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(12/13/25 11:56pm)
Earlier this month, a friend told me he felt he needed me to accompany him to a hip–hop club event. I love hip–hop, but I am certainly not as well–versed as he is. Nevertheless, he told me that he didn’t feel comfortable entering the space on his own because he felt that he shouldn’t enter a Black space as a non–Black person. He felt that entering the space of a culture he enjoyed would be an intrusion, even though he was genuinely appreciating the music that he loved.
(12/13/25 10:26pm)
It’s been quite a tumultuous time for country music. It seems that, in the past few years, the genre has been pushed into a moment of reckoning. While artists like Beyoncé and Shaboozey continue to spotlight the genre’s Black roots, the industry has met this increased culture awareness with an odd mix of defiance and disruption. Earlier this year, breakout country star Shaboozey stood on the AMA’s stage as a presenter while a whitewashed history of our country was espoused on stage. In 2024, Beyoncé received no nominations for the Country Music Awards, despite her unapologetically country record COWBOY CARTER being one of the most successful albums of that year. The explanation? That her album somehow lacked “authenticity” because of its less traditional sound, and that Beyoncé simply was not a real country artist, despite having produced music in the genre. Country artist Luke Bryan even justified the CMA’s choice not to nominate Beyonce for any awards by stating, “if you’re gonna make country albums, come into our world and be country with us a little bit.”
(12/03/25 11:35pm)
Olivia Dean is en route to being the ninth woman in a row to win Best New Artist at the Grammys. Like many previous winners, she’s been releasing music for almost a decade and—by virtue of TikTok’s algorithm—appears to have blown up overnight, boasting over 51 million monthly Spotify listeners as of December. This experience can be jarring—see Chappell Roan’s cynical take on celebrity life—but as she rises in fame, Dean continues to release music, bringing love and soul to the stage.
(12/08/25 5:13pm)
It is a well–known fact that the scariest moments of Halloweekend occur on Sunday morning, after the festivities have officially concluded. Lo and behold, this Halloween proved to be no different. While making the dreaded walk to the Hill College House communal bathrooms (after scrolling through all forms of social media to check for messages a former version of myself might have sent), I heard what can only be described as my worst nightmare: Christmas music. On Nov. 2.
(12/05/25 5:00am)
I walked into 2025 convinced I had already seen the musical roadmap. After last year’s cowboy couture and brief national flirtation with “simpler times,” paired with the hot–girl, indie–pop momentum (Addison Rae’s spiritual jurisdiction), I expected the year to bestow some polite sense of continuity—the next step felt predetermined, if not exactly obvious.
(11/25/25 4:00am)
Most politically active students like myself spent election night reminiscing on the simpler, more hopeful times of the early 2000s—I spent my night reliving them.
(11/13/25 4:40am)
Canadian rapper–songwriter–influencer bbno$ seems to have haunted the feeds of scrollers everywhere for nearly six years. Since his 2019 hit single “Lalala” with Y2K, he's built a massive following through both his music and his strong online presence. Although this article is an album review, I will first discuss his digital persona, as the main avenue of promotion for his latest album, bbno$, has been his prolific posting.
(11/11/25 5:50pm)
Picture a girl lying on the floor of her bedroom. Her toy keyboard wheezes out a few wounded chords, her phone is propped up on a half–empty Diet Coke can, and she’s confessing into the mic like God Herself is listening through the preamp—apparently, so is everyone else. A month or so later, her song is released, and the girl’s late–night lamentations become the anthem of a generation just learning how to feel. She is 17, furious, heartbroken, and about to rewrite pop. Her name is Olivia Rodrigo.
(11/11/25 6:37pm)
The Holy Grail has been found, and it’s on Spotify.
(11/04/25 11:04pm)
Many say that interest in classical music is fading, especially among the younger generations. But wander through University City in Philadelphia, and you’ll hear a different tune. From the rehearsal rooms of Penn’s Fisher–Bennett Hall to the halls of local churches, a new wave of musicians is keeping classical music alive, prioritizing passion, accessibly, and collaborative creation.
(11/06/25 12:20am)
What do Billie Eilish and the Bush administration have in common? An intimate knowledge of shock and awe.
