Melissa Kacar

Despite being a divisive release by Charli xcx at the time, her 2016 EP,  Vroom Vroom, has gone on to become an experimental pop classic that is largely regarded as one of the defining releases to pioneer the hyperpop movement. Made largely in collaboration with producer SOPHIE in just three days, the EP captured two visionaries who were so far ahead of their time that the rest of pop music spent the next decade catching up. Its quick, four‑track runtime stands as a brief but incredibly impactful chapter in Charli's discography, planting the seeds for so much of the groundbreaking work she would go on to make. This stands as the only full‑length project she and SOPHIE ever officially released together, but it was an undoubtedly formative one as well. While Charli has undoubtedly garnered a significant amount of mainstream success in the decade following  Vroom Vroom 's release - especially in the past couple of years post‑ BRAT -  at this point in 2016 she was still larg...

I Said I Love You First is Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco 's first joint collaborative record, which depicts an intimate and heartfelt portrait of every stage of their relationship thus far. From both of their perspectives, both Selena and Benny share so much of their love, life, and the journey they each took to get where they are now.  Long before they were ever in a relationship, they have collaborated several times before on some of the biggest hits of Selena's career. Their first song together was the iconic "Same Old Love" in 2015, as well as a few other songs on  Revival   that year. They also collaborated on "I Can't Get Enough" featuring Tainy and J Balvin, which is featured on this album six years after its release in 2019. It now serves as such a symbolic piece of their love story. Most recently, Selena and Benny collaborated on a standalone single called "Single Soon" in 2023, as well. They ended up dating soon after they made tha...

AR is the debut EP from social media sensation Addison Rae , who gained popularity in 2019 through TikTok and has gone on to become one of the most successful creators on the platform with over 88 million followers. She released her first single in March of 2021, "Obsessed", which was Addison's first attempt at starting a music career. The song was met with mixed reviews. Although it wasn't bad by any means, it's a song that I never really ended up returning to in the years to follow. Even though it was produced by Benny Blanco, one of the biggest hitmakers in pop music, it just wasn't really anything that notable. In the months that followed the "Obsessed" release, she was teasing a debut album to go along with it, which ultimately was shelved a few months after for unknown reasons at the time.  She actually revealed recently in an interview with Vogue that she intended on giving up on music entirely after the response to her first single in 2021. ...

"Issues" marked Julia Michaels ' debut as a solo artist in 2017 , which was the start of a bold new chapter in her artistic journey. By this time, she had been better known for her behind the scenes work co-writing some of the biggest tracks in pop music, including contributions to number one albums like Selena Gomez 's Revival and Justin Bieber 's Purpose , among others. With "Issues", she stepped into the spotlight for the first time, sharing her own voice and perspective. It was the lead single for her debut EP Nervous System , which was one of my favorite releases of 2017 and remains such a great hidden gem of pop perfection. She wrote this song with her frequent co-writer, Justin Tranter . The song was also produced by Stargate and Benny Blanco , who she has collaborated with many times as well by that point too. This song is very confessional and intimate, which made it difficult for her to give to another artist to record it. "It was never r...