The Pop Corporation

WORDS ABOUT MUSIC + POP CULTURE

  • A CRIMINALLY HOOLIGAN TREND: THE STORY OF RUSSIAN BOOTLEG X-RAY ALBUMS

    If you’re fortunate enough to live in a country that pretty much lets you listen to whatever music you want, then the idea of clandestine record pressing may sound strange. However, the human need to listen to cool music is insatiable, and one of the most fascinating stories comes from Soviet Russia, where the government

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  • ABBA SAY ‘NO’ [OR ‘NEJ’]

    Thanks to a slightly suss panel vote at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, Sweden once again won the show, equalling Ireland’s record for most times won, and also, giving Eurovision legend Loreen another crown. Why suss? Well, the public clearly wanted a different winner, and the 2024 show just so happens to coincide with a

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  • J HUS BACK WITH AN ABSOLUTE BANGER

    J Hus is brilliant and he’s had a run of tracks that are up there with the absolute cream. Whether you’re calling it hip hop, Afroswing, Afrobeats, or whatever, he’s returned with a track called ‘It’s Crazy’, and it’s great to have him back. Now, he’s had a number of issues with violence and whatnot,

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  • BLK ODYSSY HAS A COOL SONG OUT

    Hip hop and R&B has fallen into a small rut lately and a lot of the huge innovation we’ve seen in recent years is mildly lacking at the top end. Well, good news – there’s something new out and it doesn’t sound like it’s been dialled in! BLK ODYSSY has announced an album called ‘Diamonds

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  • TINA TURNER, THE REALEST OF THE REAL

    “Without Tina Turner we have no Beyonce. We have no Rihanna. We have no generation of Black women performers who transgressed all sorts of musical genres and without Tina Turner, we have no reclamation of Black woman’s sexuality in the context of rock and roll.” “Without Tina Turner, we have a new bereft in terms

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  • JULIANA HATFIELD COVERS ELO

    You may know Juliana Hatfield as a solo artist making fun records, you may know her from her stints in The Lemonheads or Blake Babies or Some Girls. You may know her from her tributes to Olivia Newton John and The Police. Well, she’s pay homage again with a really fun cover of ‘Don’t Bring

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  • PLUNDERPHONICS // IT BELONGS TO EVERYONE

    Sampling changed the way people listened to music, where familiar (and often unfamiliar) works could be re-imagined, recycled, spliced, interpolated and chewed up and turned into something all by itself. For years, the musical brain demanded that modernity meant entirely new, but post post-modernism, swathes of people were giddy at the thought of grabbing things

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  • DJ SABRINA THE TEENAGE DJ // LIP BALM, BANGERS, VINYL

    Listen, getting way to obsessive about a new act is the best thing about music, right? You excitedly yell about them to just about anyone who’ll listen and the more disinterested they are, the more fervent you become. That’s what we’re like about DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ. Why? It’s the music mainly – dreamy,

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  • BONNIE PRINCE BILLY IS BANANAS

    You can try and be a clever so-and-so when writing about music, but sometimes you’ve just got to give a musician what they want. We reckon Will Oldham would want that headline we just wrote. Why? Well, in his Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy guise, he’s back with a new song called ‘Bananas’, and it heralds a

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  • ARTISTS SAYING ‘NO’ TO TOURING // IS TOURING ALL THAT?

    Miley Cyrus has spoken about her new LP to Vogue, and said something rather interesting about it. Basically, that she doesn’t want to tour. She said that “singing for hundreds of thousands of people isn’t really the thing that I love.” She added: “It’s been a minute. After the last [headline arena] show I did,

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STOP HOARDING TUNES


  • DOOM ACTION FIGURE AND SPOON

    There’s something about golden era rap that just loves a fancy action figure, to place on your shelves next to your collected essays from hip hop journalism, tchotchkes, rap comics and high-end record middles and the like. It’s very wholesome, honestly. Well, Doom’s ‘Mm… Food’ is getting a reissue for its anniversary on November 15th,…

  • THE RETURN OF TUNNG

    Once upon a time, music retreated away from the bombast of Britpop and US rap-rock, and all over the place, more introspective bedroom producers were making tricky electronic music and singer-songwriters gravitated toward the acid-folk of the ’70s, focusing more on cottage industries and community. Tunng managed to straddle both worlds, with critics dubbing their…

  • 2ND GRADE’S POWER POP REVIVAL!

    Look, most bands put a song out to let you know new things are coming, but not 2nd Grade. The power poppers from Philadelphia have chucked THREE whole songs at our ears and mercifully, they’re all really fun and filled with skuzzy pop hooks and jangly guitars. The revival of power pop is very welcome…

  • AMBIENT LENNON IS SURPRISINGLY GREAT

    Today is John Lennon’s birthday – he would have been 84 – and to celebrate this, we’ve been treated to something rather surprising. While a lot of repackaged music from musicians can feel a little exploitative at times, churning out old stuff without much new going on, that’s not the case with this latest Lennon…

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THERE’S NO MONEY IN THIS GAME ANYMORE, BUT IF YOU WANT TO WRITE SOMETHING FOR THE POP CORPS, YOU ARE WELCOME TO GET IN TOUCH. HAPPY HUNTING.