Get it hot like Papa John

Current hyper-fixations, camp vs. kitsch, LTD2 and AG rebrands, OMG shoes ✮

Jun 13, 2024

My current hyper-fixation: whenever I listen to “Femininomenon” by Chappell Roan –where the title of this email comes from LOL – all I hear is “Firestarter” by The Prodigy. Apparently it’s not a sample, but you know what is? The famous guitar riff in “Firestarter”, originally from “S.O.S.” by The Breeders. Cannot believe I JUST found this out and have lived decades of my life not knowing this information!!!! Okay yes, I know I was 3 when “S.O.S.” came out, but still. I need to know every. single. thing. that happened in music history in my lifetime. I aim to be unbeatable at trivia and could possibly win Jeopardy! one day.

Speaking of my hyper-fixations, I have a lot of writing to do! (This is an accountability post.) These essays are what’s on my mind and coming soon:
🗽 Chappell Roan and Harmony’s recent appearances as the Statue of Liberty, and the layers of irony of American patriotism
🇺🇸 The last line in Ethel Cain’s “American Teenager” mirroring the last line in “Rose’s Turn” from the musical Gypsy and how parents live vicariously through, put pressure on, and uphold high expectations for American teenagers
🚺 Julia Fox and Geri Halliwell exploring the same four archetypes of a woman’s lived experience as a vehicle for identity reincarnation
💸 New Radicals’ “Mother We Just Can’t Get Enough”, materialism, overconsumption, and late capitalism consumer fatigue
🙏 Stacie Orrico’s “(There's Gotta Be) More to Life” and navigating coming-of-age religious doubt
🏆 Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This” and mass palatability & marketability as the ultimate prize
🧓🏻 Weezer’s “Pork and Beans” being emblematic of The Chasm™ for Gen X and the youth culture power transfer to internet-native Millennials

This issue: Concert thoughts, Nirvana t-shirts, LTD2 comeback, AG rebrand, MK & A’s birthday, Ciara’s “Goodies” anniversary, OMG! “Shoes” performance, and a new Taylor Swift course. Charli XCX’s new album Brat has consumed my entire life for the last seven days, but we will talk about that next week. 💚 ICYMI, last week’s issue included a mini essay on one of my fav college bars closing and much, much more.

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Huge thank you to Nicstalgia supporters who I will love forever: Janine, Marie, Liv, Mitra, CY, and Aleena! 💐💐💐

🎶 Girl of the year

I really love concerts, not solely because I love music, but because the experience is always richly thought-provoking. I’m always pondering questions of togetherness, belonging, and identity, especially through music.

Here are questions I’m asking myself since going to see Allie X (who I love and who is incredibly talented) last night:

Has there been a post-pandemic shift from experiencing live music as individual fans to individual fandom members?
I don’t want to say ‘as a collective fandom’ because it’s clear that fans are still there to support the artist, not one another. (There are exceptions.) I wrote about concert etiquette (or lack thereof) a couple months ago, so we’re not gonna rehash it again. Actually yes we are LOL, because I am a stickler for common courtesy. There was a man, about 6’5”, standing two heads taller than everyone in the middle of the GA section. Immediate jail!!!! If I owned a venue, groups would be arranged in height order, as determined by the tallest member. If you go to the show with a tall person, you will stand in the BACK or on the SIDE where you do not BLOCK everyone’s view. –Sincerely, a short person with a tall personality.

Egregious price gouging, exorbitant platform fees, and tour cancelations are the norm at the moment. A LOT of financial leverage is needed to put on a show, but there is only a select group of broadly-appealing artists who can pull this off at mass-scale. Is this broad appeal not possible in today’s day and age because of hyper-individualized streaming culture?
Doesn’t matter. Even if the Spotify algorithm pushes out Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” or Billie Eilish’s “LUNCH” out to millions of people, it doesn’t translate to concert sales. (Related: I really enjoyed

Monia Ali

’s recent newsletter exploring the question, Is the concert industry doing okay? TL;DR: no, it’s not.)

Have concert audiences always been very demographically homogenous, or does it feel like this because now I have the opportunity to see less major, more niche artists?
Hard to say. Rather than categorizing fans by demographics, I have a mental framework in which pop artists can generally be arranged on two axes: by their commitment to breaking or reinforcing conventions of the status quo and by the lens through which their music approaches said conventions.

