
If you’ve been reading the music press this week, there was some alarm or peevish glee (depending on where you were doing your reading) that vinyl sales had dropped. A Billboard piece stated that vinyl sales dropped by 33%, which is not insignificant. That’s selling 34.9 million units, down to 23.3 million in 2024. Are

At the country music awards, they didn’t nominate Beyonce for anything despite her all-conquering country LP and while many shrugged, many were irritated by the whole thing. The irritation came from all sides, but more importantly, so did the shrugs – apart from something for the shelf in the spare toilet or a sticker to

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

The excellent GULP are having a party for the 8th instalment of their broadsheet counter-culture magazine, which features all the wonderful words, tidbits, diatribes and cool design we’ve come to expect from them now. The issue drops on Friday 11th October and you can get down in person at The New Cross in Manchester’s Northern

Spotify’s flirtation with authoritarian politics continues. It started with creaming money off the success of Rogan’s podcast, it continued with the news that founder Daniel Ek was using everyone’s money to fund AI in drones for war, and now, ICE recruitment. A number of artists have been pulling their music off the platform, and some…

If you’ve got a pair of Clarks and love the occasional camping holiday in the South of France, you are probably a fan of the mighty Tunng. Folkie in a non-cringe, authentic way. Acid folk for fun drop-out mums and dads. Well, there’s a new Tunng single out called ‘Anoraks’. Sam Genders says: “One of…

Never mind the podcasts and tabloid stuff – we’re a music blog and we’re focusing on that, thank you very much. And the news is that Lily Allen has announced that she’s releasing a new album after some years away from the scene. The new record will be her fifth and called ‘West End Girl’…

Courtney Barnett is great and, more importantly, she’s back with her first new single in a couple of years, with a song called ‘Stay In Your Lane’. As ever, there’s tension and discordant stuff to couple with the strong melodies, and apparently, Barnett recorded the track in a bid to work through the trials of bottling…
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