Melissa Kacar

Oh baby, baby! It has officially been 25 years since one of the most iconic albums of all time was released and changed pop music forever. In 1999, Britney Spears released her groundbreaking debut album ...Baby One More Time , which went on to become one of the highest selling and most influential albums of all time. And she did all of that at just 17 years old!  ...Baby One More Time  marked the birth of the princess of pop who went on to create one of the most flawless discographies in music history. This album is a representation of a young woman from a small town in Louisiana finding her voice in the ever-changing music landscape of the late 1990's. In the process of doing so, she went on to completely redefine the industry for the 21st Century.  After getting her start as a child star on  The All-New Mickey Mouse Club in 1993, Britney started to look into pursuing a music career in the late 90's. At the time, record labels were only looking to sign new groups, ...

With her 2024 album,  eternal sunshine , Ariana Grande proved that she could find the light within herself in even the darkest of times, amidst experiencing so much heartache in the wake of her divorce. Now with the release of an additional six songs, she proved to herself that brighter days are already here.  Often, deluxe albums are generally made up of throwaway songs that didn't end up making the cut for the full album but work better as extras for the die-hard fans. However, hearing these bonus tracks can also leave you wondering how they could have ever been left off the standard album in the first place. With brighter days ahead: eternal sunshine deluxe , she wrote all of these songs after initial release of the album. It truly does feel like an entirely separate companion to the original songs. Some of these new tracks actually surpass parts of the standard track list for me. They maintain a strong narrative connection to the original album's storyline, while also fur...

Ariana Grande 's  eternal sunshine  is in part a concept album based on the 2004 film  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, as well as an insight into the place Ariana is currently at in her life. Sonically it is very pop and R&B inspired, with an emphasis on having a 90's and early 2000's throwback feel. It is also among some of her strongest and most consistent bodies of work yet. The film that the album's title and many of the songs loosely reference is about a couple who agrees to undergo a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever, following a bad breakup. For Ariana, this album represents a final lamentation on her ex-husband and their divorce, as well as looking optimistically into the future with her new relationship. She uses the plotline of that film to portray the downfall of their marriage and how she overcame the heartache that came with her divorce, singing "you're just my eternal sunshine" to her ex-husban...

1989 is the album that truly changed everything. Not only is it pure pop perfection, but it also served as a reintroduction of Taylor Swift that fully solidified her as the superstar we all know her as today. At the time she was making this album, she was 24 years old, cut off her hair and moved to  New York City  in search of a new look, a new life, a new soundtrack, and a new beat that she (and it turns out the rest of us) would be dancing to forevermore.  Anyone that knows me knows how much I adore  1989 , it has always been one of the most important albums for me, made up of sixteen songs that I have listened to probably more times than any other in my life. I could go on and on (and I will) about how much I love every single song from  1989 . I have found endless inspiration in it at every stage of my life throughout the past nine years, whether it is through the lyrics, visual aesthetics or the messages of this music. I was fifteen when it was first rele...