Switched on Pop - The year that killed music (best and worst of 2025)

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

From big-ticket albums by Taylor and Gaga, to a revival of the stomp-clap revival – 2025 had it all, for better and for worse. Now that the year has come to a close, it's time to take a look back at the past twelve months: what happened in the zeitgeist, what we loved listening to, and what we missed here on the show. Reanna, Charlie, and Nate talk about it all, including a look back at our predictions from January to check off boxes for Switched On Pop bingo. Links: Newsletter, YouTube Songs discussed: Taylor Swift – The Fate of Ophelia Alex Warren – Ordinary HUNTR/X – Golden Morgan Wallen – I'm The Problem Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga – Die With A Smile Bruno Mars – 24K Magic ROSÉ, Bruno Mars – APT. Olivia Dean – Man I Need Ravyn Lenae – Love Me Not Justin Bieber, Dijon – DEVOTION Bon Iver, Dijon, Flock of Dimes – Day One Dijon – Baby! Dijon – Yamaha CA7RIEL – SHIPEA2 Paco Amoroso – Viuda Negra CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso – EL ÚNICO - Live at NPR MUSIC's Tiny Desk CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso – EL DÍA DEL AMIGO CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso – #TETAS Breaking Rust – Walk My Walk Jack Black – Steve's Lava Chicken Saja Boys – Soda Pop Snocaps – Coast Miley Cyrus – Something Beautiful Bad Bunny – DtMF MOLIY, Shenseea, Silent Addy, Skillibeng – Shake It To The Max (FLY) - Remix 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 am producer Rianna Cruz. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. All right. Charlie, Nate, we've made it to the end of 2025. Woo! It's been a year.

It's been one of the worst, straight up. Well, it depends what categories we're talking about. All of them. People have said, no, no, no. There has been good music. Okay, okay, yes. Music-wise, there's some good things. And I hope we can talk about them because, man, I need something to sort of cleanse my palate for this year. Yeah, I think we got to stick musically here. In 2025, we had new albums from Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.

Crazy that they use that for the closing credits of Hamnet. Yeah. Weird, weird choice, but, you know, okay. I think this supports your claim of it not being a totally great year, Nate. We had a revival of the Stomp Climb. clap revival. Hey, Stomp, clap revival revival.

I'm looking at you, Alex Warren. Stop. Clap. Stop. I don't want to like it, but I do. I'm sorry.

Weddings have never been the same. I actually think it's a pop. We have the surprise pop hit of the year coming from an animated Netflix movie, K-pop demon hunters. I'm talking about the trio Huntrix and their song Golden.

It's so good. Highs and lows, people. Hyes and lows. Talk about highs and lows. That song has just the biggest vocal range from the low to the high. I love it so much. Ordinary and golden. Surprising connection.

United by the rhythmic power of the 12-8 shuffle. Maybe that's one of the themes of 2025. But sorry, Rihanna, please continue. A lot of things happened musically this year. Not to pat ourselves on the back, right? but we've covered a lot of it here. And I'd like to take this episode as an opportunity to revisit the past 12 months in music,

what happened, what we missed here on the show. And perhaps most importantly, I know everyone was waiting for this one. What we can check off are switched on pop bingo cards. Yes, long awaited. Oh, yeah. I know everybody was sitting there, blotter in hand, waiting to get into it.

Fear not, we will be talking. and bingo. But first, I think it makes sense to start with an overview. I think each of us could give one thing that 2025 illuminated musically. Nate, what is your big takeaway from this year? My big takeaway is that like it or not, we are living in country, country. And if the idea that country is the most popular and dominant genre in the U.S. in 2025 doesn't upset you, maybe this will. The most important artists of the past year was Morgan Wallen. Why might the name Morgan Wallen be triggering for some folks? Well, he's had a troubled history of racial politics.

