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people rooting for Scott Pilgrim and not recognizing that he is in fact, a total fucking creep, is the equivalent of finance bros rooting for Gordon Gekko possibly worse, since at least Gordon Gekko self-acknowledges his badness. his moral justification for it is obviously extremely flimsy but...

Licorice Pizza reminds me of 500 Days of Summer in the sense that it's nominally a sweet, or in the latter case bittersweet, dramedy wrapped in a twee Wes Anderson exterior that thinly veils the fact that its central romance is deeply creeply. the difference is that in 500 Days the filmmakers...

sure, I mean that's the point. in that sense it's basically PTA's low-key version of Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, tho even Tarantino I think would blanch at making a will they/won't they romance about a high school sophomore and a woman going on 30.

oh yeah there's also a weird kinda suss take on Judaism and atheism randomly tossed in tho in that case you could see it as the character's weird take rather than the film's, which is yunno how you actually do that kind of thing

my main thought after seeing it was "wow, PTA has reached a point of such cultural cachet that he made a movie about an idealized teen/adult romance and no one involved, including numerous Hollywood A-list types, asked him at any point if this is yunno, a good idea". the central fact is so...

btw you may ask, where are this boy's parents? well, it turns out he's teenage entrepreneur/schemer who employs his own mother (father never appears) so doesn't really have any parental figures Alana Haim otoh is shown to be a directionless mid-20s womanchild - which would be a nice gender...

Licorice Pizza boy what a fucking mess (warning: @IdleRich style long rant incoming) essentially Paul Thomas Anderson making a Wes Anderson movie, with all the cloying whimsy and deeply uncomfortable use of people of color - who are basically absent, but when they do briefly appear are, in...

in re Beyonce that's not so much about queerness as the ability to pursue that kind of Bowie/Madonna artistic chameleon the ability to more easily pivot back and forth between and draw influence from both black and white (or rather, coded as such) musics see also: something like Graceland, or...

btw there's almost certainly something meaningful to be said about race, American pop stardom, and the changing face of pop stardom in the last quarter century on this point. I don't know enough about pop to really tease it out that meaning tho, I think. in general tho it seems quite recent -...

agreed on Kylie as part of the mom-dance canon, solid entry I don't follow her so idk but I wouldn't be surprised if Mariah Carey has done a throwback dance record at some point

yeah I mean obv no has to justify liking or disliking Beyonce's music but let's be clear about two separate things Beyonce is undeniably amazing, historically great, at being a star - cultivation and management of self/image/brand, organization and leadership of a huge, sprawling...

the really important question here is who else is in the dance-mom canon besides Beyonce and Madonna? surely Gaga will get there eventually but she's currently in her serious actress phase - so Madonna ca. early-mid 90s - which suggest it'll be another decade or so Britney is kinda off on...

also just in case any of you who are super into pop music haven't heard Ayesha Erotica

Madonna was also a person who extended her cultural relevance well past being relevant as pop so did Bowie and Michael Jackson. and Elvis (did have that late 60s comeback tbf). once you reach that very highest level of pop stardom it doesn't matter what you do musically. and presumably you...

that's a reasonable summary of the context. I've made the same exact points about disco, house, etc to people here (the U.S. I mean, not dissensus) a million times, especially being from and living in Chicago. and I'm sure for the target audience - Vox readers who know very little about dance...

I did not know that, thanks for the correction I wish her every happiness with her transition. unfortunately her music will still be terrible. tbf black metal has a long, grand tradition of stupid, highly detailed worldbuilding, and it's not like hers is any more stupid than the others

which highlights the issue that indie is a "genre" with no past, no antecedents it is a genre built around a type of distribution network that it itself generally doesn't employ and further, has been basically a meaningless distinction - indie vs major - for its entire existence in fact...

btw I just want to note that hardcore created DIY and independent music networks out the bands in that book, which is as good a canonical listing as any for American independent rock in the 80s they were almost all either hardcore (Black Flag, Minor Threat), started as hardcore (Husker Du)...

Dinosaur Jr and SY both, ironically, "sold out" and moved from SST - maybe the canonical independent rock label - to majors in the early 90s more importantly probably, they both predate indie rock in fact they are both chapters in Our Band Could Be Your Life, which is subtitled...Scenes From...

I think that depends on what you're including if you're making it a much broader field - indie-land - vs a narrower sound - indie rock - so you can include post-rock and all that, then OK I still 1000% wouldn't say "the center of guitar music innovation" - but some level of innovation, rather...