There are few things I love more than a bunch of powerful women commanding a stage for the night, so I couldn’t miss the opportunity to attend FLETCHER’s Pride event: FLETCHER & FRIENDS. On June 4, UPSAHL, Olivia O’Brien, and FLETCHER took the stage at the iconic Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ to celebrate Pride Month 2023 with a concert. And, honestly, I wasn’t disappointed.

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Coachella has always been the mecca of music festivals. Yes, it’s known for its celeb spottings and boho-chic crochet outfits. But it’s also a bucketlist festival for artists. It’s a capstone show that many performers use to flex their best stuff — whether it be unreleased music or a surprise guest. Why wouldn’t you? The crowd of 100,000 people per weekend is sometimes the biggest stage these artists have seen.

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MUSIC

The 10 Best Super Bowl Half Time Shows of All Time: Ranked

Remember when Lady Gaga literally jumped off the top of the stadium?

Jennifer Lopez and Shakira

LARRY W SMITH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

If you watch the Super Bowl for the football, then we don't have much to talk about.

But if you watch the Super Bowl for the spectacle of the half time show and the commercials? We could get along. There are few performances in a musician's career with stakes as high as the Super Bowl half time show. It's live, the whole thing needs to be assembled in the length of a commercial break, and the whole country is watching and judging your performance.

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MUSIC

12 of the Most Controversial Songs of All Time

From N.W.A. to Miley Cyrus, we look back at some tracks that truly stirred the pot.

The Chicks - Goodbye Earl (Official Video)

If we can learn one thing from all these songs, it's that controversy sells.

Despite riling up millions and triggering heated battles across the world, many of these songs were extremely successful in their own rights. While some are anti-police and anti-fascism and others entertain Nazi sympathies and feature drugs and violence, all of these songs managed to rile people up (some more than others) and cemented their place in history.

Some songs are outright expressions of violence; others are vengeful responses to violence, but all unveil some of the darker, more brutal sides of the human mind. Many are stunningly relevant to today's most searing controversies.

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Music Features

Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" is the 2020 Election Anthem

Some Trump supporters played Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" outside of Walter Reed, where Trump was recovering from the coronavirus. They missed the entire point of the song, but proved something about America.

Born in the U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen - [LYRICS] [HQ]

Bruce Springsteen has long occupied a contradictory position in American consciousness.

He built his early image off a macho, heartland-rooted, working-class persona, making him into a kind of avatar for the Real American Man, the kind who arrives on his motorcycle with grease-stained hands and never shows a wink of emotion.

But over the past few decades, Springsteen has been slowly deconstructing that image, coming clean about his history with depression while admitting his persona was largely based on his desire to please his father.

Springsteen has also been an outspoken liberal, much to the disdain of those who may have seen a very Make America Great Again patriotism in his lyrics. Still, the gap between Macho-Conservative-Patriot-Bruce and Liberal-Nuanced-Critical-Bruce remains and continues to confound fans and foes alike.

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New Releases

Bon Iver Drops Anticapitalist Anthem Featuring Bruce Springsteen and Jenny Lewis

"Each and every person on earth deserves to live fully with dignity, equity, justice, and joy. Instead, our capitalistic societies have created a world that is most supportive of the wealthy and the elite, and the predatory corporations and policies that drive their disproportionate success."

Bon Iver

Bon Iver has shared a surprise new song entitled "AUATC."

Produced by Justin Vernon, Jim-E Stack, and BJ Burton, and featuring contributions from Jenny Lewis, Bruce Springsteen, Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner, Phil Cook, and more, it's Bon Iver's second single of 2020.

The song dropped today along with a music video created by Aaron Anderson and Eric Timothy Carlson and starring Randall Riley. Filmed in New York, the video is mostly a montage of simple, beautiful footage of Riley dancing across bridges and through neighborhood scenes, all while wearing a mask. It's distinctly summer-in-the-time-of-COVID-core, from its DIY feel to its vaguely anticapitalist implications. (The video begins and ends with a few brightly colored cartoons depicting engorged, Monopoly Man-like men in suits all eating vast amounts of cake).

The song's acronymic title stands for "Ate Up All Their Cake," so its anticapitalist arguments aren't exactly covert.

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