Did Improv Comedy Help Elevate America’s Consciousness?
Improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway? associated transgressive ideas about blackness and queerness with beloved personalities. While Americans laughed, did they learn anything?
Features
45 Years Ago ‘An Evening with Diana Ross’ Proved to Be Her Defining Album
Diana Ross’ seminal live LP, An Evening with Diana Ross, captures nearly every side of her expansive talents, diverse gifts, and lofty career goals.
Subversive Threads: How Punk Inspired the Craftivist Movement
Craftivism’s core values of autonomy, subversion, political consciousness, and subcultural community make it yet another example of punk’s enduring influence.
Life After Brecht: Wes Anderson’s Lowbrow Dialectics
Wes Anderson’s intellectualization of high art in middlebrow presentation is rife with Brechtian flair and a Clintonite understanding of upper-middle-class politics.
30 Years Ago Green Day’s ‘Kerplunk!’ Showed Where They Were Headed
Thirty years on Green Day’s Kerplunk! stands shoulder to shoulder with anything else the band created in the future and showed where they were headed.
The Soundtrack to Hüsker Dü’s Implosion: ‘Warehouse: Songs and Stories’ Turns 35
It’s been 35 years since college rock harbingers Hüsker Dü culminated in a storm of malaise. Warehouse: Songs and Stories was their parting gift.
Former Wrens Singer Kevin Whelan Returns to Music as Aeon Station
Former Wrens player Kevin Whelan is ready to emerge as solo project Aeon Station, aware of the shadow the Wrens cast over him.
The Legacy of George Harrison’s ‘Concert for Bangladesh’ Half a Century Later
Fifty years ago, a plea for assistance from Ravi Shankar to George Harrison gave birth to The Concert for Bangladesh, an event whose impact on the culture of pop and classic rock still resonates.
The Mayhem in Tsui Hark’s ‘Once Upon a Time in China’ Films Echoed Hong Kong Citizens’ Fears
Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China films resonated strongly with Hong Kong citizens worried about the imminent handover of the country to mainland China.
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MetalMatters: The Best New Heavy Albums of December 2021
The end of 2021 arrived with an insane combination of experimental and extreme works, including new albums by Corroded Spiral, New Age Doom, Kayo Dot, and more.
John McWhorter’s Polemic ‘Woke Racism’ Covers Controversial Issues with Snark Gnarled by Outrage
John McWhorter’s pushback against the antiracist orthodoxy of Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi lands palpable hits but is too scattered to win the match.