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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 \u2014 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 \u2014 the 2015 hit \u201cCan\u2019t Feel My Face\u201d is an 80s throwback laced with on-the-nose cocaine metaphors.\xa0\nBut over the last year his subversive image has been rewritten by the song \u201cBlinding Lights,\u201d from his 2020 album After Hours. The song vaulted up the charts in March 2020, supported by a viral TikTok challenge: Using the song\u2019s 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\u2019s recent snub).\nOn Switched on Pop\u2019s first episode as part of Vulture, we break down how \u201cBlinding Lights\u201d blends lyrical relatability with musical familiarity, earning The Weeknd the biggest and perhaps most misunderstood hit of his career.\n\nSongs Discussed\nThe Weeknd - Blinding Lights\nMichael Sembello - Maniac\na-ha - Take on Me\nBruce Springsteen - Blinded By The Light\nManfred Mann's Earth Band - Blinded By The Light\nThe Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face\nThe Weeknd - Faith\nThe Weeknd - In Your Eyes\nThe Weeknd - Save Your Tears\nThe Weeknd - Until I Bleed Out\n\nMore\nRead Chris Molanphy's "Why the Weeknd\u2019s \u201cBlinding Lights\u201d Is the First Chart Topper of the Coronavirus Era"\nThanks to Arc Iris for the theme song reharmonization\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices