Etc. Magazine, Issue 001

The 001 Team

Editor in Chief

William Foley

Vice-Editor

Emer Neville

Leah Hurley Photographer

Katelyn Leahy

Social Media

Ciara Fenton

OCM’s Sarah Fitzgerald

Ben Campbell

Chloe O’Connell

Stephen O’Brien

Creative Director

Make-up Artist

Rhys ní Dhonnchadha

Contributors

Leo Troy

Martina Corella Oliver

Julie Cukier

Etc. magazine aims to provide you, the reader, with a vibrant outlet for pop culture. Featuring your favourite local and international pop culture icons, we want to bring you pop culture news from our perspective. This would not be possible without the input of everyone who has gotten involved with the magazine in any way. We hope that you enjoy reading this first issue as much as we enjoyed making it. In this issue we have covered a range of topics, there is something for everyone and some more! Follow us on Instagram @etcmagazineucc to keep up with the latest pop culture news, behind the scenes, calls for submissions, Etc.

Reflections

A Sit-Down With

An

Interview

by Katelyn Leahy

Fresh off of the release of their new EP ‘Envious of the Faithful’, we sat down with Jodie Lyne from cork-based band Mirrors to talk new music, how the band came to be and to reminisce over anecdotes from the last few years of Mirrors. We also touched on the future of the band and a few surprises for the coming months.

Q: Mirrors seems so close-knit as a band, how did you form?

A: I have always been really good friends with our guitarist Fionnan. During Covid I got really into guitar and songwriting just because of all the free time that we had, and I kind of delved more into songwriting. Fionnan would send me guitar pieces that he’d written, and he kind of always struggled with songwriting, so we worked as a duo for a bit, of him sending me songs and me writing lyrics, and that’s where our very first song, Expectations, came from.

Fionnan knew all the lads from school. They all went to secondary school together. So our first-time meeting all in person together was literally the second restrictions were lifted. We all met up in Fionnán’s house and the original lineup was me, Daithí, our drummer, and Fionnán, our guitarist and it was three of us for a good few months. Then we brought Charlie in. We said to him, we’re looking for another guitarist, but we were short a bass player and the second he came to our rehearsal that day, we just put a bass in his hand haha. So, we kind of worked as the four of us with Charlie on bass for a good few months. And we played one or two house parties. We kind of never really saw ourselves as a band like we didn’t really have a name or anything like that. in April of 2021 Callum became our bass player, so we’ve been with the five of us which is our kind of complete like form that’s been since April 2021, so we’ve been a band for around two and a bit years.

“We got to be in a space where we felt like we were being taken seriously as a band.”

Q: Why mirrors? Where did the name come from and does it have any meaning?

A

: Still to this day, like none of us have any idea where we got the name Mirrors from, just because at the beginning it was just kind of four friends just kind of jamming and just like playing covers and the odd original, we kind of play around with, but yeah, we have no idea where the name Mirrors actually came from.

Q: Did you have any inspirations that you leaned towards when finding your sound or was it just you yourselves?

A:Definitely at the beginning, we all came together with such different music tastes. Dathi and Fionnan were very much like, you know, like Brit rock and blues. My favourite genre would have been like folk and singer songwriter music. And then Charlie kind of really enjoyed like indie pop and then Cal is like obsessed with metal. the more we spent time together, and we spent the whole summer of 2021 together in Churchview, and we were rehearsing so much that all of our genres blended together so it was really interesting the music that we were making was like singer-songwriter folk lyrics and then you’d have you know like Fionnán doing blues guitar with like Cal doing like metal bass riffs and stuff um but then after a while we all kind of found like a lot of inspiration within Irish Celtic rock and we all started listening to the same artists so the artists that we draw the most inspiration from now would be like the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Just Mustard, New Dad, like all those artists. I think we’ve definitely found our sound and what we try to work towards now.

Q: And this EP, Envious of the Faithful, which is your most recent EP that you released, did you all write the songs together and how did you cut down the songs to put the four on the EP?

A: It was really interesting how the EP came to life because we finished the first song that got the clock turning for an EP to be made was written January 2023, and it was Fall On Your Knees. What works for our sound, is that we have three guitars so that definitely like created a much darker sound. And then Dathi brought like so much life to the song with his drums. So once that song was written last January, all the rest of the songs just started flowing out, like Echoes, Na Soilse and The Interlude.

So we went into the recording up in Dublin and knowing that we were going to record an EP and we had Cian Synott, the person who produced the EP, he sat in on a rehearsal with us and we played him, I think we played him about 10 songs and he was there with his notebook and pen and he wrote down his favourites and parts that we should edit. From that moment, when he sat in on that rehearsal with us, we knew that the songs that we’ve chosen to record flow into each other in a way and are a bit more cohesive than any other songs that we were going to have on the EP.

Fall On Your Knees is kind of based on the concept of Catholic guilt. We all went to Catholic secondary schools and one thing that I’ve grown up with is the idea of Catholic guilt and wanting to be faithful and going to Mass but not really feeling any connection to what this group of people felt so strongly about. I’ve always been envious of people who have that faith and I want to believe in it but as much as I’ve tried I just can’t. So that’s where Fall On Your Knees come from, to have so much faith in someone that you’ve never seen or you’ve never had actual physical evidence of seeing.

The second track on the EP is Na Soilse. One thing in our band is the guitar is very fluid. Anyone can pick up the guitar and write the guitar piece. Our drummer, Dathi, wrote the initial guitar for it. We didn’t go into it like initially wanting it to be in Irish, but it felt like the only way of doing the song justice was to have it in Irish. So, Na Soilse is about the idea that the moon is jealous of the sun, as the sun is around during the day and she sees all the positives in everyone and the moon has like harboured this jealousy towards the sun as she can only see people at night and the bad things that can happen at night and the vocals at the very end is like a personification of what we thought the moon would sound like if like she had a voice.

