With global warming, political unrest, and a cratered international economy serving as the shaky pillars of today’s world, we need pop music now more than ever. On one hand, you could argue that maybe pop music serves to distract us from the wars politicians are waging on civilians, but on the other, consider this: Pop has always been, even and especially with its most capitalist of intentions, escapism. As hopeless headlines continue to paint dark horizons for us, pop is one of the few lights to shine through and inspire whimsy. Even the harshest skeptic has no choice but to relent and give into the genre. That’s why we present Pop For Skeptics, a regular Flavorwire column committed to curating and commenting on the latest and greatest ear candy from the US and around the world.

In these tough times, one of the latest incarnations of pop to catch on is the sparkling revival of what we call “teenage magic.” While we experience teenage magic differently, at its heart, the phenomenon is unequivocally premised in the wide-eyed perceptions we have of the world around us. In trying to figure out how things worked as kids, we colored in logical blanks with wild speculation. More than that, at that age, only our points of view — no matter how wrong and misguided — mattered. We were suns in our solar system and everyone else was asteroids; we were brats, man. … Read More