And as we just heard in this song, he kind of owns his reputation as a divisive figure in culture. If we want to account for country's popularity, certainly part of it is a larger rightward turn in our country. But at the same time, this genre has become more expansive and more complex than maybe at any other point in its history. So there's a lot happening here. But yeah, Morgan Wallen, you cannot deny his success this year, just 24 hours before this recording, Billboard named him their top artist of 2025, the first male country artist to be named as such in 30 years. Wow. And they had some impressive stats. He had more Billboard Hot 100 charting songs than any other artist, 41 in total. And he had nine reach the top 10. He's had a number of interesting

collabs with folks like the aforementioned Tate McCray, Lil Durk, Post Malone. And as we've said on the pod before, I mean, whatever you feel about this artist, there's a formula here. So we're living in a country world, but also country means more things than it ever has. So that's an interesting development in 2025. And that's why it's my pick for one of the most notable things to happen. You know, I think that 2025 proves that millennials are having staying power. Whether they have any cultural credibility, I'm not sure. They do top the charts. just look at the year-end top singles from Billboard. We've got Die With a Smile, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Luther, Kendrick Lamar and Siza, a bar song, Shibuzi, lose control, Teddy Swims, he's a millennial. So a lot of music has had staying power, we should say. I think probably the person that probably best represents that is Bruno Mars.

It has been nearly a decade since Bruno put out 24-kart magic. He, of course, put out an evening with Silk Sonic with Anderson Park back in 2021, but we haven't had a Bruno Mars solo album since, 2016, and yet he has the top song of the year. Wow. Die with a smile with Lady Gaga. The song came out in August of 2024. It's still topped Billboard's 2025 year-end list.

And, of course, he has Apata as well with Rose. And I'm looking forward to a new Bruno solo album because clearly he's still got what it takes. Can we hear a little bit of Apata? We have a generational crossover here with the artist, Rose A from Black Pink. Rose, born in 1997, is the cutoff year for Gen Z. And we also have a global collaboration, obviously, crossing over K-pop, American pop, soul. Why not? I love what he brings.

In that spirit, I think one of the most underrated tracks of the year was this little song he released entirely in Portuguese called Bonde do Brunau, which was just meant to tease his Brazil tour, but is like an indelible bop. Have you guys heard that? No. the charts because my biggest takeaway folds into what the both of you have brought up. 2025 to me was the year the billboard charts got stale. The most static year in recent memory on the Hot 100, so much so that Billboard literally had to change its rules in October to spice up the chart. Songs like Teddy Swims lose control, which previously had spent two years on the Hot 100 are finally gone. on. We got some new blood in there. It's a welcome change. And of course, the chart still has a ton

of issues, mainly stemming from how it charts streaming heavy music, and also the fact that they now become unusable every December due to the deluge of seasonal Christmas music. But nonetheless, hey, back off of Mariah. This is her world. She's here to claim it. She's the queen of Christmas. Hey, I love Mariah as much as the next guy. Don't get me wrong. But I'm curious to see how the new billboard rules play out. Once last Christmas stops being every fourth song on the radio, and we get some new blood on the Hot 100 come January. I think the charts have potential to be spiced up in the new year. And speaking of New Blood, even though the three of us try our hardest cover everything new and exciting in the pop music world, sometimes things do fall through the

cracks. We aren't infallible curators here on Switched on Pop. No. So as this year comes, comes to a close, I thought I'd open up the floor and give us the space to each evangelize one artist that missed the cut for a solo episode of Switched on Pop this year. Nate, I throw it to you. Why don't you take it away? Rihanna, DJ Costanza, can you head over to the turntables and cue up a little bit of my favorite artists that we missed this year? Let's hear Man I Need by Olivia Dean.

Olivia Dean was born in 1999. So Charlie. Genzy. Genzy, yes. Twin. It's their future. It's not ours. Let's be clear.

