where you were going with it?

Were you thinking like this podcast thing unlikely to go? However, there's a packageable's angle on the back end of this. Is that where you were? I could have actually made some money if I did that. I am confident that if you went into an advertising or marketing meeting with that right now, you would walk out. with an incredible job, music supervising, some of the worst serial commercials that you've ever heard. I'm going to go journalistic on you for a second.

Please. What were you hoping to evoke emotionally, but also kind of like philosophically, in a listener who heard that? What did you want them to take away? I wanted it to be a jingle that was diva-esque that would announce itself as being every kind of pop music.

So it begins with a radio FM sweep that is completely anachronistic. All of these are Apple Loops. It has a sort of like trap orchestra, want, want, want, won't, want. There's big horns. Trap sort of sounds. It's got some wubb, wub from the dub step.

It's got a swung piano going Bump Bump Bump the don't Don't do don't It's got a bunch of sound effects for a sort of cinema stuff I wanted it to be Maximilist Everything And I wanted to say pop music I'm not sure that that brief says pop music anyway Okay, so two notes, right?

This is like when you bring in like the big gun creative agency And the guy comes in He's got like the terrible fake Ricker Owen's on. And he's just like, I got a vision for you. Right? So, like, allow me to inhabit that character as if I'm not doing that every day of my life, 24 hours of that.

Okay. So, number one, have you considered a radio dial with static in between? So you're switched. And then the on is, like a country on. And then pop is maybe like, and then pop is maybe like a metal. Pop! You know, like, have you considered that? as a way to communicate to telegraph multiple genres.

Number one or number two, you should have done something chaotic. Yeah. Maybe you should have hand cut tape with one of those like hand splicers. Maybe you should have hand cut the tape and like five tapes at once. Just a thought. DIY it. I like it.

Yeah. So those are my notes. That's a great review. I appreciate it. You couldn't be more welcome. Well, that was humbling. Anything else about the song? I feel like part of the issue is that it makes our show seem more grandiose than it is.

We wrote this melody, Switch on Pop! And it's like, that's not us. Totally. We're just here doing harmonic analysis of Luther Vandross samples and Kendrick Lamar checks. I just feel like it doesn't match with what we do on their show. It sounds so much more lofty than what we're actually delivering. It's really unfortunate too because this is the only original piece of music in the theme. I found someone on Craigslist to sing harmonies.

Yeah. We've never spoken, never met, just traded some files. So nice to meet you. Hi, I'm Charlie. It's so nice to meet you. This is the singer Maria Z. I found my email exchange with her from 10 years ago, and I reached out to see if she remembered how we first connected to make this theme. Was it Craigslist?

Yeah. So in 2014, I must have just recorded. our first episode. I made a theme song out of garage band loops. And I thought we should have someone sing over this. I don't really remember writing that Craigslist ad, but I was like, I got to find someone to sing. Oh my, you know, that makes sense because one of my first experiences with Los Angeles Craigslist ads, I remember finding this job that seemed really promising. So it's something like $75, $100 an hour and it was local. I live in the valley. It was like a job for a fluffer.

And I'm like, that sounds cute. That sounds, I could do that. What is that? If you don't know what a fluffer is, do not Google it. It's very much not safe for work. And my manager at the time was like, yeah, you don't want to do that. I'm like, what do you mean? The word fluffer, it sounds so cute.

So then I found out what it was. And, you know, that was my first experience and running with Los Angeles Craigslist ads. Because I had come from Florida. We don't have those kind of ads in Florida. But then I saw your ad. And I was like, we are back on track. Music, that's where it is. You wrote me,

Hi there, I'm interested in helping with your jingle. I have a great home setup and could record and send everything back on Sunday. I have a big range and can sing with a lighter or heavier, funky or soulful tone, whatever you need for the diva role. Listen, when I see the word diva, it is on and pop, and I'm like, I'm there. Do you have any recollection of doing that recording? You've done so many things. I mean, it's a little hazy.

I don't remember the melody. You're going to have to play it for it. me, obviously. Yeah, I can do that. Here, let me play it for your second. No way. That is hilarious. I sound so young.

Oh. Switched on. That was a lot shorter than I remember, though. So do you know anything about this podcast that you've contributed to? Short answer? No. I think I work on so many things that I often forget what I'm part of. But I did check out recently since we reconnected, and I took a look at what you've been doing.

