This Sunday, The Weeknd will perform his distinctly dark brand of pop at the Super Bowl halftime show. On the surface, the alter-ego of Abel Tesfaye is a strange pick for the ostensibly family-friendly main-stage — for more than a decade, The Weeknd has fused the sounds of pop, R&B, and trap into a cinematic horror-thriller about drugs, sex and the excess of fame. While his sheer volume of Hot 100 hits have rightly earned him mainstream status, even his most commercial material is hardly PG — the 2015 hit “Can’t Feel My Face” is an 80s throwback laced with on-the-nose cocaine metaphors. But over the last year his subversive image has been rewritten by the song “Blinding Lights,” from his 2020 album After Hours. The song vaulted up the charts in March 2020, supported by a viral TikTok challenge: Using the song’s opening instrumental as inspiration, countless families performed the dance together while sheltering in place. Since then, seemingly every radio format, adult contemporary included, has played this song on repeat, making it the longest running song in the Hot 100 top five and top ten (given the songs success, The Weeknd is justly aggrieved by the Grammy’s recent snub).On Switched on Pop’s first episode as part of Vulture, we break down how “Blinding Lights” blends lyrical relatability with musical familiarity, earning The Weeknd the biggest and perhaps most misunderstood hit of his career.Songs DiscussedThe Weeknd - Blinding LightsMichael Sembello - Maniaca-ha - Take on MeBruce Springsteen - Blinded By The LightManfred Mann's Earth Band - Blinded By The LightThe Weeknd - Can't Feel My FaceThe Weeknd - FaithThe Weeknd - In Your EyesThe Weeknd - Save Your TearsThe Weeknd - Until I Bleed OutMoreRead Chris Molanphy's "Why the Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” Is the First Chart Topper of the Coronavirus Era"Thanks to Arc Iris for the theme song reharmonization Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ashley Olsen and The Weeknd are the guests on this podcast where they discuss topics like Kim Kardashian's dating life, Taylor Swift's new love interest, Andrew Garfield's dating life, Daisy Edgar Jones's dating life, Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan, Summer House drama, 90210 stars, and more!

Tame Impala is the project of Kevin Parker, a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Perth, Australia. Since putting his first EP in 2008, Tame Impala has been nominated for two Grammys and won eight of Australia’s ARIA Awards. Multiple albums of his have been named best of the year. As a producer, he has collaborated with Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, The Weeknd, and more. The most recent Tame Impala album is The Slow Rush, which came out in February 2020. For this episode, Kevin chose to take apart the song, "It Might Be Time." songexploder.net/tame-impala