On August 15, 2026, pro skate legend Tony Hawk vowed he wouldn’t quit skating until Interpol stops touring. The band kicked off their 2026 North American tour on July 31 in Denver, and were making a stop in San Diego where Tony Hawk introduced them to the crowd.

“It is my honor and privilege to introduce you to this band,” said Hawk from the stage at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. He then shared some memories of being a longtime fan, including first discovering their 2002 debut album Turn On the Bright Lights.

“I got to see them live for the first time doing a sound check at Jay Leno,” Hawk continued. Both Interpol and Hawk appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2004. “I was a guest on Jay Leno with them [and] they actually had my ramp behind the sound stage … I watched them play ‘Slow Hands’. They watched me do slow hand plants.”

Tony Hawk Draws Comparisons Between His Pro Skate Career and Interpol’s Legacy

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Tony Hawk added to his introduction by noting the similarities between his career and Interpol’s. Although he began his pro skating career in the 80s and the band didn’t debut until 2002, he felt that he and Interpol experienced similar paths to success.

“I feel like we’ve had a similar trajectory this whole time. Neither one of us has quit doing what we love,” said Hawk. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m not going to quit skating until Interpol stops touring.”

After the show, Interpol made an Instagram post featuring a fan-captured clip of Tony Hawk’s introduction. They captioned the post, “From Leno in 2004 to now, thanks for riding with us [Tony Hawk].”

Notably, Hawk replied, “My wife said ‘slow handplants’ was lame but I say dad jokes are peak comedy.”

As a day-one Interpol fan, Tony Hawk definitely has something to look forward too soon. The band is releasing their ninth album, This Mirror Weighs a Ton, on August 28, 2026. It’s their first album since 2022, which landed at No. 178 on the U.S. charts. Fans are surely hoping for bigger chart success with this album, but the huge tour they’re embarking on might be enough to satisfy.

The tour continues through August, with their next show stopping in Brooklyn on August 26 for the CBGB Festival. Then, they’re heading to Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, before coming back to the states on October 4 for a show in Boston. The remainder of October has them stopping in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, and more before concluding in Nashville on October 17.

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On the night of August 17, 2002, Justin and April Barber were walking along the beach of Guana River State Park in Jacksonville, Florida, after celebrating their third wedding anniversary. Justin would leave the beach with four gunshot wounds, but April wouldn’t leave at all. According to Justin, a robbery attempt on the dark beach turned deadly, ending in April’s death.

But as the investigation went on, Justin’s story started to unravel. Despite the alleged robber-turned-murderer, Justin became the primary suspect. In June 2006, when he was brought to trial for his wife’s murder, the 1988 Guns N’ Roses track “Used to Love Her” became the big red arrow pointing right at Justin.

The prosecution noted that Justin downloaded “Used to Love Her” on the day his wife was murdered. Incriminating lyrics include “I used to love her / But I had to kill her / I had to put her / Six feet under / But I can still hear her complain”. The song was actually written about Axl Rose’s dog at the time. But the defense noted that it was just one song out of 16 others Justin downloaded on August 17, 2002.

“Of 1,695 songs on his computer, 16 of which were downloaded on the afternoon of [April’s] death, and out of those, we were brought this one in the courtroom,” defense attorney Bob Willis said at the time.

1988 Track ‘Used to Love Her’ Used as Evidence Against Justin Barber in 2006 Murder Case

The years that led to April Barber’s death were fraught with stressors, criticisms, preoccupations with appearances, and Justin’s extramarital affairs. They were married young after just under a year together, and April’s younger siblings lived with them after they were married. The tension seemed to grow from there. When Justin’s work transferred him to Jacksonville, April stayed in their home in Georgia. They saw each other on weekends.

According to April’s friends and family, there were always potential warning signs. In 2001, he took out life insurance policies worth $2 million. On August 4, 2002, April confronted Justin about his cheating, threatening to end their marriage. Then, on August 16, she returned to Jacksonville for their anniversary. By the night of the 17th, she was dead. Her loved ones were immediately convinced Justin had killed her.

It took several years of detective work before there was enough evidence to take Justin Barber to court. This included his computer records. In February 2002, he searched “medical trauma right chest”. A week later, he searched “gunshot wound right chest”. He later searched “Florida divorce”. A few hours before April’s murder, he downloaded “Used to Love Her”. According to the district attorney, this was Justin’s way of psyching himself up to kill his wife.

Murderous Husband Used Guns N’ Roses Track to Psych Himself Up, But His Careful Plan Unraveled

Detectives pieced together Justin’s plan. He was going to shoot April, then himself, drag her to the car, and drive around looking for help, under the guise of a beach robbery. But evidence suggested that April ran, Justin attempted to drown her, then finally killed her by the boardwalk. His self-inflicted wounds derailed his plan further when he wasn’t able to get April’s body to the car. So he left her on the beach.

According to District Attorney Matt Foxman, “[Justin Barber] wanted the $2 million, he wanted sympathy for being shot, and he wanted to look like a hero who’d tried to save his wife. He wanted it all.”

In 2006, Justin was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He allegedly showed no emotion in the courtroom when the verdict was read. According to psychology experts, Justin Barber had all the classic symptoms of a sociopath.

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Everyone, get your crochet beanie and chunky owl necklace out of the donate pile. We’re talking about late-2000s indie pop, whether you like it or not. Are these the best indie pop albums of the late 2000s? I wouldn’t say so. But are they still pretty good considering all the other stuff that was coming out at that time? Yeah, they’re not bad.

