For sports fans, there’s the Super Bowl. For fashion fans, there’s the Met Gala.
Every year on the first Monday in May, Anna Wintour, reigning editor-in-chief and pinnacle of fashion at Vogue, hosts the Met Gala. It’s technically a charity event to raise an egregious amount of money for The Costume Institute…but in reality, it’s an excuse for the biggest celebrities in the world to flaunt looks from the biggest fashion houses in the world.
All we ever get to see from the elusive Gala is the red carpet, but for about three hours the world circulates photos of outfits…judging like they have degrees in fashion and are the next Joan Rivers. But this year’s theme was especially exciting for me.
What was the 2024 Met Gala Theme?
This year’s theme was Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, with the focus being “Garden in Time.” A “sleeping beauty” in fashion refers to a piece that is only worn once before being stored away forever. These pieces are often tarnished after they’re worn once.
But as always, there’s a theme within the theme. “Garden in Time” implied nods to nature, which would explain the floral prints and natural elements like mother of pearl and wood. These themes also opened the door for sustainability: reworking and re-wearing pieces that have already existed. Not creating an entirely new costume from scratch.
Once these pieces go on display, they can’t be touched again or they’re considered ruined. While many celebrities weren’t wearing original “Sleeping Beauty” pieces, there were references to vintage collections from classic designers like Versace, Alexander McQueen, and, of course, Loewe.
Loewe happened to be the belle of the ball this year. The hottest brand of 2024 (by far) secured high-profile celebrities like Taylor Russell, Ariana Grande, Dan Levy, Omar Apollo, and more. And not only was everyone wearing Loewe, the craftsmanship and detail was breathtaking in every way.
As I continued to watch notable figure after notable figure grace the famous Met staircase, I continued to wonder where every Met Gala icon was? Where was Rihanna and A$AP Rocky? Blake Lively? Hailey and Justin Bieber? Selena Gomez, perhaps? THE Bella Hadid? Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce? Harry Styles? Billie Eilish and FINNEAS?
Perhaps a few literally slept through the Met Gala this year…but nonetheless, the celebs showed up. And I’m here to critique them.
Best Dressed
Lana Del Rey
Her first Met in six years and Lana Del Rey shines in custom-made Alexander McQueen. She’s on-theme, the embodiment of Mother Nature.
Mona Patel
Of course, this was a Law Roach style. But Mona Patel had, by far, the best dress of the night. The animated butterflies on her arms were magical.
Tyla
Nothing says “Sleeping Beauty” more than a gown made of sand specifically molded to Tyla’s body. She even had to get carried up the stairs in her custom Balmain.
Zendaya
Law Roach, the stylist you are. Zendaya treated the Met stairs as her runway with multiple show-stopping looks.
Kendall Jenner
I mean, the dress literally was only ever worn on a mannequin and fit Kendall Jenner – with no tailoring. That’s fate.
Mindy Kaling
The dress, titled “Melting Flower of Time”, was designed by Gaurav Gupta. It was walking art, stunned.
Harris Reed
Harris Reed is responsible for some of Harry Styles’ most iconic looks…but tonight, they were the moment.
Taylor Russell
Speaking of Harry Styles…Taylor Russell had one of my favorite Loewe pieces. The wood bodice corset contrasted with the gown.
Worst Dressed
Kylie Jenner
I just think she could’ve done more than a vintage bridal look…
Del Rey temporarily left the stage after singing her song “Bartender” as Cabello launched into a surprise performance of her new single “I Luv It” from her forthcoming fourth studio album. Lana joined Cabello through some verses but mostly watched and danced from the balcony of her palace-like stage.
Cabello was backed by a crew of dancers who recreated the robotic choreography seen in the single’s matching music video which also features collaborator, Playboi Carti (Carti was not present on stage). Del Rey joined Cabello on the floor of the stage during Carti’s verse and placed her hands around Cabello’s waist as the two shared a playful spin.
“I luv it, I luv it, I luv it, I luv it,” Del Rey sang back to Cabello as the pop singer closed the song. She continued, “[Camila] is my girl, I have so much fun with her. I love this song and thank you so much angel, for coming and singing with me.”
Cabello responded, “This is an honor for me, you’re one of my favorite artists of all time. I love you so much.”
Del Rey’s week one Coachella performance welcomed recent collaborators Jack Antonoff and Jon Batiste, who again joined Del Rey again on Friday night. Both Antonoff and Batiste are also performing their own sets (Antonoff as the lead singer of the band Bleachers) at the festival. Billie Eilish also joined Del Rey who turned up for a surprise pair of duets of Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes,” and Del Rey’s “Video Games.”
I hate to say it, but all good people admit when they’re wrong. After attending Coachella in 2022, I saw a dying franchise desperately trying to retain its grasp on relevancy. With lackluster Californian crowds who only go for the festival name and not the names headlining, outsiders often wonder why artists treat this as a Mecca for music.
Long gone are the days when girls’ outfits were chosen with Tumblr shots in mind. The bohemian chic style that Vanessa Hudgens, Miley Cyrus, and other attendees made famous began as “Coachella style.”
And when I got a taste of the coveted festival, I was beyond underwhelmed. Sure, the rich and famous were within reach…but I couldn’t have felt further away from them. I ended up with dust in my lungs and a week’s worth of exhaustion.
Celebs stopped attending en masse, the non-festival influencer events like Revolve Festival rose in popularity, and it became abundantly clear that no one cared about the music…it was all about their Instagram posts.
But what I’ve learned from live-streaming Coachella 2024 — and pouring over my social media and consuming every single piece of Coachella content there is — is that Coachella is back in a major way.
Sure, the festival is designed to give you an intense bout of FOMO…but all I kept hearing was how bad everyone thought the lineup was. How no one of note would be in attendance this year. How Coachella was surely done for…until it wasn’t.
It’s been every bit as star-studded and shocking as earlier years. We’ve had earth-shattering performances, surprises left and right, and even reunions…not to mention the iconic American Royal Couple sighting.
We had 5-star performances from headliners like Tyler, The Creator and Doja Cat. Chris Lake and Chris Lorenzo via their supergroup, Anti Up, confirmed rumors of a joint album.
After spending the weekend across the country on the wrong coast sobbing to my friends that I opted not to go this year, I put together my must-see lineup.
Here are the five performances I would’ve attended at 2024 Coachella Weekend One.
Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan’s sheer star power has truly been surprising me. With a devout fanbase (just watch her set), you’ll immediately realize that we’re dealing with someone who is about to break through to a different level of stardom.
During her set, you’ll hear essential songs like “Good Luck, Babe!”, “HOT TO GO!”, and “My Kink is Karma.” But what’s more impressive is her stage presence, the way she commands the crowd in avant-garde makeup, big hair, and a bigger personality.
Songs like “Good Hurt” saw a 160% increase on Spotify…Don’t sleep on Chappell Roan. Before you know it, she’ll be performing at a much bigger stage.
Not enough is said about a house music set at a festival. Sure, the headliners are great and deliver us our fix of rock, pop, or soul. But it’s always been the DJ’s who have my heart at the end of the night. They know how to get you dancing, to feel the beat down to your soul, and forget for a while.
We saw a lot of technical difficulties and underwhelming sets from various artists this weekend…but John Summit and Dom Dolla delivered a borderline flawless collaboration that perfectly exhibited both their greatest hits and EDM essentials.
There’s nothing better than watching an artist truly having fun on stage…so when two friends, Dolla and Summit, come together to display some of the best techno house out there, they do not disappoint.
Soon to be the pregame track for many, Dom Dolla and John Summit are two of the biggest names in house for a reason.
No Doubt
Two words: jaw dropped. Coachella’s Main Stage has reunited long lost bands and supergroups like Blink-182 and Swedish House Mafia…but few have No Doubt’s impact.
After a year of music domination on TikTok, Gwen Stefani, Tom Dumont, Tony Kanal, and Adrian Young took the stage to bring punk rock back in all its glory. In their first performance since 2015, this band has the exact same 1995 energy when they released “Just a Girl.”
Bringing out Gen Z’s very own punk pop princess, Olivia Rodrigo, was a passing of the torch in many ways. Stefani and Rodrigo belted “Bathwater” side by side as Rodrigo sported low rise cargos and an “I <3 ND” tank. “Bathwater” saw a 430% increase in streams on Spotify following the performance.
Perhaps the most impressive performance comes from Stefani, who at 54 years of age pranced and throttled around the stage full force. Stefani embodied a whirlwind tornado that gave more stage presence and energy than a 19-year-old. She went full punk rocker mode, and it was gorgeous.
I keep reminding my readers that Sabrina Carpenter is the one to watch this year. She’s got all the ingredients of your classic popstar: proven vocal talent (even a stint on Broadway with Renee Rapp in Mean Girls), the opener for Taylor Swift’s legendary Era’s Tour, a past love triangle scandal with aforementioned Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett, and the latest It Boy, Barry Keoghan, falling over his feet for her.
Her Coachella performance only solidified that I’m right. Carpenter understands her audience, and knows how to bring in more fans. She’s candidly witty, overtly sexual in her euphemisms, and yet exudes an innocence and honesty in her music.
For the first time on a Coachella stage, Carpenter was able to belt out her emails i can’t send album. This tell-all set of songs details her relationship with Bassett, her perspective on the backlash, and shares refreshing insights into her life.
She had the cinema, the vocal ability, the wow-factor. No notes.
Lana Del Rey
And while many prominent publications and, most notably, the Recording Academy will continue to turn their noses towards the genius of Lana Del Rey, the world watched anyway. Del Rey’s music has inspired the careers of thousands of budding artists, and it’s rare that she gets such a massive platform to perform it.
Arriving via motorcade, Lana Del Rey took the stage to perform hits like “Summertime Sadness”, “Ride”, and “West Coast” while dancers twirled from poles and swirled around Del Rey.
With guests like Jack Antonoff, Jon Batiste, and the one-and-only Billie Eilish, Del Rey flawlessly integrated tracks like “Ocean Eyes” and her own “Video Games” into her set.
Many will criticize the microphone issues or the lack of energy from the crowd (all factors that were out of the headliner’s control)…but it’s overwhelmingly clear from Lana Del Rey’s performance that her star far outshines any technical difficulties.
If there’s one thing 2024 has taught us so far, it’s that celebrities don’t forget a slight (*cough cough* Beyoncé making Cowboy Carterin response to the 2016 CMAs). For Lana Del Rey, that slight arrived at the very beginning of her career. Or, as she was specific in calling out: January 14, 2012. The night of her forever notorious Saturday Night Live performance. To prepare Coachella audiences for the idea that this is where her mind is still at, she put up a billboard (which is becoming something of an LDR signature) that parodied those Christian ones you usually see on the side of the highway. Except this one said, “Has anyone else died for you? Lana Del Rey SNL Jan 14 2012.”
Del Rey, well-aware by now that she is indeed a Christ-like figure to her fans, is having fun with this kind of power (not just the power to buy billboards wherever she wants—something Angelyne knows all about—but the power to compare herself, The Beatles-style, to Jesus). While some might have thought it was a non sequitur meant to show that even someone as iconic as Del Rey could still poke fun at her past faux pas (and it was a faux pas, not a totally out-of-left-field lynching from the critics), it was instead a harbinger of her performance to come.
Never one to imbue too much fanfare into her generally simple live shows, Del Rey decided to put a bit more effort into the occasion. Certainly far more than she did the first time she performed at Coachella in 2014. And, as she points out briefly between “Born to Die” and “Bartender,” “We were here exactly ten years ago to the day. We’re still doin’ it.” That’s right, April 13th was a Sunday in 2014, and Arcade Fire was headlining that night instead (long before the Win Butler allegations surfaced). At that time, Del Rey’s “costume” choice was a tropical-inspired, vibrantly-colored floral dress. Much more no-frills than what she donned for her headlining debut: a sparkling baby blue number with a peekaboo cutout just above the stomach paired with knee-high glittering rhinestone boots (not unlike the ones she wore for a performance in Antwerp during the LA to the Moon Tour). It was also apparent that Del Rey had put in work to slim down before the show (perhaps incorporating the added benefit of her lifetime supply of Skims after becoming Kim’s shill). Proving her commitment to restoring herself as fully as possible to her 2012 aesthetic/glory.
