Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion‘s ‘WAP’ has officially debuted at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this week, breaking the U.S. record for first-week streams, according to Billboard. The collaborative single, which we named one of the best songs of the week, picked up 93 million U.S. streams in the week ending August 13, based on data from Nielsen Music/MRC. The record was previously held by Ariana Grande, with 85.3 million first-week streams for her 2019 single ‘7 Rings’.
Marking Cardi’s fourth #1 single and Megan’s second following the ‘Savage’ remix earlier this year, ‘WAP’ dethroned Harry Styles’ ‘Watermelon Sugar’, which spent just a week in the top spot following a push from Styles and his camp. The song also drew 125,000 downloads, the highest in a single week since Taylor Swift’s 2019 single ‘ME!’, and 11.6 million radio airplay impressions. ‘WAP’ also marks the second-greatest streaming week among songs by women overall, the first being Grande’s ‘Thank U, Next’ with 93.8 million streams.
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion released ‘WAP’ earlier this month. Its music video, which features the radio-friendly version of the song, includes appearances from Normani, Rosalía, Kylie Jenner, Sukihana, Mulatto, and Rubi Rose.
Norah Jones is the latest musician to perform on NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert series. Sitting in her music room with an upright piano, she played a four-song set featuring songs from her most recent studio album, Pick Me Up Off the Floor: ‘How I Weep’, ‘Heartbroken, Day After’, ‘I’m Alive’, which she co-wrote with Jeff Tweedy, and ‘To Live’. Watch her performance below.
“I’m happy to be doing this finally,” Jones said after her performance of ‘How I Weep’. “I was supposed to be touring this summer, but instead I am doing a lot of webcasts from home, kinda like this.”
Pick Me Up Off the Floor, which marks Norah Jones’ seventh studio album, was released back in June.
Moor Mother has shared two new songs for the Sub Pop Singles Club. Her contribution is titled ‘Forever Industries’ and it comes in two parts: the “A-side” is produced by Olof Melander while the “B-side” is produced by Mental Jewelry. Check them out below.
Camae Ayewa’s last album as Moor Mother was Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes, released last October. Since then, she’s released two collaborative projects: Who Sent You? with Irreversible Entanglements and True Opera with Mental Jewelry. Earlier this year, she was also featured on Armand Hammer’s ‘Ramesses II’ and teamed up with billy woods on ‘Furies’.
Father John Misty has shared two new songs, ‘To S.’ and ‘To R.’. Recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Dave Cerminara and the Haxan Cloak, they’re taken from the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 5 collection. Take a listen below.
The two songs mark Father John Misty’s first new original music since 2018, when he released his most recent LP, God’s Favorite Customer. Earlier this year, the singer-songwriter put out the live album Off-Key in Hamburg, with proceeds going to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund. He also released a collection of covers, including two Leonard Cohen songs, titled Anthem +3 EP.
In the current digital world, Lola Dupré’s collage art screams rebellion and provocation. We recently had the great opportunity to interview her and get a better understanding of her origins, influences and creative process.
First of all, we’d like to know how you are doing these days with the current odd situation. We guess it has affected your creative work in many ways, but is there any positive aspect you extract from this?
Yes it is a strange time for sure, the biggest change for me is maybe an obvious thing. I am traveling much less. I never really enjoyed short holidays, I always wanted to stay longer in places. But anyway, now I go to less events, less everything. These days we only go walking in the forest or by the sea. Its definitely strange to see the world change so much over just one year, and for us the change might seem small because we live in the
countryside and not in the city. I was happy to see less planes in the sky, to walk down the
middle of the road and see no cars and to see wildlife emerging from the shadows. Not so happy to think about what the longer term consequences are for humanity.
This year I have found the time to start a little habit of doing ten minutes of meditation every day, something which I think has been very beneficial to the health of my body and mind. Also I have dived into my interest in the sciences, I have listened to so many fascinating physics, biology, tech, archaeology podcasts while I work.
It has been great to separate from the endless Covid doom. I try to learn new things relating to all the sciences. If there is some kind of collective intelligence, which I think there must be, then if we can we should participate in this collective progress of our world. Now with information and knowledge so accessible, it is like a hand stretched out to you.
I digress, the whole thing has a million faces each singing a different song. How it affects my creative work is the same as how it affects myself generally speaking.
Looking at your collage art one can clearly see an influence of Dadaism, a movement that carried a strong feeling of protest and political fight. Not only from the aesthetic point of view, but also when it comes to certain subjects such as war or why not, also nuclear energy. Where does this influence come from?
