Pop Pantheon

In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, Megan Thee Stallion's third studio album, Megan , her first as an independent artist and since her infamous beef with Nicki Minaj, dropped last week. Taylor Crumpton is here to help Louie and Russ break down the record's inherent regionality, Megan's new and old poses and themes and what this record might portend for the future of her c...

After the pandemic, fans wanted to see their favs (and even their less favs) so much that the concert touring industry boomed, breaking records and culminating in astronomically expensive blockbuster stadium treks from Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. But more recently, the live show gambit has gone bust for superstars like Jennifer Lopez, The Black Keys, Justin Timberlake and more. What changed? Fluxblo...

In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, Is Camila Cabello's fourth studio album, C, XOXO , a cold-hearted Single White Female -ing of other, cooler pop stars? Or is it an earnest— if chaotic— attempt by the former girl group star to find her authentic voice as a grown up pop diva? Louie, Russ and Friend of the Pod Omri Rolan are here to figure it out.  To hear the rest of the...

Mic The Snare joins Pop Pantheon to unpack the wild, unbridled genius of pop’s ultimate enigma, Kate Bush. Louie & Mic The Snare dig into Kate’s teenage record deal and her debut single, 1978’s “Wuthering Heights.” From there they discuss her debut album The Kick Inside , her legendary first – and only – full live tour and her early, pre-MTV adoption music videos for singles like “Babooksha.”...

It seems like every single Main Pop Girl has dropped an album this year: Ariana, Kacey, Beyoncé, Taylor, Dua, Billie and Charli. And we're only six months in! It's been a whole lot of new music to process but now that we've had a minute to sit with these records, Keep It 's Ira Madison III joins DJ Louie to reflect on all of these records, what they have common, what makes each stand out, and deba...

In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, Normani's debut solo album has been over five years in the making. Now that Dopamine is finally here, was it worth the wait? And with the heat having died down on her career, does it matter? Rolling Stone 's Larisha Paul joins the show to help break it all down.  To hear the rest of the this episode plus receive weekly bonus episodes of...

Tre Johnson returns to Pop Pantheon for a special Pride episode about one of pop's greatest disruptors, Frank Ocean. Louie and Tre discuss Frank’s first foray into the industry, writing for artists like Brandy and Justin Bieber and his rapturous breakthrough mixtape, 2011’s Nostalgia Ultra , which instantly turned Frank into a critical darling and rewrote the aesthetic and commercial rules of pop....

In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, Charli XCX's sixth studio album Brat , which dropped Friday, was posited as a dance album. What we actually got was something quite a bit more complicated. On this week's episode, Louie and Russ break the whole thing down. To hear the rest of the this episode plus receive weekly bonus episodes of Pop Pantheon, gain access to our Discord...

To kick off Pride Month, Freelance Music Writer Trish Bendix and Senior Editor at Xtra Magazine Mel Woods join Louie to track the conspicuous rise of sapphic-ness in mainstream pop. From BoyGenius to Chappell Roan to Billie Eilish, girls who like girls and make that a huge feature in the music are crossing over onto the top of the Billboard charts. How did we get here? When did this story begin to...

Molly Mary O’Brien returns to Pop Pantheon to unpack the unlikely longevity of Pink. Louie and Molly chart Pink’s emergence in Philadelphia clubs as a teenager through to her brief girl group career and her pop debut as a blue-eyed R&B product at the turn of the millennium with 2000’s Can’t Take Me Home . From there they discuss “Lady Marmalade,” Pink’s rocker image overhaul with 2001’s Linda...

The most recent in a long lineage of music biopics, Back to Black , which purports to chronicle the life of the late great Amy Winehouse came out in the US last week. The film received mostly negative reviews and underperformed at the box office. So why are these movies, generally speaking, so unsuccessful and why do we keep making then? Movie Critic Keith Phipps join DJ Louie to discuss Back to B...

In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, Billie Eilish released her third album, Hit Me Hard and Soft , last Friday. The LA Times' Mikael Wood joins DJ Louie to chronicle the latest evolution in Billie and Finneas' ongoing collaboration and how it fits into the broader glut of Main Pop Girl releases in 2024. To hear the rest of the this episode plus receive weekly bonus episod...