In fact, when Del Rey posted an image of herself with longer, honeysuckle blonde hair two weeks before the festival, the automatic thought was, “Oh, 2012 Lana is reemerging.” Her desire to return to that moment in time is likely because she’s still grappling with the reaction she received when she achieved mainstream success with “Video Games.” As any psychologically attuned person knows, it can take years to fully process a trauma. And it seemed that Del Rey was very ready to process hers and release it for Weekend 1 of Coachella. Starting with the strategicness of that “Christ billboard.” Because if the critics were going to crucify her, Del Rey could at least take comfort in the fact that her fans worshiped (and worship) her with the same fervor as Jesus fanatics (or Tulsa Jesus freaks, to make an LDR song reference). Is it hyperbolic that so many celebrities compare themselves to Jesus (see also: Madonna and Ye)? Of course. But it isn’t an inaccurate comparison in a time when celebrities have become the new deities. And just like gods, people enjoy knocking them off their pedestal time and time again.
But Del Rey was determined to be seen as a god (not a monster) on her big night. Thus, she rode “into town” on the back of a Daddy type’s motorcycle, leading in an entire procession of motorcycles that included her go-to backup dancers/singers, Ashley Rodriguez and Alexandria Kaye. It was the pinnacle of her “Ride” vibe from, what else, 2012. And, not so coincidentally, “Jealous Girl,” an unreleased track that went viral on TikTok in ‘21, soundtracks the entrance. Though recorded in 2010, it was leaked online in November of ‘12. Her inclusion of this track as an intro seemed to make an instant comment on her toxic relationship with critics, with Del Rey’s lyrics to “Jealous Girl” touting, “Baby, I’m a gangster, too, and it takes two to tango/You don’t wanna dance with me, dance with me/Honey, I’m in love with you, if you don’t feel the same, boy/You don’t wanna mess with me, mess with me.” Almost like a warning to critics to stop “playing” her, Del Rey has long been known for positioning herself as a “gangster,” even publicly baiting Azealia Banks with comments like, “u know the addy. Pull up anytime. Say it to my face. But if I were you—I wouldn’t.” This, alas, is arguably her least believable persona—the one that insists it can “cut a bitch” if necessary. Because in a physical fight between Banks and Del Rey, there’s no question Banks would win.
Barring the fact that the word “gangster” is somewhat problematic when describing a white girl or coming from her own mouth, Del Rey was known for using it to brand herself as a “gangster Nancy Sinatra” at the beginning of her career. And so she mashed up “Jealous Girl” with Kehlani’s “Gangsta” from the Suicide Squad Soundtrack—an interesting choice considering Kehlani publicly condemned her on Twitter in 2020 for not blurring out the faces of Black and Brown protesters and looters in a video she posted on Instagram. Perhaps she’s talked it out with Kehlani since, or maybe it’s a belated peace offering/mea culpa. Whatever the case, Del Rey wanted to remind the audience that she’s still the same “gangster bitch” they first came to love at the beginning of 2012—botched SNL performance or not.
Unfortunately, as one review from The Guardian pointed out, if this was Del Rey’s attempt to prove she had come a long way from that performance vocally, this wasn’t the finest example of a coup. Not least of which was because of the ceaseless mic and sound problems that persisted throughout the short set. A set that consisted of nineteen tracks instead of the eleven she performed in 2014. And, sadly, the setlist hasn’t evolved much since that time, with many of the exact songs showing up in ‘24, including “Born to Die,” “West Coast,” “Young and Beautiful,” “Ride,” “Summertime Sadness” and “Video Games.” All of which remain “classics” in her oeuvre, but which are becoming extremely overwrought at this juncture as she’s never removed them from her setlist. Even Madonna doesn’t play “Like A Virgin” and “Material Girl” every time she tours—in fact, that would make her sick.
The only truly unexpected addition/“shakeup” to Del Rey’s extremely tired setlist was the decision to open with “Without You,” presented as an unabashed love letter to fans in this context (“I’m nothing without you”). However, it was already during this song that her arbitrary trail-offs and failure to sing complete lyrics portended how the rest of the show would go, relying mostly on her choir-y backup singers and cameos from Jon Batiste and Billie Eilish to mitigate any shortcomings. One doesn’t bring Jack Antonoff up as a “cameo” because he just seems to be perennially there, in Lana and Taylor Swift’s orbit. As for the latter, many had speculated she would be a guest onstage, but perhaps she didn’t want to outshine LDR yet again, as she did at the Grammys and during “Snow on the Beach.”
“Without You” then led into “West Coast,” during which Del Rey didn’t bother to sing the opening verse and it became more of an interlude-y type thing as she languidly danced about. To sustain her California theme/homage, she then dove into her cover of Sublime’s “Doin’ Time,” a track that she’s made all her own in the way that Whitney Houston was able to do with “I Will Always Love You.” Except, when performed live here, there were plenty of “quiet singing” and off-key moments. Which were perhaps also meant to be obfuscated by the pole dancing that went on throughout, just one of many “props” onstage, including a motorcycle (Del Rey really wants you to know she loves to ride). And it could have also been an unwitting statement on Del Rey’s part in that the women on the pole were all of color, harkening back to her addendum to the “question for the culture,” when she insisted she was unfairly victimized and persecuted by the media because “when I get on the pole, people call me a whore, but when Twigs gets on the pole, it’s art.” Firstly, Del Rey had only even been “on the pole” for a brief scene in her Tropico short film and no one called her a whore for that, and secondly, yeah, Twigs does make pole dancing into art. Del Rey just kind of flops around on it. Anyway, she seemed to be preparing the audience for when she actually would “get on” the pole (a.k.a. casually swing around it).
But before that, the audience was given a trippy, psychedelic instrumental intro to “Summertime Sadness,” just another among many moments when she trailed off on lyrics. Seeing her do this against the Miss Havisham-meets-dilapidated-Jay-Gastby-mansion backdrop, it highlighted the idea that Del Rey will be singing these same songs “till the end of time.”
This includes another post-2017 staple, “Cherry,” featuring the usual choreo. But at least Del Rey mixed up some of the lyrics by adding, “Can I get a fuckin’ hallelujah/Sippin’ on a Coca-Cola.” Maybe that addition is a substitute for the fact that she vowed to never sing the now “insensitive” “Cola” again (which was, incidentally, part of her Coachella 2014 setlist).
Another “business as usual” performance was “Pretty When I Cry,” with lots of echo piled onto her voice as she lay onstage in “orgiastic atrophy” with her backup dancers. Toward the end, she misses the mark on singing in her mic and goes slightly off-key, perhaps another nod to SNL 2012? And speaking of, she gives us another song from that year in “Ride,” prefaced by her usual voiceover, “I was in the winter of my life, and the men I met along the road were my only summer,” etc., etc. In other words, “I love Daddies.” Although Evan Peters doesn’t fit that bill, it didn’t stop him from making out quite uninhibitedly to the tune of “Born to Die.” And it was, very literally, just the tune, for that was the song that arguably had the most mic issues, allowing for large chunks of instrumentals only. “Bartender” then commenced with a super off-key verse, as though she couldn’t hear herself. “Will you turn Byron down one?” she has to ask soon after starting. Presumably Byron is one of her mics. And he was not accommodating.
After getting through that, a small “Burnt Norton” interlude precedes “Chemtrails Over the Country Club,” which relies on a “cloth dance” to distract from more vocal woes before “The Grants.” This track, too, is one of the few fresh additions to the usual setlist after Del Rey released Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. And one imagines she finds it a relief to perform, as all the vocal heavy lifting is done by her three backup singers, Pattie Howard, Melodye Perry and Shikena Jones. The eponymous single from that same album then opens with an introduction about the why of constructing a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard (mainly because it was very dangerous to cross the street, as it is among many boulevards of LA County) as an image of the sealed tunnel is projected onscreen. In this moment, Del Rey is at her most wistful and nostalgic. Indeed, the majority of her career is founded on the kind of wistfulness and nostalgia that millennials have increasingly turned to as a source of comfort.
For “Norman Fucking Rockwell,” Del Rey again lets her backup singer take the lead for the repetition of the word “blue” at the end as she just kind of stands there and makes an ethereal arm gesture. As for the inclusion of “Arcadia” (the only song from Blue Banisters to make an appearance), one can’t help but think that it also plays into her theme for the night: fuck the critics. After all, this is the song with the lyrics, “They built me up three hundred feet tall just to tear me down/So I’m leavin’ with nothing but laughter, and this town” and “I’m leavin’ them as I was, five-foot-eight Western belt, plus the hate that they gave/By the way, thanks for that, on the way, I’ll pray for ya.” The religious undercurrent there also ties into that billboard—and Del Rey’s Catholic upbringing in general. One that, like Madonna, so often finds her at war with the sacred and profane.
A prime example of that, lyric and imagery-wise, is “Candy Necklace” featuring Jon Batiste on piano. His appearance onstage brightens Del Rey’s spirit before she biffs the vocals on that, too, often sounding like a dying animal and frequently forgetting to hold the mic up to her mouth (one would suggest she might try wearing a headset, but that’s just not her style). All of that can be forgiven by the audience when she takes her swing on the pole—this entire segment smacking of Christina Ricci as Layla in Buffalo ‘66.
To keep the cameos coming, Billie Eilish follows Batiste’s appearance for a poetic duet made all the more so as they each performed their first singles, respectively, “Ocean Eyes/Video Games.” At the end, the two mutually praise one another, with Eilish announcing, “This is the reason for half you bitches’ existence. Including mine.” That statement tied in nicely with Del Rey’s thesis of the night, which was: despite her critical onslaught, she was responsible for shaping a new era in music, influencing an entire generation (a.k.a. mainly Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo).
Leaving her pièce de résistance for the ending portion of the show, “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but i have it” is where Antonoff appears on piano. Del Rey, however, does not. Well, not really. Instead, she pulls a Simone and projects a hologram of herself onstage while wearing a frock that reimagines her SNL number as she deliberately twirls for the majority of the performance (that first 2012 twirl becoming a long-standing meme). Her symbolism is clear: she’s fulfilling the critical belief that she was entirely manufactured. To perform one of her most lyrically ambitious tracks is meant as a “fuck you” to that belief.
As the show winds down, she delivers the chorus to “A&W” (which formerly opened her shows before she traded it for “Without You”) a few times before singing the true finale, “Young and Beautiful.” This seeming to be a very profound choice in terms of her directing it at fans (as she did for “Without You” at the kickoff). However, her fans, through all the critical ups and downs, have showed no signs of ever ceasing to love her (their devoutness only appearing to strengthen instead). Even now that she is “old,” by Gen Z’s ageist standards (and apparently, even by Del Rey’s, who sings, “When you’re old, you’re old, like Hollywood and me” on “Margaret”). This is precisely why she answers her own question, “Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful?” with “I know you will, I know you will, I know that you will.” The critics, on the other hand, not so much. But that’s clearly not who this show was aimed at. No, Del Rey was tapping into the lore of her past solely for the benefit of fans. And maybe singing kind of badly and off-key was a deliberate troll on her part. Del Rey can have an ironic sense of humor like that sometimes. Or maybe, just as it was after her SNL debut, she thought, “I looked beautiful and sang fine.”
As for her “evolution” as a performer, it seems to mirror her millennial fanbase’s own evolution. Or lack thereof. Still, in many ways, trapped in the past without being able to fully evolve. Perhaps a result of being traumatized too early on in life (9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, Britney being 5150’d, etc.). But that doesn’t mean she (and her fellow millennials) haven’t picked up some new tricks along the way to build on their tried-and-true shtick.
This extends to Del Rey’s procession of motorcycles that she once again employs to ride off into the moonlight, leaving behind her F. Scott Fitzgerald-esque horn ensemble to play the audience out, back into a world of similar decay, but without as much glitter and glamor. “Manufactured” or not.
Lana Del Rey promised a resurrection for her headlining spot at Coachella this weekend— on her billboard posted on the way to the festival referenced her “death” after being crucified for her Saturday Night Live performance in 2012. However, she said nothing about bringing out her disciple Billie Eilish to sing “ocean eyes” and “Video Games.” And how could she? By the time they finished harmonizing their whispers, they were stunned by each other’s presence. “Get the fuck out of my face,” joked Eilish after the performance. The two continued to gush over each other, with Del Rey raising up her protege. She praised, “Yep, that’s the voice of your generation, the voice of our generation. I”m so fucking grateful she’s standing next to me right now singing my favorite song of hers.” Eilish replied by giving the flower (crowns) back to the woman who influenced her, “This is the reason for half you bitches existence, including mine.” She’s not wrong; thou shalt be saved listening to Lana Del Rey.
Lana Del Rey and Billie Eilish singing “Video Games.”
Lana Del Rey had a couple of heavily favored cameos during her Coachella performance, welcoming recent collaborators Jack Antonoff and Jon Batiste, both of whom will be fronting their own sets later in the weekend — but also one far less easily guessed guest, in the form of Billie Eilish, who turned up for a surprise pair of duets.
Taking to a terrace overlooking the massive stage, the duo first joined forces on Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes,” then turned their voices to “Video Games.” Both songs represent the first real breakout hits in these artists’ respective careers.
