Month: June 2023

Summer is arguably where pop shines the most — and 2023 is already off to a killer swing for the first week of June. Quite a few songs on this week’s roundup are attached to either the hottest blockbusters hitting theaters (aka more from Barbie), new shows that are making waves on their respective platforms, or even an anthem for one coming to an end.

While each song takes on a different identity, it still manages to connect audiences — even if you don’t go see the particular thing it’s in.

Continue scrolling for Uproxx’s Best New Pop roundup.

Karol G (feat. Aldo Ranks) – “Watati”

On the heels of Dua Lipa leading the Barbie soundtrack, Karol G is keeping the momentum going with her incredibly fun “Watati.” Kicking things off with Karol phoning her collaborator, Aldo Ranks, the two deliver on the dance-ready hit. “Papi let’s go to the disco to have a good time,” she sings in Spanish during her verse.

Bizarrap, Peso Pluma — “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 55”

Some might recognize Bizarrap’s music session drops from his immensely popular one he did with Shakira a few months back. Now, Peso Pluma joined him in the studio for a feature that takes a turn from the traditional fire of the guest artist’s lyrics. “I’m still here / I’ll continue without sleep / Everything has changed since you left / I promised myself to not repeat,” he reminisces.

The Weeknd, Playboi Carti, Madonna — “Popular”

The Weeknd brought Playboi Carti and Madonna along for his moody “Popular” song, which is featured among the music for his HBO series, The Idol. As he plays an eerie-ish cult leader trying to get to a pop star, the vibes carry over to portray the tale of a fame-obsessed celebrity.

Tove Lo — “I Like U”

Tove Lo aimed “to make another song that was in the vein of the ‘90s [and] Y2K-era dance music” with her new single, “I Like U,” according to an interview with NME. “We tried a bunch of different ways, and I was just like, ‘No, this is the way – it needs to be this epic dance moment before you get the chorus melody,’” she added about her choice to once again work with Timfromthehouse on the production.

Madison Beer — “Home To Another One”

Madison Beer is ushering in her sophomore era with the bop “Home To Another One” — but she still struggles to get over an ex. “Say you hate me / It’s okay, boy, you’re not the only one / Another year, we’re still here / Call me, ‘Baby’ / I know you go home to another one,” she notes. Plus, her brilliant space-themed music video went viral online.

Ed Sheeran — “A Beautiful Game”

In honor of the alleged final episode of Ted Lasso ever, Ed Sheeran wrote an uplifting anthem, “A Beautiful Game,” specifically for the series. Throughout his tour stops, Sheeran recorded audio from the various crowds to use in the track.

Stray Kids — “S-Class”

Stray Kids‘ “S-Class” finds the K-Pop band raising their artistry to another level. In this new music video, they lean into zany concepts like encountering aliens, but they also make time to show off their fiery choreography — backed by graphics of actual flames.

Kelly Clarkson — “I Hate Love”

Kelly Clarkson is going full-throttle on the breakup jams with her latest album teaser, “I Hate Love.” Still, this hasn’t stopped her from enlisting a very fun surprise guest. Actor Steve Martin plays the banjo on the track. Clarkson had wanted to work with Martin after discovering his videos during the pandemic, making it a unique-but-brilliant pairing. Here’s hoping these two can meet in-person soon to perform it.

Christopher — “A Beautiful Life”

Another television soundtrack release on this week’s list, Christopher’s somber piano ballad, “A Beautiful Life,” is featured on Netflix’s new hit film of the same title. He also makes his acting debut as the main character, Elliott, in the flick, as a fisherman who gets discovered at a party.

Tiësto — “Yesterday”

Tiësto’s “Yesterday” is a new single from the DJ’s recent album, Drive, which also features past hits like “10:35” and “Hot In It.” This one finds him wanting to go back to the good old days over a robotic catchy chorus. “Take me back to yesterday / Dancing every night away,” he sings.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Jay-Z shared that he thought Ludacris’ lyrical abilities were often underrated, and indeed, the Fast X star’s impact in rap shouldn’t be swept under the rug. Quite some time has passed since the entertainer has released an album of his own, but his past releases often find their way onto the music charts thanks to clever samples by today’s rising acts.

Rapper Kali didn’t realize she was referencing Ludacris on her song, “Area Codes,” but Jack Harlow sure did when he sampled Fergie’s 2007 song “Glamorous,” which featured Ludacris. Harlow’s chart-topping single “First Class” earned him Ludacris’ respect and official co-sign. During an appearance in a new GQ video, Ludacris spoke about Harlow’s breakout track.

When asked if he was approving of the usage of the sample, the musician said, “How can I not be OK with it? I’m doing shows, and there’s a whole new generation that is identifying with the record, even if they haven’t heard my verse, simply because Jack Harlow is doing it over.”

