‘It’s About Spreading Hate’: RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Aura Mayari Strikes Back Against the Tennessee Drag Ban
“Last week at Nashville’s Centennial Park, Aura Mayari paraded and posed around the famous Parthenon building with a face full of fabulous, gravity-defying makeup. A photographer’s flashes followed as she modeled a towering top hat with ostrich feathers, a bedazzled leotard, and a pair of thigh-high, crystal-encrusted boots. Mayari, who was born and raised in […]
NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND: Luke Nugent’s AI clubkids
NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND is a series of investigations into the shifting definitions and manifestations of subculture in the digital age. The first installment is an exploration of Luke Nugent’s AI work, which celebrates alternative definitions of beauty and the lifestyles of people on the margins. Using the controversial text-to-image AI software, Midjourney, Nugent depicts subcultures […]
Lancey Foux: Purple Reign
“When the enigmatic British rapper LANCEY FOUX drops a new album, the buildup and excitement are reminiscent of that created by a best-selling fantasy author. In late October, Lancey handed over the next stage in his musical saga to his voracious listeners. The 22-track sonic narrative, titled Life in Hell, is set in a world of far-out samples, […]
The future of club culture is a hyperpop rave called Subculture
“Looking for Subculture?” asks a bouncer at the L.A. club Catch One. “In more ways than one,” I reply as I pull out my ticket to the hyperpop rave happening inside. As a turquoise band is wrapped around my wrist, an artist named Babylungs, who’s dressed like a cybergoth hosting a Pride party at Chuck E. Cheese in the […]
Pop has officially entered its clown era
“HARRY STYLES HAS been the subject of countless headlines in the wake of the 2023 Grammys — and for all the stories thinking over his unexpected win for Album of the Year, there have been nearly as many celebrating the rainbow, sequinned, harlequin-style onesie that he wore on the red carpet. “Best dressed,” they rave. “King of jumpsuits!” It’s a far […]
At Fotografiska, a New Hip-Hop Exhibition Sees That Women Aren’t Left Behind
“Fifty years ago, in New York City, a Jamaican-American teenager named Cindy Campbell asked her older brother to DJ at the block party she was hosting to raise money for a new back-to-school wardrobe. She made and distributed flyers inviting people to the recreation room of their West Bronx apartment building, promoting her brother by […]
TikTok sped-up remixes: radio interviews
“If you’ve seen even a handful of TikTok videos over the past couple of years, you’ve probably encountered background music that sounds like a chipmunk singing along to high-BPM dance tracks. Sped-up remixes, also known as Nightcore, are incredibly popular on TikTok and beyond. Freelance culture writer Cassidy George explains where Nightcore came from and […]
How high speed took over high fashion
This is the first installment in a new essay series for W, called ON TRENDS. “Few pop stars serve as a more precise cultural barometer than Rosalía — and her most recent album, Motomami, has proven to be an impeccably timed homage to one of the most definitive trends in post-pandemic visual culture: the alignment of high […]
A history of nightcore, the sped-up songs all over TikTok
TikTok’s musical landscape is rife with passing fads, but one trend has had remarkable staying power: Sped-up remixes are a defining characteristic of music on the app, where #spedupsounds has 8.8 billion views. Many follow the model that made Imanbek’s remix of Saint Jhn’s “Roses” a global smash in 2020: increasing the track’s speed and pitch-shifting the […]
032c Issue #42: DRAIN GANG
“The mythology surrounding the music collective Drain Gang – BLADEE, ECCO2K, THAIBOY DIGITAL, and WHITEARMOR – is deeply esoteric and profound to their followers. By articulating the feelings of alienation in the internet age, they have created a space of belonging for a generation of young people searching for meaning in a decreasingly familiar world. […]