Thanks to everyone who voted in Wednesday’s poll. Here’s the results:

Dua Lipa – Levitating
Average: 8.2 Mode: 10

J. Cole, 21 Savage, and Morray – My Life
Average: 4.1 Mode: 3

Ed Sheeran – Bad Habits
Average: 4.6 Mode: 5

Drake ft. Lil Baby – Girls Want Girls
Average: 2.4 Mode: 1

That’s the end of the line for songs that peaked at #2 (as of now, at least), which means that’s all as far as this poll is concerned. Thanks for doing them!

It’s called recycling, and it’s good for the environment.

I played my Game Boy Advance during lunch and listened to Rush Limbaugh, so I’m fully aware I deserved the bullying.

Hi there folks–HUGE metalhead here, just needing to tell you THAT is the most disturbing cover art I have ever seen.

I totally agree that everything I saw and read of Music seemed totally and inarguably terrible/offensive/ableist. It also seemed pretty clear that Sia wasn’t trying to be any of those things. And while it definitely doesn’t excuse her from criticism/make the impact of what she did any less damaging, I can also sympathize with how shitty it’s gotta feel to basically learn your whole ethos is fucked up in such a public, all-encompassing way. I’m glad she’s not suicidal anymore.

“Same!” – every commenter rushing to make this joke

Damn how much of a nerd were you if these kids were your bullies??

U2 talkin 2 U about hating U2

That Valley Girl spoken intro was, in some ways, more culturally impactful than the song itself. For my generation, it was the first clearly understandable satire on “Stuff White People Say.” I remember my older sister delightedly reciting this in cartoonish pantomime, presumably in on the joke.
This intro served as the basis for what became the “Becky” pejorative, itself the precursor to “basic bitch.” Becky represented the people who smugly assume that the cultural ubiquity they enjoy is due to their being special—rather than being quite boring and very, very fortunate. And Becky would later take a darker turn when the events of her changing community did not meet her expectations, and she would be renamed “Karen.”

Like any culture war dynamic, the story behind the Becky and Karen insults tend to be lost in translation and what remains clear are the insults themselves, which of course results in more aggrieved and resentful people. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that my older sister is now an eternally-aggrieved Trumper, a real Becky-turned-Karen.

This is not to lay all of this baggage on the shoulders of Sir Mix-a-lot, of course. It was all in good fun! Nor is it meant to paint a rosy picture of US race relations in 1992 (this single was released just days after the LA riots ended). But it’s just a snapshot of one generation’s rosy childhood naivety, heavily informed by pop novelty songs, eventually getting shredded by this larger cultural dynamic of dysfunction. We didn’t start the ire, but it has the power to make all things sour.

Anyway, political and familial dysfunction aside, it’s a great little tune!

There’s hot and then there’s trying. I’m old enough to still cling to largely unfashionable 20th-century notions of cool.

Not that she isn’t enormously attractive, it’s just that the entire style of the visuals is reminiscent of Insta models, which hardly goes hand-in-hand with music verging on prog and lyrics about constantly being on the edge of complete mental collapse. I guess “so sad so sexy” kinda has been the theme of pop music in the past five years, but it still has never sat well with me.

One could of course argue that aggressive exhibitionism is compensation for deep insecurity. I’m just fascinated that Yanya is foregrounding both the exhibitionism and the insecurity.

As much as I grew up on Kathy Griffin, all of this screams “I was cancelled, you were cancelled, we’re the same” when her big slight was channeling the anger towards Trump into a video, while Sia arguably committed some of the most fucked up ableist shit towards the autism community in a very public and pronounced way. I wouldn’t wish death on her but I don’t think she should return to a spotlight anytime soon (*cough* arca wtf *cough*)

misogynist bullshit. Obviously Tom likes it

yeah just like that dumb rage against the machine album cover of the burning monk hey

Hi there! I never do this but my friend sent this to me so I felt it important to clarify. I am not of the Forbes “Dynasty” (Forbes magazine/Steve Forbes family), there are other Forbes out there…I am also not of the Droste Cocoa empire. I do have a random ass cousin that started hooters and the most I’ve seen of that was a hooters calendar for 3 years in the early nineties at xmas. . It wasn’t wise to gripe about income back then, I regret it. I left new York so I could afford a better quality of life. I left the industry because it was bad for my mental health. My parents are middle class and I did indeed grow up privileged because they were both teachers at a private school and I got a free ride. Hope y’all are doing well. xoxo