20 of the Best New Wave Albums by Rock/Pop Artists

As the 1980s dawned and punk began to morph into #newwave, many established artists altered their style to reach new audiences. We look at 20 of them.

READ and LISTEN ⬇️

If you love Scandipop or are curious about the best Nordic pop, please follow the Scandipop list that I curate. 🇸🇪🇫🇮🇩🇰🇳🇴🇮🇸

It’s interesting that @popmatters.com continues to receive more referrals from X than Bluesky.

In fact, Bluesky has gotten less and less effective as time has gone on.

Some of our recents posts have even done better on Threads, which seems so odd.

I think it might be time to start blocking the AI bots on websites. We may very well do that at @popmatters.com.

Google has decimated the traffic of most editorial sites. Our revenue is way down as a result, and it’s simply not sustainable.

nymag.com/intelligence...

These are my Eurovision favorites:

1 🇬🇧 UK
2 🇫🇮 Finland
3 🇵🇱 Poland
4 🇸🇪Sweden
5 🇪🇸Spain
6 🇮🇸 Iceland
7 🇳🇱Netherlands

#Eurovision2025 #Eurovision

I learned on Monday that my beloved mother, Janet Kwiatkowski (Zupko), passed away in Chicago.

PopMatters is on short publishing break while we mourn.

I’ll be writing a tribute to her here soon.

The Most Memorable 1999 Albums (Part 1)

PopMatters recently turned 25, and these memorable 1999 albums celebrate the popular music that defined the year of our birth.

This is part one of five, with the installments publishing every other day.

READ: tinyurl.com/1999Albums1

From 19th-century fairy tale illustrations to Disney’s global empire, rheumatoid arthritis has evolved into a visual shorthand for evil—a medical condition transmuted into moral metaphor that resonates today.

Based on the people I’ve seen hanging out at Mar-a-Lago, the background check can’t be too extensive.

www.mediaite.com/tv/thats-an-... one Dem who gets it

MYANMAR HARDCORE REBELS CACEROLAZO AMP UP THE VOLUME FOR REVOLUTION

Born out of the chaos of post-coup #Myanmar, Burmese punk collective Cacerolazo’s debut LP rails against the brute forces of injustice and dictatorship.

READ: tinyurl.com/MyanmarPunk

Great job sucking up to Trump and getting rid of fact-checkers, Meta. (sarcasm, obviously).

The stock is dropping like a hot potato. 🤬

Our new #playlist “Best New Holiday Music” is live on Spotify. We’ll add songs as more are released. This focuses on new releases, rather than old classics. #Christmas #holidays

The 20 Best Americana Albums of 2024

#Americana has never been better with the quality of music, diversity of styles, and the artists’ demographics in terms of race, gender, and wealth.

"Putin is fighting not to conquer Pokrovsk but to destroy Ukraine as a nation. He wants to show Russians that democratic aspirations are hopeless. He wants to prove that a whole host of international laws and norms, including the United Nations Charter and the Geneva conventions, no longer matter"

'Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996' celebrates Ukrainian musicians' abilities to find alternate modes of creating in the face of Soviet state restrictions.

#PMPick [9/10] 🎉 out now via @lightintheattic.bsky.social. -
@adrianeontheair.bsky.social. #Ukraine

The 15 Best K-Pop Songs of 2024

In a year of industry shakeups and unexpected controversies, 2024's best #Kpop tracks provided a surprising degree of relief in a panoply of styles. - @sawdeye.bsky.social

Bluesky is hilariously bad at suggesting accounts. They are off the mark on every suggestion.

These #1980s music videos have not aged well, bearing a distinctive look instantly tagging them as a product of their time: tinyurl.com/Bad80sVideos