‘Aim and Ignite’ by Fun.

A lot of us like to dunk on Fun. for being the quintessential Millennial indie pop guys. But they did give us “Some Nights” and “We Are Young”, which have aged into their cloying sentimentality pretty well. Before that, however, they debuted in August 2009 with Aim and Ignite. This album featured “Be Calm” as the opening track, which was sort of like a precursor to “We Are Young”.

The final chorus of “Be Calm” is the real heavy hitter. “Oh be calm, be calm / I know you feel like you are breaking down / I know it gets so hard sometimes / Be calm / Take it from me, I’ve been there a thousand times / You hate your pulse because it still thinks you’re alive and everything’s wrong / It just gets so hard sometimes / Be calm, be calm.”

‘Volume One’ by She & Him

Nothing says Spring 2008 like Volume One by She & Him. Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward’s indie-twee-pop project didn’t make the most involved music. But its retro simplicity was what drew people in. Plus, the obvious flaws in Zooey Deschanel’s singing voice just added to the strange charm. I admit, I had both Volume One and Volume Two on CD and listened to them a lot. I was going through a twee pop phase, whatever.

The standout track on Volume One has to be “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”. It’s a bubbly, cutesy little tune about liking someone a lot and wanting to hang out with them, but not wanting to make the first move. “Why do you let me stay here / All by myself / Why don’t you come and play here / I’m just sitting on the shelf”. As if saying, “Hey, why don’t you ask me out? I’m just sitting here with nothing to do!”

‘Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future’ by The Bird and the Bee

Indie pop duo The Bird and the Bee released their second album Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future in January 2009. This album is one of the better ones that came out of late-2000s indie pop with a hint of twee, and it holds up surprisingly well today.

That longevity has a lot to do with the layered styles on the album. For example, “My Love” is a quintessential 2009 romantic pop song, while “Witch” is a luxurious swirl of vintage style. By utilizing a range of stylistic elements, the duo created a timeless collection of indie pop delights.

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How is it that songs written to satirize mainstream success or criticize the music industry always seem to become so successful? The irony is painful, but the songs are just so good. Here are three songs meant as disses of mainstream music that ended up finding mainstream popularity.

“In Bloom” by Nirvana

“In Bloom” was released on Nirvana’s 1991 album Nevermind, re-recorded from an older song around the time Nirvana was first gaining traction in the underground grunge scene. The lyrics are critical of fans who don’t really listen to lyrics, which made its mainstream success so painfully ironic.

The chorus makes this abundantly clear. “He’s the one who likes all out pretty songs, and he / Likes to sing along and he likes to shoot his gun, but he / Knows not what it means / Knows not what it means and I say ‘Yeah'”. Its derisiveness is all right there, and yet “In Bloom” still became a huge hit.

“(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)” by the Beastie Boys

The Beastie Boys released “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)” on their 1986 debut album. They wrote it as a parody of the 80s rock and roll lifestyle, nothing deeper than that. But instead of getting the tongue-in-cheek references to mainstream rock, fans saw it as an endorsement of the party boy persona. It’s possible that this made it much more difficult for fans to grapple with the experimental Paul’s Boutique.

As the lead single from Licensed to Ill, “Fight For Your Right” introduced everyone to the Beastie Boys. But, as MCA said in 2006, “we were just kind of making this dumb song that had to sit somewhere on the album.” If he had to choose a different debut single to represent them, he named “Slow and Low”, “Posse in Effect”, or “Hold It Now”. Undoubtedly three of the stronger tracks on that album.

“Hook” by Blues Traveler

Blues Traveler released “Hook” on their 1994 album Four, and the mainstream success of this single is probably the most painful of all. “Hook” does nothing to hide its derision for people who don’t listen to lyrics. “It doesn’t matter what I say / So long as I sing with inflection” are the opening lines of the song. It doesn’t get any clearer than that.

The chorus lays out the titular hook that brings you back. “Because the hook brings you back / I ain’t tellin’ you no lie / The hook brings you back / On that you can rely”. Sometimes, listening to and enjoying “Hook” feels a little strange, knowing exactly what it’s about. Because the hook does bring you back. That’s what made this song such a success. The lyrics may be a tear-down of mindless enjoyment with no substance, but “Hook” does exactly what it’s supposed to. It’s nothing short of utter genius.

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So, here’s the situation. You have a crush on someone and are thinking of asking them out. But every time you try to tell them, you get too nervous and chicken out. The words get stuck, you can’t speak, maybe you start sweating uncontrollably. You’re making a fool of yourself, is what’s happening. But don’t fret, because these three pop songs will do the work for you. Just, maybe work on those social skills in the meantime, huh?

“Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand released “Take Me Out” on their 2004 self-titled debut, and it became one of their biggest hits. Vocalist Alex Kapranos once described being inspired by a sniper standoff in the war movie Enemy at the Gates, which led to “Take Me Out”. Now you’re wondering how this song could guarantee a date, right?

Well, that standoff scene called to mind what occurs when two people like each other, but no one wants to make the first move. The stalemate, waiting for the other to do something. And so, we get a song with the lines, “If I move this could die / If eyes move this could die / I want you to take me out”. If you’re stuck in the mindset of “I know I won’t be leaving here with you”, maybe your crush feels the same. You’ll never know until you play “Take Me Out” for them.

“Crush” by Tessa Violet

Tessa Violet released “Crush” on her 2018 album Bad Ideas. This is a great song for those who like their pop with a little white-girl hip-hop, as the chorus has a great rhythm. Lyrically, “Crush” is everything it says on the tin. You got a crush, and it’s making you a little crazy.