Recording these songs was such a great experience because we got to be in a space where we felt like we were being taken seriously as a band. We recorded up in Dublin in the Clinic and it was like one of the best few days of our lives. It’s such like a surreal feeling recording your music from playing it live, and I think with the EP, we’re super proud of it and it’s like such a nice reflection, to have this like piece of work that shows our growth as a band from when we started originally.

Q: And you always say that summer is your time with the band, because as you said, Fionnan and Cal are abroad. How do you work as a band throughout the year, when you have gigs and they’re not back until Christmas or summer?

A:It’s definitely something that’s quite difficult to do, and it took us a long while to work around it. It’s really hard to motivate yourself songwriting wise, like on my behalf, you almost forget about songs that you’ve written because you haven’t seen the band in so long. We definitely make it work as much as we can. When there’s times that the lads are back, we’re with each other every single day. It is like so upsetting not being able to spend as much time with them as we would love to because at the end of the day, we’re just a friend group of five people, regardless of the band. But it definitely works in our favour. I think if we stayed together, like were all in the same place from when we first recorded music, I don’t think we would have reached where we are now in terms of our sound.

Q: And since it is nearing summer, do you have any future plans coming up for the summer or are you working that out now?

A:We actually have a few gigs coming up for this half of the year. So, on the 26th of February, we’re playing in Dublin for the very first time, which we’re so excited for. And then we’re doing a guest performance for the Battle of the Bands on the 29th of February as well, which we cannot wait for. We’re playing Galway the 21st of March. And I think July is going to be our month. We have a good few plans that we will be announcing soon. and we’re also going to be recording again, which we’re really excited for. We’ve a lot of new music that we’re still working on. But yeah, July is the month.

The Groove is DEAD: The Rise and Fall of the Costume Ball.

by William Foley

As we delve into eras gone by, we often find ourselves asking, how did people find entertainment prior to the dawn of the phone or the internet? Well, if you were a well to do socialite in the mid-20th century, a lavish costume ball may have awaited you. With the largest, most reputable fashion houses opening their archives and vaults to the who’s who of the world, these balls were to be seen as the focal point of the global social calendar for those lucky enough to garner an invite. It appears however that the grandeur and opulence which once rooted itself deeply in the global entertainment scene has fallen to the wayside, falling victim to continuous globalisation and heightened inter connectivity.

The first and often most well regarded of the postwar costume balls was the brainchild of Don Carlos de Beistigui. September 3rd of 1951 in Venice is recounted by many attendees as the party of the century. On a continent barely beginning to recover from the catastrophic fallout of the war, this Paris Born, Mexican Socialite set his sights on throwing the most theatrical party in post war Europe. The socialites of Europe thronged to Beistigui’s Venetian palazzo where they were treated to what was described by some as a moral indecency. With them they brought hoards of period clothing. Pierre Cardin draped Salvador Dalí and Christian Dior in haunting costumes, in which they transformed into their alter egos; the ‘Phantoms of Venice’. Baron Alexis de Redé reportedly spent 55,000 dollars on his costumes. Guests made grand entrances, all the while Beistigui treated his guests to a coup de théatre as an armada of boats funnelled up the river. This was drama and ceremony on an almost competitive level. It is clear that this event has no comparable match in the current world of social gatherings, sauve the met ball, which, if we must be most honest, does not succeed to such a level of pomp.

Alexis Baron de Redé brought the focus to the head in his 1956 Bal de Têtes. Bringing a then designer at Dior, Yves Saint Laurent on board to design the party along with a number of head

dresses for guests. The Baron attributed the success of this ball to kick starting his career as an aesthete and host. While it may seem asinine to create a career from partying, like something out of Gatsby, this was the reality for much of the elite of the day. The cultural impact of these celebrations also cannot not be understated. We can see this in the Baron’s inclusion in a 1964 list compiled by the National Society of Interior Designers highlighting ‘individuals who have inspired good design’. While it may, in one sense, seem counterproductive to allow for wealth and status to be flaunted in such a precocious manner, we must also concede that these displays allowed for some of the most significant developments in Western fashion and the arts in the 20th century. Catapulting the likes of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin to the forefront of the international fashion scene of the day.

Perhaps the downfall of the great costume balls began in the Château de Ferrieres, which, in 1971 was the stage for Marie Helene Rothschild’s masterpiece, the Proust ball. This was the centenary celebration of the birth of Marcel Proust, the author of A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. This occasion can be seen as yet another example of theme and nuance being executed on a near perfect level. Guests arrived adorned in period clothing as they were transported back in time to the 19th century and the world of Proust’s childhood. The Châtreau’s safe was made available to the guests and was utilised by Elizabeth Taylor to store the diamonds that she had borrowed from Van Cleef & Arpels for the evening. This was another instance of Yves Saint Laurent stepping in as the tailor and dress-maker for many notable guests. These included Jane Birkin, Nan Kempner and Marie Helene Rothschild herself who, at this point considered him to be somewhat of a confidant of hers. The buzz surrounding this ball could not be escaped. It was the talk of the Parisian social scene for many months prior to the evening. An air of anticipation existed which, in the truest sense has no comparable successor in the social calendar of today. We can consider this level of angst and expectation to be one of the defining features of these great 20th century balls.

The final and arguably most artistically divergent of these costume balls is to be found in the 1972 Surrealist ball hosted, yet again by the Rothschilds in the Château de Ferrières. The dress code for the night was simple; Black Tie, Long Dresses and Surrealist Heads. This simple but obscure description of the dress code led to what was possibly the most accurate execution of a theme by the guests of any of the great costume balls of the 20th century. Marie Helene Rothschild’s head was adorned with a stag’s head which had been decorated with a series of diamond encrusted tears. Audrey Hepburn arrived, her head topped with a bird cage. Upon her arrival, she along with all other guests had to traverse a maze in order to enter the ball. Butlers, dressed as cats were present to assist any guests should they find themselves lost in the maze.