The two traded fangirl notes as their joint appearance came to a close. Enthused Del Rey about her singing partner: “That’s the voice of our generation, the voice of your generation, and i’m so fucking grateful she’s standing next to me right now singing my favorite song.”
Eilish retorted, “Get the fuck out of my face,” as they both fell into laughter.
“This is the reason for half you bitches’ existence — including mine!” Eilish further told the crowd. “Lana Del Rey, you guys, come on!”
The emergence of Eilish onto the stage followed a lengthy turn by Batiste as he and Del Rey recreated “Candy Necklace,” a song they worked up together for Del Rey’s most recent album, 2023’s “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.” The song was nominated for best pop duo’group performance at the 2024 Grammys. For most of the tune, Batiste played piano while she kneeled atop the instrument, but after she stepped down toward the end, they began spontaneously trading vocal lines.
“Sometimes you need somebody else’s spirit to move with you, and that’s always going to be Jon Batiste,” said the headliner.
Following Eilish’s appearance, Del Rey was joined by her co-producer and co-writer of late, Antonoff, for a reading of “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me — but I Have It.” Or at least some version of her was joined by Antonoff: He was playing piano very definitely in the flesh, but she appeared as an oversized hologram, just for that one number. The track dates back to her “Normal Fucking Rockwell” album from 2019.
Her setlist included some live rarities, including opening with “Without You,” which fans say she has not performed since 2014, and her cover of Sublime’s “Doin’ Time,” which she hasn’t done since 2019 — possibly a nod to the fact that a contemporary iteration of Sublime is also booked for Coachella.
Del Rey didn’t need any of her guests to make an impression, most viewers on-site or watching via the YouTube livestream would agree. She had certainly one of the more memorable entrances and exits in Coachella history, riding in and out through the audience, via walled off sections splitting up the crowd, on the back of a motorcycle, sometimes standing and/or blowing kisses as she passed by. Her six dancers trailed her, also holding onto motorcycle drivers, in motorcades that lasted minutes.
The hour-and-a-half set was well received by the massive crowd, either in spite of or because of offering such different moods and musical fare than what had preceded it during the day. The live singing and instrumentation was just one obvious point of demarcation from some other Coachella artists seen throughout the day. Low on the highly aggro qualities emphasized by some other performers, the Del Rey show was all about gentle, if determined, feminine energy, with Del Rey and her female dancers and backup singers wearing dresses and singing softly or beauteously, while, of course, putting this low-key energy to use on the bold themes she’s famous for.
From the very first drone (or Steadicam) shots of her motorcades, on through to what almost counted as delicate pole dancing, to a succession of piano ballads in the second half of the set, her show was characterized by what might have been described a late-night vibe, even if it hadn’t started (on schedule) at 11:20 p.m. and lasted nearly till 1. That easygoing sense of summertime sadness is no easy thing to pull off in a climactic slot: Perhaps only Del Rey could turn in a headlining festival set this laid-back, or even sweet, and still utterly reassert herself as an alpha in the process.
Lana Del Rey is no stranger to name-checking white male musicians from the 60s and 70s in her music. It’s become something of a barometer for whether or not the song in question is truly “Del Rey-crafted.” From Bob Dylan to Dennis Wilson to Crosby, Stills and Nash, Del Rey has exhibited her reverence for these white male “gods” time and time again. With no signs of slowing up, either. For two of her recent singles, “Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” (also the name of her ninth record) and “The Grants,” each refers to Harry Nilsson and John Denver, respectively. While the latter is a slightly “purer” soul (mainly because of his humanitarian efforts), Nilsson was nothing if not “problematic” by today’s standards. But everything was so much more forgivable back then when one was a “genius.” A word doled out far too easily for people who spin a poetic turn of phrase more effortlessly than the average.
Of course, a person’s underlying “badness” can’t truly be invoked without some sort of catalyst. In Nilsson’s case, that was John Lennon in the years of 1973 and 1974. Or maybe it was Nilsson who brought out the worst in Lennon—it depends on who you ask. Having descended upon L.A. after a rift with Yoko Ono, Lennon would later refer to that eighteen-month period as his “Lost Weekend.” But it didn’t take him very long to find a constant companion in Nilsson, a man as fond of drinking as most British “working class heroes.” Along for the ride was Yoko Ono’s former personal assistant, May Pang, given the sanction by Ono to be Lennon’s de facto concubine. Night after night, it was Pang who bore witness to the duo’s social gracelessness/enjoyment of the privilege that came not just with being a white man, but a famous white man. For few other sects of humanity could have gotten away with their brazen hijinks, most of which occurred at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.
The collision of Nilsson and Lennon was perhaps first decided by the Fates in 1967 when Nilsson attracted the attention of The Beatles’ publicist, Derek Taylor, with his song, “1941,” which Taylor heard on his car radio while waiting for his wife to finish shopping in a supermarket. Compelled to buy “a case” of the album from which “1941” hailed, Pandemonium Shadow Show, the four Beatles were among the recipients of the record that Taylor felt obliged to distribute as an unasked advocate for Nilsson. Fittingly, Nilsson had covered two Beatles tracks on that album: “You Can’t Do That” (incorporating other songs from The Beatles’ oeuvre to make for the first “mashup” before anyone knew what that was) and “She’s Leaving Home” (the original from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band being released in May of the same year as Nilsson’s cover).
From the moment The Beatles heard Nilsson’s music, his status as the “the American Beatle” was all but assured. Especially for John, who was looking for someone to lean on while Yoko insisted he sow some oats away from her for a while (she being the “progressive” one between them and all). Nilsson was only too happy to accommodate Lennon’s need for a jovial “good-time boy.” But that didn’t come without its worrisome caveats. As Larry Kane, the writer of Lennon Revealed wrote, “Harry drank, a lot. But Harry was the type of guy that if you go out drinking with him, he’d be sure at the end of the night that there would be a big brawl and that you are the one who’s in trouble, even though he started it. Harry would keep feeding John drinks until it was too late.”
This included the illustrious Brandy Alexanders that Lennon was supposedly introduced to by Nilsson on their apex night of “acting a fool in L.A.” The combination of milk and alcohol in the beverage perhaps made Lennon and Nilsson feel like it was an especially fun idea to heckle the Smothers Brothers at their show at the Troubadour on March 12, 1974. This was after Lennon had already been embarrassed on a recent evening out prior to this random Tuesday, so drunk out of his gourd he emerged from the bathroom (presumably the women’s) of a Santa Monica restaurant with a Kotex pad stuck to his forehead. The lore goes that it managed to stay on all the way through to the next stop of the night: where else, the Troubadour.
Varying accounts purport that Lennon snapped at the server either at the Troubadour or the one at the first restaurant where he had initially placed the Kotex on his head. Whatever the milieu, that server called him out for not leaving a tip, prompting Lennon to growl, “Do you know who I am?” She allegedly retorted, “You’re some asshole with a Kotex on his head.” But that was positively dignified compared to March 12, 1974, when the heckling of the Smothers Brothers prompted both Nilsson and Lennon’s ejection from the club. Lennon would later defend, “It was my first night on Brandy Alexanders, that’s brandy and milk, folks. I was with Harry Nilsson, who didn’t get as much coverage as me, the bum. He encouraged me. I usually have someone there who says ‘Okay, Lennon. Shut up.’” Presumably, Yoko would have been that person, but she was taking a break. Lennon also added, “So I was drunk. When it’s Errol Flynn, the showbiz writers say: ‘Those were the days, when men were men.’ When I do it, I’m a bum.”
Talking of the days “when men were men,” as men clinging to the past like to call it, these are the very ilk that someone such as Del Rey still can’t help but romanticize in her music (not to mention manifest in real life with her dating track record, e.g., Sean Larkin, Jack Donoghue). Drawn to the “bad men” that make for such interesting lyrical fodder, Del Rey has also allowed that to bleed into her work via the name-checking of musical icons with polarizing personal backgrounds. Incidentally, she never had to mention John Lennon because she effectively did so by collaborating with his (more beloved) son, Sean, on 2017’s “Tomorrow Never Came.” Oh, the sting Julian must have felt to be further reminded that he was somehow the “bastard” child despite being Lennon’s legitimate firstborn.
Bearing all of this in mind, Del Rey is a former alcoholic. And the last thing she would probably need is a friend like Nilsson. Despite expressing on the aforementioned, “Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd,” “Something about the way he says, ‘Don’t forget me’/Makes me feel like I just wish I had a friend like him, someone to get me by/Leaning in my back, whispering in my ear, ‘Come on, baby, you can drive.’” Likely encouraging her to do so while she’s drunk. The “Come on, baby, you can drive” line may allude to Nilsson’s cover of the Shirley and Lee song, “Let The Good Times Roll,” from his seventh studio album, Nilsson Schmilsson, during which he sings, “C’mon baby, let’s ride some more/C’mon baby, let the good times roll.” Or even “Driving Along,” from the same record, for the only thing honorary West Coastian Del Rey loves more than a white male reference is a reference to cars and driving.
As for the song by Nilsson that Del Rey specifically talks about, “Don’t Forget Me,” it was on the Pussy Cats record, produced by none other than Lennon and released during the duo’s ignominious year of 1974. The title of the album itself was undeniably tongue-in-cheek, designed to negate the rowdy, perpetually inebriated image they had cultivated during their numerous nights of debauchery over the course of that infamous “Lost Weekend.” That might not have come across, however, if the label had allowed them to keep the album’s original title, Strange Pussies. Luckily, even back then, corporations had no gumption when it came to letting artists run amok with their creative decisions. The same way Del Rey’s original creative decision for titling Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd was reworked from Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd Pearl Watch Me on Ring a Bell Psycho Lifeguard. Like, whaaaat? There’s being an esoteric genius and just being full-stop esoteric for the sake of it. This, effectively, is what Nilsson and Lennon decided to be for almost two years as they caroused together through L.A.’s nightlife like a pair of garish vampires.
Once more, the question arises, was Nilsson truly the “bad influence”? Or was Lennon just so ready to let the dark side take hold that he only needed the excuse of a “bad seed” of a friend to allow him to let loose? One must admit it was fairly convenient for Lennon to say, as a defense to evade personal responsibility, “It was my first night on Brandy Alexanders, and they tasted like milkshakes. The first thing I knew I was out of me gourd. Of course, Harry Nilsson was no help feeding them to me, saying ‘Go ahead, John.’” Sure, on the one hand, each of us is culpable for the choices we make, yet on the other, Del Rey saying, “I just wish I had a friend like him” sounds incongruous, especially if it had been soundtracked against these nights of drunken spiraling and touching the lowest depths of one’s emotional nadir.
The irony of Nilsson singing, “Don’t forget me,” of course, is that he probably forgot just about everything as he delved further into a relationship with Alcoholism. Perhaps the same might have happened to Del Rey had she not been a millennial, and her parents had the good sense to send her to boarding school to dry out at the age of fourteen. Del Rey would reflect in 2012 of her kicked addiction, “My parents were worried, I was worried. I knew it was a problem when I liked it more than I liked doing anything else. I was like, ‘I’m fucked. I am totally fucked.’” As was Lennon with Nilsson at his side, and vice versa—the two fueling each other’s darkness under the guise of “having a good time.”
Del Rey would add in the same NME piece, “Like, at first it’s fine and you think you have a dark side—it’s exciting—and then you realize the dark side wins every time if you decide to indulge in it. It’s also a completely different way of living when you know that…a different species of person. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me.” Which leads one to inquire as to whether or not Del Rey put much consideration into wishing for a friend like Nilsson to “get her by” when, in all likelihood, the two would have been as bad for each other as Lennon and Nilsson were in those “Lost Weekend” months.
It is an increasingly “grand tradition” in the genre of songwriting. Not to mention a rite of passage for any major pop star who stirs up enough controversy. That tradition being to “clapback” at the faceless blob known as “The Critics” (though some are simply trying to treat art with the seriousness it should be imbued with—but try telling that to a stan, or a celebrity as convinced of her perfection as Lana Del Rey). With Ariana Grande’s lead single from Eternal Sunshine, “yes, and?,” she revives this grand tradition with the help of the inspiration that came from being, let’s just say it, a homewrecker (a song title that’s already been used, to memorable effect, by Marina and the Diamonds [now MARINA], and appears on the list below). Repurposing the narrative to her benefit with a song that takes ownership of loving a certain babyface ginger dick, Ethan Slater. Best known, that’s right, for his portrayal of SpongeBob SquarePants in the musical of the same name (Grande always has a fetish for the wiry, slightly gay types).