And yet, what a classic throwback soul sound we're hearing. In some ways, I feel like the sound is connected to trends that we've talked about. Maybe not at the top of the charts, but maybe more in like the middle of the charts that throwback soul sound that we've been hearing in artists like Amber Mark and Raven L'nai. But Olivia Dean has had a level of success greater than those artists and kind of surprising as well. She didn't come out of nowhere exactly. But this year, she emerged in a way that few people saw coming. British alumni of the Brit School, which is well known for its pedigree for producing, especially female soul singers, like, let's see, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Jesse DeL,

Jesse J. Not too shabby of an alumni group to be a part of. And I feel like in some ways she carries on this tradition. Her music is very vocal forward. It's so much about how she performs and how she gives each word so much character and depth. She's an amazing performer. And this track has this kind of cool, steady propulsion that once it starts, you just kind of have to listen through to completion

and then you need to restart it and listen again and again and again. It's a little bit addictive. Part of that, I think, is the harmonic structure. Nate, is that that 12-8 groove that you were talking about? Oh, my goodness, Charlie, there it is again. The 12-8 shuffle strikes back. The year of the shuffle. Take-a-de-de-de-de-de-de-deck it to-deck it.

One, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five, six. Add it up, you get 12. Yes, indeed, there it is. And not even what I was going to talk about, but I'm glad you noticed that. I was going to talk about the fact that this song, I believe, is in the key of D-flat major, but we hardly ever hear a D-flat major chord. Mostly, it just moved from D-flat major in first inversion, so kind of a weak chord, to the four-cord, the sub-dominant, G-flat major.

That's what we hear throughout most of the song. this chord like high above the tonic. It feels like you're floating up in the air as you listen. And there's a moment where it comes down to earth a little bit in the pre-chorus. We get a little hint of the tonic chord there, but then we blow it by it right back to that four subdominant chord. Even if you don't understand what those labels mean, I think you experience that feeling of sort of like feeling weightless,

kind of like you would when you're meeting someone. who seems right and you want it to work out. This is a song about communication, about trying to preserve that effervescent feeling of meeting just like the perfect someone. And it's kind of surprising to me given when we've just been talking about, you know, the dominance of country, the dominance of these, you know, millennial mainstays that this song would break through in this way. But I love it. And I'm excited to see what's next for Olivia Dean. So we have the smooth stylings of Olivia Dean, courtesy of Nate. Charlie, who are you repping today?

Oh, you know, I wouldn't do the thing where you say choose one thing and then I'm going to choose three. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't say that Rays, whereas my husband is my favorite song of the year. I wouldn't say that my top album was Who's the Clown by Audrey Hobert? I don't need to because I'm interviewing her on Monday. We'll feature that later. but I will say that I think the artist that did not get their due on the pod, who has really had a special 2025, is the artist Dijon.

Dijon has been making music for a minute. He has worked with Brock Hampton. He co-produced one of my favorite songs, Pink Diamond by Charlie XX, but he's been releasing music on his own with his debut album called Absolutely in 2021. And he has this sound that to me, sounds like bedroom R&B. Now, so much R&B is music for the bedroom, but it's not about that. It's like if you take the feeling of bedroom pop where it's like indie music made at home, it's a little lo-fi, it's not as polished around the edges. It has that that homespun made in your bedroom quality. And he is pulling from oftentimes sounds of really romantic sort of 80s R&B ballads, which are the most produced songs. And doing them in this very hybrid form that feels super contemporary. He is a collaborator with McGee this year worked on Justin Bieber's Swag One and Swag Two.

