When a song ascends from momentary popularity to pop culture artifact, it goes through a process of semantic satiation. The words stop making sense, the writing stops mattering, preconceived feelings on its performer don’t register and enjoyment is derived more from the spirituality of the song’s collective familiarity than the quality of the song itself. Miley Cyrus’ 2013 comeback single “We Can’t Stop” is a great example.      

         The song was never popular for its uncanny mismatch of Ke$ha style party-girl lyrics and piano balladry, with a descending chord progression that wouldn’t feel out of place on a child-friendly friendship ballad. Instead, the over-publicized reinvention of the child star turned trainwreck was so hard to turn away from that the song’s worst lyrics (including “we run things, things don’t run we” and “can’t you see it’s we who own the night, can’t you see it we who ‘bout that life?”) and faux-rebellious persona were no match for the radio play a song this controversial could have. Her follow up single, “Wrecking Ball,” another ballad significantly stronger in writing and vocals yet distractingly overproduced, met a similar fate as the then-still barely out of her Disney darling phase Miley Cyrus swung naked on a wrecking ball and licked a sledgehammer in its music video.

          It would take four years for Cyrus to abandon this image, but in that time those two songs simultaneously became larger than Miley herself and impossible to separate from the antics of the twerking provocateur (who could forget the MTV performance?). Over the past two years, however, Cyrus seems to be just as focused on cementing her status as a top tier performer as she was being a sexual symbol in 2013 and, say what you want about her personality in the media, it’s working. With the release of “ATTENTION: Miley Live,” that has never been more apparent.

       For nearly an hour and a half Cyrus flexes her vocal muscles on tracks that span all throughout her career. While 13 years is far too young to call a song old, Cyrus is at such a different place now than she was in 2009 that performing any of her pre-Bangerz material feels like she’s digging up relics of the past. This feeling is prevalent on “See You Again,” here mashed with Cher’s “Bang, Bang,” and “7 Things,” which are enjoyable almost as much for repackaged nostalgia as they are for catchy choruses, and feeling the energy of the crowd around her makes living through her Hannah Montana era not a required experience for this phenomena. “Party In The USA,” which is as loved today as it was in 2009, meets the same fate as she closes the concert with an extended seven-minute jam version of the hit, letting the crowd sing chunks of the song and the band play her out impressively.

       Rarely does a bad song become a good one, with the exception of “Bangerz,” which is transformed into a dance punk rager. Its braggadocio is far more convincing with yelled lyrics over chunky guitars than rapped verses over weak synths. However, she often brings out the power in previously mediocre songs. The mashup of “Wrecking Ball” and Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” turns the former’s emotional impact up with live instrumentation and Cyrus’ matured vocals, and as she channels Sinead O’Connor’s iconic performance of the latter she puts both songs in the same league of heartbreak and triumph. “The Climb” is perhaps the most powerful example. She extends the country ballad into an Aerosmith style power ballad. Her vocals, which have had 13 years to mature in tone, dynamics and volume since the release of the track, soar over the pummeling drums and guitars. It’s a shockingly large improvement on an already powerful, if not cheesy song. And then there’s the case of “We Can’t Stop,” which she uses to open the concert up (with a surprising transition into the Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind”). No live performance can save the song from its clunky mix of styles, but Miley singing it at this point in her career, nearly a decade on from her reinvention, carries a mix of self-awareness, evolution, maturity and acknowledgment of her place in popular culture.

        It’s hard to think about any reservations on the tune itself as a crowd of thousands sings a song that likely played a significant role in their childhoods. This is where musical semantic satiation hits, but instead of perceiving the songs as meaningless sounds, they’re perceived as significant moments in culture, ones that unite everyone in the audience through the collective joy of whatever the hell the tune is about. At that point, does it matter if the song is good?

With COVID slowly and unsurely becoming less of an obstacle for social gatherings, concert season is finally coming back into almost full swing for the spring ‘22 semester. While there are so many to keep track of, here are a small selection of 12 concerts to look out for.

Hippo Campus at the Pageant

Supporting their upcoming album “LP3,” out February 4th on Grand Jury Music, the five-piece Saint Paul pop outfit Hippo Campus will be at the Pageant to share songs from what has been described as “their strongest and most complete work yet.” Indie pop up and comer Jelani Aryeh will be opening for this tour.