He added, “I feel like he did it justice. It would be different if it was a poor rendition, but it’s not. Jack Harlow did it exceptionally well, and I enjoy the record.”

Watch the video above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Jay-Z shared that he thought Ludacris’ lyrical abilities were often underrated, and indeed, the Fast X star’s impact in rap shouldn’t be swept under the rug. Quite some time has passed since the entertainer has released an album of his own, but his past releases often find their way onto the music charts thanks to clever samples by today’s rising acts.

Rapper Kali didn’t realize she was referencing Ludacris on her song, “Area Codes,” but Jack Harlow sure did when he sampled Fergie’s 2007 song “Glamorous,” which featured Ludacris. Harlow’s chart-topping single “First Class” earned him Ludacris’ respect and official co-sign. During an appearance in a new GQ video, Ludacris spoke about Harlow’s breakout track.

When asked if he was approving of the usage of the sample, the musician said, “How can I not be OK with it? I’m doing shows, and there’s a whole new generation that is identifying with the record, even if they haven’t heard my verse, simply because Jack Harlow is doing it over.”

He added, “I feel like he did it justice. It would be different if it was a poor rendition, but it’s not. Jack Harlow did it exceptionally well, and I enjoy the record.”

Watch the video above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Black Mirror has taken every fear or anxiety you have about technology and the future and expertly enhanced that fear to the point where you feel as though your computer might be trying to kill you by chipping away at your emotional well-being. It’s great entertainment, though!

Showrunner Charlie Brooker decided to try the most Black Mirror thing ever while writing season six of the popular anthology series by handing over the writing responsibility to someone we all know and love — the internet.

“I’ve toyed around with ChatGPT a bit,” Brooker told Empire. ChatGPT, in case you haven’t been keeping up, is an AI chatbot that can generate text based on a specific prompt. It could even write blogs, but they will never be as funny as us real humans.

Brooker continued, “The first thing I did was type ‘generate Black Mirror episode’ and it comes up with something that, at first glance, reads plausibly, but on second glance, is sh*t. Because all it’s done is look up all the synopses of Black Mirror episodes, and sort of mush them together. Then if you dig a bit more deeply you go, ‘Oh, there’s not actually any real original thought here.’ It’s [1970s impressionist] Mike Yarwood — there’s a topical reference.” Brooker explained. With Mike Yarwood you never quite know what you’re going to get, so this checks out when it comes to AI content.

Even though we won’t get a ChatGPT episode, Brooker says that it was a great lesson in how not to write TV. “I was aware that I had written lots of episodes where someone goes ‘Oh, I was inside a computer the whole time!’ So I thought, ‘I’m just going to chuck out any sense of what I think a Black Mirror episode is.’” Brooker also promised that the upcoming season six of the series will be just as unexpected as the groundbreaking seasons before it. “There’s no point in having an anthology show if you can’t break your own rules. Just a sort of nice, cold glass of water in the face.”

Though it might not work narratively, an AI-generated episode of Black Mirror would be a nice little experiment. It would also probably prove to everyone just how important TV writers are, which seems to be a hot topic at the moment. Robots don’t know how to write peak TV. They just wouldn’t know what to do with all of those cowboy hats.

Season six of Black Mirror will debut on Netflix on June 15th.

(Via Empire)

Black Mirror has taken every fear or anxiety you have about technology and the future and expertly enhanced that fear to the point where you feel as though your computer might be trying to kill you by chipping away at your emotional well-being. It’s great entertainment, though!

Showrunner Charlie Brooker decided to try the most Black Mirror thing ever while writing season six of the popular anthology series by handing over the writing responsibility to someone we all know and love — the internet.

“I’ve toyed around with ChatGPT a bit,” Brooker told Empire. ChatGPT, in case you haven’t been keeping up, is an AI chatbot that can generate text based on a specific prompt. It could even write blogs, but they will never be as funny as us real humans.

Brooker continued, “The first thing I did was type ‘generate Black Mirror episode’ and it comes up with something that, at first glance, reads plausibly, but on second glance, is sh*t. Because all it’s done is look up all the synopses of Black Mirror episodes, and sort of mush them together. Then if you dig a bit more deeply you go, ‘Oh, there’s not actually any real original thought here.’ It’s [1970s impressionist] Mike Yarwood — there’s a topical reference.” Brooker explained. With Mike Yarwood you never quite know what you’re going to get, so this checks out when it comes to AI content.

Even though we won’t get a ChatGPT episode, Brooker says that it was a great lesson in how not to write TV. “I was aware that I had written lots of episodes where someone goes ‘Oh, I was inside a computer the whole time!’ So I thought, ‘I’m just going to chuck out any sense of what I think a Black Mirror episode is.’” Brooker also promised that the upcoming season six of the series will be just as unexpected as the groundbreaking seasons before it. “There’s no point in having an anthology show if you can’t break your own rules. Just a sort of nice, cold glass of water in the face.”