“You make it difficult to not overthink / And when I’m with you I turn all shades of pink,” she sings in the second verse. This song is a bold one if you’re looking to reveal your feelings. Maybe don’t play “Crush” if you’re not totally sure the other person likes you. Especially with the lines, “And yeah it’s true that I’m a little bit intense, right / But can you blame me when you keep me on the fence, like? / And I’ve been waitin’, hopin’ that you’d wanna text, like”.

“I Really Like You” by Carly Rae Jepsen

The award for the best song in this exercise has to go to “I Really Like You” by Carly Rae Jepsen. Released in 2015 on her third album, the undeniable masterpiece E*MO*TION, “I Really Like You” is another song that does exactly what it says. But it does it in a way that makes it perfect for telling someone you really like them when your own words fail.

The chorus literally does all the work. “I really, really, really, really, really, really like you / And I want you, do you want me? Do you want me too?”. Play this for your crush if you’re too nervous to just ask, and your job is done for you. Jepsen did this once already with “Call Me Maybe” in 2012. But with “I Really Like You”, she took her place in the big leagues.

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We’ve been dutifully studying the Gen Alpha Melody in recent days, and there’s something about it that’s endearing in certain contexts. Hearing it in sequence is still mind-boggling, but in small doses, like these three songs, the Gen Alpha Melody is actually kind of cool.

“Ode To the Mets” by The Strokes

This one is a bit of a cheat, since I already like The Strokes. But the use of the Gen Alpha Melody in the 2020 track “Ode to the Mets” has a little more texture than a lot of the typical pop examples. One of the key elements of these songs comes in the melancholy lyrics, usually about heartbreak or losing someone important. “Ode to the Mets” does have a melancholy thread, but it’s much more introspective.

The melody also creates a throughline in the entire song, where the lyrics seem to surround the notes themselves. In many examples, the melody appears only in the chorus. But here, it’s woven so tightly with the lyrics that there’s almost no separating them. The melody becomes the skeleton that the song grows around.

“True Love is Violent” by Allie X

“True Love Is Violent” appeared on Allie X’s 2017 album CollXtion II, and the Gen Alpha Melody nestles neatly into her sludgy electro-goth sound. This song hits all the marks, with melancholy, personal lyrics about doomed love and the melody appearing heavily in the chorus. It’s a pretty straightforward use of the melody, but all the moving parts come together to make a decent song.

Where “True Love Is Violent” really shines is in the bridge, when Allie X puts all her power behind her voice. Then, she tumbles back into the melody, but the energy has changed. There’s a subtle layering there that brings everything together again.

“Soup” by Remi Wolf

“Soup” appeared on Remi Wolf’s 2024 album Big Ideas, and initially her use of the Gen Alpha Melody made a jarring transition into the chorus. But after listening a few times, I have to say it’s growing on me. More than that, the song itself is a departure from the standard heartbreak lyrics.

On “Soup”, Wolf is hoping for a healing love that sees her “brushing off the blood on my teeth”. The melody features in the pre-chorus, using the minor-key elements to create a nervous yet hopeful lead-up to the explosive chorus. Transitioning from that into the brightness of the chorus is a bit of a curveball, but one that serves the song well.

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The grunge genre is surprisingly good at producing catchy songs. Of course, the well-known bands are still relevant because they made such great songs, and it’s difficult to single out the best of all time. But, we tried anyway, and the results feature some grunge classics.

“Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots

Stone Temple Pilots released “Plush” on their debut 1992 album Core, with one of the most recognizable and catchiest choruses in grunge. STP was pretty good at writing hooks in general, and it’s difficult to choose just one from their discography. But “Plush” stands out for its longevity despite almost unintelligible lyrics.

Overall, “Plush” was huge for the band, even though critics at the time found it derivative. Still, it was the first alt-rock song to top the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. Additionally, it earned Stone Temple Pilots an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist in 1993, and the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. Now, it’s considered a staple of grunge, but it took a while to earn that respect.

“Even Flow” by Pearl Jam

“Even Flow” appeared on Pearl Jam’s 1991 debut album Ten. Another grunge band that has had a profound effect on alt-rock, Pearl Jam has an almost endless catalog of iconic choruses to choose from. But the tried-and-true “Even Flow” is never a disappointment.

However, diehard fans know that the original version of “Even Flow” actually was a disappointment, at least to the band. In 1992, they re-recorded a version that was eventually used in the music video (the concert footage by Josh Taft, not the strange zoo footage by Rocky Schenck). The updated “Even Flow” pleased the band a little more than the first. Either way, it’s still a rousing grunge classic.

“In Bloom” by Nirvana

“In Bloom” was released on Nirvana’s 1991 album Nevermind, and the chorus is pure Cobain derision and cynicism. It was originally written around 1989 about the vapid, shallow people who were flooding the underground scene. Re-recorded in 1991, it translated perfectly to Nirvana’s increasing mainstream visibility.

The chorus of “In Bloom” is so successful, however, that it becomes tragically ironic. It’s so catchy and memorable that people earnestly sing along, despite the sneering lyrics about not knowing what the song really means. Unfortunately, that was a byproduct of Nirvana’s success.

Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns

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Hayley Williams released new music with a project that’s not Paramore, so we should probably check if Paramore fans are doing OK. Meanwhile, Power Snatch’s EP 2 dropped on August 12, 2026, six months after EP 1 appeared on Bandcamp. Williams formed Power Snatch with producer Daniel James, possibly around 2025.

