We’re Still Waiting For Renee Rapp To Make An Album As Brash As Her Public Persona
Friday, 15 August 2025 () Is anybody media trained anymore? Do a YouTube search for your favorite pop star of the decade, and there’s a decent chance you’ll get an exhaustive 30-minute video of every chaotic, unfiltered thing they’ve said or done on camera — at least, unfiltered in the eyes of the person painstakingly compiling the clips. The idea that an artist might engage in a little recreational reputation-torching and blurt out whatever shit at whatever time is becoming less of a professional liability than a status symbol, an aspirational messiness: As media trainer Bill McGowan told The New York Times, “unhinged has become the new authentic.” And just like “authenticity,” it’s a performance and a fantasy; one wonders how it is that, if so many artists are unafraid to ruin their reputations, so few of their reputations seem noticeably ruined.
Friday, 15 August 2025 ()
Is anybody media trained anymore? Do a YouTube search for your favorite pop star of the decade, and there’s a decent chance you’ll get an exhaustive 30-minute video of every chaotic, unfiltered thing they’ve said or done on camera — at least, unfiltered in the eyes of the person painstakingly compiling the clips. The idea that an artist might engage in a little recreational reputation-torching and blurt out whatever shit at whatever time is becoming less of a professional liability than a status symbol, an aspirational messiness: As media trainer Bill McGowan told The New York Times, “unhinged has become the new authentic.” And just like “authenticity,” it’s a performance and a fantasy; one wonders how it is that, if so many artists are unafraid to ruin their reputations, so few of their reputations seem noticeably ruined.