Dijon is featured on Justin Bieber's song, Devotion. We should listen to that. That's Dijon in the background. That's Dijon in the background. He was also featured one of my favorite albums of the year, Bonie Ver's Sable Fable, and on the song Day One. So off I had taken all that I can't sing. Both of these songs also highlight the gospel influence in his work, the sort of community

sing along, sung at the absolute top of the dynamic range. We heard in the introduction of his work, The Track Baby. Dejan wrote the song about becoming a father. become a pop star in his mid-30s. What's up, Millennials? And I love this track because it documents the welcoming of his child into the world, first describing meeting his child's mother, their first date, and ends with like literally the birthing scene in the hospital. The doctor's like, your baby's coming. And he's like, the baby, my baby is here. What a beautiful thing. My baby. And the term baby shifts from a sort of romantic feeling to a feeling of unconditional love. It's a gorgeous

thing. So that's baby off of his sophomore album, Baby from this year. He's having such a great year. And I think he is clearly making a kind of sound that we haven't heard in a minute. It's both this reclamation of that big 80s ballady thing. And it's also making it really approachable. And he's clearly a connoisseur of this sound. There's no. no better example, that his song Yamaha, which is titled after the Yamaha DX7, which was the keyboard most popularized in the 1980s. He makes the electronic sounds of the overproduced 80s sound completely organic. Expect to hear a lot more from Dijon in 2026 and beyond. All right. Both of y'all talked about smooth R&B-esque music with Olivia Dean and Dijon.

I'm going to take it in a slightly different direction and talk about Latin music real quick. The dominant narratives in Latin music this year, we've mentioned on the show before. I'm talking Bad Bunny. I'm talking Fueza Rehira. But there's a group that I've wanted to talk about on the show for a while now. And that's the Argentinian duo Ketriel and Paco Amaroso. They're relatively new together. However, they've been making music separately for a while now, each having their own little vibe going.

Here are each of their songs from 2021. This is Ketriel's Chipea dos. A little funky vibe going. And here's Paco Amoroso's Biula Negra. What? You got to thread this needle between Neo-Sul throwback and 90s house music. This is fun. Oh, and I will.

So they've operated separately, ushered in a new wave of urban. been music in Buenos Aires, where they're from. But as a duo, they've been the Latin music underdogs of 2025. They blew up from an incredible NPR Tiny Desk last October. Yeah. Incredible fusing here of pop, Latin music, hip hop, jazz, Neo Soul, everything under the sun we got. Fun. And even though their debut album came out in 2024, the Tiny Dusk propelled them to massive

success in 2025, and they followed it up with the release of their EP Papota, which netted them five Latin Grammys, including a win in Best Pop Song for their track El Di A Del Amigo. But the track that I want to talk about today won them the Latin Grammy for Best Alternative song, and that's the track, hashtag Tetas. So Catrielle and Paco Amaroso project a heavily ironic image, but Even within a song that could be as goofy as hashtag Tetas, they're doing things musically that really are so addicting. Tetaz basically has everything that I like about the duo in one package.

So right from the get-go, we get a very tongue-and-cheek intro with this fake producer named Jimbolland, not Timbaland, that is telling the duo what they need to do to become famous. That's good. Bigger audience, muscles, sports cars, you know, later Paco Amaroso sings,

I'm going to do a glow-up, you're my vibe check, look at my body, feel my Botox, et cetera, et cetera. It's all a bit. But it's over this funky baseline with these cool pianos

that gives the track this bounce, right? And that's the formula. It's a track that's silly. but also musically advanced. And here we kind of got each of their voices, right? Pago's voice is much more gravely. It hooks the ear, and K.TRALs is smoother, and it gives a nice dynamic of contrast between the two of them.

Each of them are musically distinct. Another thing I love about them is their ability to switch it up on a dime, and I think this track, hashtag Tetas, contains a couple of satisfying musical shifts as we move into the chorus. by the Dab, pop. Come to cast that. I don't know. Because sit detas.

The tie back to Dijon, I think I'm hearing an homage to the Yamaha DX7 in there. Oh, the DX7. Hell yeah. The E-Piano One sound. So good. Identified by Megan Lavingood as possibly the most important synthesizer sound of the 1980s. In 1986, it appeared on 40% of the Billboard Hot 100 songs. So, yeah.

Wow. I think it's funny using it on a song like this, you know, where they're kind of reverse engineering this pop anthem, you know, like the bit is that they're creating the song that can appeal to everybody. And using the DX7 on a track like this is kind of like a winking nod to, I know this song can be successful because of the instruments I am using on it. Well, which is funny because, yes, it would have been successful by the criteria of completely out-of-touch A&R in a certain way.

