Traverse Fantasy

Finally! I've been wanting to write about this for a while, but I've struggled with deciding whether or not I had anything worthwhile to say. Then, I realized, when do I ever not talk just to say things? I'm not an expert about any fucking thing, and this is no different. I'm just a serial chitchatter. I can't help but constantly compare Daddy Yankee's Legendaddy and Rosalía's Motomami when I listen to either of them. Even on a superficial level, they have a lot in common. Both are reggaeton albums that came out in March 2022, and only while I'm writing this did I realize that both titles are parental portmanteaus. Maybe subconsciously I could not help but compare Daddy and Mami , and how one might read either as defining itself in contrast to what the other is not (as one tends to do). Regardless of their titles, thematically, both albums are long-form declarations of each artist's mastery over reggaeton as a musical genre and cultural force. How...

This is a spiel. A good and proper ramble. I didn't go back over this. I don't like you that much, except for you . Taylor Swift is—was?—the biggest pop star of the years immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not that she came out of nowhere. Obviously, unless you lived under a rock during the last two decades, she enjoyed a wildly successful career from teen girl country to pop proper (with a notable transition album in RED , my personal favorite). I could tell you my favorite singles from each of her albums up to the point where it seemed like she fell off for good, and so could most people who were around. That’s probably why The Eras Tour was so popular: the mediocre reception to her latest albums weren’t drawing crowds, but we all have more-or-less fond memories of Taylor Swift as a pop artist who “grew up” with us from our childhood (with whatever caveats apply; I’m guilty as charged of being white). Her sudden explosion in popularity is not so much a discove...