While “yes, and?” can’t quite surpass a track like Madonna’s “Human Nature” in terms of its stinging qualities against the critics (e.g., “I’m not your bitch/Don’t hang your shit on me”), it’s definitely become instantly “up there” among the ranks of iconic clapbacks in song form. Below are a few other noteworthy ones from the past few decades, in no particular order.
“shut up” by Ariana Grande:Obviously no stranger to criticism by the time 2020’s Positions rolled around, it was fitting that Grande should kick off that album with the saucy “shut up.” A clear message to critics, tabloid headlines and online trolls alike, Grande’s directive was simple: “You know you sound so dumb (so dumb, so dumb, so dumb)/So maybe you should shut up/Yeah maybe you should shut up.” Elsewhere, she points out that those who tend to criticize tend to have the most time on their hands and are also plenty criticizable themselves. Thus, she adds, “How you been spendin’ you time?/How you be usin’ your tongue?/You be so worried ‘bout mine/Can’t even get yourself none.” That line about “using one’s tongue” also foreshadowed the lyric from “yes, and?” that goes, “My tongue is sacred/I speak upon what I like.” Because, apparently, it’s only okay when Ari does that, not critics.
“Without Me” by Eminem: Released as the lead single from Eminem’s fourth album, The Eminem Show, “Without Me” was a sequel, of sorts, to “The Real Slim Shady” from 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP. By 2002, when The Eminem Show came out, Eminem was, even more than Grande, extremely well-versed in being caught in the melee of critics’ and politicians’ contempt. Not to mention the fellow celebrities/public figures Eminem was wont to name-check in his songs. In “Without Me,” that includes Dick and Lynne Cheney, Elvis Presley, Chris Kirkpatrick of *NSYNC, Limp Bizkit, Moby and Obie Trice (though Obie is only mentioned in reference to “stomping” on Moby). More than anything, however, Eminem’s intent is to remind all of his detractors how “empty” it would feel without him in the music industry. Hence, the earworm of a chorus, “Now, this looks like a job for me/So everybody, just follow me/‘Cause we need a little controversy/‘Cause it feels so empty without me.” The accompanying video portraying Eminem as a superhero rather than a villain only added to the efficacy of his jibe at critics.
“The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Sinead O’Connor: Although “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” the second single from I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, is about many things, one of its most fundamental verses is peak “clapback at the critics,” of which there were already many—especially in conservative Catholic Ireland—at the time of O’Connor’s second record release. The verse in question goes: “There’s millions of people/Who offer advice and say how I should be/But they’re twisted and they will never be/Any influence on me/But you will always be/You will always be.” In this way, O’Connor insists that the public perception or criticism of her will never matter—only the opinion and viewpoint of the one she truly loves (at that time, producer John Reynolds) will. The video for the song also heightens the notion of O’Connor continuing to perform however she wants to and say whatever she wants to as its entire premise is just her dancing and singing onstage in front of an expectedly judgmental crowd.
“Human Nature” by Madonna: The occasional Sinead adversary, Madonna, brought listeners the inarguable mack daddy of all clapback songs in 1994, with the release of Bedtime Stories (still among one of Madonna’s most underrated records). A direct reference to her treatment and the general slut-shaming that occurred during her Sex book and Erotica era, Madonna wanted to remind critics that she may have forgiven, but she didn’t forget. As the fourth and final single from the album, “Human Nature” differed from the previous singles (including “Secret,” “Take A Bow” and “Bedtime Story”) in that it deliberately sought to remind listeners and critics alike that, despite presenting a “softer side” for this record, the defiant, devil-may-care Madonna was still there. Ready to pounce—and in a black latex bodysuit, too. For just as iconic as the song itself was the Jean-Baptiste Mondino-directed video, awash in S&M aesthetics inspired by Eric Stanton. As Madonna herself said of the track, “The song is about, um, basically saying, ‘Don’t put me in a box, don’t pin me down, don’t tell me what I can and can’t say and it’s about breaking out of restraints.” The restraints that critics have, so often, foolishly tried to place on Madonna.
“Like It Or Not” by Madonna: By 2005, Madonna had more than just the usual critics on her back. After turning forty-seven, Madonna kept pushing the so-called limits of pop stardom by daring to keep not only releasing records and performing live, but still dressing “too scantily” “for her age.” Complete with the leotards and fishnets that characterized her Confessions on a Dance Floor period. Fittingly, “Like It Or Not” served as the finale to the record, with Madonna promising her detractors, “This is who I am/You can like it or not/You can love me or leave me/‘Cause I’m never gonna stop.” Turns out, she might have been directing those comments at Guy Ritchie as well.
“Vulgar” by Sam Smith and Madonna: In case you couldn’t tell by now, Madonna is not just the Queen of Pop but clearly the Queen of the Clapback—as further evidenced by this modern update to the content and attitude of “Human Nature.” Sam Smith and Madonna came together for this song after the latter’s condemnation for her appearance (too obviously riddled with plastic surgery—that was the usual critique) at the 2023 Grammys and after Smith, too, was criticized for his increasingly “fat” and “effete” appearance during the Gloria album rollout and the according visuals that came with it (including the video for “Unholy”—during which Smith is dressed in some very Madonna-as-Dita attire). Teaming up to hit back at those who would try to keep them down (even though Madonna has far more experience with that than Smith), the duo triumphantly announces, “Got nothing left to prove/You know you’re beautiful when they call you/Vulgar/I do what I wanna/I go when I gotta/I’m sexy, I’m free and I feel, uh/Vulgar.”
“Your Early Stuff” by Pet Shop Boys: The Madonna-adjacent (in terms of gay fanbase, musical stylings and coming up in the 80s) Pet Shop Boys also know a thing or two about being critiqued. Especially when it comes to the main criticism being that they’ve been around “too long.” As though an artist should simply pack it in because some arcane alarm clock goes off in their head about being “too old” to continue when, the reality is, true artists keep creating art until the day they die. Featured on 2012’s Elysium (the duo’s eleventh album), Neil Tennant had no trouble writing the song as, per his own words, “Every single line in that song, every single thing has been said to me.” This includes such backhanded “compliments” as, “You’ve been around but you don’t look too rough/And I still quite like some of your early stuff/It’s bad in a good way, if you know what I mean/The sound of those old machines” and “Those old videos look pretty funny/What’s in it for you now, need the money?/They say that management never used to pay/Honestly, you were ripped off back in the day.” Unlike the other songs on this list, “Your Early Stuff” is perhaps most unique for stemming directly from the criticisms of the common people, as opposed to more ivory tower-y, “legitimate” critics.
“URL Badman” by Lily Allen: Another British addition to the list, this still too-untreasured gem from Lily Allen’s equally untreasured Sheezus record, “URL Badman” is Allen at her most delightfully snarky (which is saying something, as she she’s quite gifted with snark). Taking little boys who write for the likes of Complex and Vice (RIP, but that’s karma) to task, Allen speaks from the myopic perspective of the URL Badman in question, declaring, “It’s not for me, it must be wrong/I could ignore it and move on/But I’m a broadband champion/A URL badman,” also adding, “And if you’re tryna call it art/I’ll have to take it all apart/I got a high-brow game plan/A URL badman/I’m a U-R-L-B-A-D-M-A-N with no empathy.” This speaking to the crux of how musicians feel about critics in general.
“Attention” by Doja Cat: Released as the lead single from Scarlet, Doja Cat’s mountains of controversy had piled up significantly by 2023, chief among them being her blithe defense of dating a white supremacist/sexual abuser and her venomous attack against her own fanbase, who she told to “get a job”—the usual dig made by people who think paid time for unsatisfying labor is supposed to make you a more worthwhile person on this planet (hence, “Billie Eilish Is A Jobist”). “Attention” paired well with this rash of events, with Doja Cat creepily talking about some invisible monster (perhaps what Lady Gaga would call “the fame monster” inside of her) that needs the attention, not her. It’s a very, “That wasn’t me, that was Patricia” defense, and maybe “Scarlet” is the easier part of herself to blame for needing her ego to be fed. Nonetheless, she still demands of the critics, “Look at me, look at me, you lookin’?” later mocking them with the verse, “I readed all the comments sayin’, ‘D, I’m really shooketh,’ ‘D, you need to see a therapist, is you lookin’?’/Yes, the one I got, they really are the best/Now I feel like I can see you bitches is depressed/I am not afraid to finally say shit with my chest.” Obviously, that last line sounds familiar thanks to appearing in the chorus of Grande’s “yes, and?” when she urges, “Yes, and?/Say that shit with your chest.” In another moment of skewering the critics, Doja Cat balks, “Talk your shit about me, I can easily disprove it, it’s stupid/You follow me, but you don’t really care about the music.”
“Taco Truck x VB” by Lana Del Rey: Lana Del Rey has often felt similarly. And, like Sinead O’Connor’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” it’s one verse in particular that makes Del Rey’s lengthy “Taco Truck x VB” (the “VB” being an abbreviation for a previously unreleased version of Norman Fucking Rockwell’s “Venice Bitch”) stand out as a clapback track. The one that shrugs, “Spin it till you whip it into white cream, baby/Print it into black and white pages don’t faze me/Before you talk, let me stop what you’re saying/I know, I know, I know that you hate me.” And just like that, Del Rey dismisses all responsibility for dubious behavior….like wearing a Native American headdress, posing a non sequitur “question for the culture,” posting unblurred-out videos of black and brown protesters/looters during the BLM of summer 2020 or insisting she’s not racist because she’s dated plenty of rappers (on a side note: no one knows who she might be talking about apart from white “rapper” G-Eazy).
“Homewrecker” by Marina and the Diamonds: Even if Marina Diamandis a.k.a. Marina and the Diamonds a.k.a. MARINA is singing from the perspective of her alter ego, Electra Heart, 2012’s “Homewrecker” is still plenty viable as a clapback song. And it definitely ties into Ariana Grande’s overarching theme on “yes, and?,” which is a direct addressment of the critics who have called her, that’s right, homewrecker. Opening with the tongue-in-cheek lyrics, “Every boyfriend is the one/Until otherwise proven…/And love it never happens like you think it really should,” MARINA paints the picture of a woman who won’t be torn down by the slut-shaming insults lobbied against her. Besides, as she announces (in the spirit of Holly Golightly), “And I don’t belong to anyone/They call me homewrecker, homewrecker.” She gets even cheekier when she adds, “I broke a million hearts just for fun” and “I guess you could say that my life’s a mess/But I’m still lookin’ pretty in this dress.” This latter line reminding one of Grande’s lyric on “we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” “You got me misunderstood/But at least I look this good.”
“Piece of Me” by Britney Spears: No stranger to being called a homewrecker herself after getting together with Kevin Federline in 2004, when Shar Jackson was pregnant with his second child, Spears was already jaded about critical lambastings by 2007. And “Piece of Me” was the only appropriate response to all the scrutiny (especially after Spears was reamed for her performance of “Gimme More” at the 2007 VMAs). Thus, she unleashed it as the second single from Blackout. Having endured the critical lashings of her every move, 2007 was also the year that Spears famously shaved her head at a Tarzana salon, providing plenty of grist for the tabloid mill. But to her endlessly stalking paparazzi and the various critics, Spears roared back, “You want a piece of me?/I’m Mrs. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous/I’m Mrs. Oh My God That Britney’s Shameless/I’m Mrs. Extra! Extra! This Just In!/You want a piece of me/I’m Mrs. She’s Too Big Now She’s Too Thin.” So apropos to her entire existence in the spotlight, Spears’ Vegas residency would end up being called that as well—a heartbreaking choice considering how many pieces her family took of her to make her endure that ceaseless run of performances.
“Rumors” by Lindsay Lohan: Inarguably Lindsay Lohan’s only solid contribution to the music business, “Rumors” embodies the apex of 00s tabloid culture, awash in all the language of voyeurism (“I can see that you’re watchin’ me/And you’re probably gonna write what you didn’t see”). And Lohan made the mistake of releasing it slightly before she would really be turned into a tabloid/late night talk show joke. This stemming from her overt dependency on drugs and alcohol at a time when a movie titled Herbie: Fully Loaded was going to come out. Cue all the obvious jibes. If only “Rumors” had been released just a year later to secure maximum impact as a defense for her clubbing/party girl behavior. Even so, it remains what RuPaul would call safe as part of the clapback canon.
“Industry Baby” by Lil Nas X featuring Jack Harlow: In 2021, Lil Nas X came under fire by Nike for selling a limited run of Satan Shoes featuring the famous swoosh logo with the help of MSCHF, an art collective based in Brooklyn. Nike sued for trademark infringement, prompting Lil Nas X to create quite the tailored concept for the premise of the “Industry Baby” video (with the title sardonically alluding to the insult “industry plant”). Incidentally, it was directed by Christian Breslauer, who would also go on to direct Grande’s “yes, and?” video. But Lil Nas X wasn’t just rebelling against the lawsuit, but all of his haters in general, rapping, “You was never really rooting for me anyway/When I’m back up at the top, I wanna hear you say/‘He don’t run from nothin’, dog’/Get your soldiers, tell ’em that the break is over.” And while co-production from Ye (a.k.a. Kanye West) has left some taint on the track, it still packs a punch when it comes to walloping the critics.
