
The legendary jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal has left us, confirmed by his wife. Maybe not a household name, but every inch a legend. His playing was warm but minimal, a spiritual link between the cool jazz and bop eras of the genre. A titan in jazz, and hugely influential on his peers and those that followed. The

As everyone has a laugh mucking around with AI and asking it daft questions, the comfortingly humourless record companies of the world are almost certainly readying their lawyers. Why? Well, if you can’t be arsed waiting for your fave band to get back together, you can get the robots to do it. First off –

There’s a sense that all the best new music coming out in 2023 is blessed with an ethereal sense of finally getting outside. Be it chugger daytime dancers, or dreamy psychedelic music, there’s a feeling of finally touching some grass after being stuck inside and nervous for too long. So with that, we go to

We’d sorta forgotten Jorja Smith existed honestly, but she’s been off Stateside doing bits, and sadly for her the excitement and promise of her intial releases were pretty much quashed by rumours of getting off with Drake and being the person Stormzy cheated on Maya Jama with. Whether these rumours were true are worth nothing

One of the most influential people in British bass culture has sadly left the building. Jah Shaka is a magnificently important person when it comes to soundsystem culture in the UK, in part, paving the way for so much music that follow in his footsteps. Born in Jamaica, part of the post-Windrush wave, based in

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,…

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…

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…

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…
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.
POP CULTURE IS WORTH TALKING ABOUT.
CONTACT: HOWDYPOPCORPSATGMAILDOTCOM