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(08/11/20 3:25pm)
Taylor Swift, for once, has thrown a curveball. Announced just 24 hours before its release, completely disregarding the lengthy release campaigns of her seven previous albums, folklore is a strange little gem in Taylor's long and illustrious career. Created remotely with Aaron Dessner and longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff, folklore sees Swift diving headfirst into folk pop and soft rock. Although an unexpected turn from a global superstar who perfected her craft in synth pop, it's not completely without precedent.
(07/28/20 7:27pm)
Going into my fourth month of lockdown, I felt like I didn’t have much to look forward to. That is, until I realized that July 23rd, One Direction’s ten–year anniversary, was coming up.
(07/27/20 11:26pm)
In decades past, signing with a record label literally meant having a company produce and distribute a musician’s records. The nature of music production and dissemination made musical fame a club that was difficult, if not nearly impossible, to break into. According to Statista, the "Big 3" music companies, Universal, Sony, and Warner Music, “exert control over nearly every aspect of the music industry by serving as music distributors, owning record labels, and coordinating artists’ performance rights.” Today, however, shifts in music consumption and production seem to be tempering the stronghold that the “Big 3” have over the musical world.
(07/26/20 9:39pm)
Very little compares to the enthralling experience of attending a concert. The feeling of singing along to your favorite songs until you lose your voice, looking towards the stage and realizing that your idol is, in fact, a real human being, is indescribable. But what truly creates the buzzing atmosphere is the crowd, a huge group of strangers who unite for a couple of hours of pure happiness, dancing along to what will likely be an unforgettable night.
(07/26/20 9:33pm)
The Chicks, composed of lead singer Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, were cancelled. Emphasis on the word "were": before the term became ubiquitous in social media vernacular, the trio faced backlash in 2003 for Maine's critical remarks of President Bush eight days before the U.S. entered the Iraqi War. Her simple expression that she was "ashamed" Bush was also from Texas at a London show sparked outrage among country fans. Radio stations arranged for protests burning the band's CDs, and their discography was banned from airplay itself. The women were called traitors and "Saddam's Angels." In response to the controversy, The Chicks released 2006's Taking the Long Way, with the bitterly defiant hit "Not Ready to Make Nice." Taylor Swift, a recent collaborator and clear successor of the the Chicks, has said that she was told not to be like them.
(07/21/20 11:10pm)
Given their meteoric rise in popularity, the duo 100 gecs has often been described by music critics as ‘abrasive’ and ‘genre–crushing.’ But, at the heart of things, all 100 gecs want to do is chug a Monster Energy, make music they want to mosh to, and have fun.
(07/13/20 7:09pm)
Arca's KiCk i is simultaneously the beginning, end, and continuation of multiple eras. The Venezuelan producer Alejandra Ghersi's past four albums, which mostly took the form of abstract electronica, with the notable exception of 2017's self–titled effort, lapsed toward an insular, isolated loneliness. Her prior works were more centered around her own personal growth rather than mass appeal; the music twisted and turned away from easily recognizable meaning and value. On KiCk i, appearing (for the first time) in a full–body shot on one of her album covers, Arca makes a gleefully genre–defying, compelling case for herself as the mutant popstar of 2020.
(06/30/20 3:53pm)
In light of the protests in support of #BlackLivesMatter that have seized the nation, record labels (such as Republic Records) have taken action to fight racism within the music industry by removing the word 'urban' from their official terminology.
(06/30/20 4:02pm)
Being an almost–twenty–something back in my childhood home during quarantine, I feel that I’ve been given dreadfully limitless hours to think about my life. I've been grappling with changing relationships, growing into adulthood while staring into an incalculable future, reminiscing on times I’ve fallen in love and fallen out of it, and the list goes on.
(06/18/20 8:47pm)
Back in 2014, the electronica/jazz producer Steve Ellison (better known by his stage name Flying Lotus) released his thrilling fifth album, You're Dead!, a concept album about death. The themes of the album, particularly as they relate to Black men, are extremely prescient to the current national conversation about police brutality and #BlackLivesMatter. At the time it was released, critics saw the album as an irreverent philosophical meditation on death as a condition. It certainly can be read that way, but in light of the recent protests and riots that have sprung up around the country and world, You're Dead! has become urgently political and vital to this moment in time as protest music.