“Mean” by Taylor Swift: Probably the most flaccid of the clapback tracks on this list, “Mean” was a direct response to music critic Bob Lefsetz, who reviewed Taylor Swift’s 2010 performance at the Grammys less than favorably. Among some of his more scathing assessments about her off-key performance (made all the more noticeable because she had joined Stevie Nicks onstage) was that she full-stop “can’t sing” and that she had “destroyed her career overnight.” Nostradamus this man is not. But his words clearly stung enough for Swift to include an angry little girl clapback (something that “Look What You Made Me Do” would perfect) on 2010’s Speak Now, released nine months after she performed at the Grammys in January. Which means she found the time to tack “Mean” onto the record for optimal impact. Even so, Lefsetz would rightly note later of the rumors that it was about him and his review, “If this song is really about me, I wish it were better.”
“Not My Responsibility” and “Therefore I Am” by Billie Eilish: The subject of frequent scrutiny, Billie Eilish already has two clapback at the critics songs under her belt and she’s only twenty-two years old. The first “song,” “Not My Responsibility,” wouldn’t really become a song until it appeared on her sophomore album, Happier Than Ever, in 2021. Originally created as a short film interlude for her Where Do We Go? World Tour, the song came at a time when Eilish was being constantly called out for being, let’s say, the epitome of a twenty-first century sexless pop star. A direct attack on body- and slut-shaming, Eilish softly states, “I feel you watching always/And nothing I do goes unseen/So while I feel your stares/Your disapproval/Or your sigh of relief/If I lived by them/I’d never be able to move.” This more modern commentary on what criticism in the age of social media can do extends not just to critics, but the legions of online commentators as well. A legion that Eilish also acknowledges on “Therefore I Am,” which was released later in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, ergo Eilish’s ability to film freely in a vacant Glendale Galleria. A privilege the critics she derides would never have access to. Something that shines through in her laughing taunt, “Stop, what the hell are you talking about?/Ha/Get my pretty name out of your mouth/We are not the same with or without/Don’t talk ’bout me like how you might know how I feel/Top of the world, but your world isn’t real/Your world’s an ideal.” Often, an impossible one for anybody to live up to. But such is the complex and isolating nature of being a critic.
In keeping with the tradition of elevating the Kennedys to the height of glamor in American politics (which should be telling of how “glamorous” American politics is), Olivia Rodrigo’s opening track for Guts, “all-american bitch,” wields a more than somewhat false simile. Specifically, “I got class and integrity/Just like a goddamn Kennedy, I swear.” But, unless this line is meant to be facetious (as many of the others in the song are), Rodrigo seems as misinformed as she was about which short story collection of Joan Didion’s she actually took inspiration from in coming up with the title for this song. For it’s no secret now (as it scarcely was then) that the Kennedy name/presidency was mired in crookedness (though only Marilyn can truly say if that applied to JFK’s dick as well as his code of ethics).
From the rumors of John’s patriarch, Joseph Kennedy Sr., pulling the necessary strings to nudge then-mayor of Chicago Richard Daley to, let’s say, influence certain Cook County ballot boxes to using the Secret Service to ferry his various mistresses in and out of bedrooms, the Kennedy name—particularly in its primary association with “Jack”—hardly equates with class or integrity. And definitely not discretion. Indeed, JFK was about as discreet as Miss Monroe’s Jean Louis gown at his forty-fifth birthday celebration/Democratic Party fundraising gala in 1962. A spectacle that occurred mere months before JFK probably killed her (with some help from RFK, perhaps—and Teddy, per a slightly offensive 1985 SNL sketch in which Madonna plays Marilyn…this being only fair considering she would end up sleeping with John Jr.). A “conspiracy theory” that certainly wouldn’t be classy if it turned out to be true. But even if it’s not (which remains debatable to many), there are still plenty of other ways in which JFK hardly radiated class. The same went for the rest of his “clan” (as the Irish like to call families—particularly families of a storied and extensive lineage). Whether it was RFK’s own affair with Marilyn (and Jackie, for that matter) or Ted Kennedy leaving the scene of the crime he committed by driving himself and RFK campaign staffer Mary Jo Kopechne off the road while drunk.
Yes, the infamous Chappaquiddick “incident” was one of the most peak examples of true “Kennedy class.” Kopechne, incidentally, was moved to enter the political realm in the first place after seeing the JFK inauguration speech during which he pontificated, “…my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” Soon after, Kennedy would bilk the country and its highest office of all the privilege he could get out of it. And what Kopechne ended up doing “for Teddy” rather than her country, unfortunately, was dying. Though, of course, JFK could say the same.
Luckily for Joe Sr., he still had plenty of children to bet on in the race called Building an American Dynasty. And at the top of the list after Joe Jr.’s death was Jack. A man whose penchant for instinctively sweeping any wrongdoing beneath the rug was not much better than what Teddy exhibited with Chappaquiddick (hence, taking hours to report the accident, and Mary Jo’s death along with it). But what was to be expected of the Kennedy sons when it came to shirking transparency at all costs? They learned from the best burier of secrets and shame, after all: Joe Sr. Better known as the brainchild behind pushing for his daughter, Rosemary, to get a lobotomy because she was prone to having seizures and erratic/violent mood swings. Being that this was 1941, slapping her with the then-current panacea of a lobotomy was, sadly, par for the course. She was just twenty-three when the procedure ended up incapacitating her and preventing her from speaking in a way that could be understood as anything other than gibberish. So what else would Joe Sr. do but clean up the “mess” he made by burying Rosemary’s existence (hiding her whereabouts for decades) in a Wisconsin institution for the disabled? Never mind that Joe Sr. was the one who did the disabling by trying to “fix” a person who wasn’t broken. Again, real fuckin’ “classy.”
When it comes to the generation of children Joseph Sr. begat, it was apparent that they (particularly the men) were taking a page out of the lawless, devil-may-care playbook he had nonverbally written for them. Most notably when it came to his propensity for stepping outside of his marriage with a celebrity. Even at a time when the very concept of “celebrity” was still germinal in its movie star iteration. Nonetheless, during the silent movie era, there were few bigger precursors to major stardom than Gloria Swanson. And after being among the few to actually increase his bank balance in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, Joe Sr. found himself orbiting the Hollywood scene, buying up stakes in studios and theaters to build on his “portfolio” of wealth.
It was during this time that he encountered Swanson (in the days before she became Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard)…and proceeded to ruin her life. Not just by ousting her husband at the time, Henri de la Falaise, but also by defrauding her out of millions of dollars after becoming her business manager, in addition to her paramour. It was when Joe decided to gift her with a Cadillac and expense it on her production company’s account that she finally had to call him out. A move that reportedly sent him out the door without ever speaking to her again. With this in mind, John’s behavior toward Marilyn almost looks positively princely (Rodrigo influencer Lana Del Rey also seemed to think the same of his behavior toward Jackie, if the 2012 video for “National Anthem” is anything to go by).
As the third generation of Kennedys (this being counted from the start of Joe Sr.) rose to prominence, it became quickly apparent that boorish behavior was something that ran in the blood. For JFK’s lone son, John Jr., had his own predilection for extramarital affairs. Only rather than being the married one in the scenario, he preferred to be the paramour. Specifically, to Madonna, who was “legally bound” to Sean Penn at the time of their tryst in 1988. Though Madonna might remind that Penn was a bit of a stick in the mud when it came to having any fun or lapping up the spotlight that went with the territory of being a major celebrity. Made more major by being “attached” to one of the biggest stars in the world. And rather than repelling JFK Jr., as it did Sean, the former seemed to be all the more titillated because of her Marilyn Monroe-level fame…not to mention aesthetic. And yes, Madonna was already well-known for paying homage to one of the twentieth century’s greatest icons early on in her career.
Perhaps most famously when she re-created the famed “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” sequence from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for her “Material Girl” video in 1985. Funnily enough, it was Sean who met and fell in love with Madonna on that set—not John Jr. But that didn’t mean Marilyn’s specter wouldn’t still haunt their eventual relationship. After all, Jackie insisted John call off his romance not because Madonna was a married woman, but because she was way too much of a Marilyn fangirl. With “class” like this, Jackie really had become a full-blown Kennedy.
Even those roundaboutly connected to the Kennedys couldn’t seem to avoid the taint of uncouthness and/or sexual impropriety. One such prime example being Andrew Cuomo. Married to Kerry Kennedy for fifteen years (from 1990 to 2005), his descent into shame may have taken decades to occur, but when it happened, oh how it happened big. In a scandal that broke at the end of 2020 (just when Cuomo was riding high on praise [most of it self-given] for his handling of the pandemic). In the end, Attorney General Letitia James released the findings of an independent investigative report that stated Cuomo sexually harassed eleven women during his tenure as New York governor (and who knows how many others before that?). Needless to say, some standard-issue male Kennedy bullshit rubbed off on him. That, and probably working within the Clinton administration. Bill himself being a “renowned” acolyte of JFK—managing to get his picture taken with the OG presidential philanderer in 1963.
While marriage to a Kennedy might turn you corrupt (or at least cause you to compromise some of your erstwhile ironclad “principles) if you weren’t already, being a Kennedy male appeared to all but assure that you could be born into a “high class” and still have no class at all. Most markedly when it came to the treatment of women. Another case in point: William Kennedy Smith, the son of Jean Kennedy/nephew of JFK. Smith was acquitted of a rape charge in 1991 despite potential reams of evidence against him. Evidence that also would have included the testimonies of three women stating on record that Smith had sexually assaulted them in the past. Their testimonies were deemed by Judge Mary Lupo to be inadmissible. After all, American “justice” stipulates that you should only be on trial for the crime you’ve committed, not the many others you’ve committed in the past and gotten away with.
Then there was Michael LeMoyne Kennedy, son to Bobby. He, too, was another predatory Kennedy. A fact that came to light in 1997, two years before John Jr. died in a plane crash. But Michael had his own crash to deal with after being accused of having an affair with his children’s babysitter. Which wouldn’t be quite so bad if the affair hadn’t started when she was the Lolita age of fourteen. In typical “Kennedy clout” fashion, Michael evaded being charged with statutory rape in part because the three polygraph tests he took were conducted by companies that the Kennedys directly employed. Perhaps the only form of “justice,” then, could come in the skiing accident that resulted in his death at the end of 1997.
And so, when Olivia Rodrigo perpetuates this bizarre and totally inaccurate trope about the Kennedys having class and integrity, well, it doesn’t bode well for Gen Z unlearning the undeserved association the Kennedys seem to have with “sophistication” and “glamor” in American politics. Something Gloria Swanson, who suffered the fallout of being collateral damage when it came to Kennedy ambition and entitlement, was unafraid to speak on. But that was after decades of silence and being almost on the verge of death. For she would only confess to her affair with Joe Sr. just three years before she passed away, releasing her autobiography (ghostwritten, of course) in 1980.
“He was not very sophisticated insofar as knowing the right thing to do,” Swanson would “diplomatically” tell Barbara Walters in a 1981 interview promoting the book, called Swanson on Swanson. She then ominously added, “This man accomplished anything he wanted, including putting his son in the White House.” It was an inherited trait, this bulldozing version of “class.” Except that, in America, having class doesn’t really mean you have to be magnanimous. In fact, quite the opposite—it just means you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to secure your fortune.
Look, concerts are great. I would love to see my entire Spotify Wrapped lineup live. And I’ve spent thousands of dollars on Harry Styles alone — judge me if you want, I don’t plan on stopping. But my wallet isn’t as enthusiastic.
That’s where the beloved music festival comes in. It’s the best opportunity to see a bunch of artists in the span of a few days. You either love them or you’re not built for them…and I fall somewhere in between.
A music festival is the equivalent of an appetizer sampler; you get to see some artists you normally wouldn’t spend money on, and you also get some of your classic favorite artists all on the same lineup. For example, I went to Firefly Music Festival to see Billie Eilish…and left loving The Killers.
Now that the weather is getting warmer and we are increasingly more open to the idea of leaving our homes, festival season is quickly approaching. Coachella, one of the world’s most famous (and potentially overrated) festivals, occurs every year in April and kicks off a slew of fun music festivals to attend.
