There’s been a musical revolution going on in the past year. Young hip-hop artists have been gaining notoriety for their “bad boy” images and excessive lifestyles. It’s a new form of punk rock, some people call it, where all the resources needed are available to them and all that’s required is just a little attitude and emotion.
It was around this time a year ago when it was announced that FYF (Fuck Yeah Fest) was done for in Los Angeles. But not only that, Texas’s Day for Night and Free Press festivals had also gone out the window, all as a result of their founders and festival runners being accused of sexual assault. For music fans in those areas, it was a deal-breaker – a heartbreak from what were probably the most eclectic music festivals in the U.S.
Brooklyn has always been a hot bed for multi-cultural pop, ever since the tech-boom of the early 2000s which caused a mass migration across the East River. And back then, the bands didn’t focus on one type of music. It wasn’t all one sound, but they were all different sounds, focused around one idea.
Sunday night contained a fair amount of surprises, some fun choices (Spike Lee, Ruth Carter, Olivia Colman), and some questionable (you know exactly which ones I’m talking about). It seems like this discussion happens every year, but it feels like this year has a bit more engaging of a backlash due to the ultimate winner.
A lot has been said about Aziz Ansari as of late, especially since a year ago when allegations were made against him. So, as a result, it was natural to initially feel a little disconnected. And y’know what? He’s okay with that. He understands. But also, he just wants to set things right, put things on an equal playing field. Because what happened on the opening night of his L.A. run was not just comedy, but a sprite lesson on how to think critically, to get people to finally start questioning things at face value.
It was May, 2006, in Indio, CA when the landscape of live music performance changed. Two Frenchmen cladded in robot attire were carted to the Sahara dance tent where they would put on their first show of the new millennium. No one had actually seen them in their new personas before, only in promotional material, but as they made their way to the tent, with the crowd chanting “DAFT PUNK, DAFT PUNK” heard from a mile away, they finally took the stage to a starving audience after a thirty-minute delay, and continued to blow everyone’s minds and the world with the most psychedelic LED light show ever produced.
As you may have heard, the Oscar nominations were revealed a few weeks ago, leading to a splendid surprise of many firsts. First Marvel film nominated for best picture, first time two foreign film directors are nominated for best director since ’76, first time a filmmaker has been nominated for both director AND cinematographer in the same year… but also – Netflix’s first nomination for anything… at all, nevertheless being nominated for best picture. Finally, the streaming giant that has gone against every precedent and normality that traditional Hollywood films participate in – box office numbers, theatrical windows, etc. – has achieved the status of “Best Picture nominee.” But it begs the question: why do they want it so bad?
To be honest, I couldn’t compile this list in any easy way other than choosing what was worthy. To me, there was no clear winner, there’s no favorable album over another. 2018 didn’t feature the juggernaut artists like we’ve been treated to in the past few years. But for the better, because it allowed young, new artists like Snail Mail, Parquet Courts, Kasey Musgraves, Yves Tumor, and Playboy Carti to allow them to cement themselves atop of critics’ year-end lists, a year that introduced us to new artists to prove that the next generation of musicians truly doesn’t suck.
Here are the top 10 albums of 2018.
2018 truly had something for everyone. It was a year that resuscitated superhero films, romantic-comedies, teen thrillers, among others, giving them a breath of new life. If you claim that there wasn’t enough variety, than you clearly didn’t see the right films. And as I compiled this list, I was sure of myself how it would turn out, dead-set on what would take the top spot… up until the very last minute.
Here are the 10 best films that made our year worthwhile.
It’s funny to think that, given the amount of tours, one-off shows, reunions, and festivals this year, that this list would seem kind of arbitrary. Could he possibly have seen every live show this year? Is he making this list out of a vacuum? Well, of course this list has not come out of a vacuum, and naturally, I couldn’t have seen EVERY SINGLE live event from 2018. But with ambition, confidence, and enthusiasm for discovering something new and memorable, I did my best. Here are the best live acts of 2018.