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New Releases

Should BTS's YouTube Record for "Dynamite" Even Count?

BTS ARMY made sure the new single broke records—whether it was the group's best song or not.

BTS arrives at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Jan. 26, 2020. The South Korean boy band BTS HAS won a leading four awards including best song for "Dynamite" and best group at the MTV Europe Music Awards while Lady Gaga took home the best artist prizeMTV EMAs, Los Angeles, United States - 27 Jan 2020

Photo by Jordan Strauss/AP/Shutterstock

In April of last year, sensational K-pop girl band Blackpink broke a major YouTube record with the premiere of their music video for "Kill This Love."

The video garnered nearly 57 million views in its first 24 hours, narrowly edging out the record Ariana Grande had set several months earlier with her cringeworthy ex-smearing anthem "Thank U, Next."

But less than a week later, Blackpink's record was thoroughly smashed by the slightly more sensational K-pop boy band BTS with the video for their single "Boy With Love," featuring Halsey. The record that had taken more than 14 years of YouTube's slow, incremental growth to set, was—in a matter of days—surpassed by a wide margin.

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CULTURE

Does Britney Spears Need a Conservatorship?

#FreeBritney...or not?

Britney Spears

Photo by Pariente Jean-Philippe-Sipa-Shutterstock

Today, it was announced that Britney Spears would remain under the conservatorship of her father, Jamie.

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CULTURE

Where Does Lil Nas X Go From Here?

What kids connect to today is more relevant than easy-to-swallow pop.

Lil Nas X (of "Old Town Road" fame) is refreshingly wholesome and unique, reminding us chart-topping music doesn't need to pander.

Charting for the ninth week in a row, "Old Town Road Remix" ft. Billy Ray Cyrus has been the song of the summer since it hit the charts in January. Instead of releasing new music, Lil Nas X is growing his fan base by releasing new memes and trolling himself and his haters. Better yet, he's giving his followers a glimpse of his life. Having recently moved into his first apartment, 20-year-old Montero Lamar Hill is unveiling enough of himself to seem like he's accessible. Gen Z and Millennials might seem to be glued to their phones, but really they want to be in the know. With his internet and musical success, it's hard to imagine Hill outside of the box he intentionally placed himself into: on our devices, on Twitter.

But the rapper hiding behind his phone has more to say than a joke. Teen Vogue's recent profile of Hill finally offered readers insight to the mind behind the hit song and Twitter account. In the interview, Hill admitted he originally had trouble finding his sound, mainly searching for ways to make his first EP, Nasarati, go viral. Between trap beats, tongue-in-cheek, and trending titles, the intention was clever, but ineffective. The reason? The heart wasn't there, so his voice and personality couldn't shine.

The standout song from Nasarati is "Carry On," which now has over 900k streams on SoundCloud. The lyrics of the overproduced track unveil a perspective most would not expect from the goofy rapper. Bobby Caldwell's '80s track carries us into the song, as Hill raps about his complicated family dynamics: "My grandma died / I shed some tears / my mama lied / she left me here." Being the youngest of six children, finally moving into his own apartment after the success of "Old Town Road" was a big step for Hill. He lived with his father most of his life, then his grandmother. After she passed, he moved in with his sister, who had several of his other siblings living with her as well.

Shifting from a "Carry On" mentality, Hill took a big leap from self-reflection to autonomy. His "can't nobody tell me nothing" persona speaks of a kid who's ready for big things. While the over-saturated music market is filled with try-hards, Hill recognizes that the difference between his failures and success come from his intention to gain attention. Yet, his sudden success seems too easy to some, to the point that people question whether he's an industry plant: a theory he then memed.

Lil Nas X and other successful musicians who grew up with and weaponize social media pose a conundrum for industry staples. What kids connect to today is more relevant than easy-to-swallow pop. Mass consumption in the past meant radio-friendly music. But new artists are going against the grain, digging deeper than catchy and stepping up with role model beliefs, without the squeaky clean image. Not only are they stars who wear designers, they use their platforms for important issues, too. But who Gen Zers listen to now is only a snapshot of what's to come.

The music industry has been able to reinvent itself successfully for the Internet age. Artists embrace streaming nowadays, but that doesn't mean labels aren't attempting to milk each song's worth. For example, Nicki's twenty track Queen was tacked onto her blood curdling single, "FEFE" (ft. 6ix9ine), to increase streams and sway album sales. But Lil Nas X has reversed that narrative, messing with fans and his management by joking about only releasing new remixes of "Old Town Road." So he gets on stage and sings the same song over and over again to the crowd's delight, but how long can that last?