Monday, February 21 | $25

Ghost at Chaifetz Arena

Right in our own backyard, one of the 2010’s best displays of metal music and camp in general, Ghost, will be supporting their upcoming album “Impera” in late February. Until then, make sure to stream the album’s lead single “Call Me Little Sunshine” for maximum enjoyment of a concert you won’t even need a ride to.

Monday, February 21 | $42.50

Parquet Courts at the Pageant

After the bold sonic detours of 2021’s “Sympathy for Life,” this tour will likely see post-punk band Parquet Courts’s most extravagant and groovy shows to date. With the emphasis on groove of their last record and the classic post-punk sound of their back catalog, Parquet Courts is sure to put on a varied show of fan favorites and their newer material. Tuareg musician Mdou Moctar will be opening with songs from their critical success “Afrique Victime,” which is reason enough for a ticket.

Saturday, March 5 | $26

Ty Segall at Off Broadway

Ever-prolific lo-fi rock one-man-band Ty Segall will be spending one night of his “solo tour” at Off Broadway. What does a Ty Segall “solo tour” consist of, you may ask? As Segall himself describes it, “Ty Segall solo loud drum machine delay twin amp Travis bean freak out.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Sunday, March 6 | $26

Caroline Polachek at Delmar Hall

While “PANG,” Caroline Polachek’s solo debut, is two years old, it seems that the pop music community is still grappling with its magic, and her show at Delmar Hall in March is not one to miss for fans of pop music in any capacity. Following her 2021 single “Bunny Is A Rider,” which Pitchfork named their #1 song of the year, stepping into Polachek’s world will be a transcendent experience for everyone in the audience.

Thursday, March 10 | $25

Cannibal Corpse at Red Flag

For fans of music’s harsher, faster and more visceral genres, death metal pioneers Cannibal Corpse will be at Red Flag for a show that is sure to be well worth the hearing loss. With a stacked lineup of three bands with their own spins on death metal, Whitechapel, Revocation, & Shadow Of Intent, make sure you have your earplugs handy at the door.

Monday, March 21 | $27.50

Yves Tumor at Old House Rock

Shapeshifting powerhouse Yves Tumor will bring their effortless blends of rock, psychedelia, soul and various forms of experimental music and electronica to Old House Rock in March, following their 2021 EP “The Asymptomatic World.” Their dynamic, powerhouse performances are as expansive as their non-genre-defined discography, making March 25th a night to clear your calendar.

Friday, March 25 | $25

Bright Eyes at the Pageant

Bring the tissues and an appetite for the melodramatic because one of the 2000’s most iconic folk acts, Bright Eyes, will be at The Pageant at the end of March following their latest record, 2020’s “Down at the Weeds, Where the World Once Was.”

March 30 | $39.50

The Flaming Lips at the Pageant

Following their 2020 studio album “American Head” and last years collaborative Nick Cave covers album with singer-songwriter Nell Smith, “Where the Viaduct Blooms,” one of indie pop’s most recognizable groups, the Flaming Lips, will be taking their psychedelia to the Pageant for a colorful night of delay and distortion on their American Head Tour. Indie rock band Heartless Bastards will be supporting them on this tour.

Monday April 4 | $45

Cat Power at Red Flag

Earlier this month, slowcore icon Cat Power put out her new covers record, aptly titled “Covers,” where she shared her takes on songs by the likes of Jackson Browne, Lana Del Rey, Nick Cave and more. No stranger to intimate shows, the chance to hear Chan Marshall’s voice in person is not one to miss for fans of classic alternative music.

Monday, April 25 | $39.50

Screaming Females at Off Broadway

On their Spring 2022 tour, the critically lauded punk trio Screaming Females will be spending the 10th night of their 15 day tour at Off Broadway on Lemp Avenue. The band’s last studio album was 2018’s “All At Once,” where they fine-tuned their knack for catchy hooks and chemistry as a band. See them in action for an energetic Tuesday night.

Tuesday, April 26 | $16

Destroyer at Blueberry Hill

Delmar Loop’s iconic Blueberry Hill will be hosting sophistipop singer-songwriter Dan Bejar’s Destroyer at the end of April. In support of their upcoming record, “LABYRINTHITIS,” out this March, seeing one of the most beloved indie-pop acts of the 2000s and 2010s will be quite the treat come finals time.

