Current in Offbeat

swipe
2025 was the year of yearning

2025 was the year of yearning

We couldn’t stop longing for what it didn’t have  After a decade defined by hustle and optimisation, 2025 turned toward something softer and unresolved. The year of yearning. From breakout show ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ to Charli XCX’s viral hit ‘party 4 u’, the past 12 months of romance have...

Beeple’s ‘Regular Animals’ turns billionaires into terrifying robot dogs

Beeple’s ‘Regular Animals’ turns billionaires into terrifying robot dogs

A late entry for the most disturbing art installation of 2025, Beeple’s ‘Regular Animals’ features a pen of robotic dogs bearing the likeness of tech billionaires and revered artists. They canter around, snap photos, and take NFT dumps. ‘You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension,’ declared Nikola Tesla in 1898. I’d say we’re probably at that point. Onlookers at Art Basel Miami Beach are transfixed in a state...

By London, UK
Explaining the Gen Alpha ‘6-7’ TikTok trend

Explaining the Gen Alpha ‘6-7’ TikTok trend

Are you an elderly Gen Zer? Confused about why the kids are nonsensically saying ‘6-7?’ Us too.  Every so often, a moment in pop culture will arrive as a reminder that youth isn’t eternal. Hearing an in-joke you don’t understand or missing an obvious conversational reference can make even the most mentally robust person uneasy. Am I out of touch? Has the world moved on? Are we over the hill already? As...

By Bristol, UK
Why is there a Gen Z activism stan war going on?

Why is there a Gen Z activism stan war going on?

Stan culture isn’t limited purely to the world of music, but this might just be the most peculiar beef fictionalised by the internet to date. Pick a side and get to tweeting your non-sensical argument immediately. The latest internet beef based on precisely nothing, and with absolutely no influence from either party, is the Greta Thunberg vs Malala Yousafzai squabble for title of ‘best Gen Z activist.’ Late last month, Malala appeared...

By London, UK
Opinion – women are done with heteronormative ideas of love

Opinion – women are done with heteronormative ideas of love

As Lily Allen’s scathing account of marital infidelity resonates so broadly, it’s clear women are detaching from outdated ideals that their value can only ever truly be found within men.  Maybe it’s because I’m a single woman in her late twenties – but something feels different lately. A change in energy, if you will. That shift has crystallised in two cultural moments that landed almost simultaneously: Lily Allen’s new album West End...

By Brighton, UK