This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by editor Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox every week, sign up here.
This week:
Let’s talk about Meghan Trainor
Here we are talking endlessly about Taylor Swift’s new album. We watch Adele float down a lazy river, pretending it hasn’t been 11 months since she released the song from this music video. Rihanna releases a new song, and we forgive her for having abandoned us musically. And then there’s Carly Rae Jepsen! (Sorry, no narrative structure worth slandering my bop queen.)
Still, we all admire the musical moments of these pop divas. We’re gonna do all this, but aren’t we gonna act like Meghan Trainor kills them all?
This is perhaps the most geriatric millennial stance I’ve ever taken: Meghan Trainor isn’t getting the accolades she deserves. Especially now that she just released her new single, “Made You Look.”
It’s the pop song of the season. Taylor Swift was found shaking.
Hahaha, just kidding, Swifties. (Don’t send me death threats.) Taylor Swift is our one true queen. (I can’t stand being doxxed.) She’s the high priestess of music, to whom I’ve dedicated my heart and my life. (OK, I’m putting my family under witness protection.) According to the story, when Taylor started writing folklore, those little piano tinkles rose to heaven, and Mozart shed a single tear. (Please have mercy on me.) As soon as Angel Shakespeare heard the line, “Sometimes I feel like everybody’s a sexy baby / And I’m a freak on the hill” , he appealed directly to God himself, asking for all of his parts to be eradicated from Earth’s existence out of shame. (Please spare me.) Wendy Williams resurfaced, just to show a photo of Taylor and say, “She’s the moment.” (To help.)
It shouldn’t be a pop-diva battle royale every time they release new music at the same time. All I’m saying is we should pay more attention to what my daughter Meghan is doing. This is a major moment for us Megatronz! Our Grammy-winning icon feeds us! Thus fed, we may have to take a break and poop next to our spouse in our adjoining toilet!
The great thing about “Made You Look” is how perfectly it cements the Trainor vibe. Drawing influence from Motown isn’t exactly a new thing. But starting with 2014’s “All About That Bass,” Trainor found a way to bottle that inspiration, pour some current pop effervescence into it, and shake it until it turned into something. something very modern. Is this the greatest song of the century? Nope! (Then again, nothing is off either Midnights. Again, forgive me, Swifties.) But it captures something that feels more central to the music’s zeitgeist, for better or worse, than the other efforts that have garnered more attention. .
Regardless of that music-business conversation, it’s a fun song! “I made you watch!” Go listen! Meghan Trainor didn’t pay me to write this, I swear!
Avatar 2 is always a thing
This week, I was once again reminded that the Avatar the sequel exists. This news has arrived as if revealed for the first time. (Avatar 2 releases December 12, 13 years after the first film.)
Avatar is fun to think about. Before Avengers: Endgame was released, it was the highest-grossing film of all time. He has his own area at Disney World. Nobody could tell you what happened in the movie, beyond the fact that they were blue and had sex with their hair.
The thing is, I think the movie will be a hit, especially after reading the recent New York Times interview with director James Cameron and the cast. In the interview, we learned that there will be a six-year time jump, Sigourney Weaver will return (but as an entirely different character) and Kate Winslet practiced holding her breath for seven minutes under the hood. ‘water. (Remember this photo?)
Either way, I can’t wait to be completely shocked again when this movie hits theaters. But Cameron does a good job of making us feel like it could be good!
Kelly Clarkson spends herself
If only you could understand the willpower it takes me not to do this entire newsletter about Kelly Clarkson’s “Kellyoke” selections week after week. (Last week The Rock joined her for a cover of a Loretta Lynn song, the most ridiculous pop-culture Mad Libs that ever existed, and I did nothing! Where’s my price Nobel Peace Prize?)
But I can no longer be silent. This week, Clarkson covered Ghost Town DJ’s ’90s R&B classic (and Kevin Fallon’s dance party staple) “My Boo.”
I’m so proud of scientists and Kelly Clarkson for finding a way to turn serotonin and endorphins into musical form. Every time (of the 449 times) that I pressed play on this video, my mood skyrocketed to a state similar to if I mixed caffeine and happy pills into the world’s largest mimosa, then that I drank it during orgasm. May it work the same wonders for you.
dream cast
Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson will play the brothers who are struggling, in my last wet dream a new film from A24 which will be written and directed by Sean Durkin. I already have notes: