Rappers have always wrestled with the question of how to succeed in a society where the odds are stacked against them. The biggest difference now is that their middle class listeners have the same worries.

To create something or to create something that creates something; that is a question. But if you lead an electric horse to art, does it dream of the avant-garde?

It's the turning of the final tide, the groundbreaking Blue Estate wraps issue #8, which closes the second volume of the collected editions, and launches issue #9, which opens the final volume. The stakes, and the value, couldn't be higher.

When examining a work whose mythology is an expansive as Star Wars, it almost becomes a historiographical investigation as opposed to a literary one.

Looking beyond the aesthetic surface of the series, what is the true motivation behind Mad Men’s frank depictions of these troubled social times? Is sexism being used as some sort of nostalgic trope, or does Mad Men actually delve deeper and explore these issues?

Granted, Link does “hiyah,” “eyah,” and “ahh” his way through all of his post-64-bit adventures, but no amount of elfish interjections can change his status as a silent protagonist. Is a failure to communicate much, a failure to communicate?

In the wake of Madonna'a ostentatious Super Bowl halftime performance, PopMatters presents a rundown of the Queen of Pop's 15 finest singles.

It isn't really a song about video games, of course. However, it is interesting for what it implies about games by taking gaming for granted as a normalized cultural practice.

Downton Abbey reveals not only the play of chance that often confounds choice, but the power of social class to confine choice within established boundaries -- and we're comfortable with that.

While some want to question his authorship, there is no denying the lasting influence of William Shakespeare. These 10 titles prove that with accolades to spare.

Special programs devoted to cinematic greats like Alfred Hitchcock or Deborah Kerr might be the flashiest part of an archivist’s job, but fiction curator Jo Botting also enjoys tracking down rare films and ensuring the next generation gets to see them.

Crusty walls of distortion co-exist with pop hooks in the second and latest solo album from Liam Finn. Here the songwriter talks about taking a break from life on the road to write FOMO in far-off New Zealand, working with producer Burke Reed and percussionist Glenn Kotche to seriously tinker with his sound and taking inspiration from, of all people, Beyoncé.

In 1982, with the charts ruled by “Physical”, “Don’t You Want Me” and “Eye of the Tiger”, along came a low-tech record about killers, small-time thieves and other forgotten souls -- and it's still one of the best albums in American music.

Filmmaker Kevin Smith may be in a celluloid slump, but his new podcast network is on point.

The concept of a “trilogy” is such an overdone thing. Be it film trilogies, album trilogies, book trilogies, video game trilogies… we have all seen trilogies in various forms of entertainment media to the point of it becoming banal. At the end of the Deathspell Omega experience however, do not be alarmed if you wake up to find yourself in Silent Hill.

The Moving Pixels podcast crew get together to discuss the varied approaches that they took to exploring the vast world of Skyrim.