Friday, April 29 | $22

The word “harrowing” is typically reserved for genres of music with the most violent payoff, be it extreme forms of metal or harsher avant-garde genres like power electronics. But rap duo (if you can call them that) Injury Reserve’s latest album embodies that word through their twisting of familiar sounds past their points of recognition. Where fans of the group are used to experimental production hidden behind traditional song structures, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” has lost all of the band’s accessibility and knack for hooks that made popular tracks like “Jailbreak the Tesla” and “Oh Shit” so memorable.

An impromptu DJ set from their 2019 tour laid the groundwork for this new sound, and it maintains that improvisational feeling. To the untrained ear, it may feel less like traditional music and more like eavesdropping on something you wish you could unhear, like a rare glimpse into a musical womb, a fetal state between feeling and song. Group member and producer Parker Corey’s instrumentals feel cut off from the final steps between sound construction and song assembly. The result is a sound as dizzying as its themes of loss, social upheaval and mental unrest.

But before fans get used to this ground-breaking style and fusion of genres, they have to grapple with the band’s shorter lineup after the death of key member Stepa J. Groggs in 2020, a topic remaining rapper Ritchie with a T is upfront about. However, it doesn’t consume the despondency of the album by itself. As the band states, much of this album was started with Groggs before his passing, and these themes were present on the album before then. They also decided to fully lean into Groggs’ constant insistence to “make some weird shit” in his honor.

So, while Groggs is gone, his voice is present if you know where to look for it, most notably on the lead single “Knees.” Over five minutes, a warped sample of noise rock band Black Midi’s “Sweater” repeatedly crashes into itself. Ritchie and Groggs use this cushion of havoc to rant ramblings between resemblances of a hook, repeating “knees hurt when I grow, and that’s a tough pill to swallow.” Their vocals sound as broken as the instrumental, consumed in the bottles they “keep killing.”

Though the vibe is destructive throughout, its impact ranges from harrowing to haunting. The performers are manic, and many listeners’ attempts to make sense of the music are reflected by the band’s attempts to make sense of their crumbling world. When they’re not trying to find the elephant in the room, as they state in the opener, “Outsider,” they’re already talking to it, from addressing our society’s widespread paranoia on “Wild Wild West,” through allusions to 5G towers, to the self-obsessed aspects of growing up on “Postpostpartum.” It’s most haunting moments are found on “Top Picks For You,” where minimal synth lines paint a backdrop for Ritchie finding Groggs through the algorithms on the technology he left behind: “Grab the remote, pops up something you would’ve watched… your patterns are still in place and your algorithm is still in action.”

Every theme explored carries the weight of being dropped into the middle of a conversation between the band and the elephants themselves, grabbing them by their tusks and staring into their eyes. As it is often said, “the first step in fixing a problem is admitting you have one.” Injury Reserve shows us the fixing before showing us the problem. After all of this one-sided discussion, the haunting closer, “Bye Storm,” comes to an anticlimactic conclusion that has as much impact as everything that came before: “it rains, it pours, but, damn, man, it’s really pourin’.”

As the record closes, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” successfully takes listeners into this distressing place and lets us watch from a close distance as they toss these ideas around, pleading for their meaning. These questions barely find answers, but the uncertainty might be the very thing that keeps the record from failing. It beautifully reminds us that the hardest times breed the hardest questions, and sometimes the most logical thing to do is to let them consume you for however long it takes.

New Zealand’s pop princess Lorde shifted the course of Gen-Z pop in 2013 when her inescapable debut single “Royals” led to a cult classic debut record. “Pure Heroine,” however, was where the sixteen-year-old found herself in the same emotional positions as her teenage audience over slower, moodier and more left-field production than her contemporaries. Even eight years later, standout cuts “Tennis Court” and “Ribs” haven’t met their match with songs that better describe the numbed disquietude of her generation and fears of growing up nearly every teenager relates to. Though the vocals and minimal production didn’t fit quite snugly on the radio next to the popular arena-sized pop at the time, fans understood it enough to make 2017’s “Melodrama” the most anticipated album of that year. In a bold move towards maximalism, it made its case for the best pop album of the 2010s upon release, building on the themes of her debut and fitting them into a loose narrative that struck fans and critics as life-affirming.

