Sam Smith and the return of the Satanic Panic
The conservative hysteria around pop music, sexuality and Satanism has a long history.
ByPop music
How Busted defined the moody teen pop of the Noughties
The manufactured-yet-rebellious boyband exemplify the accelerated highs and personal lows of British music between the Millennium Bug and the smartphone.
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The magic of a Self Esteem concert
Rebecca Taylor’s empowering, maximalist pop comes alive on stage: this is an irresistible communal spectacle.
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From Roald Dahl to Ian Fleming, censorship is good for the book trade
Releasing bowdlerised books into a predictable storm of ridicule and then making the “classic texts” available is clever business.
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How the tabloids outed George Michael
A new Channel 4 doc explores the media’s glee at the singer’s arrest for “lewd acts” in 1998. But in…
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Burt Bacharach: a direct line to a lost musical world
The effect of seeing Bacharach live at the Royal Festival hall was to be hit by more top-40 songs that…
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Heavy Heavy by Young Fathers: a revolutionary adventure in rhythm
On their fourth album, the Mercury Award-winning band fuse avant-garde pop and hip hop to create a truly exhilarating sound.
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Sam Smith’s video is not “pornographic” – this is bigotry dressed up as debate
Sexy pop videos are nothing new, so why the outrage? The response to “I’m Not Here to Make Friends” has…
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Sam Smith’s Gloria is a bland, contrived pop record
The brilliance of “Unholy” shows up how little originality is to be found on this autotuned, cliché-ridden and inauthentic album.
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Not even Taylor Swift can overshadow the 1975
Joined by a special guest at the O2, Matty Healy mused on masculinity as his band paraded their irresistible brand…
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The Britpop nostalgia complex
The writer who christened the genre watched its droll ingenuity become boorish excess. Is it ripe for resurrection?
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The best albums of 2022
New Statesman staff choose their favourite records of the year.
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Why Girls Aloud were the most inventive act in Noughties pop
Twenty years since the release of their debut single, it’s clear that this talent show girl group rewrote the rulebook…
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Will there be a great CD revival?
Forty years after their launch, compact discs remain cheaper and more sonically reliable than vinyl.
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The high-art cabaret of Christine and the Queens’ Redcar
At a circus venue in Paris the next evolution in the musician’s theatrical pop shows how real life seeps into…
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The Proclaimers are still Britain’s best male rock singers
At a recent gig in Leicester, the duo were just as much a juggernaut as they have always been.
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Has pop reached peak Jack Antonoff?
From the music of Taylor Swift to Lorde, the producer’s sound is inescapable – and too much of even a…
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The Spiceworld generation
Twenty-five years ago, the Spice Girls told Gen X to “move over” – and whispered feminist slogans to nascent millennials.
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How Robbie Williams became the ultimate British pop star
With his swaggering yet self-aware lyrics and rousing melodies, Robbie Williams is the king of laddish, early Noughties pub culture.…
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How Morrissey became irrelevant
At a gig in south London, the singer seemed trapped by nostalgia for his early career – and a terminally…
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