PM is 25 this year! 🎉 Essaying the pop culture that matters since 1999. We aim to educate and entertain. Independent, women/LGBTQ-owned. Made by humans.
An Older Kind of Fear: Five Classic Halloween Horror Movies on Blu-Ray
➡️
From 1930 to 1980, these five horror movies offer masked maniacs, mad scientists, murder mysteries, mummies, and military cannibals for your
#Halloween
freak-out.
#horrormovies
INTERVIEW:
#Kpop
's CRAVITY (
@CRAVITY_twt
) talk with PopMatters about trying bossa nova for the first time and how "GO GO" fits the message of their first full-length album.
.
@PablloVittar
’s BATIDÃO TROPICAL comes at a moment when Brazilian Northeast culture is on the rise but she’s taking Brega music to the next level.
#PMPick
out now. [9/10]
INTERVIEW: BILLLIE (
@Billlieofficial
) are a part of a generation of
#KPOP
idols for whom transmedia storytelling, like their short film What Is Your B?, is as vital as music and dance.
The Metaphysical Dream of
#BTS
’
#SUGA
In Min Yoon-gi's music, there’s a common idea floating of his dreams, even if he hasn’t identified them, or found a way to coexist with them peacefully.
The 20 Best
#Kpop
Albums of 2021
Synthpop, traditional Korean music, pop-rock, and experimental production marked the music of the best K-pop releases of 2021.
Caroline Polachek (
@carolineplz
) dives into the contradictory crux of the human experience on 'Desire, I Want to Turn Into You', an album of breathtakingly original pop songs. -
@robmouraiii
#PMPick
out on Valentine's Day. [10/10]🎉
INTERVIEW: Drag Dance-Popster
#Katya
Discusses Her New Album
#VampireFitness
Growing up listening to sludge-metal and goth-rock,
#dragqueen
@katya_zamo
rose from complete obscurity to become a multi-hyphenate comedy icon.
INTERVIEW: K-Pop Has Its Meta-Moment with the Dynamic Art of ARTMS
➡️
The
#Kpop
market is oversaturated, but
@official_artms
cuts through the technicolor noise by remixing and defying lore conventions to create something drastically new. -
@SawdEye
The 20 Best Brazilian Pop Albums of 2023
➡️
The Brazilian music industry is creating a pop scene that competes with the world’s biggest names.
#BestOf2023
Taylor Swift's
#Midnights
, her latest musical pivot, highlights her artistry by overshooting her commercial ambitions.
It's a capstone to
#TaylorSwift
's career.
#PMPick
[9/10]
#NoFuture
finds Dublin's EDEN (
@iameden
) furthering his distinctive vision as he expands his sonic palette and broadens his perspective on an achingly beautiful modern pop album.
This
#PMPick
is out now via
@Astralwerks
.
Empowering and cathartic, Demi Lovato (
@ddlovato
) has created a refined and sophisticated collection of songs with 'Holy Fvck' that is their best work lyrically to date.
#PMPick
out now via
@IslandRecords
.
BE is the album in which
#BTS
' (
@bts_bighit
) sound crosses over to cement the type of legacy they're building – one that started in youth and is very proudly Korean, but that makes sense for any age or place.
#PMPick
out now.
.
@pabllovittar
's Batidão Tropical Vol. 2 Is Brazilian History You Can Dance To
➡️
Pabllo Vittar’s music echoes cultural movements and carries layers of Brazilian history in a package that requires no explanation to enjoy listening and dancing to. –
Transforming from K-pop girl group member to mainstream pop solo artist,
@TiffanyYoung
makes an impressive impression on North America with her first major headlining tour that's leaving fans screaming for more.
BRAT is next-level Charli XCX, a miracle and an instant classic. It's the kind of album that makes you feel lucky to be alive at the same time as it.
➡️
@charli_xcx
's BRAT is a perfect [10/10]
#PMPick
@AtlanticRecords
.
K-Pop group ONEUS is performing BLOOD MOON on their US tour now. The performance is an act of pride, joy, and “a sense of responsibility as we express Korean culture,” Xion says.
@official_ONEUS
[photo courtesy of
@gramophonemedia
]
#INTERVIEW
:
Why Yoko Ono's Music Matters
@YokoOno
’s story is of a passionate and powerful songwriter and artist. A creative and sensitive musician who worked doggedly to bring her avant-garde aesthetic to pop music.
The Fragmented Quality of Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children
➡️
Boards of Canada's 25-year-old LP is murky, burned, and melted. It sounds like 1980s synth, disco, new age, and new wave heard through a wall.
