It is an extreme landscape of glaciers and volcanoes, of barrenness and eruptions, endless daylight in summer and mostly darkness in winter. Björk said Iceland itself, not other singers, shaped her voice. Think about the “Formation” video, in which a Black child dances in front of a line of cops wearing riot gear, or her Super Bowl halftime show, where she paid homage to the Black Panthers, or her Lemonade longform visual, in which she reimagined images of American wealth and power with Black women at the forefront. Increasingly, Beyoncé has used her art-that is, everything: the albums themselves, but also her videos, her tours, Instagram, and so on-to examine power imbalances and to show how people blanch when those imbalances are brought up to the surface for examination. Thompson wrote about Beyoncé’s instantly legendary 2018 Coachella performance: Instead, it turned out to be just the beginning of her metamorphosis into the 21st century’s most iconic pop star, one who wasn’t afraid to sing about her country’s long-standing inequalities. At the time, it seemed she’d arrived at an apex, more interested in bending the rules of pop than following them by the letter. herself, and surprise-releasing her self-titled visual album in 2013.

She became more and more restless, eventually dropping her father as her manager, taking the helm of Beyoncé Inc. Maybe we can, too.įor years, Beyoncé exceptionally followed the girl-group-leader-to-solo-phenomenon pipeline, flexing her three-octave range on collaborations with established hitmakers, plotting a transition to Hollywood, and generally making inoffensive career choices. When he says he does whatever he wants, we believe him. He’s a beacon of light in barrios around the world, an example for kids with secret skirts or Smashing Pumpkins CDs of what being yourself can look and sound like. Standing on top of the world, with access to abundant fame, wealth, and critical success, he appears free of any pressure to conform, even to previous versions of himself. As Matthew Ismael Ruiz wrote in his review of 2020’s El Último Tour del Mundo:īad Bunny toes the line between rap braggadocio and vulnerable everyman with relative ease-even while crooning about alien sex. He has also proven to be something of a pop progressive, too, whether pushing against received notions of masculinity in his eye-catching dresses, or speaking out against misogyny, homophobia, and gender violence in his songs, videos, and performances. He soon became one of the most visible and versatile figures in Latin pop, fusing reggaetón, bachata, dembow, trap, alt-rock, and more in giddily shape-shifting fashion. Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, a native of the working-class Almirante Sur neighborhood of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, was a 22-year-old college student pulling shifts at the local supermarket when his first hit, “Diles,” blew up on SoundCloud in 2016.

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