The Scandal Machine
Thirty-seven years after its release, Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” still shows how late-MTV controversy could function like a recommendation engine.
Music History
The Machine After the Handoff
Temür Khan, Van Halen, and the Mercedes-Benz W124 300TE on what survives when a beloved system keeps its badge but gets a new steward.
Amy Grant’s “Baby Baby” and the Day Christian Pop Entered the Mall
Amy Grant’s “Baby Baby” is the cleanest culture-border story in early-90s pop: a Christian music crossover that once felt suspect and now looks almost inevitable.
Footloose Wasn’t the Weird Part: The West’s Long War on Dancing
Elmore City really did help inspire Footloose. But the bigger story is how modern Western societies kept policing dancing through bans, permits, licenses, holiday restrictions, and moral bureaucracy long after they claimed to be modern.
Before the Surveillance Age Had a Sound, Rockwell Recorded It
Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” was never just a novelty hit. It was a precision-built 1984 paranoia record born from Motown lineage, Michael Jackson’s orbit, and the strange way fame can erase the person who wrote the song.