The Pop Corporation

WORDS ABOUT MUSIC + POP CULTURE

  • GIRLS ALOUD 2024

    We ranked every Girls Aloud single simply because we love them. We’d like to say we had inside information on them making a comeback, but we didn’t. We could pretend we did, but honesty is in such short supply in music journalism that we’re not going to try putting you on. The thing is though,

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  • FREE RANGE NOVEMBER

    The sister to The Pop Corps is the Free Range radio show, which is available online for your listening pleasure whenever you like. Next month of course, will be an End Of Year affair, where we look at the best music released in 2023. We’ve covered a lot of the songs over the months on

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  • COOL ERIC B & RAKIM FIGURES

    It’s great having collectibles on your shelf isn’t it? Whether it’s Funko Pops of your fave horror films, art bits and cassettes when you don’t have a tape player, whatever. With that in mind, wouldn’t you like to have Eric B & Rakim on your shelf? Course you would! Eric B & Rakim are amazing!

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  • REFLECTIVE CLOUT AND FEEDING THE GIANTS

    Music is a funny ol’ business, and in the days of streaming, something interesting has happened. Thanks to algorithmic sentiments, it feels like it’s never been harder for smaller artists to reach an audience. Radio play is decided by committees and focus groups, which leaves us with a trace amount of DJs playing whatever they

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  • SPOTIFY TO STOP PAYING SMALL BANDS

    Well, Spotify have decided the way to fix the broken royalties model is to stop paying small bands. Now, that’s not how they’ll be spinning it, but it’s the reality of the situation. See, Spotify have a problem with ‘noise’ tracks and those generating plays by making ‘non music’. So, to fix that, they’re going

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  • CHEMICALS SAY GOODBYE

    The Chemical Brothers are saying ‘Goodbye’. Not forever, mind you. It’s the name of their new single and as ever, it’s got a really fancy, psychedelic video. They always have ace visuals don’t they? If you’ve seen them live recently, your eyeballs are probably still fizzing like Alka Seltzer in soup. Great craic. There’s also an

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  • SPACE DISCO FROM MIDLIFE

    Mildlife are an Australian band designed for dancing too. However, it’s also very much music of the head too, as they’ve been dubbed variously as ‘psychedelic jazz fusion’ and ‘prog disco’. If both of those phrases gave you a bit of the ick, don’t worry – this track you’re about to hear is cool, cool shit.

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  • FEVER RAY RMX IS A UKG RIPSNORtER

    Maybe we should know who Fever Ray are, but we don’t. Judging by this new thing we’ve just listened to, we’re still not sure because it’s a remix. And what a banger of a remix it is! The track is called ‘Even It Out’ and it s a rejig by Frost Children, and it’s a

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  • MANC RAPPER TAKES ON STEVE MASON

    You remember Steve Mason from the Beta Band right? He’s always up to something. The latest is getting Mancunian rapper OneDa to rework his ‘Moss Side Fish Fry’, and it’s a elastic bass synth gem, honestly. OneDa says: “I approached this track as I would do a spoken word piece, using my verses in a

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  • NOW AND THEN / FINALLY HERE

    We’ve spoken quite a bit about the last Beatles recording and it’s finally here and available to listen to it. Very bittersweet experience in all honestly. It’s age appropriate too, so don’t be expecting any 808s or dirty wub wubs. A touching final chapter to the greatest band to ever do it.

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STOP HOARDING TUNES


  • LOU REED AMBIENT VINYL

    Now ambient music is back, the good folks over at Light In Attic Records have teamed up with Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed’s Archive custodians to give us a vinyl reissue Lou’s ‘Hudson River Wind Meditations’. It’s not been on record before, and as you’d expect, it’s a real fancy package indeed. Out January 12,…

  • GREAT SONGS THAT ARE JUST ANNOYING / PART1

    Some songs, some albums are beatified by rock critics decade-on-decade, and sure, we should doff our cap to cultural impact and massive sales and all that stuff. But honestly, we’re allowed to just be irritated too. There’s loads of stuff that gets rammed down your craw so hard that the sheer ubiquity of the damned…

  • GOD BLESS YOU, SHANE MACGOWAN

    If there’s one thing no-one can ever accuse Shane MacGowan of, it’s a boring life. Excessive, sure, but on his own terms – MacGowan may be most famous for a Christmas song, but the real heads know that there’s so much more to him than the ‘Fairytale of New York’. Big Shane was born in…

  • SIMON REYNOLDS WRITES ABOUT THE FUTURE

    Writer and pop-culture fiend Simon Reynolds is releasing a new book. He’s a clever so-and-so, so this is good news. He’s looked at retro culture and dance music in the past, so marrying the two (of a fashion), this time, he’s looking backward to look forward. The book is called ‘Futuromania: Electronic Dreams, Desiring Machines…

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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.