Taylor Swift becomes biggest female artist of all time in the UK
Taylor Swift has now become the biggest female artist of all time in the UK, with the most UK No 1 albums ever. The record means she has officially surpassed Madonna. The rise and cultural dominance of Taylor Swift continues with no real end in sight. She has just broken...
Current in Culture
We need to talk about ‘Almond Mums’
How the fascination with our mothers’ diets has permeated social media and changed the way we think about food. There are few social trends as pervasive as the ‘almond mum’. She’s slim, she’s usually wearing yoga leggings, she shops at Whole Foods. And according to the thousands of videos featuring...
Google’s Gemini AI advert coughs out incorrect cheese facts
In the first version of its latest advert for AI, Google’s Gemini can be seen providing incorrect information on cheese. It’s an excellent example of why we shouldn’t rely entirely on AI to do the thinking for us. Honey, the Large Language Model (LLM) AI program is hallucinating again! It...
Ed Sheeran street concert shut down by police in India
In widely-shared footage online, a police officer can be seen unplugging Ed Sheeran’s microphone at a street performance in India. Ed Sheeran had his street performance in India cut short over the weekend, despite reportedly asking permission before starting. A police offer unplugged his microphone and ushered him away,...
Hawk Tuah girl returns after crypto scam controversy
Haliey Welch went viral last year for her ‘hawk tuah’ TikTok interview moment. Since then, she’s amassed over 2 million Instagram followers, launched a podcast, and faced controversy for a pump-and-dump crypto currency scheme. She’s now returned after two months offline. ‘Hawk Tuah’ girl is back, everyone! 22-year-old Haliey Welch...
The artist vs person debate at the heart of the Emilia Perez scandal
Backlash against lead Karla Sofia Gascón points to the morality minefield of consuming an artist's actions alongside their work. Karla Sofia Gascón is the first trans woman to be nominated for Best Lead Actress at the Oscars for her role in Netflix underdog Emilia Perez. I use the term underdog because...
Exploring Reggaeton’s roots and political history
Reggaeton is widely recognised by its uptempo beats and raunchy lyrics, but there is another side to the genre we see less often. Through live events and powerful lyrics, reggaeton artists have used music as a tool to call out political corruption, discrimination, and to generate a feeling of solidarity. Reggaeton, a blend of reggae, hip hop, and dancehall, first began in Panama in the late 1980s. Starting out as a...
Kendrick Lamar wins five Grammys for ‘Not Like Us’
The smash 2024 summer hit ‘Not Like Us’ has taken home five Grammys, making it the most prolific diss track of all time. If anyone was in doubt as to who won the rap beef last summer, the Grammys just put the final nail in the coffin. This year was the 67th annual Grammy awards ceremony. Kendrick Lamar won five Grammys for ‘Not Like Us,’ the hit diss track that...
Opinion – ‘What I Eat in a Day’ videos are entirely unappetizing
The trend of sharing our daily meals invites harmful diet tropes, unhealthy comparisons, and a general disillusionment with food. So why can’t we escape ‘What I Eat in a Day’ videos? There’s a peculiar flavour to modern voyeurism, and it comes in the form of meal vlogging. Otherwise known as ‘What I Eat in a Day’ videos, food content has emerged as social media’s answer to an appointment with the nutritionist,...
What Reddit vs X says about internet groupthink
Multiple subreddits are banning X links in protest of Elon Musk’s salute at the presidential inauguration. The implosion of ideological groupthink online highlights the fascinating potential of digital community. Elon Musk was one of a number of tech-giants who took center stage at Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration. The X owner and Tesla founder has become an unlikely political sidekick (or partner in crime, if you prefer) since the latter...
