Following the conclusion of Netflix’s The Crown with its sixth and final season in late 2023, I found myself drawn to the series’s portrayal of Lady Diana Spencer’s life and death. Born into British nobility and thrust into the spotlight following her 1981 marriage to now King Charles III, then[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric
Where’s the hair, Harry?
In Nov. 2023, the entertainment world was shocked to hear the news that one of their very best had been lost. Millennials still harbouring crushes from their teen years and diehard fans alike were devastated when they discovered what happened to Harry Styles. No, the man himself isn’t dead—but his[Read More…]
Pop dialectic: AI and The Beatles’ “Now & Then”
The Beatles released their latest and final song, “Now and Then,” on Nov. 2, over sixty years after the release of their last album. The remaining Beatles—Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr—used artificial intelligence (AI) to splice together old demos with new recordings. The resultant song presents the four Beatles, dead[Read More…]
Pop culture journalism keeps the arts alive
On Oct. 6, Entertainment Tonight (ET) Canada aired its final episode, marking the end of an 18-year-long run in Canadian entertainment reporting. Although the closure appeared sudden, it would not come as a surprise to those following the state of Canadian arts and entertainment reporting in recent years. A decline[Read More…]
An ode to the fall film
There is so much more to October film-watching than scary movies. While viewers may inevitably crave the grotesque in the lead-up to Halloween, autumn simultaneously evokes a search for comfort in the TV catalogue as viewers shy away from the frigid outdoors. I found this sense of warmth during the[Read More…]
The haunting myth of the celebrity novel
The practice of ghostwriting has been around for centuries—even before the official term’s coining. Back when the primary mode of communication was oral storytelling, people used ghostwriting to scribe Bible passages and transfer religious schools of thought onto paper. Today, the most common cultural association with ghostwriting involves celebrity memoirs,[Read More…]
AI in Music: Revolutionary or Robotic?
In recent years, the term artificial intelligence (AI) has become part of our everyday vocabulary. The emergence of ChatGPT in the fall of 2022 sparked both curiosity and concern for AI’s future across industries. Just four months later, Spotify introduced its AI-powered DJ robot which uses generative OpenAI technology to[Read More…]
How “girl dinner” could fight the patriarchy
Content Warning: Discussion of disordered eating “Girl dinner,” a recent TikTok sensation, reveals what’s lurking in the backs of refrigerators and cupboards at dinnertime when you have procrastinated grocery shopping. An experience resonating with people of all genders, it shows creators poking fun at makeshift meals. While “girl dinner” started[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: Twitter and the Gen Z-ification of SNL
I’ve never been a particularly avid watcher of Saturday Night Live. Like many people my age, my opinion of the show is mainly shaped by watching clips via Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok—I really only see the best and the worst of the series. But a few weeks ago, I enjoyed[Read More…]
In Defense of the Cinema: why your local movie theatre matters more than ever
Sparks have been flying in the film industry lately—but not in the romantic sense. Since May 2, thousands of screenwriters across the United States, represented by the Writers Guild of America (WGA), have declared a strike against major studios and streaming platforms. The issue on the table? What they describe[Read More…]