And it's amazing. It's awesome. How many pieces out in the world would you say have your voice on it right now? Oh, my gosh. Over a thousand projects, like 2,000. Something crazy. What's the biggest job you've done where people might have heard your voice? I recently had a song placed on the movie Spirited.

It was Santa Baby. Yeah. me too whoa i'm so thankful to get to connect it's so funny that we probably live just a few miles from each other for 10 years and have been in this very roundabout way a part of each other's lives your voice has been heard by like many millions of people at the introduction of our show i think you nailed it i asked for a diva vocal and you delivered okay thank you maria thank you so much for including me she crushed it by the way Yeah, she's arguably the best part of this intro. Sorry, Charles.

Yeah, totally. Hopefully we can find some kind of way to keep part of her vocals in our rewrite. But it's pretty clear from all the feedback that we've received that it's past time that we need to refresh our jingle. And Nate, I don't know if you remember, but I've actually tried to rewrite this theme song like a couple of times. And every single time, you're like, nah, that's not it. That's my fault. I'm sorry, I have taste. Here, let me play a few.

That was me just trying to. trying to get rid of using loops and make everything by hand back in 2019. You rejected it. And I still do. In 2021, I tried this. You said no. I said, that's daft junk right there. After you said no in 2021, I tried again.

That sounds like the intro to a Nickelodeon show from the 90s. Oh my gosh, it is like a bad rug rat's spin-off or something. Despite all of your rejections, there have been a couple of alterations to the theme over the years, like in our anthems series. You know what? That slaps, but not an everyday theme song. Also not an everyday theme, our Beethoven miniseries. Pretty sick. Very stern and drong. And then a bunch of times I've just tried to get moody with it. You were deep in your feelings.

Admittedly, it was like deep pandemic when I wrote those three. Yeah, I can tell. It was not good times. year after year you found ways to fail. I'm sorry. I'm kicking you when you're down. Yeah. What makes you think this time will be different, Charlie?

Well, I realize I'm way too close to this original theme, and I thought that maybe if we could get another perspective, that would help. And so I called up an expert on sound design to help me think about how to go about rebranding our show. I'm Dallas Taylor, and I'm a sound designer and own a company called de facto sound, and I also host a podcast about sound called 20,000 Hertz. Dallas will help an organization craft their sonic identity, and so I asked him to break down the various aspects of sonic branding and what we should be considering. So there's a bunch of different things that all branch underneath

the global title of sonic branding. So that can be something like a jingle. I think of a jingle as a short piece of music that has lyrics in it, like Nationwide is on your side, 800580 2,300 Empire There's the theme song You know we're thinking about like The Friends theme song

Where it's like a whole piece of music That's really designed to Give you the time to transition into this world I think of things like an Sonic logo As something that's very short You know like a to do

Like the Netflix thing And then you know you all have other elements that could be considered under this kind of sonic branding idea, like an audio tag. That could be something that is happening at the very end, like the Intel chimes. Those are the main things that I think of under that Sonic branding. And it's interesting because when you reached out about the Switched on Pop, jingle, I would say. It's kind of like between a jingle and a theme song. It does have like a lot of memorability to it.

So my first instinct for anyone is not to lose something that has existed for so long. That would be my gut of the direction to go. Probably less change than you want to make, but enough that you feel satisfied in it. Okay, so per Dallas, I feel like we need to rewrite our jingle, make a longer theme that we could use for our credits, and have some kind of audio tag that we could put at the beginning and end of the show if we need it. But since I have failed so miserably trying to rewrite the theme so many times, here's what I want to propose. I want to hire an actual composer. Wise. Han Zimmer?

I emailed. Not available. I'm not joking. I really did email. Good for you. I also want to keep it about friendship. You know, like, I feel like this is fundamentally about us hanging out and our relationship to music together. That's how it all began. So I want to keep it humble. We don't need Hans. I want to talk to our friend Zach Tenorio, who has played on the show a couple of times.

He scored our festivals episode. Dancing it out with strangers. Those are the most euphoric feelings in the world. People hear his music every single time we play the ad break. That's him on the synthesizer. This year, Zach is nominated for a Grammy for his arranging on Willow's new record. So not just a friend, but acclaimed musician. Zach has been an old pal.