The four-track EP features addictive lo-fi, bedroom pop, electro-indie beats and hooks, layered under Williams’ hazy vocals. In a way, it’s reminiscent of her solo debut Petals for Armor. Williams seems to experiment with softening and blurring her vocals outside of her work with Paramore. There, she’s notably sharp, crisp, and almost brash.

After years of that Paramore style, it’s nice to hear Williams branching out and exploring all her musical interests. But of course, Paramore fans need to go through the regular ritual of speculating whether or not the band has broken up for good.

Over on the Paramore subreddit, fans posted a discussion of Power Snatch’s new EP. With the release of a second set of songs, fans are now wondering if this is Hayley Williams’ new band. Does Power Snatch herald Paramore’s demise? Why didn’t Zac Farro’s solo project inspire the same panic? Could it be that Williams, as a musician, is simply doing whatever she wants to do and it’s really not that deep?

Hayley Williams and Daniel James’ Second Ep for Power Snatch Earns High Praise From Fans

An initial discussion began in February when EP 1 dropped. The post asked point-blank, “so what’s the deal with Power Snatch???” and the responses were surprisingly not as doom-and-gloom as expected. Not like they were when Williams dropped her latest solo album, and Paramore wiped their social media presence for a bit.

Commenters brought up other bands who had side projects while still in their primary group. These included Davey Havok and Jade Puget of AFI, Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years, Stephen Christian of Anberlin, and Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park.

“It seems like this new collaboration goes back to at least July 2025, so it’s probably something they’ve been working on/planning/talking about for a while now,” one person commented. “It’s very possible to have more than one project going at a time.”

Meanwhile, on Bandcamp, supporters are showering Power Snatch’s second EP with praise. “Incredible. Astounding. Infatuating,” one user wrote. Another commented, “Forever in awe of the pure talent. Thank you for bringing real music back. Thank you for writing about what everyone is thinking. And for giving us all a safe place to feel our emotions in their fullest form.”

It looks like Paramore fans are going to be OK after all, and Hayley Williams is hitting it out of the park once again with this latest creative project. Still, you gotta love it when the top comment on the Power Snatch discussion is an edited image of Lenny from The Simpsons updating a sign reading “0 Days Without Speculation On Paramore’s Demise”.

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Anya Taylor-Joy became widely known for her role as chess prodigy Beth Harmon on The Queen’s Gambit, but would you guess that she’s a raver at heart? She definitely doesn’t make it obvious just by looking at her. But in an interview for the September 2026 issue of Elle magazine, she admitted that she’s always been drawn to intense experiences.

Her interest in rave culture began at 15 years old, she said, after years of ballet training. The rigidity of classical ballet didn’t work for her anymore, and she needed somewhere to break free. “That’s a pretty good split of my personality, to be honest,” said Taylor-Joy. “Ballet class and deep, dark techno.”

For her 30th birthday, she described pulling a party together in two days for a Wednesday in L.A. She gathered 200 people in one place and threw her own “culty” warehouse rave. Her friends DJed “pretty intense techno,” she said, “which I realized is not everyone’s cup of tea, but they got into it.”

According to Taylor-Joy, she partied that night until 1:30 in the morning, got two hours of sleep, then woke up and went to Coachella. After that, she went back to L.A., packed, and headed out on a cross-country road trip. That’s the intensity with which she approaches every aspect of her life and work, she explained. So, it kind of makes sense that she’s into heavy, dark, feel-it-in-your-chest EDM.

Anya Taylor-Joy Describes Living Among the Rave Culture in Berlin as ‘The Healthiest I’ve Ever Been’

But Anya Taylor-Joy hasn’t limited herself to just listening to intense techno. In 2015, she was featured in the music video for Skrillex’s remix of GTA’s “Red Lips”. It’s definitely not the heaviest techno remix ever, but that’s not what people go to Skrillex for, is it? However, it still served to shine a spotlight on Taylor-Joy, as she made her major film debut in The Witch that same year.

While filming The Queen’s Gambit, however, Taylor-Joy experienced one of the “healthiest” times of her life. She credited that to living in Berlin for six months, and submerging herself in the rave culture there.

“In Berlin, it doesn’t have to be unhealthy,” she said in a 2022 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show. “So my version of it, which I genuinely think was the healthiest I have ever been, was I would wake up on a Sunday, I’d have brunch, I would go to the club, I would dance for about eight hours, not talk to anybody, go home, eat a bowl of spaghetti, and wake up at four o’clock in the morning and go to work.”

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Kathleen Hanna and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz have released their first song together, and it’s a Justin Bieber cover. The punk rock pair recorded a cover of Bieber’s 2016 song “Let Me Love You”. It will appear on the Contra-ICE compilation album, ICE OUT. The benefit album features 47 tracks of unreleased songs, spoken word, and comedy.

This selection of tracks was curated by the non-profit organization Build Art Make Change (BAMC). The organization’s founder, Dali Colorado, released a statement about the powerful album.

“Contra-ICE is not only an album,” the statement began, per NME. “It is not only a collective, it is a cultural infrastructure built to support frontline organizations, amplify immigrant voices, and mobilize creatives who believe that love is not passive; it’s organized.”

A major theme of the compilation seems to be “love over fear,” which Colorado mentioned in the statement. The album also features tracks from Fred Armisen, Adrian Quesada, Tom Morello, Jello Biafra, and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, Tropa Magica, and more.

