Better Than Revenge Rewrite, Keke Palmer Faces Misogyny & Music Criticism 101

Fangirl Nonsense: Mikey Way joins Fall Out Boy on stage on the weekend of July 4th, calling back to years of Mikey x Pete lore in the mid 00s. Jungkook dropped concept photos for his upcoming single. Tomorrow x Together and Jonas Brother release their collab song and music video (Jomorrow x Brogether, if you will.) Dua Lipa interviews Amelia Dimoldenberg, sharing her story of meeting Harry Styles.

Taylor Swift released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) on July 7 featuring a rewrite of the infamous “Better than Revenge” – allegedly about a girl who “stole” Joe Jonas from Taylor. While the song is laced with 2010s teen girl misogyny, we discuss why Taylor’s decision to rewrite the line “she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress” wasn’t necessary in the context of modern feminism.

Keke Palmer’s boyfriend Darius Daulton Jackson took to Twitter to speak about his distaste for Keke wearing a black lace dress to attend a performance by Usher, claiming that he doesn’t want his wife to “showcase booty cheeks to please others.” In stark contrast to this blatant display of misogyny, Jackson Wang says that while he wants to have kids, it’s ultimately his wife’s decision, and that finding a soulmate is more important than his desire to have kids.

Recently music critics Tom Breihan and Laura Snapes have revisited past pop releases, providing a new perspective on their original music criticism. Former Pitchfork writer Breihan says that he loved Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” even though the publication wouldn’t cover Perry. Meanwhile Snapes, who gave Charli XCX’s Vroom Vroom EP a 4.5 for Pitchfork in 2016, writes that the EP a slow burn and acknowledges that Charli was ahead of her time. We look at how and why publication bias and personal bias play a role in music criticism.

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