The Pop Corporation

WORDS ABOUT MUSIC + POP CULTURE

  • AI: TAKING WHATEVER SCRAPS ARE LEFTOVER

    AI is a thing and an inescapable one at that. It’s been trickled into our lives and it doesn’t look like there’s a great deal anyone can do about it. Now, in manufacturing and science terms, it seems like a genuinely exciting use of this latest flame – but in pop culture, less so. Naturally,

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  • WHAT HAPPENED THAT MADE LITTLE RICHARD SEE GOD?

    After starting out in drag (and pretty much seeing it through for his career), Little Richard walked the tightrope of sacred and profane. ‘Tutti Frutti’ was originally about ‘tight booty’, before cleaning it up to be the greatest rock ‘n’ roll song ever recorded. It wasn’t all bangers about anal sex, but the run was

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  • JAZZY RAP FIRST TIME ON VINYL? GO ON THEN

    There’s a lot of great hip hop that never made it to vinyl for whatever reason, so it’s always great when someone reissues one and for the first time in many cases! With that, the always magic Be With have Superstar Quamallah’s ‘Invisible Man’ on the go, to celebrate it’s 15th anniversary. Want to know

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  • FREE RANGE MARCH 2024

    New FREE RANGE radio time! You want the tracklisting so you can read what kind of stuff is on the show before pressing play? Coward! Okay, we’ll play along and give you the goods. Music from all over the world as ever, with new songs and older ones too. On this show, we fawn over

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  • REVIEW / BEYONCE / COWBOY CARTER

    It’s very interesting that Beyonce has decided to release a country album, in part because it’s a revenge LP after the Country Music Awards committee snubbed her ‘Daddy Issues’ track – hell hath no fury like a wealthy celebrity scorned. It’s also interesting because Beyonce is such a megastar, you have to be curious to

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  • SAM LEE’S EARTHY FOLK

    Nature is fantastic and everyone knows that, but there is a mild reticence when people tell you to reconnect with it, sounding like awful crusties. Sam Lee is probably worried he comes off a bit like that – he pretty much said as much in a recent feature with MOJO – but he needn’t. He

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  • THERE’S A BAND CALLED PARSNIP

    We hadn’t heard of Parsnip before now, but on the strength of their new single ‘Behold’, we wish we had. Sugary sweet psychedelic music that remembered to write a song in the process? Yes please! We’re not surprised at all to learn that they’re an Australian band, because at the moment, all the great power

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  • MUST HEAR 80S DIY FOLK SYNTH

    The amount of incredible music that’s buried by time or happenstance is criminal, and one such LP that deserves all the love you can muster is Planetary Peace’s ‘Synthesis’… but what is it? For fans of modular synths, DIY charm, acid folk and heartbreakingly gorgeous music, this needs to be on your radar. A husband

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  • BERLIN STILL TRYING TO ROB DETROIT OF IT’S TECHNO

    Reacting to contemporary life in 80s America, referencing Alvin Toffler’s ‘The Third Wave’ book, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May invented techno. They were the Belleville Three. Alongside them, Eddie Fowlkes, Blake Baxter, James Pennington and others were at the forefront of the first flush of Techno. Everyone knows this already. Anyone with even

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  • ACID GOTH FROM PAUL ORWELL

    Not everything that’s new to our ear is technically new. We stumbled across some hellishly fun psychedelic goth music by a guy called Paul Orwell. It’s quite an ordinary name that, for music that sounds like someone trying to summon something evil out of the floorboards, but that’s okay. He’s got an album out called

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STOP HOARDING TUNES


  • ARCTIC MONKEYS: SENDING UP THE THING YOU LOVE; OR THE CASE OF THE FALLING MASKS

    “The Monkeys we loved are gone” wrote someone about the Arctic Monkeys headlining set at Glastonbury. “They used to be good” wrote another. Critics and fans alike had certain demands and preconceived notions, and it turns out that the Arctic Monkeys may have outmanoeuvred or outgrown fair weather music fans. Or do they just suck…

  • CARWYN ELLIS CLIMBS ABOARD THE YACHT

    Whether you know Carwyn Ellis as Colorama, or through his Rio 18 work, being pals with The Pretenders, his Soho radio show, working with Edwin Collins, or just by being a humble, lovely man from Wales, you’ll know that his name means good music isn’t far away. Adding to his considerable bow already, he’s teamed…

  • TAYLOR SWIFT, STAN CULTURE, BROADLY

    Stan Culture – the act of feverishly following a band and defending and promoting them at every conceivable turn – is widespread and has been for a while now. Literally named after the Eminem track of the same name about a dangerously obsessive fan, countless internet pile-ons are present daily, as one fan group goes…

  • BILLY NOMATES INCURS THE WRATH OF BORING INDIE FANS

    Billy Nomates may or may not be a familiar name to you, but her situation will be. She’s getting hauled over hot coals by the most boring indie fans in the world, thanks to a prestigious slot at the Glastonbury Festival. In the past, we’ve seen Boring Indie Fans literally set up petitions to try…

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