Flowers and the art of the response song
\u201cFlowers\u201d by Miley Cyrus is spending another week on top of the Billboard 100 \u2013 quite fitting for Valentine\u2019s Day.\n\nThe disco-country track has gotten people talking for a few reasons, but most notably, Cyrus invokes Bruno Mars\u2019 classic \u201cWhen I Was Your Man\u201d in both lyrical and melodic allusions. The connection between the two songs is not one of interpolation, but rather, Miley is responding to Bruno\u2019s hit through her own words: making \u201cFlowers\u201d an answer song.\xa0\n\nThis episode of Switched On Pop, we take a deeper look at \u201cFlowers\u201d and how it fits in the canon of response songs throughout history, from classics like \u201cThis Land is Your Land\u201d to Nicki Minaj\u2019s \u201cAnaconda.\u201d\xa0\n\nSongs Discussed:\xa0\n\nMiley Cyrus \u2013 Flowers\n\nKacey Musgraves \u2013 High Horse\n\nGloria Gaynor \u2013 I Will Survive\n\nDua Lipa \u2013 New Rules\n\nBruno Mars \u2013 When I Was Your Man\n\nEd Sheeran \u2013 Shape of You\n\nTLC \u2013 No Scrubs\n\nKaty Perry, Snoop Dogg \u2013 California Girls\n\nJAY-Z, Alicia Keys \u2013 Empire State of Mind\n\nBig Mama Thornton \u2013\xa0Hound Dog\n\nRufus Thomas \u2013 Bear Cat\n\nHank Thompson \u2013 The Wild Side of Life\n\nKitty Wells \u2013 It Wasn\u2019t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels\n\nRay Charles \u2013 Hit the Road, Jack\n\nNina Simone \u2013 Come on Back Jack\n\nThe Chantels \u2013 Well, I Told You\n\nUTFO \u2013\xa0Roxanne, Roxanne\n\nRoxanne Shant\xe9 \u2013 Roxanne\u2019s Revenge\n\nUTFO \u2013 The Real Roxanne\n\nNew Edition \u2013\xa0Candy Girl\n\nThe Jackson 5 \u2013\xa0ABC\n\nSir Mix-A-Lot \u2013 Baby Got Back\n\nNicki Minaj \u2013 Anaconda\n\n\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices