Category: Music
Madonna and Fireboy DML’s “Frozen” Remix Feels More Like an Update to 2019’s “Crave” Than 1998’s “Frozen”
There was a time when it would have been unfathomable for Madonna to bother looking back on or revisiting certain moments in her career. Not [Read More…]
Tyga and Doja Cat’s “Freaky Deaky” Video Owes Clueless and Erotica
Ultimately a commentary on how it’s much more fun for a girl to talk about all the things she’d like to do sexually (a.k.a. sext), [Read More…]
Kanye West Doesn’t Kill Kim in His Music, But Eminem Did: Why “Eazy” Sets No Precedent for Male Revenge
There’s no need to emphasize that people’s sensibilities have become far more delicate (while also dichotomously becoming more impervious) since the era when Eminem was [Read More…]
Yuppie Tribalism (Dance Party in Patrick Bateman’s Apartment): Charli XCX’s “Baby” Video
Perhaps if Patrick Bateman hadn’t given a chapter-long discourse on Whitney Houston’s career trajectory in American Psycho, he would have opted instead to do so [Read More…]
A Ritual Sacrifice for PG&E: Charli XCX’s “Beg For You” Video
Directed by Nick Harwood, Charli XCX’s latest video to promote her upcoming fifth album, Crash, is nothing if not decidedly Californian (maybe even as much [Read More…]
Florence + the Machine’s “King” One-Ups “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” on the Feminist Anthem Front, But Is Still Hemmed In By the Limits of a Patriarchal Language
It’s been four years since Florence + the Machine came out with High As Hope, the band’s fourth record released over a nine-year period. If [Read More…]
“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” Presents a Woman’s Persistent “At War” Nature of Wanting to Be Taken Seriously Versus Wanting to Fuck Around
Because women’s “liberation,” as a rule, is really not all that “old” or “time-honored,” the gender, unlike the male one, has had to deal with [Read More…]
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Claim Regarding Red (Taylor’s Version) Sparks the Query: Is It Less Satisfying to Know the Ex You Targeted in Your Art Will Never “Receive” the Work?
In a new Esquire cover story, “Jake Gyllenhaal Reconsiders” or, in print format, “Jake Gyllenhaal Is Not the Man You Think He Is,” the eponymous [Read More…]
Off-Limits Aesthetics: J. Lo Tries to Do Madonna’s Style of Performative Catholicism with “Church”
There are some pop culture moments that should be left off limits in terms of “borrowing” or “paying homage.” Not only because they’re sacrosanct, but [Read More…]
Caricaturizing Kesha: Kim Petras Enlists Dr. Luke to Co-Write and Produce the Ultimately Damaging Slut Pop
While not exactly a “cultural reset”—the phrase that gets thrown about so freely for just about everything—Kim Petras’ seven-track EP, Slut Pop, does something that [Read More…]