With her 3rd album, “Solar Power,” the moonlit catharsis of that project has passed through the night, with Lorde switching out her party fits for sun-dresses and swimsuits, opting for sun-kissed adult-oriented pop a-la Natasha Bedingfield, early Nelly Furtado and Sheryl Crow. The result is a somewhat forced summer record dried up by its own sun rays. The closest she comes to her own “Soak Up The Sun” is through the title track, which perfects a formula most of the record failed. Lorde’s loose interpolation of George Michael’s “Freedom 90,” set to an intimate acoustic guitar and a luscious instrumental flourish at the end, is a beach-day invitation dressed up in flower crowns and grass skirts. Citing LEN’s “Steal My Sunshine” as an influence, it’s the summer anthem of 2021. As the lead single, the lyrical themes of nature-oriented escapism found throughout the record make for a perfect introduction, through which Lorde offers ruminations on wellness culture, the climate crisis, fame and secrets from a girl who’s somehow “seen it all” at twenty-four. However, her instrumental focus suffers from a sun glare like a beach-day selfie.

Much of this glare can be traced back to producer Jack Antonoff’s blurry lenses. While recent releases from Clairo, Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, St. Vincent and Antonoff’s Bleachers have garnered him superstar status as a co-writer and creative force, the maximalist magic he helped conjure on “Melodrama” doesn’t transfer to this new sound, which diminishes the power of almost all of Lorde’s lyrical meditations. The existential crisis on “Stoned at the Nail Salon” turns to a passing thought through its comatose guitars and dry harmonies and the introspective love letter and aching vocals on “The Man with the Axe” dissolves like beach sand into a schoolgirl crush over its languorous waves of atmosphere. The sapless psychedelia on “The Path” and “Oceanic Feeling” make a better soundtrack to waiting for a bad edible to hit than a good trip. Occasionally, Lorde and Antonoff strike up a wonderful moment, like “Fallen Fruit,” where Lorde’s haunting lament for an inhabitable Earth places nicely over a slow build of acoustic guitars, bells and ambience. Robyn’s endearing spoken word outro on “Secrets from a Girl” is just enough personality to save the song from the record’s formula. However, save these occasionally lush, instrumentally tasteful moments and you have a record that seems to confuse the summertime euphoria with the dryness of staying out in the sun. It’s the solar sensation of chapped skin under immense heat, every drab arrangement being another hand pressing down onto your sunburnt back. Therefore, it’s no wonder what was supposed to be this summer’s go-to album was released so late in the season: it’s the perfect album to be irritated to as a burning sun overstays its welcome well into October. It has its moments, but the first thing you’ll want to do after you listen is hydrate to “Pure Shores” by All Saints.

Kristen Clark and Bethany Beal of Girl Defined have garnered a lot of enemies with their sugar-coated preachings on purity culture. Among the latest in their list of blocked Instagram accounts is a group of SLU students promoting chastity through the power of memes.

The Saint Louis Virginity Club (@sluvirginityclub) popped up on Instagram on Jan.19 with a post asking their new followers to “tag two people who want to wait till marriage with each other.” Around this time, virginity clubs were popping up at several universities, and the admins for this new page were taking matters into their own hands. Over the following week, the page gained recognition across the SLU community. Soon, students were eagerly awaiting their potential merch launch, reposting their lists of “essential dorm items to avoid sexual promiscuity” and competing for their chance at “virgin of the day.”

On the outside, it was all fun and games. However, the admins don’t entirely see it that way. The one topic they take seriously is protecting their anonymity. For this reason, their followers, including myself, only know them as admins one through eight. According to admin one, the jokes are vessels for a modern commentary on religion and purity culture. “We use humor and jokes to make our content more relatable to other students and to make the topic of purity easier to discuss without the immense pressure surrounding it.” Additionally, admin three said it is more personal than most would like to believe, saying “it’s kind of funny to make hopefully relatable jokes about our virginities.” They went on to say that “a lot of people think it is all a joke, which I guess does it an injustice, but that is on us.”

Their methods of communicating this message have taken many forms, including pie charts of the leading causes of fornication (where societal pressure ranks highest at 31.4 percent), instructions on how to prepare for the potential existence of Ryan Reynolds and lists of the most virgin states to be from. However, among the most definitive aspects of the account has been dubbed their “glitter memes.” These oversaturated, blinding edits, mostly of cartoon characters and celebrities, have become a staple in the Virginity Club’s output, often putting out ten at a time, with puns about virginity that only such minds like the Virginity Club could come up with.

