Mixtapemotions

  • "Silk Chiffon" by MUNA ft. Phoebe Bridgers, Friday, September 20, 2024 (Repost)

     MUNA is an alternative pop group composed of three friends who studied together at the University of Southern California. The trio self-produced their debut EP and uploaded it to Bandcamp and SoundCloud. The band’s success with their debut EP led to the group signing with RCA records and releasing their 2017 debut record, About U. In May 2021, the band announced that they had signed to Phoebe Bridgers‘ Saddest Factory record label. The group recently released the single “Silk Chiffon” which features Bridgers singing a verse. The song is one of the group’s few singles to chart on Billboard, peaking at #35 on the US Alternative chart. 

    KEEPIN’ IT LIGHT LIKE SILK CHIFFON. I think I first heard MUNA in the awkward teen comedy Alex Strangelove, a story about a high school senior who is struggling to understand his sexuality. All the members of MUNA identify as queer, though, as a lyricist lead singer Katie Gavin often avoided pronouns in the group’s earlier music to allow all gender and sexual expressions to relate to the band’s music. The group is known for their dark lyrics. Their previous LP, 2019’s Saves the World, is an addictive break-up record, filled with depressing lyrics, but often using upbeat, deceptive chord progressions. Phoebe Bridgers is known as a “serial collaborator,” which has made the 27-year-old singer quite a versatile star. So many of my music snob podcasts and YouTube channels praise the singer-songwriter. Some even credit her for saving rock music with her two LPs. In addition to collaborations with MUNA this year, she has appeared on Lorde‘s Solar Power, The Killers‘ song “Runaway Horses,” Taylor Swift‘s “Nothing New,” Paul McCartney‘s “Seize the Day,” Julien Baker‘s “Favor” and two songs by Lucy Dacus. 

    LIFE’S SO FUN. “Silk Chiffon” is a positive anthem about queer love. Gavin sings about a girl dressed in a silky dress, while the singer is wearing a mini skirt and rollerblades. Silk chiffon is not only what the girl is wearing, but the singer draws a comparison between the girl and the luxurious feeling someone has when “trying on” a light fabric. Phoebe Bridgers, who identifies as bi-sexual, sings the second verse of the song. Bridgers’ verse takes the song to another perspective. It is the feeling of someone looking at you “with a ‘you’re on camera’ smile.” You feel flattered and you forget that you’re “feeling anxious” about whatever’s going on with your day. There is only one dark element of the ordinarily dark pop group’s latest single. The video, directed by Ally Pankiw, a writer for Schitt’s Creek‘s final season, develops a love story between a camp counselor (portrayed by Bridgers) at a conversion-therapy camp and a girl who was sent away to the camp (portrayed by Gaven). By the end of the video, some of the camp attendees break free and go to a gay bar. Even some of the counselors (Bridgers included) break free from the restrictive camp. It seems that in recent years, the media has shed light on gay conversion therapy camps. Two years ago, director Ryan Murphy released the Pray Away documentary, which follows the dissolving of Exodus International and about former leaders in gay conversion therapy who have changed their views on the practice and embraced who they are in the LGBT community. The adolescent feeling of “Silk Chiffon” for anyone who is becoming aware of their same-sex attraction may be entangled with religious push-back. Mine certainly was. But eventually you have to jump onto the back of the pick-up truck and ride into town. Staying on the farm leads to a life of misery and constant lying to yourself.

    Read “Silk Chiffon” by MUNA on Genius.

  • “Jealous” by Nick Jonas, Thursday, September 19, 2024

     

    In 2013, the Jonas Brothers decided to stop making music together. The eldest brother, Kevin Jonas appeared in a reality TV series about his married life with his wife Danielle Jonas. The middle brother of the trio Joe Jonas formed a band called DNCE. Nick Jonas, the youngest member of the family trio, got involved in several ventures. He guest-starred in a few television episodes and was hired as the musical creative director on his friend Demi Lovato’s Neon Lights Tour. After the tour, he was cast in the boxing drama Kingdom. In 2014, he released his second album, X2, which completely rebranded the singer from a squeaky-clean teen heartthrob to a sexy twenty-something.


