Where is Sky Ferreira?

April 16, 2021

This week, Daysia ponders her fav Tumblr-era pop girlies and Hannah talks about how ARTPOP changed her life (well, some of her career aspirations) and why Lady Gaga is a visionary. Also, there is a lot happening in the world of reality TV and in “Too Many Tabs” we have included several pieces about the shows we watch about real people to escape our own lives. Plus, other great reads to carry you through the weekend.

<3

Daysia and Hannah

This Week's Fixations

What's taking up our brain space this week?

Daysia: I’ve been in a major Tumblr-era nostalgia haze lately, especially when it comes to music. And you know what? I’ll never forgive y’all for hyping up Lana Del Rey in 2012 when MARINA was right there. Now look where we are!

The two artists have been associated with each other since the early 2010s—especially during MARINA’s Electra Heart phase. Sonically, they are dissimilar, but thematically, they have played with the same feminine archetypes. MARINA, however, does not get the shine she deserves for subverting, satirizing, and critiquing these personas. Are her lyrics a bit on the nose at times? Yes. But I think she explores the ideas of femininity, power, sex, and Hollywood in such a bright, theatrical way that is highly underrated! Needless to say, I am very excited for her new album Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land.

Speaking of circa 2012 Tumblr artists, let’s talk about this iconic cover for a moment:

It is the Fall 2012 issue of V, and it poises Charli, Grimes, and Sky Ferreira as the future of pop. We know what has become of two of these artists—Charli and Grimes have been propelling the genre forward since their debuts. But where is Sky? She, like the other two, has undeniably left their mark on the pop landscape, bringing the 1980s back into her music even before Carly Rae Jepsen. After her critically-acclaimed debut album Night Time, My Time came out in 2013, she has been noticeably absent from music (although she has been acting). She is famously a bit of a tragic figure in pop with a career marked by label disputes, a struggle to find her sound, and album delays. Her sophomore album Masochism was slated to come out in 2016, then tracks were teased for years, and now—in the year of our Lorde 2021—it is nowhere to be seen (heard?). What appeared to be the first single from the LP dropped in 2019, but that is everything we have so far. It’s been a highly-anticipated project for the better part of a decade, even making Pitchfork’s most anticipated albums of 2020 list (which of course, we waited with bated breath for naught). Clearly, someone knows something! Like Sky said in this 2017 Instagram post, “I MAKE POP MUSIC?!?? It's not THAT complicated?”

Every time I think about the V cover, I wonder what alternative pop would look like if Sky had released more music. Songs like “24 Hours” from NTMT or “Everything is Embarrassing” off her EP Ghost made up the main character soundtrack for moody Tumblr teens (myself included). I can’t help but wonder what angsty, sad girl bangers are in the vault. And in a year such as this one, I need Sky’s music more than ever (especially to score my already-tumultuous early 20s!).

Hannah: It seems like the rest of the world has finally caught up with what I’ve always known seven years later: Lady Gaga’s album ARTPOP is a masterpiece.

It’s an album that is so of the time it was created but at the same time is timeless—or perhaps even more relevant. The fever pitch of “Applause” still captures the many sides of fame so well, those who pursue it, review it, and live with it. I think the word “visionary” gets thrown around a lot but I feel comfortable referring to Lady Gaga as one. For me, a lot of that comes from how visual everything she creates is from her music videos to her live performances to her album artwork. It’s distinctly Lady Gaga. Every album tells a story which is why I rarely listen to her albums on shuffle. (Otherwise you miss the brilliance of things like the iconic transition on her most recent album—“Chromatica II” to “911.”)

As a celebrity, especially in the early days, the mainstream painted Gaga as “out there” (see: the meat dress) but missed the fact that she was providing and creating a community for people (Little Monsters) who felt misunderstood as well. The music, the stories and this community have always been at the heart of what she does. We rallied around ARTPOP. We all want to live on Chromatica.

I listened to ARTPOP a lot when I was in high school, mostly because it was one of the main pieces I was examining for my IB Extended Essay (essentially a mini-thesis). I dissected the album cover created by pop artist Jeff Koons (who she references in “Applause”) and the line (again from “Applause”) “Pop culture was in art, now art’s in pop culture, in me.” I was basically chasing down the chicken-egg theory of what creates pop culture and how it influences itself and other parts of culture. It was one of the first times I got to dive in and analyze something that I cared about and evidently influenced a lot of what I do now. This might be melodramatic but I feel fortunate to live in the same timeline as Lady Gaga. Watching her metamorphosis through each album and stage of her career is inspiring and reminds me of how important pop culture is and for me that really started with ARTPOP. Paws up.

Has Lorde Dropped a new album?

No, and no sightings of her this week either 😭

In the meantime, listen to MARINA’s new single “Purge the Poison,” a rejuvenating, Powerpuff Girlsesque sisterhood anthem!

Too Many Tabs

Our fav reads of the week

For Vulture, Anna Peele wrote about the internal struggle at Bravo—how do you make reality shows that balances escapism and accountability?

David Marchese interviewed director Adam McKay about making media that meets the political moment for the New York Times Magazine (this is where McKay calls Aaron Sorkin the right-wing version of him).

Daniel Dae Kim discusses his career with E. Alex Jung from starting out in theater to Lost and Hawaii Five-0 (including why he left the latter) to now producing and developing shows in Vulture.

Gossip bloggers like Perez Hilton and Elaine Lui (Lainey Gossip) defined an era of celebrity gossip and now they’re apologizing for their past coverage. Scaachi Khoul examines this shift in Buzzfeed.