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Is Charlie Puth too Online?

June 04, 2021

This week Daysia talks about her love for Rina Sawayama and cringes at Charlie Puth’s TikTok. Meanwhile, Hannah writes about why she is delighted by bot and no context Twitter accounts. Plus, new Billie and tons of tabs. Happy Friday!

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Daysia and Hannah

This Week's Fixations

What’s taking up our brain space this week?

Daysia: Happy pride month!!! We’re starting off strong with this new Billboard cover story featuring Rina Sawayama 🤩 As a long-time Pixel (RINA era 4eva baby!), I’m so happy to see Miss Rina get the recognition she deserves and to hear that her fan base is growing. She makes some of the hardest, complex pop music I’ve ever heard, and she’s worked so hard to see her vision of the genre realized. In the piece, she talks about racist label execs (they called her Rina Wagamama…. gross!) and getting dropped:

“I was like, ‘F--k off,’ ” Sawayama, dressed casually in a gray hoodie, says over Zoom from her London flat on a recent afternoon, her laughter revealing a sliver of blue braces. The Japanese-British singer, 30, had spent her 20s toiling independently in London’s underground music scene, playing small clubs and fine-tuning what would become her boundary-pushing approach to pop. So by the time she started pursuing a record deal, she knew she was on to something: “I think that’s the benefit of me waiting so long. Had I been younger, I might have been like, ‘Oh, no. I need to change my sound.’ ”

It appears we’ll be hearing more of her innovative sound soon—in the form of a Chromatica track remix! It’s been hinted at before (as previously discussed in this very newsletter), but the Gaga x Rina collab is nigh, as confirmed in this profile.

In other news, I think it’s time for Charlie Puth to log off. The thirst traps are a bit much, but it’s really his latest posts that have made me think: “please let this man outside!!!” The man has been on TikTok deciphering what key the Backyardigans “Castaways” song and a literal microwave beep are in (twice 😭). He’s got beef with Whirlpool over whether their microwave tone goes up or down. If it sounds like nonsense, it is. And here I am… waiting for Voicenotes 2… and receiving this. It’s disrespectful!

Hannah: It shouldn’t come as a surprise that all I have been able to listen to for the past few weeks is SOUR (honestly it’s amazing that I’m still not sick of “drivers license” but I continue to listen to it at least every other day). I am a proud Livvie! And one of my favorite SOUR-related things is the SOUR lyrics bot account on Twitter which tweets a line from the album every day. I like to play a game with myself to guess which song the lyrics are from (some are actually really hard). Aside from that, seeing a line isolated in this way, a totally different medium, creates this weird dichotomy of both being able to appreciate the genius of Rodrigo as a lyricist but also a reminder that she is eighteen since every line is perfect Twitter fodder. (Case in point: the pinned tweet “i’m so sick of myself” from “jealousy, jealousy” has 19,000 likes.)

I love a good bot or no context account and follow several for my favorite TV shows. It’s always a nice reminder of a particularly funny moment from a show or a refreshing break from what else is happening on my timeline. In some cases, it can also literally be a reminder of what day it is—I always know it’s Thursday thanks to “thursday! what a concept!” (@thursaconcept). The account tweets a screenshot of Natasha Lyonne in Russian Doll saying the line, “Thursday. What a concept.” (There are occasional deviations like yesterday’s follow-up was “Pride. What a concept.” and also included links to several places to donate this month, which I think is great.) The best bot/no context accounts are the ones that manage to convey what’s happening in the world only through screencaps from the TV show. Like with the SOUR lyrics bot, it’s a good guessing game to see if I’m actually paying attention to what’s happening and also creates a nice oxymoron of the Twitter handle by putting the screencaps from the show in context (to be fair some of these accounts brand themselves as “out of context” so I guess it isn’t as oxymoronic but whatever).

If like me you are curious and intrigued by the behind the scenes of these accounts I recommend reading this Q&A that Delia Cai of Deez Links did with Anna Golez who runs No Context Succession (@nocontextroyco) which is one of my favorite no context accounts. Other favorites include @nocontextpwb, @nonewgirlcontxt, and @nocontextpawnee.

Has Lorde Dropped a new album?

No, but as we said last week, it’s coming! We’ve been seeing folks on Twitter buying Primavera tix in anticipation of the new Lorde era.

But we did get a new pic!

Too Many Tabs

Our fav reads of the week

Ben Allen talked to our boyfriend Nicholas Braun about Zola, a Jon Bon Jovi pizza encounter (in which Allen refers to Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy as simply a “vlogger,” iconic!), and Succession for British GQ.

Rachel Syme wrote about our fav pod, Who? Weekly, the evolution of celebrity culture consumption, and the fluctuating statuses of the (almost) famous in the New Yorker.

Insider’s Kristie-Valerie Hoang explained about how early Asian Youtubers inspired a generation of young Asian American creatives long before Hollywood tried.