Kathleen Hanna and Ad-Rock’s Justin Bieber Cover Transforms Into a Sugary-Sweet Pop-Rock Jam

This cover of “Let Me Love You” takes Justin Bieber and puts him through a bubble-grunge machine. The result is Kathleen Hanna’s familiar vocal style transforming a thumping pop song into a twee-adjacent rock jam. It’s sweet, simple, and hits just right. But the transformative power of its production also adds a heartfelt note to lines like “Never let you go / Never let you down”.

Hanna and Ad-Rock’s Bieber cover was produced by longtime Beastie Boys collaborator Mario Caldato Jr. Additionally, it features contributions from Money Mark, Fredo Ortiz, and Frank Figueroa.

Notably, proceeds from the album will go directly to “frontline powerhouses,” as mentioned on the Bandcamp page. These include the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and Unión del Barrio “to defend labor rights and protect community-built wealth.”

Physical album copies are available to pre-order on Bandcamp or SoundsGood. ICE OUT will release on October 2, 2026, as a digital album, double LP vinyl, and CD. More information about Build Art Make Change can be found on the organization’s website.

Photo by Rabbani and Solimene Photography/Getty Images

The post These Married 90s Icons Covered an Unexpected Pop Song for a Benefit Compilation Album, and It’s a Must-Listen appeared first on VICE.

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Christina Aguilera released the stunning pop ballad “Beautiful” on her 2002 album Stripped. The anthem for inner beauty represented the overall theme of the album, she said, which had her baring her soul above and beyond her previous pop fare. But as much as Aguilera resonated with the track, she wasn’t the original songwriter.

That credit goes to Linda Perry, vocalist for 90s one-hit wonder 4 Non Blondes. The band released one album in 1992 before parting ways, only to announce a reunion 30 years later. In the time since, Perry has done solo work, but has mostly been a writer and producer.

Perry discussed “Beautiful” during an April 2026 appearance on the Go With Elmo Lovano podcast. Despite Aguilera’s success with the song, Perry clarified that she didn’t actually write it for the pop star. It began with an idea on the piano while she was living in San Francisco, and evolved after she moved to Los Angeles.

Detailing her creative process, Perry noted that she often lets melodies and words flow naturally. She described it as if she’s pressed play on a song in her head and is just copying it down. That’s exactly what happened when she came up with the lyrics to “Beautiful”.

“I went, ‘I am beautiful / No matter what they say,’ and then I was just like, ‘No, I am not beautiful, I can’t say that, I don’t think that,'” she recalled. Perry held her hands up as if the revelation made her physically leave the piano at the time of writing.

Linda Perry Recalls Struggling With the Idea of Beautiful, Successful Christina Aguilera Singing a Song About Insecurity

Perry continued, “I think quite opposite, I’m actually a weird, strange-looking human being and I would never put myself in a ‘beautiful’ category.” She then touched on a detail that many fans of the song have also experienced.

“You know, I’m so hard on myself,” she said. “I’m never good enough, blah blah blah. And a statement like ‘I am beautiful’, for some reason for me it sounded like when you say I am beautiful, that means you have all this confidence. That’s you’re stunning, your brain is clear, your heart is pure, there’s no damage. I don’t know why, but that’s what beautiful represented to me at the time. Because I don’t think I’ve ever used the word before.”

Perry initially didn’t want to finish the song. But she made herself do it, and by attaching “you” and “we” to being “beautiful”, she felt better about it. However, she didn’t do anything with the finished song, even though she felt that “this could be an important song for me.” She thought it could “be the way I introduce myself as a solo artist.”

But the song sat for about a month, until Christina Aguilera came along. Perry played “Beautiful” on the piano in her house while Aguilera was meeting with her, just to break the ice. Immediately after she finished, Aguilera asked for a demo and the lyrics.

“I’m like, ‘Why?'” Perry recalled. “She said, ‘Because I want to do that song for my album.’ And I’m thinking in my head, ‘You can’t sing a song that says I am beautiful because you are beautiful.'”

She continued, “So I was all f**ked up with this because it was opposite of everything the song actually is.” That’s what Linda Perry thought at the time, anyway. She turned out to be totally wrong.

‘Oh, It Is Her Song’

Linda Perry wasn’t sure about Christina Aguilera singing “Beautiful” for her album, but they made a demo to test it out. Aguilera brought a friend to Perry’s home studio, and as she was preparing to lay down her demo vocals, she turned to her friend and said quietly, “Don’t look at me.”

A light bulb went off for Perry. “I got chills,” she recalled, “And I said, ‘Oh, it is her song. She’s just as insecure as I am, she just has a nicer look than I do.’ And then it all made sense, what the song was about.”

She added, “It was about wanting to feel that, you know, I am beautiful. Stop telling yourself you’re not, don’t let other people tell you you’re not. We are, we are, we all are, you know? There’s a beautiful beauty in all of us in some way or form. But we are bringing [us] down.”

The epiphany about “Beautiful” also led Linda Perry to an epiphany about her career trajectory. “At this moment I realized either I’m going to be an artist, or I’m going to be a producer, but I can’t do both,” she said. “And for some reason the universe presented it that way to me.”

Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

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Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker developed a crippling fear of flying after he was involved in a plane crash in September 2008. He’d flown to South Carolina from L.A. to perform with DJ AM, aka Adam Goldstein. But according to Barker, as he was leaving his house, his three-year-old daughter Alabama could not be consoled.

