What Am I Good For? Somebody tell me! If there is a unifying theme that defines young adult life in the developed Internet age, it’s the abundance of choice. It doesn’t matter if it’s 2am in the morning and you fancy a spot of shopping because ASOS or Amazon will probably sate that desire. Is the struggle…
I don’t know why, why I adore you? I haven’t previously bought into the idea that Julio Bashmore was as ‘hot shit’ as most of the music press and my pals were saying. It might have been that most of the people hyping his music were snapback sporting twats with wanky top knot hair cuts…
Everything was fiction, future and prediction In his 2001 book Fooled By Randomness, academic Nassim Nicholas Taleb introduced an idea he called ‘Black Swan Theory‘. He hypothesised that there are events in human history that are so extreme that they complete alter our perception of the world after they’ve happened. His ideas are supposed to applied…
“What you heard is true but I can’t stop thinking about you…” Taylor Swift: Style Taylor Swift’s 1989 was among my favourite records of 2014; the album is pop in weaponised form, so potent that it leaves listeners with little choice but to obey its siren call. However, what really makes 1989 stand out in T-Swizzles…
Put simply, here’s [edit] radio’s list of the best pop music which for one reason or another is still flying a little under the radar, best listen as (sarcasm alert!) it won’t be cool to like these artists for long: Karen Harding In the wake of Keisza it seems like every talent manager and his cookie cutter…
“All the right junk, in all the right the places” “Right place, right time” or so the saying goes. It’s a truism for success in the music industry that audiences often assume happens by accident, but in reality is the predictive talent of musicians and marketing men to know what we’re going to like next before we even knew…
It’s been a little quiet on the quality pop releases front this August, sure there have been new singles from the likes of Iggy Azalea, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Maroon 5; but they’re very much business as usual for all the acts involved. So this month on Pop Smarts we’re looking at the pop acts who are, or…
“We move in fear or we move in desire” The days that follow the break-up of a serious relationship can feel cathartic (especially for the dumper rather than dumpee). All that time you had spent on servicing the relationship with your former lover; the texting, the calls and dates is now free and you have…
Last weekend I was lucky enough to go Leeds Festival to photograph for our wonderful friends at Safety in Sound (whose full review of the festival will be up in the coming days) and I took a whole heap of notes about bands that impressed me and things which got right on my moobs. So…
“The drink you spilt all over me” Westernised post-millennial teens have things as easy and tough at the same time. They’ve grown up in a world in which the Internet makes information and friends ubiquitous. Where from the glow of a smartphone they have access to an educator, entertainer and to groups of friends that can fill any lull…