Richard S. He

What are your favorite Ariana Grande songs? 🌟

The best of @ArianaGrande 😍 #womeninmusic

Over the years, Gaga’s shape-shifting has painted a collective portrait of a complex, restless, fearless woman. No artist is completely original, but time has proven Lady Gaga sui generis. A decade after her debut, she’s proved that she’s an all-timer.

The 1989 World Tour felt like Taylor’s victory lap after conquering pop music. Reputation is more vivid, more aggressive, more tender.

Brandon is joined by musician, producer and award winning journalist Richard S. He to talk about a 7,500 word essay he wrote in defense of the most maligned Metallica album to date - St. Anger! Brandon and Richard also talk about pop music and Metallica's place in it. Also stay tuned to the end to find out why Richard thinks Madonna is the Lars Ulrich of pop music and vice versa!

As long as there are teenagers, and as long as millennials have loneliness to confess, the message of “...Baby One More Time” will endure.

Top 3 Demi Lovato songs?

Favorite Demi Lovato song, GO! 💥

From poetry to blockbusters, Kendrick's already changed the perception of hip-hop for a generation of young people. From Compton to Australia: our cultures are different, the politics of it all are complicated, but his message needs no translation.

St. Anger is one of the best, most fully realised metal albums of the 21st century. Musically and culturally, it’s the rawest nerve ever touched by a popular metal band. Forget headbanging, forget whiplash - St. Anger is like scraping bone marrow. It’s even more misunderstood now than it was upon its initial release.

In its original moment, nu-metal may have often seemed wrong, but it was rarely boring. It was the last era when rock was big enough that bands could compete with rappers and popstars -- and if you can strip away the nostalgia and the toxic white male aggression, nu-metal makes up some of the weirdest music to ever hit the pop charts.

When did Christina Aguilera’s voice become bigger than her singles? Has she become so defined by her vocal runs that we’ve forgotten her sheer personality? One of the biggest stars of the 2000s has, perhaps, become underrated. How did Christina Aguilera get here?

Pop music -- like dance, like love, like sex -- is about transcending yourself. It’s about control, being the best possible version of yourself. And then it’s about letting go, feeling everything; opening yourself up to the level of joy you can only experience with another person. Ariana Grande is one of the most impressive singers on the planet, but on “Into You”, she’s found a love so great that even she’s lost for words. All that’s left to do is give in to the music.

Alone on her stage, Halsey is more impressive than most popstars are with legions of backup dancers. Tonight’s as perfect a show as you could expect from any 23-year-old with just two albums under her belt. And it doesn’t remotely feel like Halsey’s peaked.

Lana’s more than a popstar - she’s become a generational balladeer, who makes millennials swoon the same way Carole King or Stevie Nicks made our parents feel.