Yale University’s Dr. Daphne Brooks returns to Pop Pantheon to unpack one of the foundational blueprints for pop stardom as we know it, Tina Turner. Dr. Brooks and Louie trace Tina’s roots in Tennessee, her debut as a nightclub act in St. Louis and her early work with Ike Turner, from their hit single “A Fool in Love” to their string of R&B hits, fiery live revue and work with Phil Spector. Th...

In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, Brazilian pop sensation Anitta's most recent recored, Funk Generation , dropped a few weeks ago. Julianne Escobedo Shepherd joins Louie and Russ to break down her rise to global stardom, this record's celebration of Brazilian Baile Funk and put us all on to a couple more rising Brazilian superstars we should all be paying attention to....

After recent episodes on Mariah and Nirvana, two artists who had massive career-defining moments on MTV's iconic live showcase Unplugged , Louie invited authors of the book I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution , Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum to chronicle the history of the series: how it started, why it was important, and which pop stars gave the most indelible perfor...

In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, Dua Lipa returned with her much anticipated third album Radical Optimism on Friday. Music writer Owen Myers joins Louie and Russ to parse out the messy rollout and framing, underperforming singles and, after so much hype, how this music actually sounds and who exactly Dua Lipa is on it. To hear the rest of the this episode plus receive...

Legends Only co-host T. Kyle makes his Pop Pantheon debut to discuss Hilary Duff’s brief ascension from Disney starlet to massive pop diva. Louie and T. Kyle discuss Hilary’s origins via the Disney assembly line with the early 2000s juggernaut The Lizzie McGuire Show and how it helped launch her pop career, from her debut album of holiday songs to 2003’s The Matrix-crafted Metamorphosis , which in...

In the past few years, we've seen a serious decline in the centrality of and views for music videos across the board, even for the biggest pop stars. Journalist Michael Cragg recently chronicled this phenomenon in his piece for The Guardian , "'This is an Art Form— and We're Losing it': Is the Music Video Dying?" and today, he joins DJ Louie to discuss the piece and the general state of the music...

In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, last night in front of a live audience at The Bell House in Brooklyn, Pop Pantheon gathered Rolling Stone 's Brittany Spanos, Every Single Album's Nora Princiotti and Hung Up's Hunter Harris to discuss Taylor Swift's 11th studio album(s?) The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology . Louie and the crew dissect the new music from every...

Bandsplain ’s Yasi Salek joins DJ Louie to trace Nirvana's brief, iconoclastic trail through pop's mainstream in the early 1990s. Louie and Yasi unpack the group's origins in Aberdeen, Washington, their time on famed indie label Sub Pop, known for popularizing the "grunge" sound, and their bleak, sparse debut in 1989, Bleach, which garnered them a cult following. Next, they tackle Nirvana's breakt...

It's listener mailbag time! Louie and Russ are answering all your questions about their expectations for Taylor's  The Tortured Poets Department , their personal pop pet peeves, the formula for following up a blockbuster album, why there are no more male pop stars and so much more. Plus, stay tuned until the end of the episode for a very special surprise guest appearance :-). Join Pop Pantheon: Al...

Critic and writer Naomi Zeichner joins Pop Pantheon to explore the career of the “vocal bible,” Brandy. Louie and Naomi unpacked Brandy’s self-titled 1994 debut, released when she was just 15, her landmark acting roles as Moesha and Cinderella , and 1998’s Darkchild-assisted Never Say Never , which reimagined her at the vanguard of R&B futurism and became one of the signature blockbusters of t...

In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, Beyoncé eighth studio album, Cowboy Carter, dropped last Friday. Once perceived as a foray into country music, this sprawling 80 (!!) minute epic turned out to be so much more than that and, as with any Bey project, begs for some serious unpacking. DJ Louie, Russ and Oxford American's Danielle Amir Jackson are here to do just that, brea...

Tonight, Beyoncé will drop her eighth studio album, Cowboy Carter , her first explicit full-length foray into country music. As with every Bey project, there's a ton of meaning and history to unpack. DePaul University professor and author of Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions , Dr. Francesca Royster, and writer and editor Taylor Crumpton, author of TIME piece Beyoncé Has Always Been Co...

In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, music critic Jewly Hight joins DJ Louie for a wide-ranging discussion about Kacey Musgraves' fifth studio album, Deeper Well , which dropped last week. Louie and Jewly discuss how this record fits in the broader narrative arc of Kacey's music and career trajectory, her influences from across the folk rock spectrum and the themes on this...