The Pop Corporation
WORDS ABOUT MUSIC + POP CULTURE
-
It really is hard to imagine the shape of pop and soul music without Barrett Strong. While he may not have been the household name that many of his peers were, where would popular music be without his hugely influential and soulful powerhouse that is ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’? There’s more too – he
-
Imagine for a second, you’re driving past Abbey Road, and you nearly hit a pedestrian on that famous crossing. Imagine some more, that the pedestrian in question is Paul McCartney. The car in question is a Prius, so it’s kinda funny that he nearly got offed by a green motor. Also, let’s go with the
-
We all need cool stuff to read. Finding it in the soup of the algorithm can be tricky, with a bunch of former broadsheet sorts going solo, and trying to flog subscription content on their mailers and whatnot. No harm, no foul – but these things tend to skew toward the po-faced and overly earnest.
-
Caroline Polacheck’s is an adventurous pop star, and that’s always a good thing. She’s recently hit out at lazy comparisons to Bjork and Kate Bush, preferring to make music under her own steam, which is fair enough. She’s got a big voice and likes to be mildly awkward, which we say as a compliment of
-
Hey! Do you like new music and, not just new music, but slightly difficult music that’s fun? Well, you should check outy Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra newbie, ‘Future Shaman’. Apply here if you like wonky jazz and post-rock. It’s discordant, good stuff. Mazurek is a composer/trumpeter and the Exploding Star Orchestra features Damon Locks
-
We like a popstar making bold choices, and Sam Smith has been doing exactly that lately. It doesn’t matter whether you like the tunes or not, we should absolutely support a commercial artist when they lean into the experimental and off-kilter. Did you see them on SNL, with Sharon Stone draping themselves all over the
-
It feels kinda shitty referring to a new artist as ‘Bjork’s daughter’, but needs must. Isadora Bjarkardottir Barney is her name, and she’s released her debut solo work as part of a comp showcasing Icelandic music. The comp is called ‘DRULLUMALL 4’ and Isadora’s track – ‘bergmál’ – is really good, you’ll be glad to
-
The mighty Pet Shop Boys are all set to share some previously unreleased songs in April. It’s all part of a new thing they’re doing and that new thing is a book called ‘Annually’. The 2023 edition of the yearly release (hence the name) will be a 64-page hardback affair, containing journals, photos from their
-
You can try and be as clever as you want, deep diving on this, that, and the other… but sometimes it’s just worth reminding yourself how great a band were. From Detroit, America’s greatest music city, Inner City was the brainchild of the great Kevin Saunderson and Paris Grey. Saunderson of course, was one of
-
If you’re a fan of vinyl and Daniel Johnston – good news! His debut ‘Songs of Pain’ is going to appear on record for the first time and you can get your hands on it some time in March. There’s probably some pre-orders knocking around if you have a look. Originally, ‘Songs of Pain’ was
STOP HOARDING TUNES
-
MARCOS VALLE X ANDY WILLIAMS
Thanks to Jonny Trunk and his ever gorgeous mailout for alerting us to this delightful clip of a very young Marcos Valle on the Andy Williams show. Of course, Marcos would move away from bossa nova and having short hair, to make a clutch of brilliant psychedelic LPs, before moving into jazz-fusion MPB and all…
-
RATBOYS BRING THE GOOD COUNTRY
There’s always a resurgence of Good Country and Americana when the USofA is in turbulent times. Lines are drawn, and Bad Country will focus on tired, conservative issues (in some cases, siding with literal baddies and idiots, becoming Cringe Edgelords: The Musical), giving the good heads something to kick against. We’ve had a ’70s country…
-
TAYLOR SWIFT AMBIVALENCE IS OKAY
Ambivalence in pop, rock and everything else, is not often spoken about. And why would it? Barely summoning a feeling about something is not something you can really crow or cry about, because in it’s place, is an uninterested shrug. It’s not being above anything – it’s literally a magnolia painted wall in a flat…
-
REST WELL, ROBBIE ROBERTSON
The thing with The Band is that they seemed to land perfectly formed. Are there many better debut albums than ‘Music From The Big Pink’? As well as spearheading the revival of rootsy Americana, which is no mean feat in itself, to find yourself there when Dylan was called “Judas!”, Robbie Robertson lived enough for…
Search for a Topic
Categories
- 10 SONGS WITH
- BEGINNER GUIDE
- CHECK THE HARD DRIVE
- COOL STUFF
- HERE'S A COOL SONG
- MIXES
- MOVIES
- NEW TUNES
- NEWS
- NOT MUSIC
- OPINION
- REAPPRAISAL CORNER
- REVIEWS
- WE FORGOT TO TAG THIS
Posted Recently
Submissions
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.
CHAT
POP CULTURE IS WORTH TALKING ABOUT.
CONTACT: HOWDYPOPCORPSATGMAILDOTCOM
The Pop Corporation 