Avant garde/normie: Expresses in a unique, outrageous, or taboo way, actively defying societal expectations, OR upholds the expectations of the status quo or exemplifies/benefits from the current state of the music industry
Male/female gaze: Refers to unconscious conditioning either pedestaling OR resenting a patriarchal societal order. (This is independent from the gender expression or sexuality of the musician or audience.)

It’s hard to give examples when nuances are not depicted on a plot chart, but I will share similar/comparable artists for demonstrative purposes. Charli XCX would be directly at the intersection at both axes due to her nonlinear trajectory in both the mainstream and underground scenes. And any category can be considered “mother”.

Male gaze + avant garde = cvnt, camp (i.e. Allie X, Slayyyter, Kim Petras)
Male gaze + normie = mainstream (i.e. Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Troye Sivan)
Neutral gaze + avant garde = provocative (i.e. Dorian Electra, Poppy)
Neutral gaze + normie = effervescent (i.e. Carly Rae Jepsen)
Female gaze + avant garde = kitsch, gauche (i.e. Chappell Roan)
Female gaze + normie = subversive (i.e. Sky Ferreira, Miley Cyrus)
- Note: when I say normie here, I mean it with a different, feminist baseline. Otherwise this category is an oxymoron. Anyone who doesn’t center their experience around or in relativity to a man is subversive to an extent, even if they are backed by a major label or are [talented] nepo babies.

📲 I’m just a simple girl in a high-tech digital world

😋 You know I LOVE talking about licensed and tie-dyed band t-shirts! GQ dove into the fact that everyone now wears Nirvana shirts even though they cannot name one Nirvana song. *Gen X groans* Slate explored how Nirvana t-shirts are now a PREPPY signifier that represents the actual antithesis of the band’s original meaning. *Kurt Cobain rolls over in his grave* Context collapse is a huge driver for the financial and the attention economy.

🌸 First J14, now Limited Too! The IG account started fresh and is teasing a relaunch with the slogan, “Rediscover an icon”. I personally don’t love the execution of this thus far, but alas, I am not on the marketing team. (Yet?) Clothes for young girls generally fall into three overlapping circles: hyper-feminine, inappropriately mature, or embarrassingly juvenile. I really hope that LTD2 fills the glaring tween market void. Clothes for “real” or – as it was referred to in the 90s, “All-American” – girls would be a breath of fresh air. I also have many ideas on how to engage the millennial moms, but they’re gonna need to bring me on as a consultant for that intel.

⭐️ Design studio Pentagram redesigned American Girl’s new brand identity. This is so fun! Apparently, the team working on this project was all women, and they brought their AG dolls on their brainstorming call. Now that is a healthy work environment. (Sidebar: ICYMI, I was a guest on the American Girls Women podcast a little while ago. Their IG is an awesome project that brings back so many memories.)

👯‍♀️ Happy birthday to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen! 20 years ago today, the girls turned 18. There is a WILDLY of-the-times Salon article where various public figures gave advice for the girls as they entered legal adulthood. (Even the guy who made the website comparing the Olsens’ age to the age of consent, complete with a countdown. Unfortunately, being a pervert is not punishable by law in any U.S. state.) If you are infuriated after reading this article, it either means we have fortunately progressed as a society in the last 20 years and/or we’re crushed by the realization that we have less legal body autonomy and freedom from patriarchal standards than we did in 2004. Janice Dickinson, despite making many, many problematic statements in her career, said advice that aged very well: “STAY AWAY from P*ff D*ddy!”

💕 Ciara recreated the Goodies album cover for the smash hit single’s 20th anniversary. Very iconic. This song changed LIVES!!!!

👠 Comedian Liam Kyle Sullivan performed his massively viral early YouTube hit “Shoes” as his famous character Kelly at LA Pride. The absolute chokehold this video had on Millennials! Like Kelly says, “Oh my God, I feel 16 again.” (I was 16 when this came out. 1990 Theory in practice!)

👩🏻‍🏫 Quinnipiac University in Connecticut is offering a new course on Taylor Swift. Their Women’s and Gender Studies undergraduate program also offers courses on The Real Housewives of the Early Modern World, Popular Culture and the Media, and Witches and Werewolves in the Early Modern World. Wait, should I enroll??