“She’s like, ‘Dad, don’t go!’ She’s bawling, and she doesn’t usually do that,” Barker said during an August 2026 appearance on Jay Shetty’s podcast On Purpose. “She’s like, ‘The roof’s gonna come off, the roof’s gonna come off!’ and I’m like, ‘What is she talking about?’ To the point where I went back in the house and I was like, ‘What’s going on, baby?'”

Even at three years old, Alabama sensed something was wrong, said Barker. Later, when he was preparing for a last-minute flight back to L.A. on a small private plane, he sensed it too.

“I was like, ‘Something feels off.’ I even told my dad, ‘If something happens to me, please make sure the kids are taken care of,'” Barker admitted. “I was saying way too much. All the signs were there.”

He added, “Now older me would just say, ‘I think I’m not gonna get on the plane.'”

Travis Barker Recalls Near-Fatal Plane Crash in Upcoming Documentary

Travis Barker did get on the plane in 2008, however. During takeoff, a tire burst, and the debris damaged the plane’s brake system. This caused the plane to skid off the end of the runway and break through the airport barrier fence. It crossed South Carolina Hwy 302 before crashing into an embankment. Then it caught fire. Barker and Goldstein were the only survivors.

The two pilots were killed, along with Barker’s assistant Chris Baker and his bodyguard Charles Still. It took almost an hour for firefighters to get the flames under control. Both Goldstein and Barker suffered severe burns and had to have skin grafts. Goldstein emerged on fire, but quickly extinguished the flames with stop, drop, and roll.

Barker recalled running and ripping his clothes off in an attempt to extinguish himself at first. Eventually, stop, drop, and roll put out most of the flames. But he was left burned over 65 percent of his body. He recovered in the hospital for 11 weeks, but also developed PTSD from the incident and a debilitating fear of flying. Barker didn’t get on a plane again until 2021.

Photo by Christopher Polk/WWD via Getty Images

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In a similar vein to these green flags in a person’s music taste, these four music habits are subjective. If you do any of these, we’re not trying to call you out (although it wouldn’t hurt to take a good hard look at your behavior). These could just be personal icks, but in the hope that there’s someone who can relate, here are four music habits that cause instant secondhand embarrassment.

Gatekeeping For No Good Reason

You know this type: “Oh, you like Nirvana/Green Day/The Rolling Stones? Name five of their albums.” And you know it’s usually a man saying this to a woman about bands that only men like, yadda yadda yadda. Big Boi likes Kate Bush, but I don’t see anyone quizzing him on her discography. That’s because gatekeeping like that is a pointless excuse to shame people who like this thing you also like, but in a way that you don’t like.

So what if someone wearing a Nirvana t-shirt only knows the popular hits? It’s not their fault the band’s image has been co-opted by capitalism to sell overpriced t-shirts at Hot Topic. Basically, judging people based on the depth of their knowledge of an extremely mainstream band is a major ick. You want to be impressed? Having a conversation with someone about their favorite track off David Lynch’s The Big Dream yields much better results.

Being Pretentious About Bands That Suck

One of the most rewarding music habits someone can have is awareness of how much their favorite bands suck. Let’s face it: many of us love and cherish some pretty bad music. Whether it’s just cringe or straight up trash depends on personal perspective. For example, I once played Cobra Starship for a friend who had never heard of them and had to quickly confront the reality that this band, which I hold very dear, is actually not that good.

But it becomes a major ick when people refuse to acknowledge this about their favorite bands. Music taste is subjective, of course, but sometimes these things are obvious. And when an artist can do no wrong, that’s a clear sign of delusion within a fanbase. It’s okay to like bad music, but at least have some self-awareness.

Going on About Psyops and Industry PLants

The key to this icky music habit is going on about psyops and industry plants without knowing what psyops and industry plants actually are. Not every good rock band that seemingly explodes overnight is a psyop. We did this to The Strokes, then to Arctic Monkeys, then egregiously to Geese. And we did it to Chappell Roan and every other pop girly who went from posting YouTube covers to playing Coachella in what felt like a suspiciously short time.

But these artists weren’t engineered by the government to spread propaganda and misinformation and influence the opinions of the people. Because that’s what a psyop is; it’s not a band who used admittedly morally gray marketing techniques to get their music in your algorithm.

This argument is a major ick for a few reasons. One, words have meanings for a reason, and now a bunch of people are confused about what a psyop is. Two, it devalues the work these artists have put in for years already. Three, it also sounds really dumb when the artists are actually good. And four, the people you want to get mad at are the social media marketing teams who manipulate your algorithm and then lie about it. If you want somewhere to direct your anger about Geese, that’s where.

Shutting the Car Off Before the Song Ends

This one is admittedly a personal ick, but maybe there are people out there who agree. Have you ever been riding in the car with someone, having a blast listening to a great song? Ever arrive at your destination only to have the driver turn the car off immediately, ending the great song right in the middle? It’s like being shaken awake from an incredible dream. Jarring. A cruel and unusual punishment for a nonexistent crime. You have to let the song play until the end. It’s the only way to get closure.

Photo by Steve Pfost/Newsday RM via Getty Images

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While the 2010 Disney reboot Tron: Legacy wasn’t the greatest movie ever, it still holds a nostalgic significance for many. One of the best things about the film was its soundtrack, composed by electronic legends Daft Punk. But in a July 2026 interview with The A24 Podcast, Thomas Bangalter revealed the stifling reality behind the process.

Speaking with Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange), Bangalter spoke about the limiting experience he and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo had while scoring Tron: Legacy. This was the duo’s first film score, and they wanted to do something appropriately cinematic.

