I’ve always liked Tyler, The Creator and, ever since hearing about him through his Video Music Awards win for his single Yonkers, he’s always held my interest. Despite not always making the best musical choices in the world, he’s an insanely fascinating character with a lot going on in his work despite the fact that he’ll certainly deny that it has any nuance whatsoever. This intrigue has led me through his first two albums, the simply titled Bastard and Goblin, which both feature outstanding intros that sadly taper off later on, with songs getting less interesting as each album progresses. This isn’t enough to kill the intrigue of Tyler as a character, however, and still paint the story of his… Read More →

Why are we still putting up with Lil Wayne? I mean, even with as much disdain as I have for rappers like 2 Chainz and Nicki Minaj, I can at least understand their appeal, both in general sound, marketing, and style. But why Lil Wayne? I’m seriously asking here. With all the artists doing exactly what Lil Wayne is doing only better, why has he stayed so consistently supported by the general public? Is it his recognizable style? The fact that he’s been around for a long time? A mixture of image and nostalgia? Regardless, however, he has officially released his latest album, entitled I Am Not a Human Being II, to what already appears to be commercial success. Is… Read More →

Ke$ha is a very, very easy person to hate. From her valley-girl style vocals and dirty “orgy-in-an-alley” persona to the fact that she has a dollar sign in her name, it’s incredibly easy to write her off as a hack that doesn’t deserve anyone’s time of day, let alone their money. However, despite the initial taste she left (or perhaps because of it), I couldn’t help but enjoy what Ke-dollar sign-ha offered up. From her talk-sing vocal style that sounded like an Americanized version of Uffie to her glitter-filled, anti-glitterati steeze, I couldn’t help but find much of her first album, Cannibal, to be a raucously fun, if a bit too stupid at times, release. And now, almost three years after Cannibal’s release,… Read More →

There would be no One Direction if Justin Bieber hadn’t blown up a few years ago. Though we may still have had a boy band named One Direction floating around the charts, it was Bieber’s surprising success that reinvigorated the idea of “tween heartthrobs” in the eyes of music producers and, consequently, it was that success that gave Simon Cowell the desire to sign and market the band until it reached major Billboard success. And, though the buddies Zayn, Niall, Liam, Harry, and Louis may take on a more pre-pubescent form than their spiritual predecessors the Backstreet Boys, they are (at least in relative terms) every bit as popular to their primarily young, female fanbase as the Backstreet Boys were… Read More →