Why Does Every Intro Sound Like It's Underwater? (Live)

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2019

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ever notice that wobbly, drunken and underwater sound common in so many contemporary pop songs? In an era of pristine recording quality, music producers are referencing old and impure technologies to add character to their recordings. Digital cassette hiss, tape wobble, and vinyl crackle are intentionally added to productions as a facsimile of "authentic" recording technology. Why the sudden nostalgia? Where does this underwater sound come from? What does it mean? How is it made? Find out on a live episode of Switched On Pop, recorded at Recode's annual Code conference with guest host Estelle Caswell, creator of Vox's Earworm video series. Listen to Estelle's Spotify playlist of underwater intros. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	First, sweet tarts dare to combine sweet and tart, but they didn't stop there.
0:06.0	Now they've combined soft and bouncy to bring you new sweet tarts, gummy fruity splits.
0:12.0	A uniquely delicious dual-sided gummy with one side that's sweet, and the other side that's tart.
0:19.0	But entirely smooth and squishy.
0:22.0	A powerfully perfect combo.
0:24.0	Sweet tarts dare to combine.
0:30.0	Sweet tarts dare to combine.
0:33.0	Sweet tarts dare to combine.
0:36.0	Sweet tarts dare to combine.
0:40.0	Welcome to Switched On Pop.
0:42.0	I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.
0:44.0	And I'm Estelle Caswell, a video producer at Vox, and I make a show called Earworm.
0:49.0	Okay, so every couple of years in music, things will converge around a sound.
0:56.0	And you and I bumped into this sound at the exact same moment.
1:00.0	You shared a playlist with me a few weeks ago.
1:02.0	Right.
1:03.0	What did you call it?
1:04.0	I called it the wobbly underwater intro.
1:07.0	And I immediately wrote back with a playlist that I sent to you, which I called the Ambian intro.
1:14.0	And there's this thing where all of music seems to be starting with this like wobbly underwater drunken sound.
1:23.0	Yeah, everything sounds like it was recorded 15 feet in a swimming pool.
1:28.0	And it's very low and deep and wobbly and muddy.
	...

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