In a parallel world, The Beatles keep making music — Kendrick Lamar had a point in “ELEMENT.” When he said, “Fake my death, go to Cuba, that’s the only option,” he was referring to the theory about famous musicians faking their death and moving to Cuba. The baseball cap and varsity jacket fooled the Cuban public, if true. Either way…

Future civilizations will have a blast — Spotify has a cool feature in the time capsule: it’s a playlist cataloging your most-heard songs on Spotify. I’ve used the service since 2015, meaning I was 19, turning 20 at the end of the year. I heard many screamo/post-hardcore bands from the early 2000s back then. My music tastes…

Martin Luther King deserves better — Consider this scenario: we remove Martin Luther King Jr. from the Civil Rights Movement, and the United States remains a segregated country. This happens in the 1999 animated educational film Our Friend, Martin by Dic Entertainment. The film depicts Martin Luther King Jr. as the only one responsible for Civil…

We don’t, nor should we? — The Game Awards 2022 was wrapping up by announcing Elden Ring as the game of the year. The team of FromSoftware went center stage to give their speech once declared winners. But, once they ended the speech, the unthinkable happened. An unknown guy followed FromSoftware on stage and told us…

Reimagining a violent comic for the big screen — Caution: contains spoilers. Let’s rewind to my first day of kindergarten in early 2000. I told my mom if I stayed, could she buy me The Mask? Of course, it’s not ridiculous for a five-year-old to ask for The Mask, given I saw my parents viewing it the other day…

You’ll love it — Times were rough for Iran in 1979, as a revolt against the government transformed Iran into an authoritarian landscape. Once Iran belonged to the rebels, they banned everything from women’s rights to music. In the United States, Iran’s music censorship floored Frank Zappa. How could anyone illegalize something which brought…

The year of female-fronted bands and impactful themes — Turbulent times call for music. Musicians, as a result, wrote introspective and angry albums as an outcry for change. During our midterms, we had a glimmer of hope here in the United States. The US defied the odds and decided against fascism. The best albums of 2022 achieved a similar…

No more anger, only experiment — In December 2021, I asked for metal albums to get angrier and received my wish. It was great seeing monstrous albums in January that are contenders for the best of 2022 and the album of the year. Yet, I wasn’t asking for angry albums in the ensuing months, given I…