Exactly. Exactly. It's funny. Like, basically, if you went back three years ago, the DX7 was still a really corny sound to use because it had been so overdone for so long. And now it kind of actually is cool again. The A&R thing, I think, is funny too because they have a short film to go with this EP. And the character of Jimbaland is sourcing these ideas from chat GPT. So it makes sense. There's even a beautiful hooky key change that users us into the final chorus. that has been in my head all year. Is it crazy that I feel like this is as if 90s Max Martin worked with a Latin Kenny Loggins? I could see that. I was going to say it's like you mashed up kind of the last like 30, 40 years of music in one song. You know, we have the record scratches. There's the little adlips that they're doing that are very Britney Max Martin-esque.

Like, teteas, like in the background. It's all really, really great. And it's supposed to be a super shallow pop song, but it pays off because it's such an earworm. So fun. I'm excited to see what Catrielle and Paco Amaroso do in the new year. They have a new record coming out. They were recently featured on a Fred Again song.

So I think they're going to blow up even more than they have this year. And I'll leave you on that note for the first half. That was some of our favorite music in 2025. You've got to check out Dijon, Olivia Dean, and Catriel and Paco Amoroso. Also, when we come back from break, I know you've all been waiting for this one, we'll check back in with our switched on pop bingo and see what boxes we could check off. 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.

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New episodes drop Wednesdays on YouTube or in your favorite. podcast app. All right, way back in January, the three of us put our heads together and established the inaugural switched on pop bingo, a way for us to make some outlandish pop predictions and for our listeners to vigilantly follow the charts so that we could check off some boxes. Since the year is over, I think it's time for us to finally revisit the cards. We've noted a couple boxes being checked off throughout the year. But I think this is an opportunity for us to let the people know what they're allowed to check off.

And maybe they could submit it for a reward to be determined. You know, an internal sense of musical superiority, general good vibes, feeling like you love pop music. Is that the reward? This is not a, just be clear, this is not a sweepstakes. No, no. You get a pat on the back. Yeah, we legally need to say that because otherwise we'll get in trouble with the FCC. But yes, we will find some way to appropriately laud those who have completed B-I-N-G-O.

How do we want to do this, Rihanna? Do we want to go through the grid one by one? Do we want to kind of focus on some of the most exciting squares to have materialized in 2025? Well, thankfully, we had a listener. Send us her very thorough review of the bingo card. I'll let her take it away. Hey, switch drum pop. It's Kate from London, huge fan of the show.

Hey, Kate. Hello. I am a total nerd and so thought it would be fun to do a recap of your 2025 bingo card predictions. Yes, this is how I spend my free time. So, you have. Supergroup. Snowcaps came out this year. Crutchfield Sisters Assemble.

Nice. Return of the music video. Taylor Swift released the fate of Ophelia in actual cinemas, and it has over 150 million plays on YouTube. AI songs hitting number one, that breaking rust thing. The triple album. Well, I'm The Problem by Morgan Wallen, clocked in at a huge 13. seven songs. There he is again.

Over a thousand songs have now joined the Billions Club on Spotify, and on the other hand, the Spotify boycott is definitely on. Steve's Lava Chicken hits potentially three bingo squares, video game song, kinder, brain rock pop, definitely, and sub two-minute hit, definitely. It packs a lot in for 34 seconds. The return of the boy band, may I present the Saja Boys?

And while we're on that subject, K-pop Demon Hunters also hits the bingo square for movie tie-in. 90s revival, well, I'm British, so of course it has to be the return of oasis. Trance is also alive and well in 2025. The genre is everywhere from FCA Twigs to Nina Jarachi to Addison Ray. Legacy bomb, you did an episode about it recently, but unfortunately this year, it's Myly Cyrus's turn. And Beef continues to make hits with Tate McCrae's tip-for-tat hitting the top five on your Hot 100. By my count, that's 13 out of 24. Not bad at all.