He's in the band, Arch Iris, with our other friend Jossie Adams. He's also an amazing composer, also going to help out in this project. I thought we would hire them to redo our theme music. And I feel like we need to give them some parameters. So I'm just curious, like, what are the things that matter to you that we can give them in a brief? Okay, well, one of my issues with our old theme music is I feel like it's a little long. Way too long. So I feel like one thing, let's keep it nice and quick, right?

I feel like I want to have some continuity. Like, we do have a core melody. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Like, I feel like that is a sonic identity that I don't really want to lose. I would love to have some textures that feel more reflective of what pop music sounds like in 2025.

Well, I kind of want to keep doing this show for like another 10 years with you, and I got it so wrong in 2014. Maybe we could say a little bit more timeless. That works for me. Timeless. I feel like we should also honor the switched onness of our show.

Ah, the Wendy calls. Carlos of it all. Yeah, exactly. We need some synthesizers. Yeah. I mean, after all, Wendy Carlos is switched on Bach is our namesake. It's the most successful classical record. It legitimized the synthesizer. I feel like we have to include that. Okay, so short, timeless, synthesized, but also continuing our original in some way. Okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to call up Zach and Jossi from Ark Iris and let's see what they say. Oh my goodness. Can you take a step? Can you come?

Zach and Jossi were hanging out with their one-year-old baby, who took a few steps on FaceTime for me. Very cute. Do you want to talk vision? Yeah, let's talk about music. I'd love to have a composition where we could draw elements from the composition to be our audio stinger, to be our credits music, to be our intro. little jingle. Because we were tied to Wendy Carlos, it must be, there must be, it must be synthesizers.

I love that. And that actually, I feel like as a palette, that's the most timeless. To me, in 2024, those sounds that Wendy Carlos was making back then

sounds timeless. They sound timeless. And they have been through every decade of pop music. It sounds like a fun challenge. So it's basically, it's just like, sound switched on pop.

music, right? And then like, and then a minute of music. It definitely seems fun. All right. Thanks for thinking this through. All right, yeah. All right, love you all. Bye. So I sent Zach and Jossi off with that brief. And when we come back, we'll hear what they came up with. 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.

Okay. Ready? Ready. Do not sugarcoat something for me. No, no. We'll dive into their stories and get valuable insights from top executives, actors, entrepreneurs, 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

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Outside the library. Okay. So Zach sent me a little audio clip and some inspirational music that I wanted to get your feedback on. Okay. So I gave them a brief of like, you know, shorter, some mogue synthesizers. and he sent back these songs as ideas. First is the song Kid A, off of the record Kid A. I like it.

It's a little avant-garde, a little out there. Okay. But, you know, so is some of our analysis. So that seems appropriate. Okay, the second song that he was interested in was yesterday by no name, specifically the string sense. Those strings really fit our brief of something timeless. They sound kind of classic, but also totally contemporary.

I like it. Okay, cool. The last piece that he sent was Mort Garson's ode to an African Violet. Plantasia, baby. You know, we asked for synthesizers. This is like a classic synth sound that I would be, you know, honored to have as part of our theme music. Okay, so that's the sound palette that he's. he wanted to work with, and he was fiddling around after chatting with him yesterday.

This is the idea. Like, rough sort of demo. Is he going in the right direction? I think it's definitely the right direction. Oh, great. Now, one thing I'm realizing I'm missing is the delineation between the two themes within that short melody. I feel like it's always been sort of, you know, a question and answer.

Switched on pop. like can we still have that sort of back and forth element by changing the the timbre or the harmony somehow yeah i like the call in response that that's the only thing that comes to mind okay cool there's a couple things that i wanted to get your feedback on one was maybe evolving the harmony a little bit so like right now the whole thing is very simple it's just in the key of C, it goes C, B, flat, C. Switch, dawn, pop. Which is very, like...