“Initially, [director Joseph Kosinski] was like, ‘Oh no, I want you guys to do a full electronic score’,” he said. “By that time, I’d done that music for 15 years, [so I said], ‘No, we’re going to Hollywood. We’re gonna use Fantasia. Like, it’s Disney. So it’s like a full orchestra.’”

Daft Punk’s ‘Tron: Legacy’ Soundtrack Expertly Blended Electronic and Symphonic, but Not Without Its Limitations

The Tron: Legacy soundtrack ended up being a unique blend of electronic and symphonic elements. Daft Punk got to experiment with a full orchestral score, while still satisfying the director with their expert synth work.

The duo spent 19 months straight writing the score, consulting with composers like Hans Zimmer, Alexandre Desplat, and John Powell. They arranged it with the help of Joseph Trapanese, and the 85-piece orchestra was conducted by Gavin Greenaway.

But even with legacy composers available for brainstorming, Daft Punk still ran into frustrating problems. Issues that made the process into a suffocating experience, despite the incredible end result.

“The problem was that when we started to experiment with picture, anything that was in the medium range, frequency-wise, would conflict with dialog,” said Bangalter. “It was so limiting to feel like, ‘Oh yeah, I have all these ideas about things that we can really make music.’ But the whole thing about film score music is to take a step back and have the performance and not be in the way.”

Bangalter described this as a “very depressing” experience. He continued, “When you have all these ideas, and you say, ‘OK, I’m gonna bring that’, and you end up almost having to go back to a more traditional way of doing it.”

But sometimes, he added, the traditions are traditional for a reason. “The tradition is not just rules,” he said. “It’s sometimes, like, common sense. It’s the idea of saying, ‘OK, yeah, you know, we tried that, and it doesn’t work.’”

Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic

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During an August 2026 concert in Detroit, Josh Homme slammed Ford Field’s venue-wide ban on smoking. Queens of the Stone Age joined Foo Fighters on their Take Cover Tour on August 4, serving as openers on several dates until September 26.

But during the August 6 stop in Detroit, Homme reportedly had a hard time finding a spot to take a smoke break at the venue. Ford Field has a strict no-smoking policy, including a $10,000 fine for smoking backstage. While closing out their set, Homme took a moment to defy the policy and urged fans to rise up against the corporate-controlled venue.

“Don’t let these f**kin’ corporate a**holes tell you what to do,” he told the crowd. “Do whatever the f**k you want. F**k that shit. You paid for parking, and you’re paying for overpriced drinks, these f**king scalpers. F**k having some corporation tell you what the f**k to do. You guys do what you want!”

Josh Homme Blasts Venue’s No-Smoking Policies While Lighting a Cigarette on Stage

Josh Homme lit a cigarette following his impassioned speech. Then, he tacked on, “And f**k Flock cameras too.” This, of course, refers to the controversial surveillance cameras that automatically log all identifying information from every passing car into a cloud-hosted searchable database for law enforcement and other entities to track movement and find personal information without a warrant.

Meanwhile, this is the first outing for Queens of the Stone Age since 2025, when they embarked on The Catacombs Tour. In June 2025, they released Alive in the Catacombs, an album and film recorded in the Catacombs of Paris. It marked the first time any music has been played legally in the Catacombs.

The tour kicked off in October 2025 and concluded in May 2026. During their previous tour, the European leg was cut short in 2024 due to Josh Homme’s health issues. Shows from July 5 to November 17 had to be canceled. Homme later revealed that he was ill while filming in the Catacombs.

As for the Foo Fighters, they’ll be on their tour into 2027. North American dates continue through August and September. In November, they’ll head to Australia, then New Zealand in January 2027. The rest of their international dates continue until March 3.

Photo by Medios y Media/Getty Images

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These three alternative rock songs may not seem sexy at first listen, but hear us out. Alt-rock and adjacent genres are typically good at subtle sexuality, depending on who you’re listening to. Innuendos and double entendre in the lyrics, sleazy guitar, and growling vocals tend to get the point across. But the following songs are also sexy; it just might take a few listens and some thinking outside the box.

“Psychotic Girl” by The Black Keys

“Psychotic Girl” from The Black Keys’ 2008 album Attack & Release doesn’t sound like it would be sexy at all from the title alone. Or from the lyrics, actually, which center around a guy realizing he might have made a mistake by getting involved with this particular girl. He attempts to let her down easy, but instead he point-blank tells her she’s “Just a psychotic girl / And I won’t get lost in your world.”

That doesn’t sound sexy at all. But it’s the composition that turns this cautionary yet really kind of rude breakup song into a sexy, alternative-blues-rock tune. Accompanied by loping guitar and raw vocals, this goes from a weird way to tell a girl you don’t like her anymore, to a lustful tableau with a woman who maybe wants to strangle you.

“I’m Shakin'” by Jack White

Jack White covered Little Willie John’s 1960 song “I’m Shakin'” for his debut solo album, Blunderbuss, in 2013. The song has been covered numerous times, but White’s version picks up the pace a bit, creating a sense of urgency that works well with his frantic blues rock guitar style.

The lyrics are about being nervous around the object of one’s affection to the point of trembling like a chihuahua. That probably wouldn’t be very sexy on its own. But paired with the wild abandon of alt-blues-rock, it becomes way sexier and much less likely to inspire pity instead.