PREMIERE: James and the Shame's Rhett McLaughlin (
@rhettmc
) discusses "Where We're Going" and where he’s been with his wife, Jessie, as they team up on this warmhearted
#Americana
duet.
@jfrahm_
.
@JohnLennon
and
@YokoOno
share their wedding with the masses on WEDDING ALBUM. "John & Yoko" is a brilliantly disquieting composition that exists unequivocally as an intentional, constructed art piece. The re-issue is out today via
@secretlycndian
.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 'Two Virgins' Is 55
➡️
John Lennon and
@YokoOno
’s ‘Two Virgins’ inspired so much ire and distaste back in the day that we can take this opportunity to see what all the fuss was about.
Is there life beyond the pop lifecycle for Christina Aguilera? With' Liberation',
#ChristinaAguilera
sings against the pop machine and reworks her legacy. Article by Eric Solomon.
Depeche Mode's 'Memento Mori' is a testament to the power of art to call us to see more clearly in the absence of resolution.
➡️
@DepecheMode
have channeled our vision to the beauty of the moment in dissolution. -
@apophatic1
Out 3/31 via
.
@Slayyyter
's debut mixtape suggests not only nostalgia for, but an intrinsic value in, a long-dead version of celebrity in which artists needn't make statements to achieve icon status /
If there is such a thing as "alternative K-pop", OH MY GIRL are strong contenders for the title of this genre’s queens.
'Real Love' underpins a side of
@WM_OHMYGIRL
that makes them stand out: experimental, oddish, electronic pop.
#KPOP
INTERVIEW: When not directly attacking Brazil's dangerous Bolsonaro administration, drag queen
@PablloVittar
is changing the world one shaking bootie at a time.
✍️
@SawdEye
Drive-By Truckers' 'The Dirty South' is an absolute gem, and 'The Complete Dirty South' is an upgrade over the original version.
➡️
#PMPick
out now via
@newwestrecords
. [9/10]
Jimmy Eat World's Emo Classic 'Clarity' at 25
➡️
@jimmyeatworld
's career has looked increasingly like that of bands they admire. They keep a devoted fan base happy with incendiary, hit-packed live sets.
Bruce Springsteen's 'Wrecking Ball' has proven to be a timeless call for class solidarity with today’s anger at billionaire greed and working-class struggles.
"Bruce
@Springsteen
's 'Wrecking Ball' Is Highly Relevant Ten Years Later" ✍️
@rileysnisbet
#Interview
: K-Pop's ONEUS Make Gugak Pop!
K-pop's ONEUS talk with PopMatters about taking traditional Korean music, Gugak, and mixing it with hip-hop and electronic music to wow fans on their US tour. – ✍️
@ibreatheculture
.
@MariahCarey
's GLITTER is a brilliant work of genius released 20 years ago.
It's one of the best dance-pop albums of the last 20 years.
Read the latest
#AllThingsReconsidered
essay.
#KatyPerry
's 'Teenage Dream' is a pensive coming-of-age statement disguised as sophomoric pop fun.
Enjoy the latest feature in our
#AllThingsReconsidered
series, as
#TeenageDream
is 10 years old this month.
A great dance-pop record is a marriage of great songs, appealing vocals, and innovative production. Hikaru Utada's (
@utadahikaru
) BAD MODE fits that bill.
It's a classy and elegant affair.
#PMPick
out now via
@MilanRecLabel
.
#PREMIERE
:
#Warzone
is quite unlike anything Yoko Ono (
@yokoono
) has released to date, but "Children Power" carries a message of optimism that's been central to her work all along. Warzone is out 10/19.
Released in May 1992, 'Walking on Thin Ice' is a great primer for the kind of esoteric, avant-garde pop
@YokoOno
forged in the 1970s.
"Yoko Ono's Greatest Work Is Aptly Represented on 'Walking on Thin Ice'" ✍️
@PeterInLondonUK
Aly & AJ's (
@alyandaj
) 'With Love From' recalls classic
#Americana
imagery and sounds like two women reveling in the joy of creating music representing who they are.
➡️
10 Songs That Will Make You Love R.E.M.
These ten R.E.M. songs will grab your ear instantly or act as gateways to the band’s more idiosyncratic qualities.
Janet Jackson's Janet, released 30 years ago today, embraces the maturity of her sexuality and political identity, and in the process, she creates beautiful music.
➡️
"When
@JanetJackson
named her fifth album, 1993's 'Janet', she was making a bold
The Cure's 'Wild Mood Swings' Indulges the Glories of Genre-Jumping
➡️
@thecure
's ebulliently eclectic masterpiece ‘Wild Mood Swings’ is misguidedly maligned. What is more tantalizing than music that exalts eclecticism to such stupefying heights? –
BLOOD MOON showcases creative involvement from each member of K-Pop group ONEUS, from singing, rapping, and dancing, to songwriting, music production, and choreography.
