Adam Levine’s Vanity Project: Reassessing Maroon 5’s ‘It Won’t Be Soon Before Long’ at 15
Maroon 5’s sophomore album, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, pivoted away from their pop-punk beginnings and set them up for a decade of pop culture omnipresence.
Matthew Dwyer
Matthew Dwyer, a graduate of American University's School of International Service in Washington, D.C currently works in education and writes about pop culture, music, TV, and film on a freelance basis. He is a traveler, writer, and creative thinker. You can find him on Twitter @md_writing
Alec Benjamin’s Self Conscious Parables Drive ‘(Un)Commentary’
Alec Benjamin’s (Un)Commentary gets caught up in the details. Is that good or bad? He acknowledges that his cerebral qualities are a strength of his music.
Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘driving home 2 u’ Is More than a Road Trip
Doubling down on her songwriter image, Olivia Rodrigo makes a pop star rite of passage of her own with driving home 2 u.
Wallows’ Journey Is Just Beginning on ‘Tell Me That It’s Over’
Indie poppers Wallows stake out a new middle ground between alternative and pop and prepare for the streaming era on Tell Me That It’s Over.
10 Years Later Has Katy Perry’s ‘Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection’ Outlived Its Shelf-Life?
Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection was the ultimate blend of pop culture and capitalism—that is until she woke up from the dream.
Fun’s ‘Some Nights’ at 10: A Predecessor to Conscientious Pop
The indie band fun.’s thoughtful pop songwriting on Some Nights ushered the music industry into the internet age and created a still-omnipresent legacy.
Lana Del Rey Wasn’t ‘Born to Die’, She Was Born to Rise Above
Lana Del Rey’s major-label debut Born to Die provides a roadmap for her songwriting journey, and her personification of America reinvents the past to tell modern stories.
Joni Mitchell Became Music’s Lucky One with ‘Blue’ 50 Years Ago
Joni Mitchell’s Blue, included in the recently released The Reprise Albums collection, paved the way for future autobiographical singer-songwriters.
Why We Didn’t Need a ‘Friends’ Reunion
The Friends Reunion has awakened the beast of ’90s nostalgia…but what else has it unearthed?
How Olivia Rodrigo’s “Driver’s License” Drove Her Into Pop’s Stratosphere
Olivia Rodrigo’s breakout single, “Driver’s License”, set her up for a career in pop’s stratosphere. But, will she ever reach the singer-songwriter heights of Taylor Swift?
Taylor Swift’s Pandemic Redemption
Taylor Swift responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with an album uniquely suited for it: contemplative, low-fi, acoustic songs perfect for isolation.