This ball yet again serves as a reminder of the genius of interior design that was behind many of these balls. The table scapes were just as exaggerated as the costumes while food was served on a mannequin laying on a bed of roses. While we can consider the Proust ball to be the Rothschilds’ masterpiece of entertainment, the surrealist ball of 1972 is to be considered as a true work of art. The ball of 1972 was the closing chapter of this era of the costume balls however, as the Rothschilds’ donated the Château de Ferrières to the chancellery of the University of Paris.

In the years since these costume balls faded out of fashion, there has been an evident lack of excitement and anticipation, of grandeur and of pomp in the world’s social scene. While, in some regards it can be deemed a positive step that these often glutinous displays of wealth have ceased, we can also accept that the contributions of these balls to the arts and to the world’s fashion houses is undeniable. While yes, the charity balls of today are a dime a dozen and often attract hordes of celebrities, there is no comparison to the celebrations of years gone by. We see each year how celebrities and fashion houses alike fail to accurately execute the themes of the Met Ball leaving much to be desired from the outfits that parade up the steps of the Met. The recent release of the film ‘saltburn’ would suggest that celebrations of such high levels of pomp in costume and decoration have carried on into the new millennium. Unfortunately it is to be seen that these celebrations are few and far between and are not nearly as grand as they once were.

In the current era of fast fashion and of an increasingly interconnected and impatient world, maybe there is simply no room for anticipation. As our attention spans wilt away and our appreciation of the arts in their truest form falls to the wayside, this may be the natural progression of the world of celebration. Marie Helene Rothschild did write in her later years that “those who are small in spirit, who are mean, narrow-minded or timid, should leave entertaining to others”. It may be the case that there is a dwindling cohort of individuals who are willing and able to throw and curate celebrations of such cultural significance.

It is clear then, that contrary to what ‘saltburn’ attempts to portray, the era of pomp and opulence in celebration is apparently behind us. For oliver’s antlers don’t have anything on those dawned by Mary Helene Rothschild. We must admit however that there is always room for a resurgence in this, arguably the most camp era of fête.

“Those who are small in spirit, who are narrow-mindedmean, or timid, should leave entertaining to others”

Beach Balls

Why confine yourself to dressing up for special occassions? Who said that the party can’t be everywhere all the time. The streets, the park or maybe even the beach. In the same vein, why limit our creativity and supress surealism? Your suit and tie will never be complete without your whited out eyebrows or heart shapes of after all.

Edited

by William Foley

Make-up by Rhys ní Dhonnchadha

Photos by Katelyn Leahy

Modeled by

Kate Horgan

Carl Dwyer Murray

Caoimhín O’Keeffe Ioiart

Alex Kiely

Jack Rainey

Josh Prasad

Ellie Murray

Caspar Lee

The following is an extract from an interview conducted by Pop soc’s very own Pop Off radio show with mainstay of 2010’s youtube culture; Caspar Lee. In this interview he touches on some of the ups and downs of life on social media in its early days, becoming a professional ‘influencer’ for want of a better word and provides us with some fascinating anecdotes from this era of youtube.

AQA Look Back on 2010’s Youtube

: Caspar, you were among the first to really transition from just uploading videos to youtube to really making a creer out of it, did this feel strange?

: Yeah, so I started making YouTube videos in 2010 and I didn’t think it was a career path because there were only maybe like five people who did it for a living at the time, and they were kind of making a bit of money on the side of their real jobs, but yeah over the next two years it started to really blow up and that was the point where I realised that I could actually try this for a bit. I was in this group of creators including like Joe Sugg or her other name is Zoella, and so that group of us just really managed to ride a wave for about ten years together. I mean looking back now it wasn’t something I planned, but it was an incredible launchpad into what I’m doing now. So it was very fortunate, and I loved every minute of it!

Q

: Youtube is a lot more personal and familiar to fans than other forms of media and fans can sometimes feel more of intimate connection with. Have you ever had an awkward encounter with a fan where they feel like they know you from your videos but they just don’t know you in real life?

A

: Yeah, I think to be honest, yeah, I’ve had awkward encounters. The funny thing is they think they know me but they kind of do in a way because the person I was on YouTube is, you know,

I was probably a lot more high energy throughout my time on YouTube, whereas if you caught me on the wrong day I kind of just like to be to myself. So, you know, I’ve had encounters, like staying in a house in South Africa actually, with Troye Sivan, when we were filming a movie called “Spud” which is like a South African film, and these people turned up and they wanted to, I think their plan was to meet us, so rather than waiting outside, they thought, how do they get inside? So, they threw their phone over the wall, and unfortunately for them it landed in a pool, which they were expecting maybe a nice grass patch and so yeah, that was the most awkward encounter because I had to go get the phone out of the pool and give it to them - this was before phones were waterproof.

Q

: We have noticed that a lot of youtubers, like yourself, have slowly transitioned away from Youtube. Was there a lot of pressure that you felt to constantly be releasing videos or a feeling that you had no time to rest before you had to work on a new video?

A

: Yeah. So, I think everyone feels like that and I don’t know if it’s limited to just YouTube, but I think in general when you’re in media, you kind of have to consistently outdo yourself. So if you create an amazing, I don’t know, TV show, you wanna create another good one. I guess the problem with YouTube though is that usually a lot of the pressure is on one person and also, everything is so transparent, people can see how you’re doing at all times. Whereas yeah, on TV the viewing figures come out but it’s not like every single person watching that show knows exactly how well it’s doing. So, I think that’s what drags down on people who are creators, it’s the combination of doing it on their own, or having a small team and the transparency.

“When you get to a certain level and want to keep at that level, it’s extremely tiring.”

Q: In your experience, as one of the first breakout creators on youtube, was there anything that you encountered that was very negative or was the experience all quite positive?

A

: I think it was fairly positive because, one of the negative sides of fame in my opinion is the mainstream press, and I got to experience the positives of having like a bunch of people who like watching my stuff, without really having much mainstream attention. So yeah, there are a lot of positives that come with it I think, ultimately though when you do put yourself out on the internet, you’re gonna have some negative feedback, and even though 90% of it is positive, you generally kind of focus on the negative. I think that’s just human nature. And so learning to deal with negative comments, and trying not to take them too seriously is something that can be quite difficult. My best advice is to not take the positive comments too seriously or the negative ones, because if you just take

like one of the two, it’s a bit confusing, like you have to be consistent.

