‘Sinners’ summons the demons of American music

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We rarely cover movies here at Switched On Pop. But after seeing Ryan Coogler's new vampire musical Sinners, we knew we had to make an exception. The movie is an ode to Black music. Throughout its over two hour runtime, the film pays tribute to the blues: nodding to the musicians, instruments, and melodies that make it a foundational genre in the American musical canon. There's also Irish folk vampires, original music from Ludwig Göransson, and a whole lot of history – perfect for Charlie and Nate to sink their teeth into. MORE Subscribe to our newsletter to receive your own bingo card! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Get ready for a game changer.
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0:27.7	forward slash express.
0:33.1	Welcome to Switched on Pop.
0:38.8	I'm musicologist Nate Sloan.
0:41.0	And I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.
0:42.2	And today on the pod we are talking about Sinners, the hit horror film written and directed by Ryan Coogler.
0:48.6	And you know, it's so rare that I think about a movie for weeks after seeing it.
0:53.1	And Sinners is one of those rare films.
0:55.9	Yes, it is not often on the pod that we talk movies.
1:00.1	I mean, maybe there's a handful of times.
1:01.5	We talked about Wicked, obviously, a movie musical.
1:03.9	I think we talked about Barbie.
1:06.0	This is a little different than those because I feel like those movies produce songs that became
1:11.9	pop cultural anthems in their own right. But Sinners is different. I don't think there's
1:16.5	going to be a hit song that emerges from this film. And yet this movie might do more than
1:22.4	any other cinema, certainly in the 21st century, to advance arguments about how we should listen to music,
	...

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