(06/17/20 11:08pm)
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Naeem Juwan (previously known as Spank Rock, now going by the mononym Naeem) claimed his latest album, Startisha, took almost five years to make. The amount of time, dedication, and care poured into this album is immediately evident: every song, verse, and bar is expertly crafted.
(06/14/20 12:50am)
After the pared–down intimacies of the soundtrack from A Star is Born and 2016's Joanne, the reigning queen of dance pop makes an overdue return to the floor-filling dance-pop that made her famous in the first place, pleasing the girls and gays the world over. Although the record faced delays to due to the COVID-19 outbreak, it was finally released on May 29th (in the midst of protests stemming from the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police). Chromatica is pure camp and high theatrics—like the best of Gaga's work—only this time it's plastered in hot pink and doused in poppers.
(06/15/20 4:56pm)
TikTok seems to be all the rage these days. With around 800 million monthly users—60% of whom are dubbed Gen Z-ers—it feels like influencer Charli D’Amelio is on her way to becoming as much of a household name as Martha Stewart.
(06/11/20 3:13pm)
Summer means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For some of us, it means relaxation: a chance to live without having to check our planners for when the next problem set is due. For others, it's a time of freedom: we can perform research in the fields we're interested in or intern at the companies we want to work for. It's also a time for personal growth: a time for self–improvement and introspection, when we finally have time to focus on ourselves, our relationships, and our world.
(06/06/20 6:20pm)
Charli XCX's new album, How I'm Feeling Now, blisters at the seams, sputters almost outside the reach of quarantine. Created entirely at home and with significant input from fans online, Charlotte Aitchison's latest record as Charli XCX, arriving just months after her highly anticipated third album, Charli, is a document of the human in social isolation. It's an artifact of the era of COVID-19.
(06/02/20 11:00am)
Mike Hadreas' work as Perfume Genius, no matter how conceptual, has always been of the heart and body. On his fifth and latest record, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, Hadreas presents a newfound depth missing from his previous releases. Where he proudly proclaimed his identity as an effeminate gay man on 2014's Too Bright, 2017's No Shape reveled in the ambiguity of everyday life. Though Set My Heart touches on similar themes of his past two LP's, it does so with a certain poetry and openness that makes these ideas new and fresh. In Hadreas' hands, repeated topics (effeminacy, queer love, everyday life) don't dull with repetition. Rather, they are a well of inspiration to return to again and again.
(05/27/20 4:15am)
Marie Dahlstrøm is a Danish singer/songwriter who has been studying music her whole life. Her past releases, beginning in 2011, include multiple EP's and a cover project. 'Like Sand,' released independently on May 22, is her debut studio album. The record is a gorgeous, warm exploration of her career thus far: every sound on this record drips with influences ranging from buttery R&B, to smooth jazz, to hard–hitting hip–hop beats. Featuring friends and longtime collaborators including Beau Diako, Jeremy Passion, James Vickery, Elijah Fox, Charles Jacques, and Aligo, 'Like Sand' can be summed up in one word: vibes. Street's Kyle Whiting sat down with Marie to discuss her new album, making music as an independent artist, and how the industry has changed as a result of COVID–19.
(05/01/20 1:43am)
Rina Sawayama’s debut album SAWAYAMA, released on April 17, is a genre–defying feat in introspection and identity presented as art. The album—produced by Clarence Clarity—sees Rina centering her identities as a queer British–Japanese person as the focal point of the record.
(04/20/20 7:10pm)
Throughout her long career, singer/songwriter Fiona Apple has been hard to categorize. Like Björk, she also came to prominence as a prodigy in the '90s with her hit single "Criminal," and she has a reputation for making difficult, avant–garde music.
(04/13/20 1:51am)
In a time of canceled concerts and postponed music festivals, artists and their producers have reacted differently to a world on lockdown. The response is mixed, with some artists delaying the release of their albums, and some holding concerts via Instagram live. Artists from all sides of the pop music spectrum have shown us just how much one can do working from home.