The only issue is: how do you choose the best music festival for you? With over 50 festivals listed already this Spring and Summer 2024, it can be hard to choose. I like to check out the lineups and see which festivals have the most new artists for me to discover. Then, I take a look at where they’re happening and make my decision from there.
I’ve rounded up a few festivals happening in the US in 2024 that are both newsworthy and will get you to see the most relevant artists in the industry. Enjoy the food, the shopping, the arts, and the acts!
Who? Dominic Fike, Duke Dumont, Hippo Campus, Gorgon City, SG Lewis, Dayglow, DRAMA, and more.
What? A music festival thrown by non-profit, The M3F Fund, where 100% of proceeds go to charities like Habitat for Humanity, Phoenix Rescue Mission, Arizona Helping Hands, and more. It’s a great way to give back while having fun with your friends and family, and their lineup is always good.
Who? Lana Del Rey, Tyler, The Creator, Doja Cat, Lil Uzi Vert, John Summit, Dom Dolla, Jon Batiste, Bleachers, No Doubt, J Balvin, and more.
What? The festival where spotting an influencer or two will be the highlight of your trip. You probably won’t make out with Timothee Chalamet, but you definitely will eat some overpriced food. However, you have to go to Coachella once in your life. This year marks the reunion of No Doubt — and perfect timing, since TikTok has revived their music for Gen Z.
Who? Noah Kahan, Weezer, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, Young the Giant, Girl in Red, and more.
What? A great mix of indie and rock acts spread throughout the weekend. I would travel far and wide to see Noah Kahan ahead of his summer arena tour, and this is a great excuse to do so.
Who? Zach Bryan, Lana Del Rey, Odesza, The Chainsmokers, Cage The Elephant, Renee Rapp, Dominic Fike, Dom Dolla, and more.
What? One of the most diverse music festivals in terms of genre…Hangout Music Festival has everything- from popular EDM acts to country to pop. It’s also one of the few tour dates Lana Del Rey has right now, so go see her while you can.
Who? Post Malone, The Killers, 21 Savage, Sabrina Carpenter, SZA, Peso Pluma, Sexxy Red, Renee Rapp, Labrinth, Goth Babe, and more.
What? Located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Gov Ball is an iconic festival to start the summer. This year’s lineup is worth your time with festival favorites like The Killers and Post Malone, and exciting additions like Goth Babe and Sabrina Carpenter.
Who? FISHER, Post Malone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fred Again…, Maggie Rogers, Cage The Elephant, Cigarettes After Sex, Diplo, Two Friends, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lizzy McAlpine, and more.
What? Bonnaroo hosts some of the hottest musical acts in the industry year after year. This year’s lineup includes Megan Thee Stallion, Renee Rapp, T-Pain, Sean Paul, and more. I couldn’t think of anything better.
If you are tired of scrolling through Instagram story after Instagram story of happy couples and pictures of candlelit dinners and roses…same. Valentine’s Day, the day celebrating couples and relationships, can just feel like another reason to rub it in your face that you’re single. And while you may be hate-scrolling through socials today, I beg you to log out of Instagram and into Spotify.
My favorite breakup playlists are ones you can cry and scream to, but you leave feeling better after the songs are done. That’s why I’ve curated a complete playlist filled with songs that I tirelessly listen to (even when I’m not feeling heartbroken). Breakup anthems can be therapeutic confidence boosters, great to uplift you at any moment.
So, if you don’t have date plans tonight or just want to hear some great breakup bangers…let’s get listening!
“You’re So Vain” – Carly Simon
Carly Simon was the blueprint for Taylor Swift in terms of writing insanely witty breakup songs. Hailed as one of the most iconic songs for singles of all time, you’ve heard Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey duet this in How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It’s a song about many men in Simon’s life who have hurt her, but she taunts them with “you’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you,”
So turn the volume up and scream along with Carly about the narcissists in your life. It’s a timeless classic to start the best breakup playlist of all time.
“Karma” – Mod SunÂ
“I hope you choke on every lie you said to me/ I hope you move out of this city suddenly,” starts Mod Sun’s iconic breakup anthem. Written about none other than influencer Tana Mongeau, this upbeat, angry rock song summarizes that anger you feel towards an ex who did you dirty.
Unfortunately, I’ve spent too many hours screaming this song at the top of my lungs in my car. It’ll get you up and moving, and I guarantee it’s a future staple on your playlist.
“Happier Than Ever” – Billie EilishÂ
Can’t have a breakup playlist with Billie’s ultimate breakup song. Billie and her brother Finneas are masters at creating and producing music (from their own homes), going even so far to have Billie screaming as the background vocals of the song. With lyrics like “I don’t talk shit about you on the internet” and “You ruined everything good/ Always said you were misunderstood”, you can’t deny it’s the perfect song to let your emotions out.
Almost two songs at once, “Happier Than Ever” starts slow and vintage. Billie’s voice flirts softly around the story of her breakup before delving into sheer anger. It’s perfect every time.
“Be Careful” – Cardi B
Despite her rocky relationship with Offset (I think they’re together right now, but who knows?), Cardi B actually makes a scathing rap dissing him after he cheated. It’s just burn after burn, bar after bar. So, if you want to hear Cardi really go off, listen to “Be Careful.”
“FU (feat. French Montana)” – Miley Cyrus
There are few artists who were as honest in their delivery and songwriting as Miley Cyrus during her Bangerz era. Which brings me to the next song on this playlist, “FU.” Yes, Miley Cyrus is angry, she’s actually fuming, basically telling everyone to F off.
If you want to just be mad at your ex, and don’t want to think about love or Valentine’s Day in any capacity- here’s your song. It’s a therapeutic scream session you didn’t know you needed.
“Josslyn” – Olivia O’BrienÂ
A song about being completely finished with a person you were dating because they’ve betrayed you, “Josslyn” has been one of my favorites forever. It’s brutally honest, it’s about none other than Logan Paul, and it’s repeat-worthy.
Olivia O’Brien is one of the most relatable songwriters, and her hit song “Josslyn” is a certified breakup banger. Detailing a situationship where the other person sleeps with another girl, O’Brien goes off. It’s the perfect song to dance to with your friends during Galentine’s.
“Hurts Like Hell (feat. Offset)” – Madison BeerÂ
An unlikely collaboration in Madison Beer and Offset actually works really well. “Hurts Like Hell” is my favorite song to play when getting ready for a night out. It’s punchy, with Madison taking us through a breakup where she wishes nothing but the worst for them.
A good song to feel empowered by being single, Madison Beer wants you to think of her and it hurt like hell. It’s a song laying out what you’d say to your ex if you had the chance…one that makes you realize all your self worth and that, maybe, it is their loss.
“Norman f****** Rockwell” – Lana Del Rey
Few songs can evoke such melancholy sorrow and emotion like this one. Lana Del Rey knows how to capture an emotion with her music, which is why “NFR” is such a masterpiece. One of the best breakup songs because it encapsulates her sadness and contempt with lyrics like “why wait for the best when I could have you?”
Recently viral on TikTok before UMG took their artist’s music down, “Norman f****** Rockwell” is one of Lana Del Rey’s best. Lamenting how all men do is let her down, Lana croons about a “god damn man child” and how, at the end of the day, this behavior is just how men are. I listen to this song once a day for clear skin.
At the end of a Verizon commercial during the Super Bowl on February 11th, Beyoncé announced that the world was ready for her new music to drop (thanks, of course, to the strong internet network that only Verizon can provide). And while some might have hoped that Renaissance Act II might be a continuation of the house flavor she repurposed from artists like Robin S. and, yes, even Madonna, onRenaissance, it is instead slated to be a country album. This declared on the heels of Lana Del Rey making a similar announcement about “going country” for her next record, titled, what else, Lasso. Because, yeah, what the U.S. needs now is more people confirming it’s a place for shitkickers.
Many might have speculated Beyoncé was going to keep running with this cowgirl shtick for Act II, but perhaps thought said shtick might also maintain the house stylings present on Act I. Those with a more perspicacious eye, however, could have detected a genre shift based on Yoncé’s “color shift” in recent months. And what with frequently citing Michael Jackson as an influence, it can come as no surprise that Bey has also taken apparent inspiration from his propensity for skin lightening. As a woman who, like Jackson, has forged her empire on Blackness and what it means to be Black, the increased and not so gradual bleaching of her skin feels particularly traitorous. After all, this is the same woman who has a song called “Brown Skinned Girl.”
These days, though, she’s looking light taupe at best and “tan for a white person” at worst. But now, with the confirmation of her transition to country (because everyone must presently copy the “old Taylor” for some reason), her whitening suddenly makes all the sense in the world. After all, country is still the whitest genre you know, no matter how much Beyoncé tries to “funk-ify” it (to use a white person’s euphemism), or how much she might later bill it as “reclaiming the Black origins of the genre” (as was her intention with “taking back” house music for Renaissance). Doing her best to show us that she can with the first two offerings she’s revealed from the record, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.” It is the former that many are attempting to bill as a “Daddy Lessons” redux. But no, it’s so much less listenable than that. And “Daddy Lessons” (a recent appropriate favorite of Britney Spears to dance in her living room to) is, obviously, more tolerable because it serves as an irreverent sonic divergence from the rest of Lemonade, which, to be frank, is the most country-sounding Beyoncé should ever allow herself to get (complete with Jack White helping her out on “Don’t Hurt Yourself”).
As for “16 Carriages,” it is a slowed-down “ballad”—or, more accurately, Beyoncé finding a way to play up her “rough” childhood spent seeking fame and essentially being pimped out (after being “invested in”) by her parents in a manner similar to the abovementioned Spears. With regard to the lyrics, “Sixteen carriages driving away/While I watch them ride with my fears away/To the summer sunset on a holy night/On a long back road, all the tears I fight,” that word, “carriage,” can refer both to the tour buses she rode while still in the germinal days of Destiny’s Child as well as the “country-centric” type of carriage that refers to the frame of a gun supporting its barrel. And yes, needless to say, Beyoncé already packs a pistol, of sorts, for her “Texas Hold ‘Em” visualizer, featuring three minutes and fifty-seven seconds of the whitest version of Yoncé yet forming her thumb, index and middle finger into a gun as sparks shoot out of it. All while wearing tights with black underwear over them and little else up top. A pair of reflective sunglasses with a winding snake over one of the lenses rounds out the look with a “Swiftian flair” (since everyone knows snakes have been “her thing” since Reputation…even if they were Britney Spears’ first by sheer virtue of the “I’m A Slave 4 U” performance at the 2001 VMAs).
The trailer for the album itself is a nod to Texas, displaying an overt homage to Paris, Texas (again, more Lana Del Rey shit on Beyoncé’s part) not only via the desolate desert landscape with its many electrical towers, but also the Harry Dean Stanton-esque man in the red baseball hat (though some conspiracy theorists might interpret its presence as some kind of subliminal “support” for Trump). So again, some super white references. The opening to the trailer itself harkens back to the vibe of Beyoncé driving away in the Pussy Wagon with Lady Gaga in the video for 2010’s “Telephone,” with Beyoncé capitulating to playing sidekick at a time of “Gaga supremacy.” But Bey doesn’t seem intent on staying in the Lone Star State by any means, slamming on the gas pedal as she approaches a billboard of herself waving what appears to be goodbye, rather than hello. The “hoedown” tone of the song commences with the lines, “This ain’t Texas, ain’t no hold ‘em” in a manner that smacks, in its own way, of Elton John declaring, “You know you can’t hold me forever.” Beyoncé certainly seemed to feel that way about her home state, jumping at the chance to ascend the ladder of fame as she drifted further and further from whence she came (no rhyme intended). Physically and emotionally.
And yet, once a person like her reaches such a stature, there’s nothing left to do but “look back.” Reflect on the roots that one abandoned in order to mine “fresh” material. Even though, as usual, Beyoncé is incapable of writing a song entirely on her own. Just as, of late, she seems to be incapable of coming up with an original idea, “persona-wise.” For it’s only too familiar, this “disco-fied cowgirl” thing she has going on. Or, let’s say, “ghetto fabulous” (though it’s probably no longer allowed). This also being the aesthetic Madonna already gave us in 2000 with Music. Indeed, even Madonna has moved beyond the look she herself cultivated by stripping it down to a more conventional cowboy appearance (minus the massive, cartoonish cowboy hats she and Bob the Drag Queen sport) for Act III of The Celebration Tour, which hinges thematically on “Don’t Tell Me,” her most cowboy-oriented visual of Music. And, as a Midwestern gal, returning to this aspect of herself makes sense. Some might say it does for Beyoncé, too. As a “Texan gal.” But we all know she wasn’t exactly vibing (least of all in 80s-era America) with the hoedown life or “hick culture” (an oxymoron, to be sure) until now, when it served her “musical inspiration” purpose.