Q: a lot of your content involved collabing with your friends, and vlogging your days, did it ever start to feel a bit exhausting or uncomfortable thinking that a lot of the time when you’re hanging out with your friends you could be making content out of this?

A: That’s a really good question, because I think a lot of creators today, even though it looks like they’re having a lot of fun, it’s never as fun when you’re having to create content out of a situation. And so we live in this strange world where people go on Instagram and you know they’re like scrolling away, and they’re seeing what everyone else is doing at it looks so fun, but they forget that those people actually have to take that content and that’s not fun, and it’s usually either because they’re slightly insecure and they want to make their life look good or because they have to consistently create content. I mean look, it’s not the worst job to have by any means, but at the same time it is work and it’s best so when you’re like with your other creator friends. Like when I went back home for holidays,

“ I was like “oh I can’t stop, I need to create content out of this situation”, which is hard.”

Q: In recent years you have moved into the creator management side of social media. do you notice any noticeable differences or similarities between the TikTok influencers and the Instagram influencers of today, and YouTube influencers from the past?

A: Yeah I mean, so we work, myself and Joe Sugg, we have a management company, and we work with about 70 creators, mostly based in the UK and the US, and a lot of them are doing TikTok now. And yeah, what has changed quite dramatically is, I think this is not just on TikTok, but all algorithms have changed, where it used to be about how many subscribers you had, and then all of those subscribers would watch your content, and now it’s really like about how good your content is at all times.

A: So it’s even more exhausting. Because I could upload like a video a week, and the same amount of people could watch every video no matter what I did. Whereas now because the algorithms have changed to be about content and about how good that content is, if you upload something bad, it gets seen by 10% of the people who would have seen it if it was really good. And so that’s something we’re always trying to help our clients with, how are you able to be consistent and not have to reinvent the wheel every single week? But the thing with TikTok is that every single day, even if you are uploading maybe less, I wouldn’t say difficult, but less laboriously made content, because it’s easier to create, it still is very difficult because of the amount you have to do.

Q:Do you think being a YouTuber in the past has made that transition into management easier?

A: So yeah, definitely. I mean being able to empathise with our clients and understand what they’re going through is certainly helpful. And I think a lot of people who work in social media management or even social media, because I’ve another business called influencer.com which is an agency, a lot of our competitors come from an advertising industry or something like that, and they’ve never actually experienced what it’s like being a creator, and so they think that everything can be related to like something else. And I think there’s a unique understanding that it takes to fully understand why stuff works on social media and why stuff doesn’t. I do think it definitely provides an advantage to myself and Joe, and any other creator who – and you’re seeing a lot of creators now launching podcast studios – or other businesses like this, so I think it can be very helpful. And then just seeing lots of people launching their own like businesses, like Prime and all of that stuff, and I think that gives them a leg up for a different reason, which is the fact that they have this massive audience, and they can kind of do marketing, which would have cost them a lot of money, for a lot less.

Q:Just wrapping it up with a final question; what do you think the future of influencers is, like where is the industry going, what direction is the industry going in?

So, I think just talent in general are all having to be built up on social media, maybe with the exception of actors who can get film opportunities separately and it’s based on how good they are at acting. But when it comes to like music and comedy and anyone who has to sell out their own tours and so on, I think social media is where that happens. So there’s not going to be that separation between musicians and Youtubers and such, it’s just gonna be people who are good at stuff or funny at stuff or interesting or experts, and all of media is going to come around that. And you’re already seeing, just to give you an example, creators these days won’t just be on adverts on social media, they’ll also be put in the TV adverts, they’ll also be put in the bus adverts. And when you’re seeing someone who used to maybe be “traditional” they’ll now also be on the social media adverts. So there’s this mixture happening which I think is really exciting.

“ I almost think the future of influencers is removing the word influencers and it’s just like saying “these are creators, these are people, and they can do all sorts of things”. ”

FSecrets from the Merch Stand

How (NOT) to Behave at a Concert

by Stephen O’Brien

or the past two years, I have worked at the merch stands of many different concerts. Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Musgrave Park, Fairview Park in Dublin, and even the 3Arena, I’ve worked them all. It is tiring, and sometimes incredibly stressful, but during the main act’s performance, there are about 2 to 3 hours of quiet downtime when very few people buy any merch. I have used this time to people-watch and to think about how people behave at concerts. Even at a concert in my free time, I still find myself observing the way other people act, and all the social faux pas that I have noticed. Now I want to let others know my knowledge, in hopes of helping others to deal with the chaos of a concert, and to bring awareness to some pretty annoying behaviours that would be best left at home.

To begin with what I know best; the merch stand. Merchandise is a part of the concert experience; people love to get a little memento, or spend about €100 on two expensive (and kind of ugly) t-shirts. Whilst they can be a rip-off, other times the items have a lot of care and consideration put into it, and the artist will sometimes be selling smaller items like CDs and vinyl, stickers, wristbands, and other bits at a cheaper price. My advice is to check online to see what the merch is like. Subreddits for the musician normally have people posting what the merch stand will have, so it’s best to look it up beforehand if you’re even considering buying something. If you do find an item you like, either go straight away (which will be busy, but we will also have all the stock in all sizes), or during the main act’s performance, as there will be almost nobody buying merch, and you will have as much time to browse and and decide on sizing.

Speaking of sizes, the clothes can vary from artist to artist; sometimes a medium is a medium, and sometimes a medium is a small. Whilst we can’t let you try on the clothes before you buy, we almost always accept an item back for a change in size, as long as the item isn’t damaged or stained.

