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50 Reasons to Be Excited About Pop Music In 2013

By Rohin Guha on

It is a truth universally acknowledged that in event of a nuclear holocaust two things will persist: cockroaches and pop music. In our monthly Pop for Skeptics column, Rohin Guha explains how the latter need not be a terrifying thing to navigate, nuclear holocaust or not.

No pop fan really knows what to do with himself in January. It’s a special time of year when new fads are still being cooked up and otherwise unremarkable artists — nice to see you again, Nicole Scherzinger! — stand a fair shot at selling more than just a couple records. Some enterprising pop oracles might consult science, the stars, and mathematical trends to make all kinds of predictions about what is set to become “the next big thing.” Others, like me, will wait until some stuff has happened to do that. Sure, with January finally over and done with, it’s probably a bit too late to be making prognostications about what we should look forward to in pop this year, but to borrow a phrase from last year: YOLO. Below, then, are precisely 50 reasons to look forward to pop music in 2013. … Read More

Music

10 New Tracks You Need to Hear This Week: Sufjan Stevens, Factory Floor

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means the first working week of 2013 is over — rejoice! It also means that it’s time for us to round up the 10 most noteworthy tracks of the week that’s gone by, and happily there’s some decent tunes to be had again after a pretty fallow holiday week. Specifically, there’s a hitherto unreleased Sufjan Stevens track, new Factory Floor, a bunch of interesting remixes involving everything from shoegaze to neo-R&B, Skrillex aping Burial to hilarious effect… and, yes, the depressing Azealia Banks/Angel Haze shitfight. Click through and get listening. … Read More

New York

Notable New Yorkers’ Cultural Resolutions for 2013

By Judy Berman on

Now that Christmas is nothing more than a pile of shredded wrapping paper and tinsel on the floor of your family’s living room, ’tis the season to think about how we can make slightly less of a mess of things in the year ahead. That’s right: New Year’s resolutions. Of course, here at Flavorwire, we’re not so interested in your plan to get ripped or reconnect with your middle-school best friend. Our favorite resolutions are of the cultural variety — and who better to ask about those than 50 of New York’s most promising emerging culture makers? We hope their compelling, diverse, and sometimes humorous resolutions will inspire you to make some of your very own. … Read More

New York

50 Up-and-Coming New York Culture Makers to Watch in 2013

By Judy Berman on

New York in 2012 may be a city that runs on money, but, contrary to all economic logic, it remains a city whose character is equally defined by the art it creates. Artists — by which we also mean artisans, writers, musicians, filmmakers, actors, designers, chefs, dancers, comedians, and makers of all kinds — and the entrepreneurs and curators who support them still populate the city by the thousands, maintaining its status as the creative capitol of the United States. … Read More

Music

20 Classic Female-Fronted Hip Hop Tracks

By Tom Hawking on

Oh, Rolling Stone. Sometimes you make it so easy. We try not to spend too much of our time nitpicking the amusingly out-of-touch pontifications of Jann Wenner’s empire, but occasionally something comes along that annoys us so much that it’s hard not to react. So it was recently, when the magazine’s editors came back from the mountain with stone tablets purporting to contain “The 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time.” In fairness, reading RS for hip hop recommendations is like reading Trucking Monthly for advice on bicycles, but even so, if you’re going to claim to make a definitive list, you don’t relegate Nas’s “NY State of Mind” to #31 (11 places behind 50 Cent’s risible “In Da Club”) — and, more annoyingly, you don’t make the mistake of including only three songs featuring female vocalists. … Read More

Music

10 MP3s You Need to Download for Free This Week: Atoms for Peace, Angel Haze

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means that we’re eating cold pizza and drinking beer at midday, and also that it’s time for another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. This week the Chromatics-fest continues with a cover of New Order’s “Ceremony,” and there’s also a new song from Thom Yorke’s Atoms for Peace project, if you’re clever enough to find the download link. Elsewhere, there’s the thoroughly welcome return of Flavorpill faves Radar Bros, a new (and relatively upbeat) Angel Haze song, pretty electronic textures from Mountains, new stuff from Beach Fossils and YACHT, Dan Deacon apeing Girl Talk, and a pretty ace mixtape from Johnny Jewel. Since all this costs precisely nothing, what are you waiting for? Click through and get a-downloadin’! … Read More

Pop Culture

What Flavorpill Staffers Are Thankful for This Year

By Flavorwire Staff on

If your family is anything like ours, then the most important part of today’s Thanksgiving meal — you know, aside from totally dominating bingo — will be going around the table and having each person say what they’re the most thankful for. It probably goes without saying that we’re very grateful to have such lovely and engaged readers who choose make Flavorwire part of their daily routine. But beyond that, in the spirit of the holiday we’ve decided to share some of Flavorpill staffers’ “cultural thank-yous” with you. Do us a favor, and keep this list going in the comments — we’d love to know what books, films, albums, TV shows, etc, had the biggest personal impact on you this year! … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Channing Tatum has been named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. [via

Music

Flavorwire’s 2012 Halloween Mixtape

By Russ Marshalek on

Face it: music for your Halloween party can be tough. It’s really cheap and easy to go, say, strictly ’80s, or strictly metal, or strictly horror film soundtracks, but that’s not how we do things around here. As such, your author has created a Halloween party mix of some dark, moody and thematically appropriate new tunes for your Samhain enjoyment, because, really, how many times can you listen to “The Monster Mash”? Feel free to use this as a soundtrack to your Halloween seance/rave/get-together, or just to creep out the neighbors. … Read More

Music

10 MP3s You Need to Download for Free This Week: Angel Haze, Kendrick Lamar

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. The track you absolutely 100% have to download this week is the new Angel Haze song, which we wrote about earlier this week and which is one of the best (and most harrowing) songs you’ll hear all year. Elsewhere, there’s a track off one of our favorite discoveries of the month — Heathered Pearls’ album Loyal — new stuff from Deerhoof and La Big Vic, an unreleased demo from Daniel Rossen, and… drum roll… the MORODERFEST! Since all this action costs precisely nothing, what are you waiting for? All the download links await after the jump. … Read More