I think I always had a rebellious side to my character, I was always outspoken, questioning
and criticizing. I was exposed to a lot of art, literature and video nasties when I was
growing up. I think it nurtured in me a strong attraction to things on the edge of popular
culture. I am always moving around between subjects and interests, specialization is for
insects right? I love the Dada aesthetic because of the quick and shocking juxtaposition of
images. The accessibility. The practical relevance of it.
We would like to go back in time to your first collages. Could you share with us how you got interested in this technique and what were your first subjects?
It kind of started by accident really, I lived for a while in Switzerland, and one day I picked
up a stack of ten or so free fashion magazines. I wanted to incorporate the models and
garments into the pen drawings and water colour sketches I was creating at the time in
some sketch books. Because I had multiple copies of every photo I soon made some little
collages where I had ten necks to make one long neck, or an extra leg or two to add
coming out from under a dress. Now sometimes I am working with hundreds or thousands
of pieces of paper in one collage. Collage always seemed so intuitive and easy, at least
compared to painting or drawing. Subjects find you with collage, our visual world unfolds
before us and we react to it. My first subjects were fashion and art history images I think.
Your Political Portraiture series is really fascinating. In a world where information has almost no barriers, and given that your work is widely published, are you aware if any of these politicians has seen your portrait and if so, what was their reaction?
Thank you, yes information has no barriers, and I think for these politicians when you take
such public responsibilities you have to be open to every criticism and caricature.
I think most if not all of them are rotten and spineless, either corrupted by the rancid
system they work in or born already putrid.
I have never received any feedback about it from the politicians, so I assume they have
never been seen! I think they would probably not give it a second thought.
We can easily picture you surrounded by photos, paper cuts and scissors at your studio. But could you describe your whole creative process for us?
I used to work like this. In a mess of paper, paper cuts all over the floor, sometimes cm’s
deep. Paper offcuts stuck in spider webs in the corners, photos on top of photos on top of
photos on top of paper cuts.
Now I am brutally tidy, I work and make a little mess and then I tidy everything away. I like a minimal and clean work space. For the surgery of deconstructing the images I am
working with I think a tidy workspace helps. I like my work table to have nothing on it
before I start working. A table is not a shelf, it should be empty. I just keep a small pile of
confetti like pieces hanging around, because I like the accidental shapes that form when
you move them, like tea leaves in a glass.
When I begin working, I have printed a few copies of something to play with, I cut the
essential areas, and start moving them around on a panel, trying to find that place half way between the image in my head and the image that makes itself in front of me.
Thanks a lot Lola for joining us!
Explore more about Lola Dupré and her art on her website.
Since the inception of mankind, art and culture have been a major part of every community and tribe. It is still surprising that even since so long ago, they still retain their position in modern society. Today, many people understand the importance of culture and now consider it as one of the top subjects perfect for dissertation topics.
Of course, there are several different types of culture topics you can use as a graduate student for your dissertation. In doing so, you can still ask for help from a dissertation writing UK service. Many graduate students pay for dissertation with no doubt to get a high-quality write-up. This comes in handy when you are unsure of what to write or need help in crafting a professional paper to guarantee you a good score.
A lot of people ask questions on why culture is such a great subject to focus on when it comes to writing a dissertation. Well, if you’re one of them, then this article should fill you in on some of the crucial details you need to know to answer your questions.
Reasons for Culture Being a Great Dissertation Subject
There are several reasons people tend to choose culture as a topic for their dissertation project. Below, we will take a closer look at some of them and discuss them briefly.
Diversity & Opportunities
Culture offers a large level of diversity. This diversity leads to working together and to the establishment of various social activities involving people of different backgrounds and nations. You can consider some British brands that require the cultural knowledge of Americans to successfully carry out tasks and vice versa.
Dealing with diversity causes a wide range of topics for students to choose from. Another reason is the unique opportunity culture offers to people. As mentioned earlier, culture causes people to work together, thereby leading to a boost in the tolerance level.
Availability of Information
Today, students can always refer to online dissertation services to help with their assignments. This goes a long way in ensuring the information found is accurate and engaging to the readers of the dissertation.
Culture also offers a wide range of information for scholars to choose from. A good example is the music or movie industry which provides a large selection of entertainment news that spark conversations, and become major social trending topics. Aside from these industries, people write books and create wonderful artworks that lead to deeper distributions of personal thoughts, experiences, and conceptions that scholars can access and pick dissertation topics from.
All of these combine to make a whole lot of information available to write about.
Influence
Culture has a huge influence on businesses, societies, industries, etc. Today, you will find companies partnering together to get amazing results for the economy. Aside from that, many people now contribute to society in the best ways they can.
Change
Just like most things in the world, culture is a subject to change. It transforms constantly and this is one of the factors that lead to the ability for it to retain itself. Along with this, graduate students find various kinds of new information on it, thereby making culture a great subject for dissertations.