@official_ONEUS
[photo courtesy of
@gramophonemedia
]
ON TOUR: US
#Interview
:
Is Kesha's new experimental art-pop record, 'Gag Order', a cautionary tale? A cry for help? A cathartic release? Most likely, it's all of the above.
➡️
Olivia Rodrigo sings of fame, pain, heartbreak, and growing up on Guts. There's rage, yearning, and reckless behavior here that transcends generations.
➡️
#PMPick
[9/10] is out now. -
@teeveejeff
Living Colour's VIVID Turns 35: An Interview with Vernon Reid
➡️
What better way to celebrate
@LivingColour
's landmark album VIVID on its 35th birthday than talking to the band's guitarist and primary songwriter, Vernon Reid (
@vurnt22
).
VIVID undeniably
Perfume Genius' 2012 album 'Put Your Back N 2 It' offers a bleak yet comforting unpacking of sexual identity, addiction, physical abuse, and family trauma.
"The Dark Parts:
@PerfumeGenius
' 'Put Your Back N 2 It' at 10"
Queens of the Stone Age's 'In Times New Roman' is classic in all its grit and posture, revealing a pensive Josh Homme writing about his life and tribulations.
➡️
#PMPick
out now via
@matadorrecords
.
@qotsa
Madonna Unveiled Her Pop Masterpiece 'Ray of Light' 25 Years Ago
@Madonna
and dance music are unfairly underrated and dismissed, primarily due to being the cultural product of queerness and centered on femininity.
#EDM
#dancemusic
#EDMmusic
INTERVIEW: Ten years after a medication paralyzed his vocal cords and forced some of his favorite songs out of the rotation,
@PassionPit
's Michael Angelakos can't wait to tour his debut album Manners and perform those songs again.
INTERVIEW: At the top of her career since debuting in Korea 14 years ago,
#KPOP
star Sunmi (
@miyaohyeah
) chats with PopMatters about her collaborative work on "Shivers" and what's next.
The Mountain Goats brought a sense of secular spirituality to 'Heretic Pride' 15 years ago.
'Heretic Pride' is the sound of connection and change of direction, a way for John Darnielle to connect his audience with a new joyful sound.
T-ARA's 'John Travolta Wannabe' shows why
#Kpop
attracts people from all walks of life, and why the group became a force to be reckoned with.
The discofied K-pop album came out 10 years ago.
Read the latest in
#AllThingsReconsidered
INTERVIEW: Spencer Sutherland (
@spencermusic
is a pop-obsessive who turned inward, dedicated himself to songwriting, and ended up creating a full-throated choir by looping his voice dozens of times over.
Free of major-label constraints,
@ToveLo
turns her dark sex-positive pop into something wiser and mature.
Yet fans need not worry as 'Dirt Femme's' BPM still kicks. Out Friday.
Living Colour's Vernon Reid: "In the first half of the 1980s, the downtown scene in New York was explosive. There were all of these clubs." ➡️
"The real estate market had crashed in New York, so commercial rents were really cheap. It was a time when
#PREMIERE
: Viral indie pop artist Houssein (
@CheekyHoussein
) shares a new video to accompany his latest single, "Walking Away", a song about "not facing the inherent issues of a relationship head-on".
Relisten without prejudice to
@YokoOno
's 'Plastic Ono Band'. America in the '70s would not accommodate a female Japanese performer of
#experimental
music that is designed to provoke. Have we grown since then?
Throughout Eternal Sunshine, Ariana Grande investigates the concept of ignorant bliss, asking the question, is it better to remain unaware of great pain?
➡️
#EternalSunshine
is a
#PMPick
[9/10] out now via
@RepublicRecords
. -
@md_writing
The Pogues' 'BBC Sessions 1984-1986' is a welcome chapter in the musical story of these working-class heroes, who reminded listeners of the beauty and dignity of the strong, sooty backs upon which our industrialized world was built.
#PMPick
Following the intense ambition of
@EllieGoulding
's previous album, 2020's 'Brightest Blue', 'Higher Than Heaven' is a refreshing jolt of candy-coated vigor.
➡️
The lyrical content is blissfully free of "singer-songwriter" seriousness and embraces the
Throughout the 1990s, R.E.M. expanded their sound. The reissue of UP brings the incredibly rich climax of their pop experimentation to a new generation.
➡️
@remhq
’s UP has been remastered and re-issued for its 25th anniversary.
#PMPick
out now via