Thanks. Bye. Oh my goodness Kate from the UK bringing the heat That was amazing Pretty thorough But let's recap I want to start with the things That she mentioned

That we could check off With total certainty I think return to the music video The videos for Taylor Swift's album Life of a Showgirl Being in theaters Is enough basis for me to count it I think I presented that prediction

And I feel like it's safe to check off I would concur Should we all say, what do we say when we all agree on a square? We say, bingo. No, no, we can't say bingo because it's not bingo. We say, here, pop. Pop. It's pop.

Sweet. Popin off. Return to the music video, it's pop. It's pop. AI hits the charts, the country track that she mentioned, Walk by A.I. Project Breaking Rust, did hit number one on the Billboard Country Digital Song Sales chart. You can kick rocks if you don't.

Like how I talk I'm gonna keep on talking And walk my walk Ain't changing my tone Ain't changing my song I was born this way Been loud too long I think that's enough to count

It's pop for me Pop I'm sure we'll be talking Much more about AI in 26 1,000 songs did hit The Billion Streams Club That was one of Charlie's predictions It's Pop

It's Pop People are also boycotting Spotify as we've talked about that's pop as well. Pop. And due to Steve's Lava Chicken, Kate's right. I think we could check off video game song. I think it's a loophole, but it fits.

Brain rot pop and sub two minute hit. It's pop to all of those. I got two pops on this one. I'm two for three because I recall that Charlie was looking for the actual lyrics brain rot in a song. Is that right, Charlie? Or were you just thinking more generally about brain rot? Hold on. I have to go back and fact check myself. I said, From the Bloodhound Gang to Baby Shark, novelty hits reflect their cultural moment.

Internet culture's surreal humor hasn't had its defining song yet. That was my prediction. Okay, I stand corrected. It was more the concept of BrainRot and Steve's love and chicken fits. So yeah, okay, I'm back. I'm pop. Three pops for that. Saja Boys, the song Soda Pop from K-pop Demon Hunters. hits our boy band box It's pop there Not in the way I I expected it but yeah

Pop, absolutely I think we could prep some predictions for 2026 based on the popularity of K-pop Demon Hunters I know I'm pulling for more animated pop artists in the coming year But nonetheless, massive movie tie-in as well from K-pop demon hunters

It's Pop We got Huntrix, we got Saja Boys, check that one off And I think I'll throw 90s revival in its pop as well. I think Oasis had a really massive year with their reunion tour. And as the resident Gen Z, I did see Oasis everywhere. It was a phenomenon in my community. So I think I'll give 90s revival in its pop. Pop. And of course, more lyrical beefs. We've talked about it on the show. Nate, you did an episode about Tate McCray's song Tit for Tat. And also Lily Allen's album, West End Girl, which is a different type of beef. But I would give the more lyrical beef section. A Duane Reed bag full of beef. Oh, yeah. That's certainly pop. Pop. Pop. So the question is, here are the more dubious bingo cards that Cade has brought up. The first thing Kate mentioned was our prediction for a supergroup to hit the top 40. Kate mentions the duo Snowcaps of Allison and Katie Crutchfeld. I think it's

technically a supergroup, but we did say that a supergroup needs to hit the top 40. What do you guys think? This is, so is the supergroupness of it, the two Crutchfield sisters together? Yeah, yeah. So they've never worked together before. They've worked together before. I'm pretty sure. At least I feel like they've been, like, co-writers before.

Nevertheless, maybe that's, that is not significant. I'm more concerned about, like, the ontology of the supergroup itself versus whether they, They were on the top 40. I guess regardless of whether we see Snowcaps are as a super group, they're an awesome group. Right. The fact that they didn't hit the charts suggest that this is not pop. Yeah. We didn't have a silksonic moment.