Another aspect of the concert experience is alcohol. It’s probably the most common thing people will buy at a show. But these drinks are expensive, and the lines can be long. Concert tickets can be expensive (looking at you, Taylor). There is really no reason to spend €30 on 3 drinks at an already pricey show, only to get drunk and not even really remember or enjoy the show. I probably sound like an annoying parent, but it’s true!! Maybe wait until after the concert... Or don’t. It’s your money and your experience!! Just don’t get plastered and obnoxious, pushing and shoving and spilling your drink all over everyone else, that’s just rude behaviour. Like I said, it’s your experience, but it’s everyone else’s too.

Trying to get the barricade at a concert has become a bit of a competition for the most dedicated of fans. Being up that close to your favourite musician can be thrilling, especially when they come down to greet the fans or communicate with you. I’ve had Robert Smith from The Cure stick his tongue out (jokingly) at me and my friends. But stressing yourself and ruining your mood (and possibly your friends’ moods too) over barricade is not worth it. Most arenas and theatres are slightly sloped so that everyone can get a clear(ish) view of the stage.

I’ve had a lot more fun standing outside the packed and sweaty crowd at concerts: you can breathe, you can move, you can easily go to and from, and you can still see the singer!! Whereas being stuck in a sweaty and thick crowd for hours, standing and struggling to get full breaths is not worth being slightly close to whoever you’re seeing. If you are dedicated to getting barricade, however, then line up early. Especially for popular singers like Lana, Taylor, or Phoebe Bridgers. From my own personal experience, these fans can be rabid when it comes to getting up close!!

Finally, we need to talk about phones. We all have a bit of a problem with how much we use our phones, I am too. We all like to film or photograph events too. Maybe you want to get a photo of the musician for your Instagram, or you want to get a video of your favourite song as a captured memory for you to replay whenever you want. But those recordings are never that great, and have you ever really replayed your concert videos? And I don’t want to crush your potential dreams of being a photographer, but your iPhone camera is not going to capture a better picture of the singer than those with a proper camera. Too many people spend the entirety of the concert recording the show, and focusing on the content you can get from it, rather than just enjoying it! I’ve gotten myself into the habit of only taking a few photos, normally towards the start, and getting a brief snippet of a few songs on video. Once or twice, I’ve brought disposable cameras too. While those pictures may be shaky or not very clear, I enjoy the personal and amateur quality that they have more than any photo I’ve taken on my phone.

And those are some of the thoughts I’ve had from all my concert experience! Obviously, I am not the expert on how to enjoy a concert, but I feel that this might help those that have never been to a concert, or change someone’s ways so that everyone can have the chance to enjoy a concert from their favourite artists.

Toying With Samples

What Rave Can Tell us About the Pop of Today

by Leo Troy

Over the last couple of years, you may have been noticing a trend. You’re listening to your favourite song when all the sudden you realise it sounds familiar. Across all genres, there has been a significant increase in the use of samples. The BBC reported that one in four UK top 40 hits sample an older song. The list of songs using samples for quick attention seems endless. But can this rise in nostalgia-baiting really cause adverse effects to the music scene we know and love?

According to Mixmag, in an issue from 1992, the answer is yes. The genre Mixmag speculated was on the wrong track was rave music, which was in full swing during the publication of the accusation. In fact, the infamous Castlemorton Common Festival, a week-long rave party that was the biggest of its kind and was twisted by the government to pass an act restricting similar large gatherings, had just been held a few months prior. Nonetheless, Mixmag had their fingers on the pulse and not only considered the genre doomed but could pinpoint the exact song that sent rave music into a downward spiral.

Charly by The Prodigy is… well, I’ll allow Dom Phillips, the writer of the article, to take it from here. He described The Prodigy as “the ultimate cheesy teen rave act who burst from the big legal raves to the big legal charts by sampling Charly the cartoon cat and starting what must be the most inane sampling phase in the history of dance music”. He declared the song as “the ‘Birdie Song’ of rave”. Ouch.

The main selling-point of the song was the sampling of Charly the Cat, a character from several PSAs aimed towards children. “Always tell your mummy before you go off somewhere” is chanted by a child matter-of-factly and Charly does his signature meow. Reading it now, it may seem fairly tame and harmless, but it had adverse effects on the sound of rave very quickly.

It was a big success, debuting at No. 9 and peaking at No. 3 for two consecutive weeks. Reception was fairly positive too. NME named it Single of the Week, calling it a “pretty damn naughty techno track”. On the topic of the cartoon sample, they prophetically claim “This could be a good or bad thing as hundreds of bedroom samplers go scouring old BBC soundtrack films/ records for all sorts of gems. Let’s hope it gets people thinking about their tracks as well” (foreshadowing alert!).

Thus brought on the inevitable imitators, waiting to leech off their success. A new subgenre was born: toytown techno. This consisted of samples of theme tunes from popular children’s shows and games. Everything from Thunderbirds to Tetris was stripped of their innocent connotations and slapped on an oons-oons beat for a fast buzz and a quick buck. “Why do you think people are slapping all these cartoon samples on rave tracks?”, pondered Mixmag, “It’s only so we can differentiate between them. So we can go into Woolworths on Saturday and ask for “that Sesame Street record.”

It was in fact that Sesame Street record that may have been the last straw. Sesame’s Treet by Smart E’s peaked at number 2 on the British charts. They featured on Top of the Pops , with a talent show-esque stage presence consisting of children singing “can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street!” and the leader of the group grooving along in full 90s-floppy-curtain-hair glory. And, as the performance finished, ravers hung their bucket-hat-clad heads in shame. Maybe it was true. Maybe rave really was dead.

“Face it, rave is dead and twitching in the gutter and the life is dripping out of it like the grease drips out of a large doner. The whole nasty shebang is creaking to an end, and the kick in the face that put rave permanently on the pavement came from ‘Charly’. Once the mischievous fun of acid had developed into loony tunes, it was all over. Did ‘Charly’ kill rave? Yes. Yes it did. Even if The Prodigy never meant to.”