“Inertia Creeps” by Massive Attack

What makes Massive Attack’s “Inertia Creeps” their sex song starts with the low, intimate vocals and continues on with a beat that hits in the chest. It’s definitely more about attitude with “Inertia Creeps”. While it’s obviously a sexy track, the lyrics reveal an emptiness once the lustful veil is parted.

The song appeared on their 1998 album Mezzanine, which already took a darker turn than their previous two albums. In that way, “Inertia Creeps” embodies a gritty, almost sinister sexuality that may not be lyrically obvious at first. Because the use of inertia as a lyrical theme indicates that the song’s intimacy isn’t out of desire. It’s more out of necessity or having nothing better to do. Emotionally, the relationship is stunted. Physically, inertia keeps them moving, with neither party willing to be the one to end it.

Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images

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30 years after Tupac Shakur’s death following a drive-by shooting in Nevada, Duane “Keefe D” Davis is standing trial for the crime. Tupac’s death remained a mystery for many years, producing theories and inquiries that never panned out. But in 2023, Davis was arrested and charged with the murder. Jury selection for the trial began on August 10, 2026, and the trial is predicted to last about four weeks.

But there’s one person involved who could potentially drag everything out much longer. Suge Knight is the only living eyewitness to Tupac Shakur’s murder in September 1996. But he has maintained his silence for 30 years, and steadfastly refuses to testify in court.

“This trial has nothing to do with me, and if somebody brings me there, it’s gonna hurt whoever brings me there. I promise you that,” Knight told ABC News in early August 2026. He is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for manslaughter after a fatal hit-and-run in 2015. Speaking from prison, he adamantly replied, “Leave me out of it.”

Knight is determined to protect his loyalty to Tupac, citing street code and their close friendship. Suge Knight was driving the ’96 BMW when the shooting occurred. Tupac was hit four times in the chest, arm, and thigh, while Knight was grazed by fragmentation.

Suge Knight Maintains his Silence on Tupac’s Murder, Refusing to Condemn Duane Davis to a Life in Prison

Suge Knight maintained his stance that getting on the witness stand is a cardinal sin. He described it as being worse than the violent act itself.

“To actually get on the stand, and point somebody out, it’s worse than taking a gun and shooting that man in the head,” he told ABC News. “Because if you shoot a person in the head, they die once. If you get on the stand and you snitch on that person, they die a million times.”

He added, “My loyalty to Tupac can never be compromised. Me as a man, what I believe in, can’t be compromised. I’m not there to help [Davis], and I’m damn not there to hurt him.”

Knight also implied that, even though Tupac’s death still haunts him, he refuses to be a tool used to condemn a man to a life sentence. “I am not going to be responsible for sending another man to prison for the rest of his life,” he said. “If God’s forgiving, who am I to think I’m bigger than God and don’t forgive? Because I’m not.”

Even with that admission, Knight reportedly didn’t hide his disdain for Davis when speaking to ABC News. He dismissed Davis’ legal strategy of claiming he wasn’t even in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting.

Davis has publicly alluded to his involvement in Tupac’s killing for several years, including in the 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend, which he now claims was solely for entertainment. However, Suge Knight believes this defense is like “falling off a cliff”, and that Davis is “still grabbing and trying” to reach anything that will hold him up.

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage

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By the turn of the century, mainstream pop music was still growing. If anything, it was growing bolder, evolving beyond the restraints of the 90s. Here are three pop songs from around the early 2000s that were captivating in a genre that was quickly recycling through its old ideas and searching for something new.

“The Call” by The Backstreet Boys

The Backstreet Boys released “The Call” as the second single on their 2000 album Black & Blue. As the follow-up to their monumental 1999 album Millennium, Black & Blue still had that BSB magic. But in terms of longevity, Millennium typically comes to mind first. Which is a shame, since songs like “The Call” tend to be overlooked for hits like “Everybody” and “I Want It That Way”.

“The Call” is an example of The Backstreet Boys and their producer playing around with composition and sampling. It begins with a flourish of classical guitar, before a ringing phone and some dialogue set up the narrative. When the vocals come in, the anticipation has already grown with the intensity of the beat. Plus, the eight-beat rhythm before the vocals was sampled after Howie Dorough farted in the recording booth. Overall, “The Call” was a unique pop song at the turn of a new century.

“Can’t Get You Out of My Head” by Kylie Minogue

“Can’t Get You Out of My Head” was released on Kylie Minogue’s 2001 album Fever. This was her eighth studio album, with Minogue returning to mainstream pop around 2000 after a run of club hits in the 90s. “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” was praised for its production and catchy hook, and Minogue’s vocals were captivating.

It was repetitive and uncomplicated, but many felt that was the song’s strength. By keeping it simple, it was unburdened by a lot of overbearing production. “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” became almost hypnotic in that way. A pop song for the new millennium, Minogue further established herself as a prominent figure in the evolving club-pop scene.

“Work It” by Missy Elliott

“Work It” appeared on Missy Elliott’s 2002 album Under Construction. She found success early on with her debut Supa Dupa Fly, which included the iconic track “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)”. Elliott established herself as someone with a vision beyond the typical pop music and hip-hop tropes, and continued to prove herself with “Work It”.

This song is often considered one of the best of her career, and of the 2000s. Additionally, some critics felt that its clever eroticism continued where “Get Ur Freak On” left off. The use of samples, sound effects, and onomatopoeia elevated “Work It” as much as it confused listeners. The incomprehensible line that comes after “I put my thing down / Flip it / And reverse it” had listeners baffled yet curious, until it was revealed to be the same line played backward.

Photo by Rolf Haid/picture alliance via Getty Images

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