“So the glitter memes didn’t really have a set inspiration to them at first, we were honestly just experimenting with different editing tools and apps,” said admin one. “One admin came up with the early glitter meme that was just a picture with some simple glittery text. From there we kept making glitter memes relating to virginity and learned how to saturate them! We actually use three different apps to saturate a glitter meme before posting!”

But while the form of their messages change from post to post, the overall satirical sentiment on remaining pure is what strings them all together. While the SLU community’s response to the page has been generally positive, as a Jesuit institution, the Catholic community has shown a mixed response. “We’ve received some harsh feedback yet we know how to stand up for ourselves,” said admin two. Admin eight recalls one particularly harsh message. “It was actually pretty mean, but I understand why they sent it.” Admin seven even remembered a message that made them cry. But offending has never been the goal. “I understand why it can be seen as offensive, but I really hope everyone knows the Virginity Club is all meant in good spirits,” said admin three. When asked about those who have criticized them, they said “your reasons are valid, but we do this so we can say, like, ‘hey, it’s cool to be a virgin.’” Admin five went on to take responsibility, “we’re sorry, we hear you and maybe need to take a second to figure out, as admins, how we can be fully responsive to the needs of the entire community,” while admin two maintained that they “are always open to addressing any concerns people have.”

Their critiques of these traditional religious values run more than skin deep, as six of the seven admins identify as Christrian, four of whom identify as Catholic. “We do make a lot of jokes but, at the end of the day, we want to combat the stigma around virginity,” said admin one. “It may appear confusing, since a lot of things we have openly voiced we believe in on our page may contradict the same literal teachings that the purity culture comes from, but we want to use our humor to make virgins feel as if they are in a safe environment.”

One of the largest voices in this environment comes from freshman Don Parker, a devout Catholic who was awarded the honorable title of “Virgin of the Year.” Parker has become somewhat of an icon in the comment sections of several meme pages on SLU’s campus, but the Virginity Club, to him, is different. “My favorite part about the club is the ambiguity,” he said. “It’s up to the individual to determine whether or not it is satire, all while promoting a respectable goal: don’t go around having irresponsible sex. I think that’s a morally responsible idea. No one wants a kid right now so why rely on a balloon? I’m slowly working on getting the admins out of their shell and making this club legit because I genuinely enjoy this community, satirical or not.” Parker also celebrated them for their inclusivity, saying “if you’ve already done the cupid shuffle you can become a ‘born again’ virgin.”

While offering a more theological perspective, sophomore Clare Ni’Shuilleabhain also approves of the page, while qualifying some of its messages. “It is a common misconception that Catholics hate sex and think it’s bad. The reality is the Catholic Church loves sex, so much so we hold it to the highest honor—an honor to be shared between two people who have committed to laying down their lives for each other.” While she worries that some young college students could read some of the jokes on the page and believe them to be true, thus causing harm to their self-worth, she says the page is no cause for concern. “I think they do a really good job at making it obviously hyperbolic. It is an account made in lightheartedness, and although I do not follow it I have laughed at some of their posts myself. I do not believe this account is evil or sinful.”

Sophomore Danielle Nixon also enjoys the page, but for different reasons, claiming that “they point out some hypocrisy and controversy that the Catholic Church, and all christianity, prioritizes virginity too much and focuses too heavily on purity culture, which perpetuates shame and can affect some people for a lifetime.” Sophomore Anastasia Hanonick, who was once awarded virgin of the day, wrote about her experience with purity culture in a recent op-ed for the University News. She also appreciates this take. “I am very much a fan of satire and I think it’s an excellent way to get people to talk about difficult concepts, especially surrounding ones that people have negatively endured. I like how they took all these terrible things I was taught as a kid and turned a huge joke out of them in the best way possible.”

But such a group does not rely on the needs of that community, as the community they’ve built around their humor has been the driving force that keeps them moving forward. “When we feel pressure to give up,” admin seven said, “we feel like we have too large of an audience to stop making content.” Admin eight even got their family on board, saying “my mom actually found out I ran the page, she’s a fan though.” Admin five cited this experience as “one of the highlights I’ve had at SLU and is something I will never forget.” Addressing their followers directly, admin one said “running this page has its ups and downs but we do this for you guys and to hopefully put a smile on your face if you are having a bad day!”

