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Switched on Pop

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

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Commentary, Music, Music Interviews, Music History

4.62.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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The rise of mutual aid in times of crisis.

0:26.4

That's this week on Explain It to Me.

0:28.7

New episodes, Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts.

0:34.9

I got in the water in the very early morning before the sun had risen, and the water was pitch black.

0:42.2

I started swimming, and I felt the water hollowing out around me and felt like something really big was swimming below.

0:51.7

I'm Phoebe Judge, and this is love. A show about the surprising things that love

0:57.5

can make us do. More than 100 episodes available now on This Is Love.

1:09.0

Welcome to Switch on Pop. I'm producer Rihanna Cruz.

1:15.6

I'm musicologist Nate Sloan.

1:18.0

Nate, I'm a big movie guy.

1:20.1

Coincidentally, on the movie topic, it is the middle of February, and thus we're in the

1:25.1

Throws of Award season, specifically Oscar season.

1:33.5

The 98th Academy Awards are less than a month away, and something of note for this year in

1:39.6

particular is that the leading Best Picture nominee, the film with the most Oscar nominations

1:43.8

of all time,

1:45.3

has a pretty heavy focus on music.

1:47.8

And I'm talking about Ryan Coogler's sinners,

1:51.7

16 nominations.

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