Quarterly Journal, no. 26: Pop Issue

May 2020144 pages

Quarterly Journal, no. 26: Pop Issue

FEATURING: Lucas Mann, Elise Anderson, Johanna Skibsrud, Eric Newman, Nate Sloan & Charlie Harding, Sara Davis, Masha Tupitsyn, Louise Munson, Francisco McCurry, Alex Dimitrov, Megan Fernandes, Srikanth Reddy, Sumita Chakraborty, Grady Chambers, Jenny Zhang, Emerson Whitney, Akosa Ibekwe, Felicia Angeja Viator


ART: Lutz Bacher, Julien Ceccaldi, Aiketerini  Gegisian, Arshia Fatima Haq, Rabz Lansiquot, Misleidys Castillo Pedroso, Helen Rae, Carmen Winant, Alice Wong


¤


Dear Reader,


“We’re in this together”: a phrase we’ve seen a lot recently. It has, through its ubiquity, lost some of its power and meaning. But perhaps it’s still apt for the theme of this issue: Pop.


Pop refers to popular culture, and this issue explores everything from TV to music to ancient Greek plays (once a very fashionable form). But what does it mean for something to be popular? Who does the collective “we” refer to? Who does it include and who does it leave out? The pieces here examine popularity, as well as how culture might connect or divide people. Lucas Mann discusses modern forms of nostalgia and rewatching The Office; Elise Anderson writes about how pop music has shaped the political struggle of an ethnic minority; Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding examine Selena Gomez and the rise of vulnerability in pop; Louise Munson imagines an encounter between a distressed shop girl and Winona Ryder; Felicia Angeja Viator provides a short lesson on hip-hop history; and much more.


We’re in this together; we’re into this together.


Medaya