The Patient is an American 10-part psychological crime drama miniseries by FX, now streaming on Disney+. The miniseries stars Steve Carrell and Domhnall Gleeson as the two key characters in the storyline. In our story analysis of The Patient Eps 1-2, we had concluded that the series was “not much to recommend with – the only direction is up. Wait and see.” Well, now that the miniseries is over, we have decided to re-examine our initial opinions.
Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed is a 3-part documentary series featuring several ex-members of the Hillsong church who share harrowing allegations of the trauma, abuse, financial and labor exploitation that created a culture of chaos at the megachurch. All 3 episodes are streaming on Discovery+ now.
Midnight Mass is an American supernatural horror streaming television miniseries created and directed by Mike Flanagan. Horror fans would be familiar with Flanagan’s recent work with the Doctor Sleep movie, The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor Netflix series.
The Style Council. A stylish experiment sandwiched in the middle of The Jam and Paul Weller. Or a huge misstep in the career of a music icon. There as many opinions about this as there are Jam and Weller fans. Somehow, The Style Council has never been taken as seriously as Weller’s other two incarnations.
Album covers are relics from an ancient age. When a 12.375 inch (31.43 cm) square cardboard sleeve provided the canvas for designers to come up with an eye-catching piece of artwork to persuade the viewer to part with his or her hard earned money. We want to celebrate these art designers by spotlighting the best rock album covers of all time! (In alphabetical order!!)
“We can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far” is a lyric from “Video Killed the Radio Star” and perfectly encapsulates my opinion that music is dead. But music is everywhere you protest, how can music be dead? Let me explain.
The Glorias is a biopic of the feminist activist Gloria Steinem. Director Julie Taymor based the movie on Steinem’s book, My Life on the Road. The movie stars Julianne Moore as Steinem, with Alicia Vikander portraying a younger Steinem, from ages 20 to 40. Timothy Hutton, Lorraine Toussaint, Janelle Monáe, and Bette Midler complete the cast.
WHY RAP IS NOT MUSIC is a PoP Theory opinion piece. Nothing more, nothing less.
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, let us begin.
Besides being a singer-songwriter/composer and a pop culture writer, I am also a teacher of arts and music subjects. Which comes in handy as I find myself thinking in terms of carrying out music and story analysis in order to write about an appreciation of music, film, TV and comic books.
Let me introduce myself…no, I’m not a man of wealth (yet…) and as for taste, well there is ample opportunity on this site to judge for yourself.
I am Singaporean, of English-Portuguese-Chinese descent. I split my time between music, writing & part-time teaching at the Republic Poly & Temasek Poly
Not only that, what I am, is a POP fan. When I say – ‘POP’ – I don’t mean the flaccid image-obsessed talentless hacks that dominate the radio waves and TV screens of today. I am talking about pop with POWER!
My dictionary defines “power” in terms of “physical, mental and moral strength”. In musical parlance I would add spiritual and emotional qualities to that interpretation or simply “heart & soul”. At the glance, this would include God Only Knows, I Second That Emotion, Substitute, Strawberry Fields Forever, Rebel Rebel, Love of the Common Man, Going Underground, The Mayor of Simpleton, Man Out of Time and so on and so on.
Therefore, I am talking about merit and value judgements. That’s what makes it difficult but this is necessary in order to do justice to some of the great pop music ever produced. If music is indeed able to make you feel and think, then it must be important enough to warrant greater consideration and thought than trivial labels. Sorting the wheat from the chaff is not an easy task but that is what the Power of Pop is all about and anything less would just not do.
*whew*
I have been seriously writing about pop for over two decades years now. You can find some of my published opinions in the pages of Amplifier & Pop Culture Press in USA and Bucketfull of Brains in the UK.
But… Power of Pop is more than just music, you will also find my thoughts and views on film, TV, comics and books as well. So there’s something for everyone here at Power of Pop!
So, thanks so much for visiting Power of Pop, hope you have fun and pick up on some great pop. I always appreciate feedback and you can contact me here. Find out more about our review policy.
And… I’m also a singer-songwriter and you can listen find out more here. In addition, I write music for film and TV, most notably I scored Eric Khoo‘s 12 Storeys, Be With Me, My Magic and Ramen Teh (see below).
I am always looking for freelance assignments, whether in writing, editing, music or even artist management, if you interested to engage my services, drop me an email here.
