Finally! No date confirmed yet …
PoP10 : THE BEST BEE GEES SONGS OF ALL TIME
An introduction to the Bee Gees, one of the best bands of all time, in my humble opinion. But seriously, ten songs is, of course, merely the tip of a massive iceberg. Hopefully, this list will encourage you to dive a bit deeper into the oceans of Bee Gees genius. Continue Reading
TV EYE : DES – STORY ANALYSIS (CONTAINS SPOILERS)
What is the allure of true-crime drama, especially involving serial killers? Is it the need to understand these murderers or is it a sick fascination with the grisly details? Either way, depicting the horrors of murder is tricky business especially where dealing with real life events.
TV EYE : QUICK TAKES – THE BOYS SEASON 2 (EP 4 – 5) [CONTAINS SPOILERS]
Not a full blown Story Analysis, Quick Takes will give you bite-sized impressions of a chunk of a TV series, still as yet unfinished. Episodes 4 & 5 of The Boys Season 2 have been released and here are my thoughts. Check out my Story Analysis of season 1 and quick takes on episodes Continue Reading
TV EYE : DOWNTON ABBEY – STORY ANALYSIS (CONTAINS SPOILERS)
Downton Abbey was an award-winning historical drama TV series that enjoyed a six-season 52-episode run from 2010 to 2015. The series revolved around a fictional English aristocratic family, the Crawleys and their servants, who reside and work at the titular location.
TV EYE : THE MANDALORIAN SEASON 2 TRAILER
The Disney+ streamer The Mandalorian was a smash hit when it was released last year to introduce the new streaming platform. Many observers have credited the series for redeeming the Star Wars franchise altogether!
PoP10 : THE BEST JAM SONGS OF ALL TIME
Faithful readers will be aware that I simply love The Jam viz. Paul Weller (vocals, guitar), Bruce Foxton (bass, vocals) and Rick Buckler (drums). The trio had a relatively short recording/performing career – around 5 years – but in that time, The Jam established themselves as one of the top Continue Reading
PoPINIONS : MUSIC APPRECIATION IN THE NEW MEDIA AGE
My actual first encounter with music is probably lost to me in the hidden recesses of memory. However, I do recall discovering pop music via The Chipmunks! It was a 1964 LP called The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits, which my late father had bought for me. I was about Continue Reading
CRAWLING FROM THE WRECKAGE : ALONE AGAIN, NATURALLY
Although human beings are social animals, the fact is that we are all alone in our heads. It has often been said that “we are born alone and we die alone” and while that seems like a trite sentiment, it is also true.
PoP10 : THE BEST BEACH BOYS SONGS OF ALL TIME
I have shared my Beach Boys story before but it bears repeating. Prior to the 90s, I was not a fan. Like many rock fans who started listening to music seriously in the mid-70s, the Beach Boys were a joke, an oldies band singing outdated surf-rock. Sure, in my time Continue Reading
PoP THEORY : UNDERSTANDING POPULAR MUSIC GENRES (AN INTRODUCTION)
Back to Basics Last time out, we explored the idea that there were four fundamental music genres viz. classical, traditional, popular and avant grade. Now, obviously this is a blog about pop culture (I think our name gave the game away!) and so we can truly now focus on popular Continue Reading
PoP10 : THE BEST XTC SONGS OF ALL TIME
XTC is one of the best bands of all time. That’s an opinion I expressed in an earlier post. The Swindon band originally consisted of Andy Partridge (vocals, guitar), Colin Moulding (vocals, bass), Terry Chambers (drums) and Barry Andrews (keyboards). Andrews departed in 1978 to be replaced by Dave Gregory Continue Reading
TV EYE : QUICK TAKES – THE BOYS SEASON 2 (EP 1 – 3)[CONTAINS SPOILERS]
Not a full blown Story Analysis, Quick Takes will give you bite-sized impressions of a chunk of a TV series, still as yet unfinished. The first three episodes of The Boys Season 2 have been released and here are my thoughts. Check out my Story Analysis of season 1 first.
PoP THEORY : i’m thinking of ending things – STORY ANALYSIS (CONTAINS SPOILERS)
Charlie Kaufman is a critically acclaimed screenwriter/director. His best known writing credits include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (for which he won an Academy Award), Being John Malkovich and Adaptation (he received nominations for both).
CRAWLING FROM THE WRECKAGE : TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED CUZ THINGS CAN ALWAYS GET WORSE
We live in a bubble. Sometimes it’s of our own making, often it’s not. Our perceptions shape our reality, such as it is. We see what we want to see. Thus, when things don’t work out the way we expect, we get upset and emotionally wrought.
PoP10 : THE BEST BEATLES SONGS OF ALL TIME
Alright, done with covering the best songs from the sixties to the nineties (I will post about why I stopped there later), time to move on to the best songs from the best bands and solo artists! No better place to begin than at the toppermost of the poppermost! THE Continue Reading
TV EYE – NEW GEEK TV SERIES TO CHECK OUT (SEP – DEC 2020)
What do geeks have to look forward to in the last four months of the year? Here are eight series for your consideration.
PoP10 : TV EYE – THE BEST SCIFI TV SERIES OF ALL TIME
It will come as no surprise to regular PoP visitors that I am a huge scifi fan. I always look out for new scifi film and TV series to check out. While it’s not often that I come across absolute winners, it does happen. So here are ten of the Continue Reading
PoPINIONS : WHY AMERICAN POLITICS HAS BECOME GLOBAL POP CULTURE
Leave the politics to the politicians Growing up in Singapore in the 60s/70s, we were cautioned against getting involved in politics or even be seen talking about politicians in public. While – like most folks around the world with access to radios, cinemas and TVs – we were besotted with Continue Reading
PoP10 : THE BEST SONGS OF THE NINETIES
1991 was the year punk broke. Or so we thought. While the alternative rock genre became mainstream in the early part of the 1990s, it really signalled the end of rock’s dominance over the music industry. The mic had been passed to hip-hop and its influence over pop culture remains Continue Reading
CRAWLING FROM THE WRECKAGE : STOP CHASING RAINBOWS, BE CHASED BY RAINBOWS INSTEAD
People are encouraged to have dreams. Inherent in this is the pressure to be our best selves but not as defined by ourselves but by external parties. Unfortunately, this pursuit of the presently unattained – whether it be of a career, romantic partner etc – is the root of expectations Continue Reading
TV EYE : KILLING EVE SEASON 1 – STORY ANALYSIS (CONTAINS SPOILERS)
The Story Analysis series is intended to offer a different take on film and TV appreciation above a typical review. The idea is to break down the stories into their components in order to understand them better. It is also an intellectual exercise on my part to help me to Continue Reading
PoP10 : BEST SONGS OF THE EIGHTIES
To make these Best Songs lists work for me, even as I progress along the decades, I have made a conscious effort not to repeat artists from previous lists and to limit my selections to artists and/or songs that in my view, are strongly representative of the decade in question.
PoP THEORY : WHY RAP IS NOT MUSIC
Form not substance To avoid any misunderstanding about the opinion I am about to express here, please note that this post is discussing Rap as an art form and NOT a substantive judgement of the merits (or otherwise) of Rap as a genre. Now that that’s out of the way, Continue Reading
PoP10 : THE BEST SONGS OF THE SEVENTIES
Wow. I thought narrowing down the best songs of the sixties to ten in a list was a difficult task. The seventies is even worse. Yikes. Again, my aim is to feature songs that are in my own experience, quintessential songs of the era in question. I personally believe that Continue Reading