    YOU’RE TOO SEXY, BEAUTIFUL. In 2005, a year before The Jonas Brothers released their debut album It’s About Time, Nick Jonas released a Christian self-titled album as Nicholas Jonas on Columbia Records’ Christian division INO. The album is now out of print and unavailable on streaming services. Nick also released the album Who I AM in 2010 with a band called Nick Jonas and the Administration. Both of these solo attempts and arguably the Jonas Brothers before their reunion in 2019, can be considered to lack critical approval and were somewhat marked by the artist’s lack of maturity. Nick Jonas’s 2014 X2 album was an attempt to shake off the youthfulness of the singer’s Disney Channel and conservative Christian reputation. The album was prefaced with press about Jonas’s role as Nate Kaluna in the drama Kingdom. Nick’s role was nuanced. Nate was a young boxer growing up in a family of boxers and toxic masculinity. Along with the pressures to follow in his father’s footsteps, Nate struggles with his sexuality, eventually coming out as gay. Corresponding with the role of Nate Kaluna, Nick Jonas was a centerfold model for several LGBTQ+ magazines including Out and Attitude. Nick Jonas essentially came out as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, a fete controversial both in the community as some argued that Jonas was queer-bating and among his stanchly Christian fanbase.  

    EVERYBODY WANTS A TASTE. Nick Jonas’s album X2 didn’t explicitly build on the queer themes in Nick’s acting career or his modeling. Instead, Jonas comes off as a jock-bro R&B singer as he explores lyrics dealing with love, sex, and jealousy. Nick’s reintroduction to solo work assumes the gospel of Justin Timberlake’s Justified as a template of escaping boy band cleanliness: amplify sexual lyrics. Nick’s solo career, though, we never to the level of success that Timberlake achieved. Jonas’s highest charting songs come from X2. His biggest song was the second single, “Jealous.” Nick’s smooth vocals and his sexy music video look distract from the song’s message. Jonas told Just Jared: “‘Jealous’  was inspired by a feeling I think a lot of people have but are afraid to admit, especially guys. But just that thing of puffing your chest up every once and a while when someone looks at your girl while you’re with them. Not only is it disrespectful, but you feel like you’re ready to go. At the time I wrote and recorded it, I was in the middle of all the training for Kingdom, so I was really sort of hyped up on testosterone.” (Italics supplied). The song is a bro-anthem that is supposedly directed to his supermodel girlfriend at the time Olivia Culpo. “Jealous” is a song about the lack of control a person feels when a lover enjoys the glances of another potential suitor. It’s kind of toxic how the speaker even admits, “You know I get excited / When you get jealous too.” Not a great relationship dynamic. 


  • “Another Life” by Key, Wednesday, September 18, 2024 + K-pop in English Playlist

     

    SHINee’s Kim Ki Bum, or simply Key, released his second full album, Gasoline, in 2022. Like “Helium” on his EP Bad Love from 2021, Key features an English song: “Another Life.” Key is not the only Korean idol artist who sings in English. Today, I thought I would start a collection of K-pop songs that are entirely in English. Key’s English tracks are album tracks, not promoted as main singles in Korea or abroad. Other artists on the list released these English tracks as singles in Korea and abroad. Still, others recorded an English version of a Korean single to promote the single to international audiences. Whatever the reason, we’re glad to hear more from our favorite K-pop stars. Enjoy the list.

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • “That, That” by Psy ft. Suga, Tuesday, September 17, 2024

    I arrived in South Korea at the end of August 2012, about a month after Korea’s biggest viral hit had been released. I taught elementary school, and I was aghast to hear a chorus of  7-year-olds dancing the horse dance and singing in English, “Hey, sexy lady!” I was teaching at a Christian school among other young conservative missionaries. I thought about how sheltered the Christian schools were that I grew up in. I had arrived in South Korea, the land of electronic boy and girl Idol groups–boys and girls who had dieted, trained for years under questionable conditions, and undergone plastic surgeries and treatments to look magazine-worthy, yet it wasn’t BIGBANG, SHINee, Girls’ Generation or  2NE1 who popularized K-pop for the world. It was Park Jae-sang. 


