Melissa Kacar

10 years ago, Ariana Grande released her debut album, Yours Truly , which really signified the birth of one of the greatest popstars of this generation. It's an album that mixes so many different sounds and sonic influences from a wide range of musical eras.  Yours Truly was made over a span of three years while Ariana was simultaneously starring on Nickelodeon's Victorious and later, Sam and Cat . It is so rare for someone like her, with the background of being an actress on a kid's show, to be able to make a debut album like this in the first place, but also to subsequently have built the career she has in the years since. It is so evident that they all really took their time over those three years while making this album to create something really special and timeless, which is a testament to how well this album held up over the last ten years.  The majority of  Yours Truly  still sounds so fresh a decade later, which honestly is rare to achieve with much of the ...

"Basic Being Basic" by Djo Djo is back with the lead single off of his upcoming album The Crux ! "Basic Being Basic" is such a playful and simultaneously thought-provoking look at internet culture and superficiality. Of course, Joe's signature enigmatic performance style is on full display, as he sings about yearning for deeper, more meaningful connections. In a press release, he said that it is a "kind of a shot fired to anyone who's trying to be of the moment." It may be too early to say, but I can definitely see The Crux becoming one of my top favorite albums of the year - I can't wait to hear more from it! "The Abyss" by The Weeknd The third and final installment of The Weeknd 's After Hours trilogy of albums is here with Hurry Up Tomorow . "The Abyss" comes toward the end of the sprawling hour and a half long album, symbolizing much of what this end of an era means for him as an artist. It also features uncredited ...

"Chinatown (Live at Radio City Music Hall)"// Bleachers & Bruce Springs t een Getting to see Bleachers live at Radio City Music Hall last year was one of the greatest concert experiences of my life and I can't believe that it is forever immortalized in this new live album! It is truly so emotional for me to listen to this album and get to relive this night over and over. Not only was it my very first full Bleachers concert, but I was also lucky enough to be in the front row with my dad for the show too! It was such an incredible experience; it's hard to even put into words how much this night and their music means to me. Every single song they played that night was absolutely incredible and the live arrangements were so different than the studio versions. There of course were countless incredible moments throughout the night, but a major highlight was when they brought out Bruce Springsteen to perform "Chinatown" live for the first time together! That...

Did you know that one out of every 15 vinyl albums sold in the United States in 2023 was by Taylor Swift ? She was also the top selling vinyl artist in the U.S., making up 7% of the total vinyl sales of the year with nearly 3.5 million copies sold. For the third year in a row, the majority of her music catalog  topped the vinyl charts and I think this is such an interesting look at the direction the music industry is headed in for the coming years. While vinyl never really went away, it has definitely made a big resurgence in the past five years or so, seemingly ushering in a new generation of collectors. So why now? Of course, these numbers also have a lot to do with the immense rise in popularity Taylor has experienced since the pandemic. Although she has always been a massive, high-selling artist for nearly two decades, the hold she currently has on the culture right now is unprecedented. There are a lot of reasons for that, but specifically after the release of her groundbreak...