Medieval. Well, we could do different chords. Like, we could re-harm it. And so, like, one option was to go, like, E-flat, B-flat C. Switch, don't pop. Or you could do, like, the upward approach, A-flat, B, flat, C. Switch, don't pop. I'm probably more partial to the ascending approach reminiscent of

the final cadence of Whitney Houston's 1991 Super Bowl performance of the National Anthem. Which I think is inspired by Jimmy Hendrix's performance of the National Anthem, which does the same thing, but many years earlier. Yeah. I mean, we are an anthemic podcast, so. I thought you said that the first anthem was like, too over the top, but here you are. You wanted to be anthemic. Well, people can change and grow. Maybe I'm feeling more ambitious. Okay, so let's do the A flat, B flat, C.

Yeah, yeah, that's the one. Okay. And then I was thinking that we could play with the rhythm a little bit. I like the switch, don't pop, where there's like a little bit of an anticipation there. Switch, don't pop. Instead of doing the like, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, which is very bluesy.

Maybe make it a little more syncopated. And then slow it down. Nope. I don't like it. You don't like it? No, I think if we change that, it becomes sort of unrecognizable. And I don't know. I don't know.

Something about that syncopation isn't working for me. You don't want to evolve and grow and change? Okay, okay. Fair point, Charlie. If you don't like it, we don't have to do it. I actually like the tail of it. I feel like that has a nice sort of finality to it, whereas if we draw it out, then it just feels kind of draggy to me.

Okay, well, it's not drag. This is all about getting to the point. A few other notes I have. I think we need some kind of like gestures in and out. Right now we have all that like long radio sound. And then at the end of our thing, there's sort of this sweeping high hat. I think we need some kind of just like a little bit of sound gestures that are giving it a little bit more, a tiny bit more gravitas.

Ooh, gravitas. Gravitas, yes. So I think we add some little sound effects here, there. And I guess, like, we're just, like, adding a few other layers. I think it'd be really fun if we had Zach, like, have one moment where you play something, one moment where I play something, you know, just like, to make it a little more personal. Yeah, we should have our fingerprints on that thing. Yeah.

I'll play, like, mandolin or guitar. You'll play some kind of keys. Let's do it. Okay. I think I want to hear some vocals. Yeah, we're a show about pop music, and with some exceptions, it's a vocal art form. So I feel like we need some vocals in there. Okay, so we've got the right direction.

The soundscape is really fun. We're going to try a different harmony. We're going to add some sound effects that gesture in and out of the theme. We'll layer it up with you and me in there a little bit, and find some way of adding some vocals. Sounds like a plan. Okay. Charlie. Zach, we love it.

You love it. And we have a few notes because that's how this works, right? Yes, of course. One of the things that works about the current thing, making them feel a little bit more call. It would be fun if we got Nate and me in there. We do want to put vocals back in. Okay, cool.

Awesome. Thanks, Zach. Yeah, of course. Talks in. In the last couple of days since we caught up, I ran our feedback by Zach. He loved it. I gave you homework.

You wanted me to play the last tag of the theme on, let's see, Irish penny whistle, five-string banjo, and grand piano. Charlie, for whatever reason, I only pick the most annoying instruments to learn. It's something deeply wrong with me. Thank goodness that you can play the piano I know, I know. It's my saving grace. And so I was like, what on earth am I going to do with this? The goal was to add some personality and texture to the synthesizers that Zach and Jossi had given us

as a reminder, this is where they left us off. And of course, everyone thought what that needs is some banjo, some ban on some additional piano. So this is what I did with your material. That's pretty. money. Yeah. A little Easter egg for the heads. Yeah. And when you layer it in, shockingly euphonious. Okay, so your little banjo, flute, piano thing completes the second half of the theme. And I layered together a bunch of guitars for the first half of the theme.

I wanted to complement the sort of funkiness of the synthesizers, but then layer it with some distortion. Yeah. A little Van Halen in there. And this is what it sounds like. with the synths. Love it. But I also asked Zach and Jossi to of course include some vocals. And so we've got Zach and Vocoder, Jossi on lead vocals, and I even buried a little bit of the original vocals that I did as a demo. I'm not going to isolate those. And I also included some of Maria's original harmonies. Okay. And then the last thing is we asked for some sound effects that would swoop in and out. John Caramanica said that we needed some tape sound effects, so I'm sure to get some tape splicing in here.

Wow. And the final theme altogether sounds like. Okay, that's sick. I love it. I love it. How many tracks is this thing? We are currently at, let's see,

we're talking 102 tracks. That is absurd. That's more than like Nikki Minaj's starships. What is going on? How does a six-second jingle have 102 tracks?