Right. While I want to say that Huntricks is a super group, because every one of the stars there is there an individual star, even though they're animated characters. No, but they weren't. No, no. No, no. No, no. I don't think we have a super group. No.

I don't think that one is crossed off. So that one's not pop. Next point of dubious contention is Morgan Wallens, I'm the Problem, a triple album. So this was my prediction in the original bingo episode. I said 40 tracks or three discs. Kate makes a good point that I'm the problem clocks in at 37. Oh, my God. Do we throw people this bone?

I don't know. I said, okay, we've talked about this, Rana. Here's the problem with he's the, it's the problem. I'm sorry. The problem is that Morgan Wallen previously put out the album Dangerous, which he said was a double album. And if you go to streaming sites, it's actually a double album. There's like a disc one and a disc two. When you listen to On the Problem, that is a singular album on streaming sites.

Yet, when you buy the vinyl, it requires three whole discs to fit all 37 tracks. So it is not a self-designated triple album. And yet, it technically, by its physical media is a triple album. So I don't know. What do you think? I'm going pop on this one. 37 songs is so many songs.

I mean, it is a staggering number of songs. It is not quite 40, but I mean, it's too much music. It's got to be pop. I'm going to say it's pop. It's pop. Just because we can't count out physical media. I'm a big physical media connoisseur. And the fact that it takes three.

to hold all of this music, I think that's enough on it. Triple album, yeah. I'm willing to throw an its pop to the triple album. Agreed. Legacy Act bum. Do we count Miley Cyrus? It sucks to say because as we've discussed, like a few times on the pod, we love that album, something beautiful.

Correct. All the experimental sounds, the contributions from L.A. based jazz musicians, the production work from folks like Jonathan Rado out of the indie world. But no, this thing did not perform as expected, especially coming on the heels of her hit flowers, one of the kind of massive successes of the last five years. So unfortunately, I think it's a flop and thus a pop as well. It's pop.

It's pop. And Kate didn't mention it in hers, but I wanted to ask you, no new genre sweeping the charts. I don't think people can check that one off. I think things have been pretty stagnant, as previously talked about. There's definitely not a dominant sound that has happened. Like, I'm sure when we look back to 2025, we will be able to say, oh, this thing was happening, but it didn't take off. Nothing new took off.

So including no new genre. The other things that didn't pan out included the Spanish language number one to hit. Shame. Bad bunnies de be tiramas photos. The title track only managed to hit number two. Ooh, so close. Maybe in 2026. There was no alien concept record. I thought that was an interesting prediction we had made. I forgot about that. As far as I know, there was no entry to the world of oligarch pop. Sorry, Charlie.

Oh, no, we had one. There was one. Laura Trump. Is that who you're thinking of? Didn't Laura Trump put out a song? She did. Sadly. Let's not even. No days off with French Montana. All right. So that one's pop. You can check it off. Sadly. It's Bob. Even though I did enjoy Drake's collaboration record with Party Next Door, some sexy songs for you, one of my favorite albums this year, regrettably.

He did not go country in 2025. No. Shocking, but no. And even though the Afro Pop song, Shake It to the Max by Molly, was one of my favorite tracks this year. It peaked at number 44 on Billboard. It did not make it into the top five. on the Hot 100, as we predicted for Afro Geats.

So that's a not pop. There was no J-pop hit as well. Can't knock that off. And thankfully, no dead artist revival through AI, to my knowledge, at the very least. For now. On that note, I just saw that the country artist Lainey Wilson released Winter Wonderland, I think, or some Christmas song featuring Bing Crosby. but I don't think it's like an AI simulation of Bing Crosby. I think it's just literally like the original recording he did of said song layered in in a duet with Lany Wilson.

So that's been done before, you know, like Natalie Cole singing with Mack and Cole, for instance. You know, I don't think that is exactly what we're talking about. So at this point, yeah, not a pop for that. Most upsettingly, though, I think we were all pulling for this one. Unfortunately, there were no. The kazoo, yeah. On the hot 100. I don't know.

