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Is This Thing On?: On Maroon 5 and youthfulness

Is This Thing On?: Hayley Kiyoko, exceeding expectations

Is This Thing On?: The Calvin Harris glo-up

Everybody's got their something. Especially when it comes to standing out as an electronic music producer. Since every dude with a MacBook Pro has the same software, you’ve really got to find a niche in order differentiate yourself. 

Is This Thing On?: EDM-country crossover

Welcome back to another episode of Is This Thing On? Today we have scheduled a seemingly impossible musical combination: EDM and… country? Wait, is this allowed? I never thought I would use those genres in the same sentence, but Zedd is trying to prove me otherwise.

Is This Thing On?: SZA, playing in the boys' court

A few years ago, the Daily reviewed SZA’s first album debut, "Z" (2014), claiming that if it were "a smidge more inviting, SZA would have something special on her hands." Now, I don't know if the St. Louis native has become any softer in her style, but her sophomore album, "Ctrl" (2017), is certainly something special. Sharpening up from the hazy, dreamlike quality of her first album, SZA has begun to fill out a more complex sound. Oh, and did I mention she's a total badass?

Is This Thing On?: 'Pumped Up Kicks'

Is This Thing On?: What's in a [stage] name?

Is This Thing On?: The Grammys aftermath

Is This Thing On?: What we talk about when we talk about music

Content warning: This column mentions sexual assault.

Is This Thing On?: The woman behind the curtain

What does it take to make a pop sensation today? It doesn’t hurt to coin an iconic hairstyle, date high profile celebrities, have an Ariana-octave range or score a hit song or two. See, a lot of people can sing — just ask our eight a cappella groups on campus. But the real magic of songwriting doesn’t come as easily. Many of these chart-topping pop stars today receive help in this department, working with a team of creative writers and producers to engineer their perfect, infectious hits. One woman's work has been going viral over the past few years, whether you've known it or not.

Is This Thing On? Selena Gomez has an old flame, new groove

Forget about new Taylor — has anyone been paying attention to new Selena? For a quick recap, in the past year Sel opened up about her lupus diagnosis, received a successful kidney transplant from a friend, broke up with boyfriend The Weeknd and recently is rekindling things with an old flame, none other than Justin Bieber. Phew! Gomez also sat as an executive producer on the Netflix series, “13 Reasons Why” (2017), and has also begun a new chapter in her music career. I’m beginning to feel like a broken record with all these pop artists who have “reinvented” themselves, but it looks like Selena is following suit. 

Is This Thing On? Musical landscape in motion

Is This Thing On? Meet the new queen of rap

Sitting in the second spot on the Billboard Hot 100, Cardi B’s fiery single “Bodak Yellow” (2017) packs a punch. Leaving behind her days as an exotic dancer, Cardi celebrates her life now that she has made it big. As a teen, the Bronx native used stripping as a means of supporting her family, but has since earned fame on VH1's series "Love & Hip-Hop: New York" (2011–present) and now finds herself with 17 consecutive weeks on the charts thus far. "Bodak Yellow" spent three of those in the No. 1 position, making Cardi B the first unaccompanied female rapper to achieve this peak since Lauryn Hill in 1998 with “Doo Wop (That Thing)."

Is This Thing On? Music on the brain

With the advent of the internet, we are living a huge portion of our lives online. As a result, our personal information is being tracked and recorded everywhere, all the time. If you subscribe to a music streaming service, this is especially true. Now, you might choose not to publish what you’re playing to your friends (private session for those guilty pleasures), but you are always providing this information to the streaming platform. That’s a crazy amount of data! It’s not only what you listen to, but how you listen to it. Do you find a new song and listen to it on repeat for three hours? Which songs do you skip over on shuffle, and which will you stop and rewind? Are you more likely to leave your playlist untouched, or do you obsessively curate the queue? 

Is This Thing On? Thinkin’ bout boys

Hello world! Today’s column requires some homework before you proceed, and that is watching Charli XCX’s music video “Boys” (2017). Get a cozy bathrobe and all your friends, ‘cause this one’s syrupy. If you need to watch it more than once, that’s totally fine. Same.

Is This Thing On? Spotify vs. Apple

Anyone who knows me could tell you that I am very passionate about one argument: Spotify vs. Apple Music. In economics, we often talk about substitutes, or completely interchangeable products. At face value, that's what they are. Spotify and Apple offer almost identical music-streaming services. The pricing tiers, the music available, the features... so why do people choose one over the other? I am a die-hard Spotify fan, but I wanted to find out if Apple Music had any redeeming qualities. So, I swallowed my pride and signed up for the free trial, for science of course. To compare the two, I had to dig deeper.

Is This Thing On? The power of musical activism

How would you feel if your best friend told you they didn’t vote in the last presidential election? Confused, maybe upset? Some might even ask, “Don’t we have a responsibility to use our voices?" I was reading a Tufts Observer article which asked a similar question: Do artists have a duty to be political? This could be the economics major in me speaking, but I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer. However, I think we have to consider just how these stars got to be in such a position of power in the first place. They excelled at what they set out to do: create music. However, the unfortunate reality is that as artists gain fame, their careers become so much more than their talent. If you think about indie musicians like little start-up companies, stars like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are multinational corporations. They have public relations departments, sales and marketing teams, millions of fans to consider with each strategic decision. And while I applaud artists who go the extra mile and use their stardom to see tangible results, I don’t think it’s fair to criticize those who choose to focus on their artistry. That being said, let’s take a look at an example.

Is This Thing On? Dialing into mental health with music

Hey everyone! It's only week four of the semester, but you may already be starting to feel overwhelmed — I know I am. In this vein, today's topic is a little more solemn from a lesser known rapper, Logic. When I think of Logic, I associate him with the genre of hip hop that boys in my middle school would pirate off the internet. But recently, the Beverly Hills-based artist is making waves in the music industry. While you may not be familiar with him, you may have heard his song "1-800-273-8255" (2017), which features newcomers Alessia Cara and Khalid, on the radio this summer. My first thought when reading the title on the Spotify charts was, “Wow, what a mouthful.” But a closer look at the song, which is titled after the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, identifies an artist taking a leap for pop music by taking on such a serious topic.

Is This Thing On? I miss the old Taylor

Is This Thing On? While my computer gently weeps

Greetings again! It is my last column of the semester, and I wanted to bring things full circle. I opened by introducing this as a commentary on popular music in the context of college and beyond. This is the music I will look back on with both fond memories and embarrassment and perhaps have difficulty explaining to my kids.