    LONG TIME, NO SEE, HUH? Psy’s “Gangnam Style” was simultaneously the quintessential K-pop song and the most anti-K-pop song ever recorded. Psy was a Korean rapper and only achieved modest airplay in South Korea before his viral hit. Also, much of his music was censored in Korea for explicit content–only adults could buy his albums. He was even fined for the content of his first album. Park Jae-sang grew up in Gangnam to a wealthy family, his father was the chairman of a semiconductor manufacturing company, and his mother was a successful restauranteur. He disliked studying both in Korea and in Boston University where he dropped out of his Business major to attend the famed Berklee College of Music also in Boston. Psy came back to Korea to begin his music career in 2000. Twelve years later, Psy became the biggest national celebrity. The song “Gangnam Style”  and its accompanying video both satirized and popularized South Korean culture. It also became the first K-pop song that many around the world heard. Rather than a barely- out-of-high-school group of pretty boys or girls, the overweight Psy was 35 when at the peak of his fame. Idol groups rarely last until their early 30s and are kept on strict diets by their managers. 

    PANDEMIC’S OVER. FEELING AMAZING. Psy’s subsequent songs have not reached the same level of virality as “Gangnam Style.” In Korea, everything he releases is now a hit. Some of his singles after his breakout have charted. “Gentleman,” “Hangover,” and “Daddy” are a few of his other charting hits. All of Psy’s videos are comedic and feature his unique dance style. Before Psy, most K-pop videos were dramatic and took themselves seriously. Today, that’s mostly true of K-pop videos, though some groups like GOT7, Orange Caramel, Seventeen, and BTS have incorporated comedy into their videos. Psy’s videos, though, are a level above all other K-pop videos. Littered with Korean celebrities, internet sensations, cultural trends, fashion statements, and a dose of obscenity that pushes the mores of the conservative culture it was born of, Psy’s videos always seem to capture the zeitgeist of the singer’s comebacks. His most recent comeback was two years ago with his ninth album, Psy 9. The album’s lead single, “That That,” featured SUGA of BTS. Psy hadn’t made an album in five years, and until 2022, he hadn’t recorded music with any Gen. Z musicians. While the video for “That That” wasn’t the most radical Psy video, it introduced and reintroduced Psy to a younger generation. Psy has never been cool, but he’s always been fun. His ability to curate and condense pop culture into a 3-minute video will keep him relevant as long as he wants to come back.

     

  • “Hold on to Now” by Kylie Minogue, Monday, September 16, 2024 (repost)

    While Troye Sivan was clubbing in his home of Perth, Australia, between COVID lockdowns, the soundtrack may have included songs by fellow Aussie Kylie Minogue, an iconic pop star for a certain demographic for decades. But it’s not just the gay clubs where Kylie is famous. In fact, she is the highest-selling Australian female artist of all time. She is often called the “Princess of Pop” in Europe because of her sense of style and hit-making. In America, mainstream pop audiences probably know Minogue for her 2001 hit “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” the singer’s most streamed song. 


    SOME MOMENTS ARE MAGIC. But pop music is much more than the Weekly Top 40, and the songs popular in Australia and Europe don’t always catch on in America. Kylie Minogue made several hits and even reached her Hot 100 peak before 2002 in the ‘80s with the number 3 hit “The Loco-Motion” in 1988 from her eponymous debut album. The song was a cover of a 1962 pop song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, originally performed by Little Eva and later by Grand Funk Railroad. But after her second single, Minogue only reached the lower regions of the Hot 100 until her big comeback record Fever in 2001. By 2002, Minogue was 34 and returning to popularity, laying a prototype for new millennium dance beats, a staple of her career for the next twenty years. Minogue never followed up “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” for U.S. Top 40 listeners, but her latest album Tension, released last Friday, is what critics and Minogue are calling a return to Fever.   

