"Many of the year’s most viral moments on TikTok were derived from live shows this year: Rosalía elaborately chewing gum during her song Bizcochito, Healy relentlessly touching his crotch, Gaga belting a power ballad while wearing an Edward Scissorhands-style claw and standing on a flaming stage. Perhaps these moments are reverse-engineered to go viral?" - Guardian asks about the nature of live shows. Tobias Rylander, who designed the 1975’s At Their Very Best tour, affirms the question - he says he’s always trying to put together “a show that reads well on social media”. LeRoy Bennett says that he and Lady Gaga were “absolutely” thinking about social media when designing her latest tour Chromatica Ball. Lorde and Rosalia had similar approach with their latest tours.

"Critiquing masculinity while maintaining his position within the enduring hierarchies that put those bad boys on top, he's the one you love to roll your eyes at. He's a dirtbag, baby, in a long line of antiheroes who interrogate the shapes of male privilege from the inside, even as they benefit from its persistence" - NPR's Ann Powers writes in a great text about Matt Healy, and his latest album with The 1975, 'Being Funny in a Foreign Language'. She questions the "dirtbag": "When it comes to creating alternatives to the patriarchal status quo, men actually have to surrender some privilege, not merely question the effect an elevated status has on their own souls. This can be a painful realization, a disappointment. But it also opens up new possibilities, pointing toward a life that might be less damaging to others, and less lonely".

'Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America' by the 1975 and Phoebe Bridgers is just great (and a wee bit closer to what she usually does); 'Keep it Chill! (In the East Vill)' is a witty and thoughtful and hopeful new song by the singer and comic Jeffrey Lewis; instrumental trio GoGo Penguin shared their beautiful and meditative 'Kora'; the indie-star of the moment Waxahatchee covered Caroline Polachek's 'So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings'; Orville Peck released his first Columbia song 'Summertime' about "biding your time and staying hopeful"; Andrew Bird's 'Capital Crimes' touches the issue of giving IQ tests to death row inmates, whose life was spared if they scored below 70; The Tallest Man on Earth beautifully, of course, plays and sings the folk song 'Mole in the Ground'; Purity Ring's 'I Like the Devil' is piano-driven, dark electro-pop with a great video (below); 'Chosen Family' by Rina Sawayama is a grandiose ballad, which is rarely a good direction, but in this case it's a nice, catchy song with an important message; remember rap-metal? - Kool Keith and metal duo Thetan have a new take on it, with dark and slow 'Let's Take a Trip'; Thao and the Get Down Stay Down shared a psychedelic alter-pop song 'Phenom' with a video shot entirely within Zoom; 'Rider' is lush and dramatic, but Skylar Gudasz’s voice would be more than enough to dedicate two minutes for her new song; black metal turned trip hop turned synthpop band Ulver shared their new song 'Little Boy', presumably about the atomic bomb; "the drums and the bassline and the rhodes and the synths and the horns and the strings!!!" - RJD2 said about his new song '20 Grand Palace', and he's right.

The English pop-rock band have pledged to no longer play festivals that have too few female artists on the bill. Singer Matty Healy made the promise to Guardian journalist after this year's Reading and Leeds festivals were criticised for a gender imbalance. Only 20 of the 91 acts on the initial line-up are women, which made the journalist ask Healy to promise not to play festivals with far too few women, to which he agreed saying "people need to act, not chat".

London rapper Dave has won the 2019 Mercury Prize with his debut album 'Psychodrama', a critically acclaimed concept album about mental health, relationships and social conditions. This year the Mercury shortlist was just great: 1975‘s 'A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships', slowthai‘s 'Nothing Great About Britain', black midi‘s 'Schlagenheim', Little Simz‘s 'GREY area', Foals‘ 'Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1', Nao‘s 'Saturn', IDLES‘ 'Joy as […]

NME really likes "blistering guitar riffs and yelping vocals" of political dance-punk by The 1975 in 'People', as well as "sunshine-laced instrumentals" with "dark lyrics" by Bakar in 'Hell 'N Back', and "fearless guitars and galloping rhythms" by Los Blancos in 'Dilyn Lesu Grist'. Brooklyn Vegan makes a broader choice, as usual. They've got "cold […]

Matt Healy of the band the 1975 went into the crowd at their concert in Dubai on Wednesday and kissed a male fan on the lips. Homosexual sex is illegal in the United Arab Emirates and there have been arrests in the past for kissing in public. Videos shared online showed the band playing onstage […]

"The rap, grime and future R&B (Nao, slowthai, Little Simz, Dave) represented the most incisive rising British talent, the guitar rock (Idles, Fontaines D.C., Black Midi) was suitably disjointed, angular and innovative, the poised and/or melodramatic art-pop (Anna Calvi, Cate le Bon) bore not the faintest trace of Paloma or Florence, the bigger names (The […]

The 1975 won songwriters of the year for their album, 'A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships' and best contemporary song for 'Love It If We Made It', at the 2019 Ivor Novello songwriting awards, Independent reports. The organizers praised The 1975's efforts as "a bold, inspirational and original statement, bringing together an awareness of contemporary […]

Travis Scott told the crowd at the Hangout Fest in Gulf Shores, Alabama on Friday night that profits from his merch sales at the festival will go to Planned Parenthood, Pitchfork reports. The 1975 played Hangout Fest as well, where frontman Matty Healy made a speech out abortion ban: “I don’t believe it’s about the […]

The 1975 frontman Matty Healy took to Twitter this week to call out labels and artists who charge fans for meet-and-greets, accusing them of trying to “monetize... human connection”. “Who came up with payed meet and greets?” he wrote. “Did they think ‘Surely there must be something else we can monetise….OH! Human connection!! They’ll eat […]

About Earl Sweatshirt's new album 'Some Rap Songs': "With his latest record, the onetime teen prodigy reemerges as the face of a new sound and scene that blurs the line between avant-garde jazz and hip-hop". The 1975's 'A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships': "The British band’s outrageous and eclectic third album attests to the worth […]

Plenty are going to be released, and Spin is especially excited about these: Sky Ferreira, The Weeknd, Grimes, Weezer, Chance the Rapper, Vampire Weekend, My Bloody Valentine, 2 Chainz, Avril Lavigne, Beirut, Carly Rae Jepsen, Cass McCombs, Cherry Glazerr, Chromatics, Deerhunter, Die Antwoord, Fidlar, Girlpool, Janet Jackson, Kanye West, Lana Del Rey, Mandy Rogers, Panda Bear, […]