Funnily enough, in 2016, as Beyoncé was starting to fully embrace her Blackness as a “brand” with the release of “Formation,” there was an SNL sketch that made fun of how white people were finally starting to realize she was Black. Now, it seems the tables have turned again, and Bey has gone back to her pandering-to-whites roots. Not only by releasing a country record, but by literally becoming white. And, to quote another lyric from “Texas Hold ‘Em,” “That shit ain’t pretty.”
Continuing the dreamy motifs presented on Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, Caroline Polachek has given listeners another taste of one of the bonus tracks from her forthcoming deluxe edition of the album. And who better to help her with that task than the equally dreamy stylings of Weyes Blood? Assisting with a reworked version of track ten on the record, “Butterfly Net” (co-produced with Danny L Harle), Weyes Blood layers the sonic offering with her own rich vocals for an effect that’s altogether ethereal.
As part of the Everasking Edition of Desire…, Polachek chooses a fitting song to punctuate the date she’s choosing to re-release the record: Valentine’s Day. Just as she did the same for the original version of the record. On the remixed version of “Butterfly Net” (once again co-produced by Danny L Harle), there are marked distinctions. Not just because of Weyes Blood’s presence, but the entire reworked sound. Alone in Polachek’s hands, the song is actually less bittersweet, and more tinged with a Beth Orton vibe. The music, too, is more stripped down on the original. And while the remix might initially sound almost a capella, it builds toward a burst of decidedly 90s-inspired power ballad glory—but with a more acoustic emphasis.
Toward the end of the three-minute mark, a repeated, siren-like chant speaks to the mermaid-esque cover art of the single. Displaying Weyes Blood and Polachek “caught” in what looks more like a fishing net than a butterfly net, positioned and aesthetically styled in such a way that it’s almost as though you can’t tell where one chanteuse begins and the other ends. This all being punctuated by a black background that lends a somber air to it, a note of finality. What’s more, the two look like something out of Lana Del Rey’s “Music to Watch Boys To” video (complete with their donning of headphones), you know, the underwater scenes that also got repurposed for the “Freak” video.
As a love song that speaks not to “being caught” by someone else, but rather, to trying to “catch [their] light,” it makes an ideal addition to the annals of “love gone wrong” tracks. Even if it is not as straightforward as other songs of that genre (e.g., Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River,” Eamon’s “Fuck It” and Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” among many other “love gone wrong” numbers by her). When Polachek and Weyes Blood sing in harmony, “There you were/With your mirror/Shining the world all over me/There I was/With my butterfly net/Trying to catch your light,” there is the implication that the song refers to two people who can never quite “align.” Whether that means emotionally or physically—or both—the result is the same: an unbearable poignancy. A keen sense of regret over not having been able to make something work.
Then again, some people can satisfy themselves with the idea that “at least” something was able to work out for a while, at a certain time and place in one’s life. Even if not “forever,” as the monogamist propaganda so often leads us to believe. Indeed, there’s a few other songs on Desire, I Want to Turn Into You that acknowledge the disconnect between romantic expectation versus reality. And yet, a song like “Fly to You” featuring Grimes and Dido explores the kind of love that is more resilient, able to bounce back from various fights and mood swings. Less lyrically abstract than “Butterfly Net,” Polachek asks on “Fly to You,” “Will you still love me after the bend?/Remember what’s gone before, not loaded with regret/Ooh, I fly to you/After all the tears, you’re all I need.” It’s a sharp contrast to the conceptual sentiments of “Butterfly Net,” especially with Polachek and Weyes Blood singing the lyrics, “Faithful inertia/Her bullet doesn’t slow/It seeks and finds me/How far it goes/Heaven help me/Take this bag of wings/And drown it in the Thames/And wake tomorrow/Hollow/Hardly forgetting.”
These symbolic lyrics are also in contrast to another more exuberant song that leads up to the original “Butterfly Net,” “Blood and Butter.” And yet, Polachek still knows how to allude to the intermixed pain and pleasure of love as she croons, “Let me dive through your face to the sweetest kind of pain/Call you up/Nothing to say/No, I don’t need no entertaining/When the world/Is a bed” and “Look how I forget who I was/Before I was the way I am with you.” This latter statement can double as being either “good” or “bad.” Falling into the latter category when one loses their entire sense of identity in a relationship.
That Polachek chose “Butterfly Net” as the song from Desire… to rework (and not just because she had already performed it live a few times with Weyes Blood) seems telling of her, er, desire to return to a song that is more ambiguous about love everlasting (not everasking). On the one hand, it seems she’s saying that she has found the person who will “last,” manifest in the verse, “I collected stupid ashes/So that after you’d gone/I could hold onto somеthing/But you stayed unwavering/Through evеry false goodbye/Unsubsiding/Pining/For now and for never” (the “for never” being indicative of her unfaltering realism). On the other, some irrepressible part of her knows she should still continue to remain on her guard about falling fully prey to such notions, with Weyes Blood joining her for the bridge that goes, “Oh, if only/The umbrella of the sky/Could wrap us up and up/That’s where I’d zoom in close/Dilated as your eyes/Until then, I’ll keep it brief.” Then there is that oft-repeated line about trying to catch someone’s light, as though, instead, all they’re ever met with is a series of near misses while trapped in darkness (which is what the single’s cover art alludes to).
In effect, the re-release of “Butterfly Net” not only highlights the larger themes of Desire…, but also makes one realize that Polachek could easily add another bonus track to the Everasking Edition that provides a riff on The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” that goes, “‘Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony that’s love/Try to make someone want you forever/You’re a slave to the feeling then you get shoved.”
Taylor Swift did a couple things in the span of one award acceptance on Grammy night that elicited polarized reactions. And, considering that Swift, in her role as America’s sweetheart, rarely does anything to polarize people, it was a big deal. Some may automatically assume that what one is referring to is her blatant disregard for Celine Dion’s presence on the stage as she stood there awkwardly waiting to be acknowledged in some way, any way by the Album of the Year winner when she walked up to collect her bounty (which was in stark contrast to how Miley Cyrus gushed over Mariah Carey during her entire acceptance speech for Best Pop Solo Performance). Instead, Swift acted like a frat boy only paying attention to his “homies” as she hugged those she deemed partly responsible for her album’s success.
Obviously, Dion wasn’t someone she put in that category. But Lana Del Rey, clearly, was. Which is why Swift performed another polarizing act in one fell swoop by forcefully taking Del Rey onstage with her. Not just because she contributed vocals to “Snow on the Beach” that were initially undetectable until Swift released yet another version of Midnights (ergo, another money grab), but because, per Swift’s assessment, “I think so many female artists would not be where they are and would not have the inspiration they have if it weren’t for the work that she’s done.”
She’s not saying that she’s one of those artists, of course. For, after all, Swift was “on the scene,” fame-wise, years before Del Rey, with no one to look to for inspiration except Shania Twain and Faith Hill (and it shows). But at least she can acknowledge that musicians such as Billie Eilish weren’t exactly trying to emulate her. Or Dion, for that matter. Certainly not Swift, who kept looking behind her while onstage at anyone else she could thank except for Dion, grasping at, “I wanna say thank you to Serban Ghenea, Sam Dew, Soundwave…Lana Del Rey, who is hiding.” Ah yes, as most introverted people who didn’t want to be dragged onto a stage in a very public venue against their will tend to do. Something she made crystal clear with her resisting body language. But Swift seemed to realize at the last second that it might behoove her to take LDR up onstage to prove her female solidarity shtick was genuine, knowing full well that many fans of Del Rey’s were praying (and perhaps foolishly assuming) she would win for Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, since she couldn’t even manage to snag any of the other awards she was nominated for, namely Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (for her collaboration with Jon Batiste on “Candy Necklace”), Song of the Year (for “A&W”), Best Alternative Music Album and Best Alternative Music Performance. Thus, briefly remembering the way in which Lana fans treat her like Jesus far more than Taylor’s do, she did a “cover your ass” move by bringing Del Rey onstage. To think otherwise, is more than slightly naive.
Before having this “calculated” revelation, Swift momentarily forgot she was at the same table as Del Rey so she could embrace Jack Antonoff, the man who seems to be perennially serving as the middle of a female musician sandwich. But especially this female musician sandwich. The camera itself juggled (or “toggled between,” if you prefer) getting reaction shots of both Del Rey and Antonoff when the award was announced. And watching Del Rey herself juggle the emotions of being upset over losing (for there’s no denying that she genuinely believed this would be the album that would finally get recognized) and trying to bounce back quickly so she can be happy for her friend, it’s apparent that the last thing she wants to do is have to grapple with those conflicting emotions in front of not just an entire room of people, but an entire nation of them watching at home.
As Antonoff presumes to take the credit for it all by leading the way to the stage, Del Rey tries to laugh off Swift’s attempt at pulling her up there, trying to resist at the same time so that Swift gets the message: no, this isn’t really what I want to do. Swift, being the alpha that she is, doesn’t take no for an answer and continues to drag her until Del Rey stops fighting it so that the optics on the whole awkward situation don’t look so bad. And, well, very uncomfortable. Because it is uncomfortable to have to watch someone doing something they obviously don’t want to. And when introverts are feeling low, they certainly don’t want to have to have those emotions broadcast, literally, to millions of people. Yet, the dichotomy is that, without Swift doing what she did, Del Rey would have stayed under the radar to a whole slew of people in the “flyover states.” The states, in fact, that she likes visiting the most.
With this conundrum in mind, there’s a joke about introverts that gets bandied around sometimes, something to the effect of: “Any introvert you ever met was because they were friends with an extrovert.” Del Rey suffered that phenomenon and then some at the 2024 Grammys, enduring the introvert’s dilemma of hating attention but also wanting to be given credit when it’s due.
Pulled onto the stage by a woman with nothing but “good intentions,” it was as though Del Rey became the victim of her own spouted lines from 2020, in the wake of her “question for the culture”: “I’m sorry that a couple of the girls I talked to, who were mentioned in that post, have a super different opinion of my insight, especially because we’ve been so close for so long. But it really, again, makes you reach into the depth of your own heart and say, ‘Am I good-intentioned?’ And of course, for me, the answer is always yes.” Naturally, that’s going to be the answer from anyone’s subjective viewpoint, no matter what they’re doing. Even Putin and Netanyahu think what they’re doing is “good-intentioned” when they reach into the depth of their own “hearts” and ask if they are.
At another point, Swift gushed of Del Rey, “I think that she’s a legacy artist, a legend in her prime right now. I’m so lucky to know you and to be your friend.” This adding to a vibe that only served to make Del Rey look pitiable and pathetic rather than praiseworthy. As though Swift was putting more of a highlight on what a “loser” Del Rey was for not getting the award rather than how “cool” she is. With Swift being of the Never Been Kissed philosophy, “All you need is for one person to think you’re cool, and you’re in.” But based on some of the winners that night (and throughout the ceremony’s past), does Del Rey really want to be deemed “cool” by the Recording Academy?
The 66th annual Grammy Awards were last night at the Crypto.com Arena in the not-so-sunny Los Angeles, California. As storms raged outside the arena, I tuned in for close to five hours of red carpet coverage and the sparkling ceremony to watch music’s biggest night and make my own judgments.
At some points agonizing, the Grammys truly take their time. Packing performance after performance, people going well over their speech time, and leaving the main awards for the very end can feel never-ending. However, this year’s Grammy Awards had everything: Taylor Swift announcing a brand new album, Tortured Poet’s Department, Miley Cyrus getting her first two Grammy’s and delivering iconic speeches and performances, nods to Barbie, a visit from Celine Dion and a few controversial decisions.
I mean, even Jay-Z took a shot at the Recording Academy for not giving Beyonce any Album of the Year awards despite having the most nominations. Taylor Swift brought Lana Del Rey on stage while accepting Album of the Year for Midnights to recognize how many artists’ sounds Del Rey’s influenced despite never having won a nomination. The Academy gets it wrong, and often.
Who Won At The 2024 Grammys?
Here are some winners from a few of the main categories, including the top four awards…And may I add that some of my predictions were spot on?
Record of the Year: “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus
Album of the Year: Midnights by Taylor Swift
Song of the Year: “What Was I Made For” by Billie Eilish and FINNEAS
Best New Artist: Victoria Monet
Producer of the Year: Jack Antonoff
Best Pop Solo Performance: “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus
Best Pop Duo Performance: “Ghost in the Machine” by SZA and Phoebe Bridgers
Best Pop Vocal Album: Midnights by Taylor Swift
Best Pop Dance Recording: “Padam Padam” by Kylie Minogue
Best Rock Performance: “Not Strong Enough” by boygenius
Best Country Album: Bell Bottom Country by Lainey Wilson
Best R&B Song: “Snooze” by SZA
Who Should’ve Won At The 2024 Grammys?