Hill is aware that the juice will, in fact, run out, trolling his haters that he's not actually a one trick pony. If his recent music video tells us anything, it's that he has a vision.

The music video is both plot-driven and fun in ways we rarely get nowadays. Perhaps Hill's spotlight can last based on personality alone. Look at Doja Cat and Cardi B. Internet culture may blow up the music, but their talent keeps them around for a reason. While it's hard to predict where Hill's career will go, early fame tends to widen the net of inspiration and success for new artists. The work ethic involved in maintaining an online personality can come with random outbursts and deleted tweets, but Hill runs to the bank with it. Whether or not he'll be a meme-queen forever is up for debate, but his influences go beyond the bubble of country-trap.

When Billboard decided to remove "Old Town Road" from their country charts, a debate was sparked as to how we define genres and whether content (lyrics) alone can encapsulate the genre. Our culture is ever-shifting and ever-blending between different sound, stories, and ideas. Lil Nas X isn't exactly a pioneer, but his story is a conversation starter and reminder that the younger generations want to hear the unexpected. If Hill is as smart as he seems to be, he'll take his moment in the spotlight and turn it into a rich, genre-bending career.

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Taylor Swift dropped her LWYMMD music video and consider me shook

REVIEW | Love her or hate her, you can't deny that Taylor has a gift for theatrics.

"Honey I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time."

In Taylor Swift's new music video for her single "Look What You Made Me Do," her snake is serving the tea, but today I am. I was watching the VMA's Sunday night when I decided to check Twitter to see what people were saying about Lorde's unique performance, when I saw that the internet had exploded because T. Swift had released her LWYMMD music video. *Sigh* "Guess I'll watch it," I thought, mourning the old Taylor days when I was inspired by her, before all of the shady games with Kanye and petty clapbacks. Don't get me wrong the LWYMMD music video is incredibly petty, but you can't deny Taylor Swift for the theatrical genius she is after seeing it.

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After watching it I stared at the screen for a while. "What did I just watch?" I thought. So, I watched it again and here's what I can say. The music video was shot by Joseph Kahn who also co-produced it. The quality is obviously impeccable. Kahn has been behind many other iconic videos like Taylor's very own "Bad Blood" and "Blank Space", Britney Spears' "Toxic", and Katy Perry's "Waking Up in Vegas" and many more. The lyric video's aesthetic was said to be based on the Alfred Hitchcock film, Vertigoalso produced by Kahn. We can see traces of this in the music video as well, but with more nods toward pop culture from the past thirty years and definitely a lot of symbolic Swiftisms. It seems like the video is divided by four acts.

Act 1 | RIP Old Taylor

Zombie Taylor in LWYMMD (Elite Daily)

We all laughed over the weekend about the line, "Old Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh. Cause she's dead," but Taylor was the one laughing when she showed up in the first few seconds of her music video as a literal zombie. She was noticeably wearing the dress she wore in her "Out of the Woods" music video, but looked, well- terrifying. She also lies in a grace wearing a dress she wore to one of her many awards ceremonies.

Taylor Swift in "Out of The Woods" (Celebrity Dresses)

Act 2 | Calling out her haters

We next saw her soaking in a tub of diamonds with one symbolic dollar bill said to represent the $1 she won in the case against the DJ who grabbed her butt.

Swift lies in a tub of jewels. (Vevo)

She then sits on a golden throne flanked by snakes. One even serves her tea. Etched into her throne and the columns is famous Shakespeare line, "et tu brute" from when Julius Caesar's closest friend helps to murder him. Fans speculate that this is in reference to former gal pal Katy Perry. The snakes are in obvious reference to all of the hate mail Taylor got from Kim K fans during the Kimye conflict last year. All the while, Swift is adorned in snake jewelry and traded her wild curls for sleek, straight hair her signature cat eye and red lip exemplified.

Swift is served tea by a serpent. (Vevo)

Swift next crashes a really expensive looking car dressed eerily similar to Katy Perry in "Waking Up in Vegas," holding one of her ten Grammy's. While Perry has been nominated, but not yet taken one home. She has a pet cheetah with her that wears a "13" collar, why? 13 is Taylor's lucky number and she's been known to be a crazy cat lady, but this time, her cat is just as ferocious as she perhaps suggesting that Swift herself is no more a domestic house cat but a wild feline.

Swift posing with one of her Grammy's (Vevo)

She then sat in a golden bird cage perhaps suggesting she's been trapped by the media.

