Switched on Pop

Will Sinners do for blues what O Brother did for bluegrass?

Switched on Pop

Show Notes

It's the middle of award season, and Ryan Coogler's ode to the Black music canon Sinners has emerged as the Oscars frontrunner and the most nominated film in Academy Awards history. The love the movie has for the Delta blues is front and center, and begs the question: will the movie's legacy help bring the blues back into popular culture? There's already been a precedent for films reviving dead genres – think The Sting and its ragtime score, or O Brother Where Art Thou's relationship to bluegrass – and on this episode of Switched On Pop, Reanna and Nate talk with Vulture writer Fran Hoepfner about the times in which movie soundtracks have shifted the musical culture.

Read Fran's piece on movie scoring, The Death of the Classic Film Score, here.

Songs discussed:

Miles Caton – I Lied to You

Bee Gees – Stayin' Alive

Underworld – Born Slippy (Nuxx)

Marvin Hamlisch – The Entertainer

Wu-Tang Clan – Fast Shadow

Bee Gees – More Than A Woman

Whitney Houston – I Have Nothing

Harry McClintock – The Big Rock Candy Mountain

Alison Krauss – Down To The River To Pray

The Soggy Bottom Boys – I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow

*NSYNC – Bye Bye Bye

The Brian Setzer Orchestra – Jump Jive An' Wail

Cab Calloway – Minnie the Moocher

Royal Crown Revue – Hey Pachuco!

Caravan Palace – Lone Digger

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy – Go Daddy O

Squirrel Nut Zippers – Hell

Fergie, Q-Tip, GoonRock – A Little Party Never Killed Nobody

Lana Del Rey – Young And Beautiful

Max Richter – On the Nature of Daylight

Kavinsky – Nightcall

College, Electric Youth – A Real Hero

M83 – Midnight City

The Weeknd – Take My Breath

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