Spencer Kornhaber
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Mike Blake The Shame of Pete Buttigieg
Many LGBTQ voters think that the first openly gay presidential candidate seems too straight. But there’s a way of seeing his rise as a case study in queer performance.
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Interscope Lady Gaga’s ‘Stupid Love’ Is a Glorious Comeback
The irrepressible single is a return to form not only for the singer, but also for her genre.
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Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty The Message of Grimes’s Dark Masterpiece
The singer’s new album, Miss Anthropocene, combines angsty music styles with a supposedly environmental purpose—but mostly to indulge the thrill of submission.
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Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP More Than Ever, Justin Bieber Feels Like a Cautionary Tale
The singer’s first album in five years, Changes, and his YouTube documentary, Seasons, paint a picture of fragile recovery from the trauma of child stardom.
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David Russell/HBO How High Maintenance Creates Ethical Tension
The fourth season of the HBO show questions its own charming vision of urban coincidence.
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Oliver Munday The New Rules of Music Snobbery
Hulu’s High Fidelity reboot captures the end of elitist condescension and the rise of fervent eclecticism.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters No One Knew Why Eminem Was at the Oscars
“Lose Yourself” was not celebrating any anniversary, nor gaining new relevance. But it did pass the time okay.
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NBC RuPaul’s Remedial Queer Comedy on Saturday Night Live
America’s top drag queen hosted a series of surprisingly un-fabulous sketches.
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NBC The Good Place Felt Bad in the End
The show tackled the toughest questions of existence, but its enlightenment resembled something darker.
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Shannon Stapleton / Reuters The Serious Message in Shakira and J. Lo’s Halftime Show
With an overwhelming spectacle, the two stars acknowledged that Latin identity is bigger than any one performance.
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Netflix Taylor Swift’s Adulthood Blues
The Netflix documentary Miss Americana portrays a pop star facing a daunting challenge: redefining success.
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NBC The Good Place Visualized the Unimaginable
As the NBC sitcom comes to an end, the art director, Adam Rowe, discusses how it imagined heaven, hell, and what’s in between.
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Patrick McMullan / Getty How Pop’s Biggest Weirdo Swept the Grammys
Billie Eilish’s whispery goth pop is genuinely odd—but she’s benefiting from old biases concerning race and genre.
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Matt Sayles/Invision/AP Demi Lovato Makes a Powerful Confession at the Grammys
The pop star’s first new song since a near-fatal overdose offers no comfort other than the mere fact of its existence.
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Mike Segar The Grammys Controversy Is Bigger Than Any One CEO
The picture of the Recording Academy that the former head Deborah Dugan paints is of an organization encrusted by years of self-dealing and mismanagement.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters Halsey, Selena Gomez, and Pop That Acknowledges Mental Struggle
Two new albums, Manic and Rare, air inner turmoil bluntly while staying catchy and controlled.
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Interscope Records / Aftermath Eminem Slips Into the Mind of the Las Vegas Shooter
The rapper’s “Darkness” video tries to fight gun violence while also glorifying it.
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AP / Star Shooter / MediaPunchInc / IPX Mac Miller Was Trying to Tell a Survival Story
The absorbing posthumous album Circles shows the rapper considering his own fragility.
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Beth Dubber / Netflix AJ and the Queen Says Drag Will Make America Okay Again
RuPaul’s patchy Netflix comedy portrays a queer art form as one of healing, not rebellion.
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Gianni Fiorito / HBO The New Pope’s Old Magic
The HBO show’s second season continues to stylishly embody the fascinating contradiction of priests as people.
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