The parallels between the fiasco of rave and today’s music are clearly visible. The use of samples in a bid to be the next hit song can be seen in both genres. Unimaginative samples have become a pervasive part of pop and rap as of recent, from “Doja” by Central Cee, David Guetta’s recent string of classic song botch jobs, “First Class” by Jack Harlow, “Barbie World” by Nicki Minaj (her most recent album is chockablock with audacious samples) and many, many more. We haven’t been able to escape the parasitic samples from children’s shows either, as shown by Ice Spice’s “Bikini Bottom” (although not technically a sample, the song is quite transparent in its intentions to become the TikTok Meme Of The Week to satisfy a boardroom somewhere). This trend has been particularly egregious recently through the abundance of sped-up audios and remixes continuously rolling down the algorithm assembly-line. The lifecycle of hit songs gets shorter and shorter. Another remix, another repeat, another recycled tune. No one wants to be the one to create something new.

“Virtually no-one making rave records imagines they will still be making them in five years time. Compare that attitude with those making house, soul, disco or even pure techno. Rave has gone up a blind alley.”

It would be unfair to call pop “dead”. Pop is struggling with the effects of the pandemic, the new challenges brought on by TikTok and the decaying of traditional forms of pop media such as radio and MTV. The samples are being used as an easy way to achieve a top hit in a transitional period. And I can’t say I’m immune to the sampling wave either, as Troye Sivan’s Got Me Started (which samples Bag Raiders’ Shooting Stars) and YT’s #PURRR (which samples Poker Face) have been on constant repeat since I first listened to it.

And what about rave? Although it may never reach the peak it had in the 90s, it has nonetheless been able to survive through the years. It’s having a bit of a renaissance as of late thanks to the virality of the Y2K aesthetic, the freedom that came after lockdown and the lack of nightclubs and discos for the youth of today. Between 2011 and 2021, the UK has lost a quarter of its already dwindling number of nightclubs. Therefore, people have opted to attend illicit raves in warehouses, fields and everywhere else. It’s a perfect storm for a new generation to participate in the illegal raves of yore.

Another Remix

We can also see its rise in the Planet Rave Spotify playlist. Encompassing a large variety of electronic music that isn’t limited to Y2K inspired rave music, it has quickly become one of the fastest-growing playlists on the site among 18-24 year olds. It also has a 55 percent female listenership as well as an average of 80 percent female artists (according to TeenVogue), reinforcing the idea that the future really is female. Zoomers have been pivotal in the recent renaissance of jungle and drum n bass, as new artists such as PinkPantheress, Nia Archives and Dazegxd rise to the forefront of electronic music. So, this seemingly unnecessary rise of samples in the pop music we know and love is nothing new. Rave music of the 90s had been doing it to the extremes before the interpolations of today’s music. In the capricious pop scene of our times, the future can be uncertain, but I’ll be waiting until Drake samples Paw Patrol before calling music doomed (foreshadowing alert!)

Another Repeat Another Recycled Tune

Who’s THAT Girl?

The Making of the Queen of Pop

by Martina Corella Oliver

What elements may one find when dissecting the pop girl? Perhaps the secret resides in a signature look, such as Ariana Grande’s ponytail silhouette that graces a significant number of Halloween costumes every year. Or maybe in the catchy tunes that block each other in the Billboard charts – and, most recently, fight for TikTok virality. Maybe it’s in the glittery outfits (who doesn’t want Sabrina’s heart cut-out bodysuit, even if our lives are too uninteresting to ever include an occasion to wear it?). Or perhaps the secret ingredient is the ability to keep the tabloids talking. Either way, it’s an undeniable reality that everybody loves pop girls. It’s in their magnetism, originality, absolute control over the image they project, curated perfection or imperfection, manifested confidence and glitz and glam that they exude whenever they go onstage. And anyone’s arguments against that go out the window when you bring up the recently exponentially in creased although long-lasting ‘Swift mania’ that came over the world.

But before the Selenas, Beyoncés and Rihannas there was someone else. Not the inventor of the genre by any means, but someone who, coming out of an amateur dance troupe in New York, managed to snatch the crown of pop and, in my opinion, has yet to give it back. That is, of course, Madonna, otherwise pretty unanimously called the Queen of Pop. Not only is she the quintessential popstar, but she also exemplifies the self-made American myth: daughter of immi grant parents, brought up in Detroit and into superstar dom pretty much overnight.

Her dance skills, daring personality and edgy rocker chick style that now covers the shelves of Halloween costume stores mislabelled as a generic ‘80s’ soon stole the hearts of the younger generations – not without, like pretty much every pop act to come, judgemental looks from elders. She, like most singers nowadays, diversified her career making the jump to the big screen, combining iconic characters with mediocre skill to generate cult classics now watched by nostalgia-seekers. Although not naturally a blonde, she soon cemented her signature look – the short light hair, red lip and recognizable mole, no doubt inspired by the likes of Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe, and that has gone on to be referenced by countless others. Labelled ‘the queen of reinvention’, she followed in Bowie’s footsteps creating characters and personas for her albums, and switching up her sound every couple of years, adapting to the trends and keeping audiences interested. Sounds familiar? I would say Taylor Swift has done a pretty good job at incorporating this very concept into her music. She was more of a performer than a singer, that is for sure, but perhaps that is exactly what the public was looking for. But fame is not controversy, and the key to her success, in my opinion, is her skill for utilising scandal as a selling point and a way to seek a predecessor of what we now call ‘virality’. Just imagine the shock if Britney Spears had pretended to masturbate on her first widely televised performance on MTV. Picture for a moment the news coverage that Taylor Swift would have if she almost got arrested and excommunicated for, you you guessed it, doing the masturbation act again, this time in Rome – at the doorstep of the Pope ́s house,

so to speak. What about if Sabrina Carpenter made an anti-racist music video performing inside a church and kissing a black figure of a saint? Okay, that one might not be as far-fetched after the Feather music video release, but my point still stands. Or if Selena Gomez, who started out as an idol for teenagers, not only starred in an erotic thriller but also released a coffee table book with 18+ pictures of herself. Well, all of those are things that Madonna did back in the 80s and 90s, without mentioning the AIDS advocacy she did at a time when the disease was considered heavenly punishment, or the music video where she makes out with both men and women, or the cultural impact the Madonna-Britney-Christina kiss had at the VMAs... That is not to say she hasn’t been deservedly criticised at times. She has, like most celebrities, had some questionable takes that I do not claim to defend. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that she has, from her stance of privilege as a rich white-woman, at least helped tear down some barriers and standards to which female popstars were held. She has always, in her 40 years of career, been unapologetic for better or for worse.