While everyone has suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic, few industries have been hit quite as hard as the entertainment industry. Last May, I sat down with Patrick Hagin, managing partner of The Pageant and Delmar Hall, to discuss the impact of the shutdowns on the concert industry in St. Louis and at large. Now, almost one year later, the pandemic is in a vastly different stage than in May, and Hagin’s comments, as well as the state of the Pageant and Delmar Hall, have also changed.

Fortunately, the tone of our most recent interview is far more optimistic than the first one. “We don’t have any plans on reopening in Delmar Hall until some time in the summer,” Hagin said, “but, at the Pageant, once we got into the late summer [of 2020] we got permission from the city of St. Louis to host some shows at a greatly reduced capacity.” While national touring is still currently prohibited, starting in mid-October 2020, the Pageant held weekend sets from local acts. While their normal capacity fits 2000 people, only 326 tickets were available for each of these shows, fitting pods of four and two people, each spread six feet apart. “That series was as successful as it could be. It’s not really a profit bank or even a breakeven project for us. However, a lot of the local artists really appreciated the chance to work and make some money, and it also kept our name out there, so from that standpoint it was successful.” Those shows are going to continue starting this April. “We’ll do that for a couple of months and just hope that if things go along and the restrictions start to ease up so we can slowly open up to larger crowds.”

But the time from now until then is hard to predict. “A lot of it depends on the rate of vaccination, a lot of it depends on the severity of any particular variant outbreak, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that by late summer we’re back to normal.” Of course, he uses the term ‘normal’ loosely. “Normal could be a full house with everyone wearing masks. Who knows?”

In May, Hagin said that artists had financial incentives to postpone their shows rather than cancel them. However, the pandemic has lasted far longer than most expected at the time, forcing many to reconsider. “There are a couple [shows] that are still on the backburner, but by the time we got into the middle of the summer [last year], most started just cancelling the shows outright. At that time in the summer there were rumors about this lasting until 2022, so I think a lot of people were just throwing their hands up.”

For the acts that are still holding onto those show spots, many are pushing off into 2022. Others are having a hard time trying to find a spot among the countless acts who plan on touring at the same time once these restrictions are lifted. “If you look at our calendar from roughly September on, every day has five or six holds on it.”

While there will certainly be a greater quantity of holds on a given spot, the industry standards on choosing who gets what date will remain the same. “You have to be fair about it,” Hagin said, referring to the process of maintaining hold statuses, where artists have their hold number based on what order they ask for it. “Normally, the first hold is there because an artist called you about that date first, but obviously it has to be appropriate. It has to be an artist who you and they believe is appropriate at your sized venue.” Beyond this, it’s a matter of who has the date first. “You do run into situations where you will have an artist who has the third or fourth hold who is potentially a better draw than the artist you have as a first hold, but you won’t last long in this business if you start cherry picking that way because then you will offend and irritate agents and management who feel like you’re not playing by the industry norms.”

An even greater challenge has been honoring fans who’ve spent money on tickets for shows that were ultimately canceled. In our last conversation, Hagin said that Delmar and the Pageant were offering 30 day refund windows after these shows were rescheduled. Unfortunately, venues haven’t been able to hold onto the revenues made by these ticket sales. “There’s been a whole lot of refunds, and that’s been a real challenge across the industry.”

Other challenges have been centered around how venues should screen attendees for symptoms upon entering a show. While Hagin is skeptical about the possibilities of having concert-goers prove their vaccination status, and predicts temperature checks will go away shortly, he does believe the mask wearing and basic questioning will persist into the near future. The main changes the Pageant will see are in their facilities. “We will most likely be installing disinfectant bipolar ionization units in our HVAC ductwork to help cleanse the indoor air.”

Still, how venues can and will combat these issues is about as uncertain as the pandemic itself.

“It’s still a little bit of the wild west out there as far as figuring out what works and what doesn’t. While the ‘hygiene theater’ is a buzzword, you don’t wanna waste money on stuff that doesn’t really do anything so you’ve gotta weed through all that to find out what you think is actually effective and what isn’t.”

Additionally, it’s hard to rely on a consistently effective routine. “We can say ‘masks are required except when actively eating or drinking.’ How do you interpret ‘actively?’ Plus, the more people drink, even if they’re completely well intentioned, the more they let their guard down. That’s why the vaccines are so important.”