Conclusion
People tend to see culture as something that plays a great role in the way society works. This could be true. Along with this, it has a huge influence on several things in our lives including art, music, movies, and more.
As a graduate student wondering why most dissertation topics tend to point to culture, the article should help you understand some of the reasons for that. When it comes to writing yours, getting some help with dissertation UK can come in handy. Good luck!
UK post-punk outfit TV Priest have announced their debut album titled Uppers, out November 13th via Hand In Hive. The band have also previewed the upcoming LP with a fiery new single called ‘This Island’, along with an accompanying music video animated by Ewen Farr. Check it out below, and scroll down for the album’s cover artwork and tracklist.
“It’s a record that embraces uncertainty, that renewed friendships, and helped us through some strange and tough times,” the London four-piece wrote on social media. “We hope it can do the same for you.”
Speaking about the new single in particular, TV Priest frontman Charlie Drinkwater said: “‘This Island’ is about incoherence and inarticulate responses, both personal and political, in a time and place you don’t fully understand anymore. It’s an unrequited love letter, and a howl of frustration; a mea culpa and a call to arms. We wrote this to an increasingly nationalistic and isolationist drum beat playing out at home and abroad, and frankly we are scared and appalled.”
He added: “As artists we aren’t offering up solutions for living, but maybe we can extend a hand and let someone know that you aren’t alone in feeling under prepared in your responses yet powerful in your convictions. That small boats can still make big waves. That we have a world to win.”
The release date of Bill Callahan‘s new record is inching closer, and today we get to hear another song from it. This one’s titled ‘Cowboy’ and it arrives with a tongue-in-cheek, cowboy-themed ‘commercial’ in promotion of Gold Record. Check it out below.
“Shades of old Mexico are implied musically, as Bill verbally implies that the only new cowboys anymore are the ones watching old cowboys on the late, late show,” reads a statement about the track. “Trumpet obbligato flies across the border – mariachi at times, cavalry-bugle at others – as pitch-perfect showbiz whistles floats in the Hollywood sunset backing this slow-dying dream.”
Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this segment.
This was a packed week: If you’re looking for uplifting pop songs, look no further than Miley Cyrus’ bold, empowering ‘Midnight Sky’, Ciara’s politically charged ‘Rooted’, or Marie Davidson & L’Œil’s extremely danceable ‘Renegade Breakdown’; on the more experimental side, we’ve been graced with two deliriously abrasive cuts from Dorian Electra and a fresh collab from Rico Nasty and 100 gecs, while Anderson .Paak’s upbeat collaboration with Rick Ross stood out from the recently unveiled Madden NFL 21 soundtrack. Meanwhile, Bartees Strange came through with a wonderfully produced slice of energetic pop-punk with ‘Boomer’, while The Killers brought back Sam’s Town vibes with their latest cinematic single ‘Dying Breed’.
If you’re looking for something a little bit more laid-back, on the other hand, rising pop sensation BENEE served up a colourful, infectious quarantine tune with ‘Snail’, while Sylvan Esso’s tender and deeply affecting ‘Rooftop Dancing’ has us excited for their upcoming album. Of the more meditative new releases, the Japanese House and Justin Vernon’s collaborative track is as stunning as you’d expect; Helena Deland’s introspective new single is nothing short of revelatory, while Sophie Jamieson combines a hypnotic, minimalist instrumental with vulnerable lyrics on the entrancing ‘Forward’.
Bruce Springsteen has called Lana Del Rey “simply one of the best songwriters” in the US during the latest episode of his ongoing From His Home to Yours SiriusXM series. The Boss played Del Rey’s 2012 track ‘American’, which notably references Springsteen: “Springsteen is the king, don’t you think/ I was like, hell yeah that guy can sing.”
“She’s, uh, name checking some guy from New Jersey in there. I’m not sure who,” Springsteen said jokingly. “She is from New York, and was raised in Lake Placid. Lake Placid, a fabulous little American town where I have spent many a lovely summer evening with my children and my family over the years. And Lana is simply one of the best songwriters in the country, as we speak. She just creates a world of her own and invites you in. So a big favorite of mine, the lovely Lana Del Rey.”
Springsteen previously spotlighted Del Rey’s music just last month, when he played her hit single ‘Video Games’ on the show. “I am a Lana Del Rey fan,” he said. “This is a singer and song that reminds me of the hot, humid, and sultry summer nights and the girls that went with them.”
The Boss recently contributed to Bon Iver’s latest track, ‘AUATC’. Meanwhile, Del Rey put out a new spoken word poetry album called Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass and shared a video of her reciting her poem ‘Salamander’.