    DREAMIN’ WE’LL BE DANCIN’ FOREVER. The lead single from Kylie Minogue’s most recent album Tension, “Padam, Padam,” was considered to be a “gay anthem” for the summer. The song is a seriously danceable track. The second single and second track on the record, “Hold On to Now” is an electronic dance song with a sadder song with lyrics that evoke mild existential dread. Kylie’s voice is part siren reassuring her listeners that everything will be worked out someday. Yet somehow, maybe because I’m not dancing at the office or at home when I’m listening to it, I’m pulled back to the questions the song raises. Elsewhere on the album, the fifty-five-year-old singer balances current club sounds with lyrics of falling in love–or lust–and the search for love and being taken care of by a lover. Today’s song reminds us that now is all we ever have. Sort of like my deleted post of Switchfoot’s “Gone”–that’s a story for later–it doesn’t do us any good to stress about what may happen. It also doesn’t help us to live in the past. And yes, most of the time, we have to get to work. But occasionally, we can just enjoy shaking our asses on the dance floor for a bit.

     

  • “Love Don’t Let Me Down,” Julian Lennon, Sunday, September 15, 2024

     

    In 2022, Julian Lennon returned to music after an eleven-year hiatus with the album Jude. The album’s title references the nickname Paul McCarthy gave him after his father John Lennon and mother Cynthia divorced in 1968. Originally, McCarthy wrote the song “Hey Jules” to use the boy’s actual nickname, but McCarthy said that “Hey Jude” sounded better in the song. Julian began his musical career playing drums on his father’s album, Walls and Bridges on the song “Ya-Ya.” Following his father’s murder in 1980, Julian released his first album in 1984, titled Valotte, to critical acclaim and commercial success. Subsequent releases were not as well received, but Julian has been an active artist in music, photography, writing, and filmmaking. He has also done a lot of philanthropic work in Australia, Africa, and America for Indigenous groups and humanitarian aid.

    WHAT IS IT LIKE TO FEEL ALONE? Julian Lennon, the first-born son of John Lennon didn’t have an easy life. John had an affair with the Japanese multi-media artist Yoko Ono and divorced his wife Cynthia. After the divorce, Julian was estranged from his father until John briefly separated from Yoko and started dating his publicist May Peng. Julian has spoken openly about the emotional distance he felt from his father and the pain of growing up without much involvement from him. He described John as someone who was inconsistent—alternating between being loving and supportive during rare moments and cold or unavailable most of the time. John’s public image as a peace-loving figure sometimes contrasted with the reality of his private relationship with Julian, which caused Julian confusion and hurt. He has mentioned feeling overshadowed by John’s later focus on his second son, Sean Lennon, who John had with Yoko Ono. Despite the difficult relationship, Julian has expressed understanding of his father’s struggles with fame, personal identity, and fatherhood. Over the years, Julian has also said that he’s come to terms with the complex legacy of being John Lennon’s son. While the two never fully reconciled before John died in 1980, Julian has continued to honor his father’s memory, even though their relationship remained unresolved.

    OPEN YOUR HEART AND YOU’LL GO FAR. When John Lennon was murdered in 1980, Julian gave an interview with Playboy talking about how distant he was from his father. Julian was part of his father’s post-divorce life because his girlfriend May Peng asked to see the boy. Julian even used Peng’s photograph of him at age 11 as the cover of his latest album Jude. Julian remained close to Paul McCartney. He told The Washington Post in 2015  “Paul and I used to hang about quite a bit … more than Dad and I did. We had a great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and my dad.” McCartney’s mentorship helped Julian throughout his life, except for an accidental snub at Paul’s wedding to Nancy Shevell in 2015. While Julian has critcized his father for his hypocrisy–preaching love and peace but not acting on it, Julian’s public life has been, in some ways, a fullfilment of his father’s ideals put into practice with philanthropy and even reconciliation with his father’s widow Yoko Ono after Julian sued for a more equitable part of John’s estate. Although Julian had a complicated relationship with his father, he not only shares genetics with the late prophet of rock music but his legacy as well.