When it comes to her music, she has been a hit-maker more so than a trendsetter. That has not always been the case – Ray of Light, for example, is a great example of originality. Most of the time, however, she worked on encapsulating the sounds of a decade – to great success until the early 2000s, not so much right now. Her songs sound dated soon after release until they become nostalgic and regain playability. They are, if nothing else, sticky, although this doesn’t mean all of them lack meaning. Papa Don’t Preach, What It Feels Like For A Girl and In My Life are some examples of timeless songs with solid lyricism that tackle complex issues.

What prompted this article in the first place was that I recently had the pleasure to attend her ‘Celebration’ Tour that honours four decades of her music – a double-the-Eras tour if you will - and was quite frankly blown away by the staging and the show she was able to put on. Two hours and a half with dozens of dancers and different sets, from floating platforms to lighting the stage on fire and a cover of ‘I Will Survive’ all of this with live vocals, prove that at 65 she is still well-able to give peak pop girl energy. The stadium was packed, showing that, although her audience may have grown up, she is far from forgotten or faded into a mythical figure – in fact, she had to add a second date in the city I saw her due to tickets selling out in minutes. And through all the different messages carried through the tracks, one managed to stand out: that, in her career, her biggest achievement has been to stay. Even when she was told she was too much, was past her peak, too old and not pretty or youthful enough anymore, she refused to be old news and always, always came back. As she said it herself, she will always find another way, because it is not yet her time to go, and I believe that is an important lesson in leaving a legacy behind for the pop girls of today.

McCarthyism, Communists and the Lavendar Scare

How ‘Fellow Travelers’ reveals the truth behind a time in US history no one is talking about.

by Julie Cukier

Communism, Capitalism, Arms Race, the atomic bomb, and the Détente are all words we have heard of today. History classes teach us about the conflict between East and West, the propaganda that was led on both sides, and the elaborate network of espionage during the Cold War. We learn about the Red Scare, and the tensions the political climate created within society, ripping families apart, and fuelling the minds of everyone with suspicion. But what about the Lavender Scare? What about every LGBTQ+ person who lost their job, any future career prospects, or even their life between the 1950s and the 1980s? We have collectively forgotten about this part of history and have deemed it irrelevant, disregarding the drastic consequences the period had on thousands of innocent people.

This is what Ron Nyswaner uncovers in his 2023 tv show Fellow Travelers, an adaptation of the 2007 book by Thomas Mallon. Starring Matt Bomer (as Hawkins Fuller) and Jonathan Bailey (as Tim Laughlin), the episodes span from the beginning of the Lavender Scare to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. The show revolves around the relationship between Hawkins and Tim, starting in 1952, when Tim is hired as an intern for the US diplomatic offices in Washington DC, while Hawkins works for the State Department. The same year, Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected US president, and the Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy gained popularity by spreading moral panic about Communists infiltrating the US government.

Parallel to the conspiracy that hundreds of diplomats were Soviet spies, the idea was suddenly spread that queer people, especially gay men, were threatening the federal workforce and should not be allowed to be involved in any US government or military activity. In this climate, Tim and Hawkins embark on a steamy, complicated relationship, and must hide their identities to keep their

professional positions. Hawkins, a World War Two veteran, stays in the diplomatic corps, marries his childhood friend Lucy, and remains closeted until the 1980s, when, for the first time, he calls Tim “the man he loves” in front of his daughter. On the other hand, Tim, who’s initially very vocal about his religious beliefs, grows into an activist, both during the Vietnam War and the AIDS crisis, and turns his focus towards creating change, especially in favour of the queer community in the US. While Tim is arrested and put into federal jail in the 1960s for protesting the Vietnam War, and increasingly criticises the US government’s actions, Hawkins hides his identity and his private life throughout his entire career, always choosing to comply with ideologies spread within his work environment. They are forced to live apart, but repeatedly find their way back to each other as the years go by, never able to truly let go of each other, but always keeping their relationship hidden. It is only at the peak of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s that Hawkins starts to accept his sexuality, as well as his feelings for Tim.

In 1950, the investigative group called the Hoey Committee, set up a report entitled “Employment of Homosexuals and other Sex Perverts in Government”, which meant to evaluate the security threat that LGBTQ+ people were allegedly posing to Washington DC. This later led to Eisenhower signing an Executive Order in 1953, banning anyone suspected of identifying as queer from working for any areas within the federal government, especially the military force.

In episode 4 of Fellow Travelers, we follow Hawkins who, like many others, is put under close observation, and is forced to answer intrusive questions about his private life with the use of a polygraph. A special unit, the M Unit, was even set up at the time, and was responsible for the systematic removal of people that were suspected to identify as LGBTQ+. Real evidence was not required for investigating employees, for instance, some women were fired for not wearing enough makeup, which was enough “proof” for being a lesbian. McCarthy directly linked Communism to homosexuality, publicly stating that gay people were suffering from “peculiar mental twists”, which would consequently make them susceptible to Communist ideas. As a result of this unfounded fear of homosexuality, thousands were denounced as “deviants”, “subversives”, and “sexual perverts”, accusations that not only led to humiliation, and social exclusion, but also a sudden rise in suicide rates.

In the fourth episode, the investigator casually informs Hawkins that, at the time, they were on average experiencing one resignation a day and one suicide a week in the government offices, which was a direct consequence of McCarthyism and Eisenhower’s Executive Order. In the end, over 5000 people were removed from federal activities during the period of the Lavender Scare, and the Executive Order was not revoked until the 1980s.

