Cultural Commentary

What is life without thumping 808s and artificial horns so distorted that they sound more like alien mating calls than instruments? After all, it’s “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” by Skrillex; “Heads ...

The intersectionality of two genres is much more than meshing two separate sounds because subcultures, histories, and aesthetics are ingrained within those sounds. When conjoined, opposing genres can communicat...

Jazz is a strangely unique kind of music. Although to some it might sound like a lullaby, boring or calming, jazz has endless complexities. Because of these complexities jazz complicates the rules of art and mu...

Never, without exception, is there a reason someone should cover The Beach Boys. Of course, I love me a Fiona Apple cover of Across the Universe, but The Beach Boys is a whole different ball game. One weekend a...

With 11 beautiful, soulful, and intense tracks, Cupid Deluxe (2013)  compresses the feeling of giving to someone who can never be pleased—the constant chase for validation, for proof that your love means som...

I was enjoying my daily walk to campus, music blasting, the autumn sun warming my rosy cheeks at 12:38 PM on October 15th. At 12:39, my chest heaved, my knees buckled, and my phone slipped through my sweaty fin...

The Internet is invariably filled with discourse in alignment with whatever headlines are trending in an increasingly short news cycle. As I lay in bed this month and swiped aimlessly through different social m...

I share the same taste in music as my grandma.  My grandma immigrated from Korea to the U.S., bringing music and culture with her. When I was little, I remember how I would watch her profile sit in front of...

There’s a corner of the Pacific Northwest that stands to be an incubator for everlong brazen creativity. Washington has and continues to be a place that both attracts and cultivates minds that bend constricti...

*Content Warning: This piece contains subject matters such as depression, suicide, and substance abuse.  Sex, drugs, and rock and roll seem like the recipe for the “perfect” life, but for some, it’s a...

One day on my routine walk to class, “Lovers Rock” by TV Girl came on through shuffle. Call it overstated or cliché, but for some reason, this song always pulls on my heart strings. The sweet swells of vio...

Psyched! Fest - San Francisco's Independent Festival of Arts, Music, Diversity & Counterculture - opened Wednesday, October 25th at Rickshaw Stop. Brought to you by Psyched! Radio, the multiracial nonprofit...

Elliott Smith is one of the most intrinsically devastating and crucial indie-folk musicians to date, known for his lyrics of absolute despair. The only thing more twisted and heartbreaking than his music is the...

  Words hold immense power, and they often inspire and influence each other over time with the multitudes of organizations and contexts they combine to form. All writings, from lyrics, to poetry, novels...

In early 2021, a friend of mine sent me a link to a TikTok accompanied by an innocuous message somewhere along the lines of, “Thought you’d like this.” Intrigued, I clicked, and a curly-haired girl in a p...