Pop Culture Primer 12.9.24
What a week, amiright? As we descend further and further into the holiday season, pop culture isn’t slowing down. We’ve got Spotify Wrapped failing to deliver, Twitter beefs, and some good old fashioned sports rivalries in this week’s primer.
Spotify Flopped
On top of it being Christmas soon, something the monoculture was really looking forward to was the 2024 Spotify Wrapped. After all, we let the internet take so much of our data—they owe us some interpretation of it, as a little treat.
But when Spotify Wrapped dropped last week, people were disappointed. Where were the top genres? Where were the quirky stats about what town we belong in? Why did everyone get PINK PILATES PRINCESS STRUT POP as part of their “Music Evolution,” whatever that means?
There were whispers that the music giant decided to go with AI to make the Wrapped this year, and it shows. On Reddit, there are whisperings that they fired the person involved in making the original Wrapped algorithm, which would track.
As Wrapped is one of the main reasons people use Spotify, we have to ask ourselves what they’ll do next year. Will they continue with their mediocre data presentation or get that human touch back in 2025?
The Girls Are Fighting Again
Oof, where to even start with this one? Frontman of The 1975 Matty Healy and rapper Azealia Banks have traded barbs on Twitter before, but they both took it to the next level last week. After coming for Healy’s fiancee, Gabriette Bechtel (of raw milk fame), Healy spouted off, threatening to slap Banks. No bueno, Matthew. The two went back and forth, and Healy also ended up threatening some random guy in the DMs. Things escalated, Banks said she was going to send him tainted drugs (Healy is a former heroin addict and has talked about his sobriety a lot), he tried to apologize in the DMs then deactivated his account, and finally, Banks doxxed his address when she posted the cease and desist she sent him. Healy took to Reddit to talk further about what happened, as you can see below.
A post Matty made on r/the1975
Post topic: Is This All Performance Art?
Clearly, both those involved were in the wrong. They took it too far, full stop. But I do like to see this self-reflection from my favorite tortured poet. Growth?
Touchdown Timothée
Timothée Chalamet: actor, singer, and now football announcer? I did not see that coming. He showed up on ESPN’s “College Game Day” as a guest analyst, and apparently the guy knows football. I’m not a sports girlie, but it looks like Chalamet has his finger on the pulse of college football, predicting several games successfully. He was the only one on the panel to predict that the Ohio Bobcats would take the MAC Championship over the Miami Redhawks.
"These teams are 2-2 in their last four matchups, and the Redhawks' defense looks good," Chalamet said. "But I'm looking at fourth-year Bobcats quarterback Parker Navarro—65% completion rate. If he can get going, he'll tilt this in favor of the Bobcats.
What can’t he do?
That’s all for this week! If there’s anything specific you want me to cover, feel free to shoot me an email!
