How much does Taylor Swift owe her fans? An opinion piece published in The New York Times on Jan. 4 theorized about Taylor Swift’s sexuality, evoking backlash from Swifties and non-Swifties alike. To put it frankly: Swift owes her fans nothing, and people shouldn’t speculate about others’ sexuality—celebrity or not.[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric
Box office films are falling victim to misleading marketing
Hollywood has a marketing problem, and if recent films like Anyone But You and Mean Girls are any indication, their box office success will prolong the trend of deceptive advertising. The official trailer for Anyone But You is incredibly misleading. Instead of showcasing the rom-com’s plot and overall premise, the[Read More…]
Does Princess Diana’s depiction in ‘The Crown’ contradict her public legacy?
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…]
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…]