(10/27/25 9:17pm)
Back when I first encountered PinkPantheress—a faceless phenom sharing snippets on SoundCloud and TikTok—I never anticipated how rapidly her work would come to dominate my playlists. From early flashes of virality with “Just A Waste” (please release it on streaming platforms, I don’t care about copyright law) to her cutesy 2023 collaboration with Ice Spice, PinkPantheress quickly cemented herself into the soundtrack of my coming–of–age arc.
(11/21/25 2:35am)
Three people walk into a bar. They order drinks, talking about nothing in particular. Above them, an acoustic guitar version of “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish plays. No one says anything about it—why would they? They already heard it at breakfast, at the coffee shop, at lunch. Maybe not Eilish this time—maybe Taylor Swift, maybe Phoebe Bridgers. Doesn’t matter. It’s the same oh–so–familiar song, dressed down with a guitar or piano track that fades into the next, equally ordinary tune. Come to think of it, that same soundtrack probably playing right now as I write this at Stommons.
(11/04/25 4:50pm)
Five years after 2020’s Slow Rush, Kevin Parker—better known by his musical project Tame Impala—finally released his fifth studio album, Deadbeat, on Oct. 17. Since then, the album has been the subject of endless criticism for its lyrics, sound, and overall concept. Parker's newest project shifts a bit from his usual synth–backed sound, bringing in influences from ‘70s Turkish music, techno, and Western Australia’s “bush doof” rave scene. That blend alone is enough to send all corners of the internet into a frantic debate. Few artists are expected to please such opposing audiences at once, and fewer still end up using that tension to make a point.
(11/06/25 12:55am)
While walking down Locust Walk last week, I came to a blood–chilling realization that stopped me in my tracks: there were several people wearing the exact same outfit as me. It’s truly the worst nightmare of someone who prides herself on her niche, Pinterest board–curated fashion repertoire, but I only had myself to blame. Like a significant number of Penn students, I found myself at the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Sept. 30 and fell victim to the allure of an overpriced polyester t–shirt I would only later realize was not as cool as I believed—but isn’t that the definition of being a Lorde fan? Cultivated, audience–tested, and thoroughly–vetted nicheness is the manufactured rebellion we as a society revere.
(10/22/25 1:01am)
There’s no denying that Leon Vynehall is one of the most intriguing electronic producers working today. His earliest projects Music for the Uninvited and Rojus (Designed to Dance) are fresh takes on the broad genre of house, while the more minimalist Nothing is Still draws heavily on orchestral elements to tell the story of his grandparent’s emigration to the United States. Where Vynehall shines most is as a curator of vibes—every one of his releases is entirely self–contained, showing off his varied production talents in a new light. It's always Vynehall’s lush instrumentation that gives each of these projects their vital force, each successive track carefully built up layer by layer.
(10/27/25 9:17pm)
I met Lou Reed through a boy with pale blue eyes—which is to say I fell in love for the first time—and even if he only played The Velvet Underground for the bit, I kept listening long after he was gone. The Velvet Underground didn’t sound like The Beatles or The Stones or anything glossy. They sounded like rot, like sex, like you could bleed out in the East Village and the record would keep spinning. Reed, the group’s principal songwriter, died on Oct. 27, 2013, and he would’ve hated this article.
(11/13/25 3:42pm)
“I’m not great at journaling,” Alina Adams—better known by her stage name, ALINA—admits. “So I write songs instead.”
(10/07/25 10:44pm)
Time for a pop quiz! Picture a musician with a chiseled jaw, intense gaze, and a guitar slung low like a machine gun. He hails from a working–class background, in a town left behind by deindustrialization, and got out through the power of rock–and–roll. His music is powerful, reflective, and unabashedly political. Who is he?
(10/07/25 10:43pm)
Getting Killed, the fourth album for indie rock outfit Geese, doesn’t quite channel the spirit its title seems to promise. Though the cover depicts an angel aiming a gun at the listener, the record itself is more wistful than violent, more focused on moving through life than accepting death. Christian imagery abounds: the Angel Gabriel’s horn, emblazoned on the artwork, announces Judgement Day; “Taxes” compares lead vocalist Cameron Winter’s fate to that of Christ of the Cross; “Bow Down” sees the band explicitly confronted with the imperative to kneel before the divine. These motifs serve less as a real expression of faith and more as a reminder of where faith finds us—at the end of the road, on our knees, ready to serve. Getting Killed is ultimately a meditation on submission—to God, to love, or to the rhythms of everyday life.