While the tv show covers a range of topics like mental health, race, religion, police violence, suicide, co-dependency, sex, privilege, and sickness, the first episodes’ focus on the Lavender Scare is essential in uncovering the history of many destroyed lives in the 1950s. As we follow the increasingly different lives of Tim and Hawkins, we realise the lasting effects this period in history had on the queer community in the US, preventing some from ever becoming at ease with their sexuality or gender expression. At the same time, Tim and other characters in the show represent those who, after the 1950s, increasingly expressed their anger through protests and became essential in the fight for equality and for LGBTQ+ rights in the US. The show embarks the viewer on a heart-breaking, but beautiful journey through a forgotten time in history, focussing on the individual lives of a group of different people, who are tragically united through the challenges they must face in an environment that does not acknowledge their existence. If you haven’t watched it by now, I strongly recommend taking the time to do so, and if I can give you some advice before – make sure to have the tissues ready, you’re in for an emotional rollercoaster.

From Pop Culture Sentation to Oscar Dominance

by Ben Campbell

Overthe summer, Barbenheimer was credited as having “saved cinema”. In a time when Hollywood was reeling from a brutal string of flops (“The Flash”, “Fast X”, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and “Indiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny” all lost their respective studios millions), as well as the SAG-AFTRA strikes halting Hollywood production altogether, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” saved Hollywood from themselves. Both films demonstrated the power that creative risks, original storytelling and good old fashioned star power can have on the movie going public. Grossing a collective 2.4 billion dollars at the box office (959.9 million for “Oppenheimer” and 1.446 billion for “Barbie”), their critical and financial success was something that Hollywood has not seen since “Avengers Endgame” in 2019, and something that has never been seen for two Best Picture nominees released on the exact same day. So yes, not only did Barbenheimer “save cinema”, but they have also been dominating awards season this far, so let’s look at the snubs and surprises of the Oscar nominations, and how many awards Barbenheimer will be able to take home.

To the surprise of almost nobody, the 2024 nominees for Best Picture is probably the best lineup of films nominated in the category in decades. Aside from “Maestro”, each of these films are stunning and must-see pictures that bring a new definition to the word “cinema”. So, will either “Barbie” or “Oppenheimer” be able to take home the top prize? Well, the answer is certainly, as “Oppenheimer” is a shoo-in to take home this award as well as prizes such as Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Editing - need I go on? There is also a very strong chance that Cork’s very own Cillian Murphy could take home the award for Best Actor as well, which would give “Oppenheimer” a clean sweep at the Academy Awards. However, he now finds himself in a strong contest with Paul Giamatti from Alexander Payne’s gem “The Holdovers” for that prize, as Giamatti recently took the Critics’ Choice Award over Murphy. Both men gave career defining performances and it is still very much a two-horse race, and I’m sure all of Cork will be watching to see if he can take home the gold on Oscar night.

So, with all this talk of “Oppenheimer” taking up to potentially eight Oscars, the question now is - what about “Barbie”? Well, this is where we need to address some snubs. While “Barbie” did indeed score eight Oscar nominations, there were two notable emissions that almost everyone was discussing.

First, Greta Gerwig was snubbed for Best Director for the film, which she deserved a nomination for. However, the outrage over Gerwig missing her nomination for director overshadowed two important things. One, Greta Gerwig and her husband Noah Baumbach (writer/director of 2019’s “Marriage Story”) did in fact earn a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay - and both are incredibly likely to win that Oscar. Don’t forget, Greta Gerwig is an exceptional writer, having written all the films she has directed thus far, and her winning this Oscar will be a worthy reward for her culture-defining work. Secondly, Gerwig missing this Best Director nomination completely overshadowed the fact that Justine Triet, director of the best film of 2023 “Anatomy of a Fall”, did in fact earn a nomination for Best Director, an incredible achievement for a female director of an international film. Triet’s film is like “Barbie” in many ways, tackling gender dynamics within society in a thrilling and powerful way, and her nomination deserves the recognition that she was robbed of due to Gerwig’s snub.

As for Margot Robbie being snubbed for Best Actress, there are simply no words. Yes, Robbie is nominated as a Producer for “Barbie” in the Best Picture category, but her work as an actress in the film is so criminally overlooked. Robbie strikes the perfect balance between comedy, drama, emotion all while bringing a literal doll to life - any other actress could absolutely not have pulled off what Margot Robbie accomplished in the film, and to see her snubbed for the likes of Annette Benning in “Nyad” (I adore Annette Benning, but “Nyad” just isn’t it), really stung. But Margot Robbie still has eight reasons to smile, as the film that she and Greta Gerwig built from an obscure project announced years ago to a groundbreaking, record smashing success for not just women in Hollywood in front of the camera, but those behind the camera too.

The legacy of “Barbie” - which will undoubtedly walk away with the Oscars for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Original Song and likely Best Adapted Screenplay - will be felt within Hollywood for decades to come.

In conclusion, the 2024 Oscars are going to be the Barbenheimer awards. Some other films will take some awards home (“The Holdovers”, “Anatomy of a Fall”, “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Poor Things” are all top contenders) but when it comes to the top prizes, Hollywood is looking to pay a debt of gratitude to Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan by showering both their films in Oscars that they can add to their repertoire of achievements. It’s clear now more than ever that the smashing success of Barbenheimer has changed Hollywood forever. People want original, creative stories that excite them and that haven’t been made before. Both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” broke so many boundaries that the industry had been too cowardly to break themselves, and as a result both Hollywood and yes, the Oscars, are going to be irrevocably changed thanks to the smashing success of these films that would both be worthy of the accolade: “Best Picture”.

With Thanks To

Pop Off!

Jodie Lyne

Fionnan Sheehan

Charlie Cullinane

Daithí Nolan

Carl Dwyer Murray

Kate Horgan

Caoimhín O’Keeffe Ioiart

Alex Kiely

Jack Rainey

Ellie Murray

Josh Prasad