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • “Chasing Shadows” by Alex Warren, Saturday, September 14, 2024

    Alex Warren was nine years old when his father died of terminal kidney cancer. Before his passing, Warren’s dad left Alex with a love for music. Alex’s father bought his son a Fender guitar and introduced him to the music ‘90s and ‘00s groups such as Coldplay, Train, and Linkin Park. His mother’s alcoholism after his father’s death caused Alex to leave home as a teenager, even sleeping in a friend’s car for a time. Alex pursued music in the age of YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. In 2019, he was a founding member of a teen TikTok collective called The Hype House. In 2021, he began releasing music. His first single, “One More I Love You” dealt with his father’s death. Warren signed to Atlantic Records in 2022 and has released music steadily while creating other content on YouTube and TikTok.


    THEN YOUR SHADOW GROWS LONGER ON THE GROUND. Yesterday, Alex Warren announced his debut album will be released on September 27th. You’ll Be Alright Kid (Chapter 1) will feature ten tracks, some new and some from as early as 2022, such as that year’s single “Chasing Shadows.” The song compares trying to hold on to the past as futile as trying to catch a shadow. The song points out that as the hours of the day pass, the positions of the shadows change, constantly changing where the shadows appear. We can wait for the moment the next day, but the factors of weather,  the slight changes in day length, and the changes in the landscape may make it impossible to experience the shadow the same way as before. Likewise, it’s hard to repeat a moment that occurred organically. As we try to keep our rituals and traditions, we may try to replicate the ideal of that event, as in Aristotle’s form. Still, ultimately we only chase shadows of that event as Pluto suggests in his Allegory of the Cave.

    ONLY SEE YOU IN THIS SILHOUETTE. Today, “Chasing Shadows” means two things to me. The first has to do with how the mid-September heat is literally causing us to chase shadows to not get scorched by the sun. The second has to do more with my idea of Fall. A few years ago, I lamented to a friend that I never get to enjoy my favorite season. Fall is one of the busiest seasons for teachers as it’s back-to-school season. Transitioning from being a pretty good student to a teacher, I never had a job that went at a normal pace in the fall. It went from term papers and projects to syllabus making and grading. The crisp Autumn days I remember from growing up in the hills of upstate New York seemed to be pressed deeper past the equinox further south. But years into my teaching career, I’ve been able to make time for personal seasonal rituals, but they certainly aren’t the same. This year, the fall is shaping up to be just a little cooler than the hottest summer on record. I just want to feel cold and wear my burnt orange sweater. I guess that I’m just chasing the shadows of a season that may no longer exist.
     

  • “Metamorphosis” by delirious? Friday, September 13, 2024

     

    In 1999, Delirious? released their sophomore album Mezzamorphosis. The album was a sharp departure from their 1997 debut album King of Fools and the band’s previous work, formerly under the moniker Cutting Edge, a worship band formed in 1992 as part of a youth ministry in Littlehampton, England. The band changed their name to Delirious? when they decided to tour and market their music internationally. The band’s first big Christian Rock single internationally, “Deeper” raised interest in the band’s worship music. Songs such as “I Could of Your Love Forever,” “Shout to the North,” and “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?” became standards sung in youth groups and in the contemporary church services that had become popular around the world in the ‘90s. Mezzamorphosis was an album that had worshipful moments, but it was mostly a rock album with subtle worshipful moments.

    MY TEFLON COAT IS WEARING THIN. Christian Rock’s British Invasion happened around Oasis and Blur was making chart success in America. Worship leaders Matt Redman and Tim Hughes and the rock band Delirious? were mostly the extent of British Christian artists impacting America in the ‘90s. As a rock band, Delirious? was a bit of a genre chameleon. Lead singer Martin Smith was inspired to take the band full-time after reading a biography about U2’s Bono while being hospitalized after a car accident. The anthemic choruses on King of Fools draw unmistakable U2 comparisons as does much of Delirious’s worship music. In Delirious’s live shows, Smith captures Bono-like charisma, drawing listeners into a worshipful experience. Of course, the choruses of Delirious’s work hand in hand with Smith’s spoken interludes, creating a euphoric atmosphere like a U2 concert, though Delirious? chose to focus their audience on worship. The band’s 1999 sophomore album is unlike anything else in their discography. The band experiments with industrial synthesizers as well as hard rock on songs like “Heaven” and “Bliss.” 