Maybe we weren't listening quite closely. Someone's good. Dejohn's going to whip out a kazoo in 2026 for sure. That was my most ridiculous prediction. I was pulling for it, though. We're talking crosstown traffic. Like, there have been big kazoo moments that should happen again. Deep.

That's cool. Can you name one other? I'll be right back. Is there like some Peter and Paul and Mary business with a kazoo perhaps? I would love something a little bit more contemporary. Mary. Needs to come back around. That's what I'm talking about.

So we made 24 predictions altogether. Correct. Because there's a free square in the center of the bingo board, as we all know. And by Kate's incredibly diligent tally, right? We didn't deviate from her tally at all, right? Do we add anything to that? Oligarch pop. Oligarque Park.

So that puts us up to what, 14 out of 24 in terms of our predictions? Hold on. I think we stayed at 13 because we didn't count the supergroup. That is more than half, technically. We're batting above 50%. I mean, are we oracles of pop music? I don't know. Not mad about it.

Not mad about it at all. That was a fun exercise. I mean, it's wild to think back to January, how young we were. How much hope and optimism we still had. And now here we are, 12 months later, jaded husks of our former selves. slouching towards the end of the year, praying somehow things improve in 2026, and perhaps they will. There's always next year. Wow, I did not mean to end this on such a sour note.

I forgot there was nothing else left, and that can't be the last thing we hear. Karad de Levine is a co-writer on that Dijon song, Yamaha. How about that? That's pretty funny. That's pretty awesome. I noticed that when I was looking it up when we were talking about it. It's kind of random and fun. There's some hope for the new year, which is that before we even get there, we get to do our favorite thing every year, which is review the ridiculous new holiday songs.

That's going to be coming up. That is going to be fun. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That does cheer me up a little bit, Charlie. Okay. Okay.

You did it. You put a smile on my face. Rana, I love this review that you've done for us, though. You have taken us through some really fun music. And it's brightened my year a little bit as well. Yeah. I'm a big fan of the retrospective. And based on what I've heard, the things entering my ears, I'm honestly, all things.

considered quite excited about the direction pop music is going in. We've had a lot of legacy type flops this year, but there were also some surprises that were previously not on my radar. And if this is any indication, I'm excited to be swept off my feet by the new underground pop sensations that will hit in 2026. Okay, so just to be clear, if you think you have a winning bingo card, send it to us at submissions at switchonpop.com. And we'll come up with something to celebrate your tenacity and attention to the poposphere. If you want to disagree with any of our selections, we would love to hear it.

Did we miss a supergroup? Did we miss a kazoo cameo? Tell us. Find us on EOD's social media at Switched on Pop. And if you haven't yet, now is a great time to sign up for our newsletter. Go to SwitchonPop.com or find a link in the show notes. You can just pop your email address in, get a substack from us.

Used to be every week. And then just to take you behind the scenes a little bit, tried to go to a doctor's appointment. And he does a lot of the stuff behind the scenes like newsletters and YouTube channels and all that. So he's been busy making the YouTube channel, which means we haven't had as many newsletters recently. But we are going to send one out with some more of our favorite things from 2025 that we didn't get to discuss on the pod.

So pop your email into our website to receive that as a little end of 2025 treat for yourself. And yeah, since it came up, check out our YouTube channel. We're posting videos up there, interviews, podcasts. It's another really fun way to engage with our show. That was a lot, Nate. Thanks, Rihanna. Here, I got it from here. Switched on Pop is produced by Rihanna Cruz, edited by Lysa.

Soap, engineered by Brandon McFarland, illustrated by Iris Gottlieb. Our theme music is by Jossie Adams and Zach Tenario of Arc, Iris. We are a member of the Vox Media Podcast Network and a production of Vulture, which is part of New York Magazine, and you could subscribe at nymag.com slash pod. And I think all that remains for us to say is thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Where the hell did he come from? What the...

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