Lists
The 20 Best Riot Grrrl Songs
“Even though I did punch her, I thought she was a genius,” Courtney Love said of Kathleen Hanna in 2002, while attempting to explain riot grrrl to The Strokes live on MTV. Twenty years later, and about 30 since the movement’s inception, trying to define it still feels fraught. Riot grrrl was always a nebulous concept, a label intended to be adopted and personalized by young feminist punks globally. But by the early aughts, once the revolution had become FUBAR from in-fighting, unwanted media attention, and accusations of racist and transphobic exclusion, it already felt like a dream of the past. In that sense, riot grrrl was a specific movement born out of a specific moment in time, and a handful of specific places (usually Washington, state and D.C.). It is not a catch-all label for ...
Taylor Swift, Lizzo, Harry Styles & More Music Stars Who Are BLACKPINK Fans
BLACKPINK is dominating the pop world, constantly breaking records with their eight Hot 100 hits. Most recently, their latest single, “Pink Venom,” became Spotify’s most-streamed song by a female artist in a single day in 2022 so far. The girl group’s 2020 “How You Like That” music video snagged three entries in the Guinness World Records. With more than 86 million views in just the first day of release, the video earned Guinness’ most viewed YouTube video in 24 hours, most viewed music video on YouTube in 24 hours, and most viewed YouTube music video in 24 hours by a K-pop group. Their success and catchy music has led to a devoted fanbase affectionately called the Blinks, many of whom are celebrities. At the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, Taylor Swift was seen singing and dancing along to t...
The Tech Trends to Take Note of as 2022 Draws to a Close
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The 22 Best VMAs Performances of All Time: Critics’ Picks
The annual MTV Video Music Awards have been one of pop culture’s biggest nights for decades. Good, bad or ugly, the show has had more than its fair share of headline-making moments since its debut in 1984. Remember when Drake professed his love for Rihanna on stage in 2016? Or Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley’s awkwardly long kiss in 1994? Oh, and need we even mention Lady Gaga’s 2010 meat dress? Despite its anything-goes reputation, the ceremony has always been a celebration of the year in music. Musical acts across genres are recognized not just for their records and albums, but for the hard work and creativity they put into accompanying visual works. And although going home with a moon person trophy (most notably for video of the year) is surely a goal for nominees, for viewers, i...
Every Tim Burton Movie Ranked from Worst to Best
Welcome to Dissected, where we disassemble a band’s catalog, a director’s filmography, or some other critical pop-culture collection in the abstract. It’s exact science by way of a few beers. The time, we enter the strange, dark, and still sometimes charming world of Tim Burton. This article was originally published in 2019 and has been updated. In 1986, after years of work in animation, various other below-the-line contributions, and a pair of short films by his own hand, Tim Burton stormed onto the international filmmaking stage with his ’80s feature run of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Batman. In just a few years, Burton made himself a household name, and one of the most unique and sought-after directorial voices in a Hollywood beginning to find itself overwhe...
Every Wilco Album Ranked From Worst to Best
This article was originally published in 2019 and has been updated in celebration of Jeff Tweedy’s birthday on August 25th. Welcome to Dissected, where we disassemble a band’s catalog, a director’s filmography, or some other critical pop-culture collection in the abstract. It’s exact science by way of a few beers. This time, we sort through the best and worst of Chicago’s rock ‘n’ roll teddy bears. There’s nothing easy about Wilco. Their songs leave plenty for the listener to unpack and digest, from studiously arranged musical touches to frontman Jeff Tweedy’s sometimes sweet and earnest, other times gonzo lyrics. There’s work that goes into getting your head around Wilco, which probably explains why the Chicago band have become one of the most adored acts of their generation. But dissecti...
‘Elvis’ Is the Third-Highest-Grossing Music Biopic Since the 1970s: Here’s the Top 25
After two months in theaters, Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis has grossed nearly $145 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to boxofficemojo.com. The film, starring Austin Butler as the King, Elvis Presley, is the third-highest-grossing music biopic in terms of domestic box-office (which the site defines as the U.S. and Canada) since the mid-1970s. Elvis has grossed nearly $270 million worldwide. In terms of global box-office, it’s No. 2, just behind Bohemian Rhapsody, the Oscar-winning 2018 biopic of Queen‘s Freddie Mercury. Here are the 25 top-grossing biopics of musicians in terms of domestic box-office. The films cover a wide range of genres. Pop/rock artists are the focus of eight the 25 films, followed by R&B (four); rap and traditional pop (three each); country, Latin and classic...
Joe Strummer’s 10 Best Non-Clash Songs
If punk rock’s heart belonged to any one person, it beat in the chest of Joe Strummer. At a time when the movement was largely defined as a glue-sniffing “blank generation” with no future, the Clash’s frontman shaped it into something more purposeful, empathetic, ambitious, and even idealistic. In their brief time together, The Clash made six albums, five of them groundbreaking classics, incorporating ska, reggae, and hip-hop into their omnivorous sound. After the Clash split, Mick Jones continued making hits with Big Audio Dynamite, and Paul Simonon rubbed elbows with stars, backing Bob Dylan and joining Damon Albarn’s supergroup the Good, the Bad & the Queen. But Joe Strummer seemed to restlessly bounce around from one project to another: continuing to seek out international sounds, ...
10 Greatest Moments in KCON History So Far
With 10 years of perspective, one can confidentially say that the timing for launching America’s biggest K-pop festival couldn’t have been better. In the summer of 2012, K-pop was breaking into the American vernacular thanks to the massively viral success of PSY‘s “Gangnam Style.” The inescapable horsey-dance hit entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in September. It would spend seven consecutive weeks at the No. 2 position, coinciding with performances at the MTV Video Music Awards, the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Saturday Night Live and the American Music Awards. While “Gangnam Style” was rocketing up the charts, KCON was announced as a first-of-its-kind convention/festival hybrid that looked to honor all things Korean-pop culture. Taking place at the now-shuttered Ve...
9 Questions to Ask Before Choosing the Right VPN for You
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25 Best Dragons on Screen, Ranked
You know what a dragon is when you see one. Sometimes, it might be the very last thing you see. Whether they’re laying waste to fictional countrysides, defending the world from cataclysmic events, or just being the best friend of young heroes, dragons have an immense and immediate impact on whatever fantasy world to which they belong — and whether they’re good, evil, or as neutral as Switzerland when it comes to the conflicts of men, they’re always a fascinating addition to any narrative. Our inspiration for looking back over decades of film and television to select the greatest dragons ever seen on screen is, of course, directly tied to the upcoming launch of two new tentpole series: The Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon and Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings ...
Every R.E.M. Album, Ranked
Michael Stipe met Peter Buck in an Athens, Georgia record store in January 1980, and that fortuitous moment spawned one of the defining ‘80s bands. Joined by the rhythm section of Bill Berry and Mike Mills, R.E.M. worked up a jangly yet esoteric sound – equal parts Velvet Underground and The Byrds — that quickly became their signature. Their ascent was remarkable: Each of the quartet’s first nine albums sold as much or more than the one before, turning them into household names in the ’90s. Berry’s retirement in 1997 marked the end of R.E.M.’s classic era, but the remaining trio carried on, recording five more albums that earned mixed reviews. But when the band finally disbanded in 2011, they left behind one of alternative rock’s most important catalogs, including 15 restlessly a...