    MY CYNICAL CLOTHING WILL FALL FROM ME. Delirious’s Mezzamorphosis had several anthemic choruses on songs such as “Follow” and “See the Star,” but the band seemed to tap into a bleaker sound, taking influence from Radiohead and possibly The Verve. The album also sounds like Delirious? had been listeners to both Coldplay and Muse before either group broke out internationally, with “Beautiful Sun” sounding as moody as the songs on Parachutes and “Heaven” being not unlike “Muscle Museum” or “Plug In Baby.” The album takes its title as a mash-up of two of the songs “Mezzanine Floor” and “Metamorphosis.” Just as with King of Fools, Mezzamorphosis produced several crossover hits on the UK singles chart. The album’s lyrical content may be the most secular a Delirious? album ever got as the band took another sharp departure back into worship music with their 2000 album Glo. The lyrics of Mezzamorphosis deal with being torn between the Christian and the general market. As frontman Martin Smith sings about being stuck on the “Mezzanine Floor,” the band seems to be in musical purgatory of being “too Christian” and “secular sellouts.” with the album being released separately on Virgin Records and Sparrow Records in America. Virgin Records omitted the songs “Kiss Your Feet” and “Jesus’ Blood” from Delirious’ American release but Sparrow Records included the songs. Meanwhile, the album was almost banned in Christian bookstores due to the lyrics of “It’s O.K.,” mentioning drinking wine and a girl who is “as pretty as hell.” Ultimately, in the album’s second title track, Smith exclaims, “I know one day I will be free / My cynical clothing will fall from me / Flying high in the blink of an eye.” Ultimately, Mezzamorphosis was a turning point in Delirious’ career. They could have explored the musical and lyrical landscape they created for the album, but ultimately, they ventured back to the safety of church worship music. 



  • “Maybe It’s My Turn,” by Cecily Strong, Thursday , September 12, 2024

     

    Hollywood entered a golden age starting in the 1930s. The silent film era was coming to a close and films like The Wizard of Oz were including technicolor. As part of the multi-sensory experience of going to the theater, filmmakers, harkening to film’s cousin, the live theater, opted not for realism but for artistic takes on the material adapted for the screen. One popular storytelling motif was the inclusion of original songs, often sung by the stars portraying the main characters on the screen. Because songs often didn’t push the film’s plot forward, their inclusion made short films the classic 80-minute (or longer) movie length to excruciatingly long.

    I’VE GOT A KNACK FOR HIDING IN THE BACK. After the 1950s, musical films began to decline. Directors opted for realism rather than characters bursting into song. Although on the decline, musical films still left impressions on viewers from these times. Viewers may ask if Mrs. Bucket’s “Cheer Up, Charlie” is necessary for the plot of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but the Oompa Loompa’s songs certainly are. As live-action musical films declined, animated films kept most of these elements, with most Disney animations including an original soundtrack of iconic songs. While musicals may not have been as popular on the big screen, Broadway and The West End continued to keep the genre alive with composers like Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. But even as producers explored dark or comical themes, some felt that musical theater was not for them. They may have felt like musical theater has a certain culture or fanbase that they didn’t identify with, which can lead to feelings of being an outsider or not understanding the enthusiasm that others have for it. Others felt annoyed by the seemingly inauthentic way that the suspension of disbelief was broken by a song. For all of those non-Broadway fans, producers started making fun of itself with musical comedies for viewers who would normally hate musicals. Shows as early as 1982’s Little Shop of Horrors to 2003’s Avenue Q to 2011’s The Book of Mormon were shows that people who would have never been caught dead on The West End laughed raucously. 

