I mentioned in my previous entry how Ava Max‘s potential chart-topper “Sweet But Psycho” bears all the hallmarks of this decade’s maximalist pop hits, found mostly between the years 2010 and 2012. While I’d like to save a full retrospective on those golden years for the end of this year, I do want to put the spotlight on some of those individual tracks. The first being Nicki Minaj‘s ebullient dance-pop monster “Starships”.
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Is Ava Max Bringing Back Pop Maximalism?
Look at that waveform. It’s absolutely beautiful. You can see the intro, the verses, the choruses, the bridge (!!), and the final chorus all packed into a neat 3:05 package. This is, structurally speaking, a perfect pop song.
Continue reading “Is Ava Max Bringing Back Pop Maximalism?”Assorted Observations
Recently my music commentary has been incredibly repetitive, harping on the same handful of points ad nauseum. In an attempt to be less negative I have decided to focus less on music I dislike and more on music I enjoy. However I have found this to be particularly difficult this year as I don’t like anything. So I will just write a bit about some noteworthy trends.
Continue reading “Assorted Observations”Union Station Food Court
One day several years ago I reviewed the Urban Eatery in the Toronto Eaton Centre. I walked there myself, and learned all about it. Now there is another eating area in the city, are you ready for it. It is at Union Station. After many years it has opened. It used to be a pit. Now it is opened to the public. I went down there by myself and I reviewed the food outlets there are in there. Here is my culinary review:
Five Pieces of Media that Shaped Me
A difficult year filled with loss, injury, false hope and wasted time have caused my gratitude levels to surge approximately 5000% for the ever-decreasing amount of good things in my life. Trust me- there are few people who are more thankful for their family, job, and safety than I am this Thanksgiving.
I’ve had a spate of overnight shifts lately, and there’s little to do in the darkest hours of the morning other than think. A lot of this thinking has revolved around how I’ve gotten to the point I am in my life, for better and for worse. I’ve been examining my choices and decisions, as well as the external factors that have shaped me into who I am today. External factors like the media I’ve consumed over the course of my many years, in all its different forms.
It’s challenging to parse through the many avenues that pop culture has been delivered to me, and even more challenging trying to figure out what I enjoyed on a base level and what affected me to the core. Which narratives are indelibly embedded into my consciousness, and which ones were just good for two hours of fun? Which music actually mattered in the long run?
Typically when I write about and criticize media I approach it in the most objective way I can. Here it’s the exact opposite, literally. I didn’t consider these pieces of media in terms of how good they were, but simply how they fit into the larger context of my life and how important they were to me. If you’re looking for long thinkpieces about the cultural significance of the following, I’m sure the internet has many. I’m not trying to convince you that any of these are good. Here you will only find short stories of why these things are ensconced within my being. These are five pieces of media that I’m very grateful for.