Spencer Kornhaber
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Anthony Bolante / Reuters Donald Trump’s Mysterious Sense of Irony
The president is even further from the definition than Alanis Morissette was.
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Lucy Nicholson / Reuters What Went Wrong With Spotify’s ‘Hateful Conduct’ Policy?
The company’s quickly abandoned stance against misbehavior is a sign that the record industry still doesn’t want to police the ethics of its stars.
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HBO Westworld: Strike the Match
Three Atlantic staffers discuss “Les Écorchés,” the seventh episode of Season 2.
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Matt Detrich / USA Today Sports / Reuters Kanye West’s Ye Sparks and Sputters
Amid a few gripping moments, the rapper’s eighth album all-too-briefly glances at politics and mental health.
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Erika Goldring / Bennett Raglin / Getty / ... Pusha T, Drake, and the Limits of Rap Beef
Four Atlantic staffers discuss hip-hop’s vicious and messy brawl of the moment and how the art of the diss track has evolved.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters The Roseanne Fantasy Is Over
The sitcom star’s racist tweet ended a show that fashioned Trump’s appeal as largely economic and national unity as within reach.
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HBO Westworld: From Cradle to Grave
Three Atlantic staffers discuss “Phase Space,” the sixth episode of Season 2.
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Dylan Martinez / Reuters Was Classic Rock a Sound, or a Tribe?
Steven Hyden’s book Twilight of the Gods argues that the appeal of the now-dwindling Baby Boomer guitar gods was only ever personal.
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Disney The Soul of Solo Is a Droid
Star Wars’ first woke robot, L3-37, speaks to the film’s revolutionary themes—and to pop culture’s anxiety around artificial intelligence.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters Kanye West’s Hypocrisy on Empathy and Celebrity
The rapper insisting that a photo of Whitney Houston’s bathroom be the cover art for Pusha T’s Daytona is a clear betrayal of his rhetoric about compassion.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters The Silence in Kelly Clarkson’s Call for ‘Action’ on Mass Shootings
At the Billboard Music Awards, the pop star asked for a “moment of action” after the massacre in Santa Fe, Texas—but kept quiet on what might prevent the next horror.
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HBO Westworld: A Cut Above
Three Atlantic staffers discuss “Akane No Mai,” the fifth episode of Season 2.
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Atlantic Records Fight Songs: Can Political Debate Make Good Music?
Kanye West and Janelle Monáe are among those artists to stage rhetorical battles between red and blue America.
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Sony Classics What 'The Age of the Twink' Actually Means
Are scrawny guys suddenly “in”? Or are straight men just, finally, getting openly objectified like women and gay men long have been?
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Atlantic Records Rita Ora's 'Girls': The Same-Sex Pop of the Past
A song-of-the-summer contender about women kissing women is being received as anything but progressive.
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HBO Westworld and the Question of Immortality
Three Atlantic staffers discuss “The Riddle of the Sphinx,” the fourth episode of Season 2.
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Brendan McDermid / Reuters The New Prince of Pablum
In a wave of interchangeable Millennial pop stars, Charlie Puth’s dorkiness on his album Voicenotes proves an asset.
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Andrea De Silva / Reuters Spotify's Lonely Stance Against Alleged Abuse
The streaming service dropping R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from playlists is one of the very few signs of a #MeToo reckoning in the music industry.
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RCA Donald Glover Is Watching You Watch Him
Childish Gambino’s sensational “This Is America” video implicates the viewer in the misuse of black art.
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Petra Eriksson Can Protest Art Get Its Mojo Back?
Since the 2016 election, pop music and TV shows have emphasized liberal impotence more than anger. Is that about to change?