Because there's so many layers of synthesizers. I mean, my guitar tracks alone are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 tracks of guitars. Your banjos, flutes, and pianos are all layered twice. All the vocals are stacked like 12 times. The vocoder stacked multiple times. There's just like endless layers that are all just like gently supporting each other. Okay, 102 tracks, 12 critics, five composers. Have we nailed this thing? Have we threaded this needle? Have we corrected a decade of offensive theme music? Well, I played it for some of our earlier critics, and here's what they had to say.

I love the revamp. It's smooth, very suave, while still retaining a bit of the old sound. So love it. Much better. It sounds like the cool, upgraded theme to a Bill Nye, the science guy type show, which is not Off. Charlie, I think this sounds great. Kind of reminds me of the theme song from 3-2-1 Contact, which I love.

So, yeah, thumbs up for me. Yeah, this sounds to me like what a movie in, like, 1983 would have imagined that an answering machine, outgoing message would have sounded like in 2050. Please leave a message for Switched on Pop after the tone. So between three to one contact, Bill and I, the science guy and the futuristic answering machine, I realized that our brief that included heavy amounts of synthesizer makes the whole thing lean towards like PBS soundtrack music. A PBS science after school.

program? Oh my goodness. Which is that not appropriate for what we're doing? I mean, it's probably so subconsciously buried in our synapses that it was only a matter of time before these sounds came out. And yes, that is, I mean, who wouldn't aspire to bring the mix of entertainment and edification that that built? Nye has provided over the years. That's the greatest compliment you could ever get. I'm pleased. The Bill Nye of pop music analysis. But wait, there's more innate. Oh, God.

More tracks? You know, I spoke with Dallas from 20,000 Hertz, and he told us that a podcast doesn't just need a little jingle. It needs a sonic identity. Ooh. And so I was thinking, how could we extract a little, like, bumper sound effect that would play at the beginning

and end of our show or whenever we needed it and I think Zach gave was the perfect material. It's right at the very beginning. I love that. Isn't that cool? It's epic.

The only thing is I feel like it's a little too long. Like I want something super short. So over too many hours I toyed with these sounds which are comprised of a tape stop. A record drop, a cassette tape, a tiny bit of radio static from our original jingle. And just the shortest blip of that synthesizer. And this is what I came up with.

That's going in. And when we're done, audio bumper. We got a Sonic Identity. I don't know if it's done. But I like it. Let me hear it one more time. It's close. It's close.

I like where we're going with it. Yeah. Every time I listen to a podcast or any show, really, I'm going to be thinking about like, okay, so what is this jingle trying to tell me? What does it tell me about the people who made it and the values of this, you know, particular piece of media? And hopefully a bop as well. Hopefully we've created, you know, at least a top 40 billboard hit, if not Hot 100.

Well, on that note, I said that I would get you a jingle. I said that I'd get you a little sonic logo or tag. or bumper, whatever we want to call that, a little thing is. Yeah. But I also said, I'd get you a song. And Zach and Jossi of Arc Iris have delivered. They've given us credits music. Switchedad Pop is produced by Rana Cruz, edited by Art Chung, engineered by Brandon McFarlane,

Illustrations by Iris Gottlie. Oh my God, this slaps. Music by Zach Tenorio and Jossi Adams of Arc Iris. Remember with the Vox Media Podcast Network and a production of Vulture, which is part of New York Magazine. You can subscribe at NYMag.com slash pod. This is epic. This is like what they play, you know,

before you're about to watch a light show at the planetarium or something. It's so fun. What am I supposed to say here? Oh, yeah. Find us on social media at Switchdown Pop. Tell us, I guess, if you must, what you think of our new jingle, maybe what your favorite jingles are. Check on our website, Switchdownpop.com,

where you can sign up for our newsletter. And buy some merch, you know, we made a sale. I think we sold a mug, Charlie. This is huge, you know. I don't want to play fairies, but arguably the best piece of merch on there is the mug. It's got bright yellow interior. It's pretty eye-catching. I guess all it's left to say is that we back again next Tuesday, back to our regular pop music.

And until then, thanks for listening.