Once these vaccines are fully rolled out, the shows themselves may not look the same artistically, either. In May, Hagin said that we’ll likely be seeing “less bells and whistles with the tours” once concerts are back on, with the artists stripping back to maximize profit and keep tickets at an attractive price. While he believes that to be true, he says it also depends on the genre, using country music as an example. “At our level, the average country show is more of a standard, simpler production than your average rock show. There’s not a lot of video screens, there’s not a lot of exploding pyrotechnics or anything like that with the mid-level country artists. Once you get up to the arenas it’s all on the table at that point.”

Surprisingly, government legislation has been one of the biggest contributors to venues across the country staying open long enough to even see those changes. “The Save Our Stages legislation was a monumental piece of legislation for our industry. The money still hasn’t been dispersed, we’re still waiting on that, but the legislation is there, the money is there, and the Small Business Administration (SBA) is just trying to determine the best way to deliver it.”

Two of the biggest pushers of this legislation were Democratic Minnesota Senator Amy Klobochar and Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn, making it a bipartisan effort that got signed into law in December. Part of this legislation was the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG), a program which includes over $16 billion in grants to shuttered venues, to be administered by the SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance. “Once those dollars start to flow it’s gonna rescue a lot of venues, and really that’s why I’m optimistic.”

Hagin is thankful for the government’s hand in this time. “I think that the government has done a pretty good job of taking care of people financially, I wouldn’t say great, but it’s been adequate. They’ve taken care of our employees with enhanced unemployment and by extending the unemployment multiple times to where people weren’t losing their apartment or starving, but I’m in no way glossing over the fact that a lot of people have gotten really hurt.”

Last May, Hagin asked audiences for “a little bit of tolerance” and an “understanding of the situation” as well as for us to patronize our favorite restaurants, bars and venues once they open up, stating that “the ones that are left are gonna need as much love as they can get.” While that sentiment was haunting in mid 2020, I can happily end this article with a more optimistic message.

“I think we all knew that a lot of places weren’t gonna make it, but I think now that if they got this far and they’re still here, then I think they’re in pretty good shape and there are grant programs that are going to make a lot of difference. It’s been rough, but if you’ve made it this far, you’re probably gonna get through this.”

The lead single from Dua Lipa’s highly anticipated sophomore record was released nine days after the decade anniversary of Lady Gaga’s song “Bad Romance.” Without sounding too “JFK and Lincoln,” there’s an eerie similarity between these two events. As Gaga became the world-dominating superstar she was at the time, there was a narrative shift that came with her sophomore record “The Fame Monster” catapulted by “Bad Romance” that showed Gaga as an artist willing to please the public without compromising rich talent or creativity. Ten years later, “The Fame Monster” is still considered her masterpiece.

This happened again in 2015 with Carly Rae Jepsen. The Canadian singer-songwriter was destined to be the next Madonna with the unavoidable success of “Call Me Maybe” but, at the same time, seemed unlikely to make the next “Like A Prayer.” However, “Run Away With Me” catapulted the narrative shift that came with “Emotion,” naming Jepsen a queen of pop for both indie snobs and those fans who stuck around after the mixed reception of “Call Me Maybe” and its record “Kiss.”

Toward the end of the decade, pop as a whole seemed to go through a narrative shift of its own. The internet has made it easier to make and release music now than ever before, and this resulted in a rise in people wanting to write and record pop not for a desire to please the public but for a desire to please their love for the genre. Now, it’s acceptable for anyone to stan mainstream pop artists and musicians like Slayyyter, Rina Sawayama and Kim Petras, to name a very select few, who can originate from or stay in the underground while making unapologetic pop and still be taken seriously as artists.

With all of this working in her favor, Dua Lipa entered the equation in 2017 with her hotly anticipated self-titled record, an album that showed only a slight desire to rise above her mainstream pop contemporaries. This desire was apparent on the hit songs “Blow Your Mind” and “New Rules,” and her appreciation for classic pop was displayed on her dedication to the sounds of the ’80s on tracks like “Lost In Your Light” and “Be the One.” However, these strokes of genius across the record felt more like bright pink sprinkles on a mediocre vanilla ice cream. Then, ten years after “Bad Romance,” four years after “Run Away With Me” and two years after her debut, came “Don’t Start Now.” 