The Grammy Awards are decided by the Academy- a group of voters within the music industry who I sometimes think forget to listen to the music of the nominees. It’s why Jay-Z spoke up while receiving the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, it is quite shocking that Beyonce has never won Album of the Year.
While everyone at the Grammy’s deserves their awards, multiple artists got onstage to say this is not what they make music for. Artists like Miley Cyrus said she felt this happy yesterday because she’s doing it for herself. Taylor Swift thanks her fans, and says she’s happiest when making songs and doing what she loves…but sometimes, the awards gods are fickle.
Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” went home empty-handed, which was another surprise. While GUTS may not be my favorite work of Rodrigo’s, “Vampire” was a chart-topping, viral song that I truly thought would win something. SZA’s SOS album was on top of the Billboard Hot 100 every week but failed to receive a mention in the top categories like Album of the Year.
Lana Del Rey, who’s been nominated upwards of 10 times and wrote one of the best albums in the culmination of her already iconic discography with Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard? Received zero awards throughout the night. In a controversial move, Taylor Swift brought her up on stage so the world can recognize all Lana’s done.
In the Best New Artist category, Ice Spice and Noah Kahan were betting favorites to win…but ultimately, it went to Victoria Monét.
It’s been years since Cyrus has graced any sort of stage, and she didn’t disappoint. Every bit as honest, exciting, and a true rockstar as she’s ever been, Miley Cyrus is one-of-a-kind. From chiding the audience for not singing along to celebrating her first Grammy win during her performance of “Flowers”, you could tell that Miley just wanted to have fun.
She even shared she was doing this performance so she could watch clips of it later…and also admitted to foregoing underwear. It was fun, carefree, and exactly how these award shows should be.
Joni Mitchell
You may wonder how someone with as illustrious a career as Joni Mitchell has never performed at the Grammy’s. Singing a song she wrote at 21 years old, over half a century later, “Both Sides Now” was both moving and refreshing. She’s won nine Grammy’s herself, nominated 18 times, and has inspired the sounds of our favorite artists.
She took folk music and made it her own, and after having to re-learn how to talk (and sing) from a brain aneurysm, no one is more well-respected in the industry than Mitchell.
Luke Combs + Tracy Chapman
Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” dominated the charts this year. One of the most highly covered songs in the world, and Luke Combs put his country spin on it to create a beautiful, acoustic version. It feels almost entirely his own, but his performance with OG Tracy Chapman shows that music is, indeed, art.
The song itself is a timeless classic, with Luke Combs being one of the most talented country vocalists in the game right now and Tracy Chapman reminding us the deep roots of the song.
Other Notable Grammy Moments
It was a crazy night, in all honesty...with too many moments to mention, but there are a few major points to be made:
Killer Mike won three Grammy awards including Best Rap Album, but was immediately arrested at the ceremony
Upon announcing The Tortured Poet's Department, Swifties quickly uncovered a report that ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, Paul Mescal, and Andrew Scott's group chat was once called "Tortured Men's Club" - so count your days, Alwyn.
"Water" singer Tyla won the first-ever Award for African Music Performance
Taylor Swift did not let the lip-readers have it at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
Remember the 2024 Golden Globes and the time of their life those so-called professional lip readers had on social media? They dragged Selena Gomez, Timothée Chalamet, Kylie Jenner, and Taylor Swift into a made-up controversy where Selena asked Timothée for a picture but was apparently shooed away by his girlfriend and date for the night, Kylie Jenner. Selena, per the lip readers, later dished it out to Taylor Swift by walking up to her table which also seated Keleigh Sperry during a commercial break at the Globes.
The assumptions of what the besties were talking about got so out of control that the Love You Like a Love Song singer had to take matters into her own hands and present a clarification. “Nooooo, I told Taylor about two of my friends who hooked up. Not that that’s anyone’s business,” she revealed.
Taylor, one of the many parties of the controversy, seemed to have learned her lesson. The Love Story singer was seen using a fan to keep the lip readers at bay at the 66th Grammy Awards that took place on Sunday, February 4.
Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey recreate viral Golden Globes moment at the Grammy Awards
Swift who bagged two gold gramophones at the 66th Grammy Awards graced the event in a white Schiaparelli gown with a thigh-high slit. She paired it with black opera gloves and several glittering accessories. One accessory that served a much more important function than elevating Taylor’s OOTD was her fan. The songstress, 34, was seen using it every time she spoke to anyone at the award ceremony. This includes Lana Del Rey and her best friend and producer, Jack Antonoff. With the former though, Taylor was also seen recreating the viral and aforestated lip-reading moment from the Golden Globes.
Taylor made History and announced a New Album at the 2024 Grammys
In true Taylor fashion, the Midnights singer chose the biggest stage of music to announce her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, which comes out on April 19, 2024. She announced her new album during her acceptance speech for the Best Pop Vocal Album. Later in the night, Taylor scripted history by winning the Album of the Year award for her latest album Midnights. With this win, Taylor now holds four Album of the Year Grammy Awards, surpassing any artist in Grammy history.
Dua Lipa attends the 66th Grammy Awards. Getty Images for The Recording A
Awards season is upon us, and after a month of celebrating the best in film and television, it’s time to honor those in the recording industry. Tonight (Feb. 4), the 66th annual Grammy Awards will recognize the top artists, songs, albums and recordings of the past year, with Trevor Noah hosting the ceremony at Cypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
The best and brightest in the industry always come out to celebrate the biggest night in music; tonight, performers include Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Joni Mitchell, Travis Scott, Luke Combs and Billy Joel, as well as SZA, who garnered the most nominations (a staggering nine) of any of the nominees this year. Other nominees
The 2024 Grammy Awards, which air at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, will also feature three new categories: Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Pop Dance Recording.
Before the Let’s not forget about the pre-show extravaganza, though, because A-listers always bring their sartorial best when it comes to dressing for the Grammys red carpet. Below, see all the best red carpet moments from the 2024 Grammy Awards.
Part of the music industry in today’s world involves promoting via social media – especially on platforms with mega-influence like TikTok. Artists will tease songs, new artists will be discovered on the platform, and if a sound goes viral tracks can resurge and soar into popularity. You saw it with songs like “Kill Bill” by SZA and “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus.
Well, bad news. As of February 1, Universal Music Group (UMG) has taken their artists’ music off TikTok after accusing the social media platform of offering unfair reimbursement to artists and allowing AI to generate recordings using an artist’s voice. In an open letter on its website, UMG states,
“TikTok’s tactics are obvious: use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans,”
And the drama doesn’t stop there. In a brief response, TikTok snaps back with,
“TikTok has been able to reach ‘artist-first’ agreements with every other label and publisher. Clearly, Universal’s self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters, and fans.”
Who Does UMG Represent?
Screenshot from TikTok Jai Phillips
Among UMG’s lengthy list of artists are: Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, Blackpink, The 1975, Beyonce, Rihanna, Lana Del Rey, and Lewis Capaldi. In the heated letter released by the music label, they mention how TikTok began to take the music down of their smaller artists, but kept their bigger names that generate revenue for the app in an effort to control them. As UMG’s response, they took every single artist away.
That means videos using popular songs like Harry Styles’ “As It Was” or Lana Del Rey’s “Say Yes To Heaven” are now met with “This Sound Is Not Available.” The only sounds under names like Olivia Rodrigo and Noah Kahan are fan-made edits and manipulations of songs.
This means both TikTok and the music industry will change a bit. A lot of artists will have less of an interest in building platforms on TikTok, because it’s not like they can play their music there. TikTok itself will have to focus on edits behind a lot of their “Get Ready With Me” videos and “Target Haul” clips.
It’s a standoff between the largest record label in music industry history and the biggest social media platform in the world.
Last week, shapewear and clothing brand Skims announced a Valentine’s Day–themed lingerie collaboration with singer Lana Del Rey, and we can’t stop gushing over the stunning promos populating our social media feeds. Del Rey’s vintage vixen makeup look, created by Los Angeles–based celebrity makeup artist Etienne Ortega, is the stuff of dreams. The look combines smoky taupe eye shadow, an ultra-dewy complexion, pouty mauve lips, and a splash of peach on the cheeks.
Combined with the Old Hollywood–inspired set design, cherub-like poses, and heartbreakingly beautiful lingerie (available in the Skims Valentine’s Shop on Tuesday, January 23, at 12 p.m. ET), this makeup look is giving us major Valentine’s Day inspiration. Keep scrolling to see our breakdown, including every beauty-editor-approved product we’ll be using to re-create it.
Continuing to act as Jack Antonoff’s muse in multiple ways, Margaret Qualley makes a far more pronounced appearance in the latest Bleachers video than she did in their last one (some wannabe Lynchian fare for “Alma Mater” featuring Lana Del Rey). Indeed, she’s the star of the show. One that is rather limited in production value (on the surface), but nonetheless channels the vibe of Taylor Swift in her far more “blockbuster-y” 2018 video for “Delicate,” directed by Joseph Kahn. This, of course, is a rather meta statement considering Swift borrowed all her swagger for “Delicate” from Spike Jonze’s 2016 ad for Kenzo World starring none other than Qualley.
In said ad, not only is Qualley wearing a similar style of frock to Swift’s in “Delicate” (the latter wearing a blue instead of a green tone), but, most important of all, she’s dancing “like no one is watching.” That is to say, like a monkey let loose from the zoo. This is precisely how Swift feels in “Delicate” upon realizing that she’s invisible. A dream come true for someone so incessantly scrutinized. With this newfound freedom from being studied, let alone perceived at all, Swift delves into some very Qualley-esque choreo that eventually leads her out into the pouring rain (pouring rain being Swift’s bread and butter when it comes to accenting dramatic effect).
Funnily enough, this is one of the few songs in recent years that Swift didn’t tap Jack Antonoff to produce. Instead, Shellback and Max Martin (the latter being all over the Reputation album) did. But even if Antonoff had produced the track, he wouldn’t have said anything to Swift about how “familiar” her video looked. Because, at that time, he still wasn’t dating Qualley. Instead, he was in his breakup year with Lena Dunham (who Qualley probably doesn’t want to think about having shared a penis with). Right after their breakup in early 2018, Antonoff went right for a visual opposite of Dunham in Carlotta Kohl.
Similarly to Antonoff’s rebounding propensities, right after her breakup with Shia LaBeouf in 2021, she began dating Antonoff. A man who, instead of being an outright fuckboy (Qualley had already made that mistake with Pete Davidson in 2019, too), just looks like one. Though her romance with LaBeouf only lasted a year, it was still enough time for them to star in a music video for “Love Me Like You Hate Me” by Rainsford (a.k.a. Margaret’s sister, Rainey Qualley). Although this gave her another slight opportunity to showcase her dancing and movement abilities (having been trained heavily in dance and ballet during her teen years before quitting to study acting), it is with Bleachers’ “Tiny Moves” video that she gets to truly display her chops in a manner not seen since the Kenzo World ad that Swift so blatantly borrowed from.
Qualley’s involvement in the conception of the video appears to be so extensive that she even has a co-directing credit with Bleachers go-to Alex Lockett. And, perhaps to honor Antonoff’s hipster roots, the video’s backdrop is the New York skyline (filmed from a vantage point that one presumes is in Williamsburg).
Considering the chorus of the song goes, “The tiniest moves you make/Watchin’ the whole world shake/Watchin’ my whole world change/Tiniest twist of faith/Watchin’ the whole world shake/Watchin’ my whole world change,” having Qualley not only present in it as the focal point, but also showing off her dance moves feels like a no-brainer. For, when speaking of this song in particular, Antonoff noted, “I met my now-wife, and it feels like a lot of the mythology and armor that I wore [fell off]. And when you have a big shift like that, which was really meeting my person, it’s brilliant and amazing, but it’s also destabilizing ’cause you have to deal with all of the past, where you lived by this code that was bullshit.”
As Qualley dances (once again in a long, flowing frock—this time a white one instead of a green one à la Kenzo World) like she’s being demonically possessed (that’s kind of her thing) against the night sky, the camera eventually turns away from the view of the city to reveal Antonoff himself leaning against the hood of his car while marveling at Qualley from afar. Evidently, she dances long enough for dawn to eventually come (as manifested by the lightening sky color), finally stopping to stare back at Antonoff and approach him. As though she’s made enough “tiny moves” and can finally cease performing them so as to see what kind of ripple effects they’ve invoked.
Getting closer to “her man” so that she can embrace him (complete with cheesy, circling camerawork to accent the intensity of their connection), Qualley can probably safely say that her tiny moves have had a big impact. Which was already apparent when Swift saw fit to cop them for “Delicate.”