    MAYBE THESE FRIGHTENED FEET WILL SNEAK INTO THE LIGHT. Last year, AppleTV+ aired the second season of Shmegadoon! The first season imagined what it would be like if an unsuspecting couple were to wander into a 1930s-style musical. The magical world of the series’s first season was built on strong musical actors–Dove Cameron, Kristin Chenoweth, Aaron Tveit–and trusted comedians (who can also sing)–Keegan-Michael Key, Cecily Strong, Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen, Martin Short, among others. But when Key and Strong’s Josh Skinner and Melissa Gimble try to go back to the magical town of Schmegadoon in the second season to seek escape from their real-world problem of being unable to conceive a child, they are greeted with the dark and dingy city of Schmicago, which ultimately gives the couple new problems to face. The plot of season two is influenced by the darker musicals of the 1950s and ‘60s; however, the parodies of those musicals are just as ridiculous and fun as the first season. In the fifth and penultimate episode of season 2, Strong sings the song “Maybe It’s My Turn Now.” The song is about overcoming feelings of inadequacy. Josh and Melissa are so distracted in the dark world of Schmicago that they temporarily forget their problems. Yet, when they overcome the problems in the dingy city–the main challenge of finding a happy ending in a genre that doesn’t lend itself to happy endings–they learn that “every day can be ‘A Happy Beginning.’”




  • “Karma” (Remix) by Taylor Swift ft. Ice Spice, Wednesday, September 11, 2024 (updated repost)

     I would argue that since reputation, Taylor Swift has made a career based on revenge. The singer-songwriter is extremely intentional and calculated when releasing new singles and albums. Last year, Swift released yet another deluxe edition of Midnights, this time calling it The Til Dawn Edition, featuring a new song and two remixes. When she first released Midnights   in October of 2022, many listeners were wondering what was different about the album. It felt like reputation but the singer was in a steady relationship with English actor Joe Alwyn, and everything was going great, right? right?


    KARMA IS A CAT PURRING ON MY LAP. When tabloids started reporting that Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn had split in early April this year, the pointed lyrics of Midnights started to make a little more sense. Was Swift reacting to the expectations–from others or even Alwyn– that their relationship should end in marriage? Could the singer stay in a “1950s shit” “Lavender Haze” forever? The commentary about the end of the relationship is endless online right now. Swift reportedly moved on and began dating Matthew “Matty” Healy, the lead singer of English rock band The 1975. Healy and Swift had been friends for a while and worked on music together, and some have speculated that this collaboration was a wedge in the Swift-Alwyn relationship. I think of Taylor Swift as a master collaborator, even creating a universe around the artists she’s worked with and kind of force field blocking other artists, usually those who support her enemies like Scooter Braun. Usually, when the “Taylorverse” expands, there are some awesome crossovers between Swifties and other fandoms. We can see this with Swift inviting guests on stage at her shows from classic rockers like Mick Jagger to LGBTQ+ icons like Tegan and Sara and MUNA. The Taylorverse has expanded into dad rock with Aaron Desnner and The National, to indie rock with the Phoebe Bridgers, to sad girl pop with Lorde and recently Lana Del Rey, to pop punk with Paramore, Panic! at the Disco, and Fall Out Boy–and of course, her maintained relationships in the country music community. 

    SPIDERBOY, KING OF THIEVES. Taylor Swift’s relationship with The 1975’s Matty Healy divided fans. Healy’s list of controversies, especially for racism came to light again just as Swift and Healy were seen at each others’ shows. One particularly damning comment was Healy’s comment about up-and-coming rapper Ice Spice. Just as the public was reminded of Healy’s comments and starting to realize who the Gen-Z rapper was, Taylor Swift announced 1) a new edition of Midnights 2) a special guest performance during her New Jersey leg of the tour, and 3) that guest would also be on the remix of the track “Karma.” Of course, the guest was Ice Spice, and of course, we didn’t hear about the conversations between Swift, Healy, and Ice Spice. Midnights continues to break sales and streaming records, and “Karma” (remix) debuts at number 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Matty and Taylor live happily ever–like the Russell Brand to former rival Katy Perry, like the romanticized problematic bad boys in Lana Del Rey songs. Nope. In the true fashion of a Taylor Swift album cycle, the musicians broke up, reportedly amicably. This whirlwind romance isn’t nothing new to Swift; maybe it feels a little old. But what’s new is the “living album” cycle. I just hope that Swift is happy. No shade intended.