It’s hard to deny just how good of a song it is, even in the midst of 2019’s generous amount of fantastic pop. Set to a great melody and fantastic hooks, Lipa and her collaborators do a lot with a little, as all she needs is a groovy bassline and basic yet punchy percussion to absolutely kill the dancefloor. It truly is deserving of a title that pop heads do not throw around lightly: pop perfection. This quality was beyond noticed by the mainstream public, but the universal critical acclaim was undeniable as history was repeating itself—this was her “Bad Romance,” and the subsequent singles were shaping “Future Nostalgia” up to be her “The Fame Monster.” With the sassy, retro futuristic title track, which has one of the most fun pre-choruses on the entire record, and the slightly generic yet similarly euphoric synth pop of “Physical,” pop heads had their mouths watering for Dua Lipa’s sophomore record.

If there’s one thing that makes itself clear with the album finally out, it’s that Lipa knew she was onto a fantastic formula that was perfected on “Don’t Start Now,” and that proves itself time and time again for better or for worse. The only slight breakaway from this tried-and-true pop formula is on the closer, “Boys Will Be Boys,” which is not only the most underwhelming tune on the project but sounds as if she threw a handful of feminist BuzzFeed articles from 2016 and power ballad cliches into a blender and out came this song.

Weak activism aside, the vast majority of “Future Nostalgia” is fine-tuned radio pop, drawing inspiration from the past sounds of the genre that have aged the best over the years. It’s a product that comes from a clear love for the genre and an appreciation of its artistic merit, and it’s through this appreciation that she occasionally finds herself emulating sounds that haven’t been dominating the charts in some time, channeling early 2000s Kylie Minogue on the house-infused “Hallucinate” and a cheeky Lily Allen on the piano-backed “Good in Bed,” often with only a fraction of the character required to make these styles click.

And that’s an issue with many of these songs—Dua Lipa does not have a distinct enough personality to make me rush back to these songs, which is unfortunate because many of the weaker parts of this record have a lot of great things going for them. However, the glamorous strings and funky bassline on “Love Again” is only a small distraction from how nondescript the performance is, even if Lipa is a great singer.

However, when this thing pops, it pops. While eerily similar in structure to “Don’t Start Now,” “Break My Heart” is another dance pop anthem destined for the dancefloor and the highlight of the second half of the record. This stripped back, drums-and-bass sound is done even more fantastically on “Pretty Please;” only, this time, the progression is stretched out across the entire track, constantly keeping you engaged as the minimal instrumental slowly adds layers of sound until you forget you were ever surrounded by such a sparse sound pallet. Once the random bits of percussion and vocal chops appear during the second half of the song, it’s pure subdued perfection.

The dance party continues with “Hallucinate,” a song that sounds like an outtake from Kylie Minogue’s “Fever” with its Daft Punk-esque instrumental, and “Levitating” is a summer night anthem calling back to ’70s-era funk in a delightfully modern way. Similarly enamoring is the sleek synth pop of “Cool,” an obvious nod to the ’80s that swaps out the danceability of the majority of the record for a much more sensual experience.

And the overall experience is quite a fun ride, one that only gets better with each listen. It’s not reinventing the wheel by any means, as it’s quite nostalgic but hardly futuristic, but it thrives on what makes pop such a universally appealing genre: fun, infectious songwriting. It not only paints a portrait of where this artist is now but also a clear way forward, displaying everything she’s doing right and everything she needs to improve on. Until she further thickens the line between an average pop star’s personality and her own, she is still yet to make her “Emotion,” “Charli” or “The Fame Monster.” But this, if not just a great record, is a stepping stone to that. For now, “Future Nostalgia” is enough to hold us over until that masterpiece.

With that being said, this album is helping confirm a theory I’ve had for the past couple of years about this decade being a golden era for commercial pop, as if fantastic releases from Kim Petras, Ariana Grande, Sigrid, Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Carly Rae Jepsen and Charli XCX from last year didn’t already.

These are artists who are doing their own thing, more in control of their music than major pop stars were a decade ago, and to name all of the mainstream and underground pop achievements in the past few years warrants an article of its own. It seems more mainstream artists are taking cues from the sounds of the underground and their most experimental and authentic contemporaries, with Dua Lipa finally added to that conversation. Will this ring true over the next 10 years? Will we have a decade as fruitful for pop music as the ’80s? All we can do now is watch, but if that is the case, Dua Lipa kicked it off fantastically.

8/10