Swift eats lobster in a birdcage (Vevo)

Act 3 | Squad scrutinization

Swift then is seen hopping on a motorcycle with other gorgeous girls and robbing Stream Co. which is clearly a reference to her battle with streaming services in the past years. She's seen assembling an army of lifeless, mannequin looking gorgeous girls at "Squad U" which is probably a reference to Taylor's reputation for always having a squad of model friends. She then dances with a group of men with I heart TS crop tops. Fans have noticed there are eight which is the same number of known significant exes of the singer.

Taylor laying in a pile of her model army. (Vevo)

Swift with her I Heart TS boys. (Vevo)

Act 4 | New Taylor officially dominates Old Taylor

The video ends on an iconic note that people will no doubt be discussing for years. New Taylor dressed in out of character, dark clothing stands on top of a pile of people who as we zoom in, we recognize as all of the iconic past versions of Taylor Swift including her swan outfit in Shake it Off, her You Belong with Me Outfit, her Red Tour circus look, and many more. At the end of the video, New Taylor paints "Reputation" on an aircraft called TS6 (in reference to her next album), and the most prominent old Taylors stand in front of the aircraft and engage in a hilarious dialogue that references a lot of Taylor's most controversial moments in the media from her "annoying surprised face," at awards shows, to her being called fake, and more. Most notably, one Taylor calls another a "bitch" which is what caused the conflict with Kanye last year when he called her that in his song "Famous."

All of the Taylors (Vevo)

Love her or hate her, it's clear that Taylor is a master at what she does and the LWYMMD music video is petty, but a petty work of art. Honestly? I'm into it. While it's important to remember some of her actions in the past look incredibly questionable, celebrities are people and we don't know everything about them as much as we'd like to think that. This video is a clear representation than there is more than meets the eye, so I'm giving Taylor the benefit of the doubt and looking forward to Reputation on sale November 10th.

Watch the full LWYMMD video here.

Team Tay? Follow her on Twitter | Instagram | Facebook.

We want to hear what you think about Reputation! Tell us in a collaborative video.

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Frontpage Popular News

Lorde's performance at the VMAs was dynamite!

Lorde said forget about traditional performances and broke the norm with a serene but moving performance.

But the dynamite was surprisingly silent Sunday night...

I had almost forgotten the VMA's were on but as I stumbled into my local bar to pick up some takeout, Jack Antonoff took the stage to announce Lorde's performance. "I've seen her walk barefoot through New York and eat sushi from a gas station," Jack Antonoff mused about Lorde. He also said that it was an honor to watch her create some of the most important music in the past two years and referred to her as Ella which made us, "aw," at how close the producer and artist appear to be.

Google

Lorde took the stage and spritely placed a cassette tape into a boom box, just as we had seen her do earlier this month in her collaboration with Vevo. We waited patiently for the beat to drop and for Lorde to start singing; however, it never happened. Instead, we were left with a performance unique to anything I've seen before. Lorde wore a metallic tinfoil-esque peplum style dress over khaki pants with some comfy kicks. Her hair was half up, half down and textured. Her laid back hair style doubled as both her performance style and her red carpet look paired with a "moon princess" gown as she described it. She looked stunning in both looks.

ET Online

Lorde's lack of singing did not cause for a lack of performance. She proceeded to do an interpretive dance that while was simple, perfectly accented the best parts of the track and the song. Even better? She looked like she was in bliss the entire time she did it. There has now been a statement released that Lorde was coming down with the flu before the show and decided to opt for a vocal-less performance, but honestly before I even knew that, I just loved the concept of the artist rocking out to her own song. We're so self-critical it was nice to see Lorde get down to her song the exact same way us fans do. I feel like this performance though simple was a really great representation of our generation.

Vox

If you were to look at VMA performances, I think that people will definitely recognize her performance as essential 2017 pop culture. That's one of my favorite things: when music and pop culture merge seamlessly each contributing to the other. The fact that she used a cassette definitely is really pointed at how concerned with throwback us nineties babies are. The carefree tune also aligns with our generations habit to let loose when we can in this stressful environment. Everything down to the comfortable, unique look she wore for the performance screams 2017 and I loved it. Apparently she also became a GIF and what is more 2017 than that?

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Lorde was nominated for two VMA awards this year, one for Best Editing for "Greenlight," the first single from her sophomore album Melodrama.

She was also nominated for Artist of the Year. Unfortunately, she didn't bring home any VMA's this year, but all eyes are definitely on her for the brilliant artist she is blossoming into at just twenty years old.

Love Lorde? Follow her on Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

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