I know it’s a kid’s show, but a lot of people watched it
Outer Banks knows its audience: young adults in a country that can’t stop romanticizing good ole’ treasure hunts. With a little of Riverdale’s sex appeal thrown in there, no one can look away. Forty years after The Goonies, America’s consciousness hasn’t strayed from the same tropes: treasure hunts, a vulnerable white male lead and the whitewashing of a racially segregated setting.
The show fails to acknowledge the racial nature of its violence
In Episode 3, aptly named “The Forbidden Zone,” the show’s preppy antagonists attack Pope (Jonathan Davis), a member of the core four groups of leads on a golf course. Two white men attack a black man “trespassing” on a…
My life went down in flames.
I was 17 when 1989 came out. That year, I had the first taste of adult-ish freedom in my life. I could drive and I started to look at colleges. I began to feel the possibilities in my life expanding outward like the flock of birds on the 1989 CD, parting ways above a beach. When I drove to my friends’ houses that year, I blasted 1989 in the car: the soundtrack of new possibilities.
1989 came out during my junior year in high school. My senior year, Adele released 25, which defined senior…
He’s got that one thing.
For someone who used to be in a boy band, Harry Styles does not make many public appearances. Even the “Behind the Scenes” videos for his music videos don’t show much of his personality. The “Golden” BTS video shows Harry talking only at the end, when he waves goodbye to fans gathered around the set. The rest of the video simply shows shots of the production, set to the song. No talking. No interviews or explanations. Just Harry running around.
The rest of his former bandmates don’t hold back on personality in the public eye…
It’s a no for me, dawg
Youth has never stopped young politicians from running for office. Jon Ossoff, recently elected to the Georgia Senate, is only 33. AOC, at the time of her election, was 29, and Paul Ryan only thirty-five years during his vice presidential candidacy. Candidates have used youth to their advantage in many ways. Known as one of the “young guns,” a trio of young conservatives in Congress, Ryan posed for Time magazine in 2012 lifting weights in gym clothes. He looked more out of touch and goofy than young and hip. But, look at it this way: has sex appeal ever hurt…
Even when we wish we didn’t
In a recent turn of events, Halsey and Evan Peters dated briefly and then broke up. This unexpected pairing made me wonder how celebrities meet in the first place. Evan Peters is an arguably B-list actor. And Halsey is a B+ singer. Where did they meet? A B-list Hollywood party? Do those sorts of things actually happen?
I think a lot about celebrity couples. Am I living vicariously through them? I’ve never dated anyone myself. You would think I would want to focus on that. Or, if I was just obsessed with the idea of dating someone but didn’t want…
Revisiting the Grammy winner’s first solo work.
Breaking the Boy Band Cocoon
Harry Styles emerges from his boy band cocoon as a fully formed artist on his debut self-titled album. On the cover, he poses with his back facing the camera, proving he doesn’t need his face to win audiences anymore. Times have changed since the breakup of One Direction. Now, his artistry captivates the massive fanbase he cultivated while in the five-part boy band.
Many stars emerge from bands and embark on solo careers: Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Stevie Nicks, Camilla Cabello…the list goes on. But many fail to reveal an actual personality as…
The book is always better.
Nine years after it acquired the rights, Lionsgate finally released Chaos Walking on March 5, 2021. The studio bought the rights to the bestselling book in 2011, at the height of Young Adult (YA) dystopian popularity. It probably seemed like a good bet. Nine years later, the film may have lost its relevance. Critical success in 2021 for a YA movie would require revising the dystopian formula. (Currently, it’s a close cousin to the action flick.) Instead, Chaos Walking staged a poor imitation of the current formula, with a star cast that serves as Hollywood’s version of clickbait. …
It’s not as racy as the song implies.
Like most Ariana Grande music videos, the video for the most recent single from Positions, “34+35,” doesn’t necessarily bear ties to its song’s content. But it stands on its own merit. The video starts with Ariana singing against a backdrop of 69 dots, as counted by a fan. (69 being the sum of 34+35.) The video switches between the 69-dot scene and a laboratory where Ariana, clad in a lab coat and wedge heels, assembles a robot version of herself. Here’s where the video deviates from the song’s content. What does a futuristic Frankenstein have to do with “f*cking til…
For a small country, they’re doing pretty well
When my American friends and I had settled into Belgium for our semester abroad, we began to notice the extent to which the people there prioritize life over work. In my hometown, a suburb outside of Boston, there is a train line, separate from the regular city metro, that extends deep into the suburbs where the white collar workers live. It enables them to commute to the city, even if they live over an hour away. It’s called the “commuter rail.”
My host parents in Belgium were horrified at this. An hour-long commute? And most Americans don’t even have a…
She’s no Tay-tay.
Kelsea Ballerini is what happens when Nashville gets a time machine, put Taylor Swift circa 2010 in it, and makes sure she never grew up to become a pop star. The country starlet is Nashville’s greatest attempt to ensure their misogynistic tropes don’t chase away another promising female star. Kelsea, released in March of 2020, opens with a track called “overshare.” The title alone sounds like an apology from the media to Taylor Swift, saying, See! We’re accepting of female artists who want to talk about their unfiltered feelings now! We even make it look cute!
Matt Dwyer
Recent college grad. I write about pop culture, politics, travel, mental health, and more