Though it might not work narratively, an AI-generated episode of Black Mirror would be a nice little experiment. It would also probably prove to everyone just how important TV writers are, which seems to be a hot topic at the moment. Robots don’t know how to write peak TV. They just wouldn’t know what to do with all of those cowboy hats.

Season six of Black Mirror will debut on Netflix on June 15th.

(Via Empire)

The Vegas Golden Knights took a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final on Monday, dominating the Florida Panthers in Game 2 in a 7-2 win to put the Panthers’ backs against the wall as the series shifts to South Florida.

The most impressive performance of the night by anyone from Florida in T-Mobile Arena came in the stands, not on the ice, as CBS Miami reporter Samantha Rivera delivered her stand-up from the arena after the loss. As Rivera looked to roll the highlights, a Vegas fan tried to jump into her shot and Rivera, without missing a beat, delivered a tremendous stiff arm to the fan to get him out of the shot and went straight into the highlights.

It was an impressive display of poise from Rivera, who clearly has had drunk fans try to disrupt her shots before. She knew exactly how to handle it, just pushing him away and going straight back to her report. The stiff arm even caught the attention of the NFL, which tweeted out a comparison of Rivera tossing aside the fan and Derrick Henry doing the same to a defensive back.

Stand-up reports by yourself can be tricky, particularly when you are trying to do them where fans are because some can’t help but see a camera and try to get in the shot. However, beware of doing that around Rivera because you might end up catching a stiff arm.

Bees can make a home practically anywhere, but their location choice isn’t always ideal, both for them and the humans they cohabitate with. Luckily, bee whisperers like Erika Thompson of Texas Beeworks specialize in moving colonies from their unusual makeshift living areas to places much more hospitable.

Thompson has helped relocate countless hives–found everywhere from backyard playgrounds to sheds to compost bins—all while documenting how it’s done. Plus she narrates the process with a voice so soft and soothing it doubles as an ASMR video. But really, it’s her signature flair of doing it all with her bare hands that always leaves people completely floored.

Thompson recently rescued a beehive from a particularly unusual spot—a discarded suitcase.

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In a clip shared to her Youtube channel, Thompson carefully opened the lid to reveal thousands of insects collected together. After noting that the hive didn’t have any food or signs of new baby bees being generated, she decided to rehome them.

From driving the suitcase of bees in her truck to coaxing them out into their new home with smoke, Thompson makes it all look so easy. She was even able to spot the hive queen, which is basically like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Watch below. Especially for the part where Thompson ever so gently narrates the hive murdering a wasp.

Funny enough, this isn’t even the weirdest item Thompson has delivered bees from. Previous spots include a washing machine, an old chair and even the tank of a thrown-away toilet. But no matter the locale, she’s determined to help the buzz fam thrive.

While honey bee populations continue to be reported as increasing, thousands of other native bee species still face threats of extinction. These bees help pollinate many crops and plants that honey bees do not, especially species that use buzz pollination—a trick involving vibrating to shake off stubborn pollen which honey bees do not possess.

Besides habitat loss, pesticides are the largest threat to our world’s most important pollinators. That’s why, in addition to rehoming, Thompson also advocates for eliminating the use of pesticides in order to help all kinds of bee populations start buzzing around again.

You can follow along on even more of her bee rescues on Youtube and Instagram.

Many of us have sent a thank you to that one special teacher who really made an impact during our school days. Those standout heroes who taught us how to shine, grow beyond our limitations, and see the beauty of our potential.

However, Minnesota high school senior Minna Yang has gone above and beyond, sending literally hundreds of notes of appreciation to every single one of her teachers. Yes. Every. Single. One.

Yang began this sweet gesture as a shy elementary student and never stopped. Not only did she add new teachers to the list, she continued writing to teachers from her previous years, so the list would grow exponentially. By her senior year, she had 74 teachers and staffers in total who would receive a note.

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“It became a mission for her to leave a wake of positivity,” Sarah Wolfe, one of Yang’s teachers, told NBC News.

To respond in kind, Yang’s teachers banded together on their own mission. The day before her high school graduation, a small crowd of her former educators gathered to celebrate Yang’s generosity and offer their own words of appreciation.

“I take your note out every time I feel like I can’t do it, and you help me do it,” one teacher said.

Teaching, as we well know, isn’t an easy job. And in some ways—especially monetarily—it’s a thankless one. Not getting paid enough while taking on more and more responsibilities has caused many teachers to quit the job they love, after all.

But still, people continue to take it on as a vocation because of an inner drive to help and nurture young people and help them become the best version of themselves. I imagine getting a note does indeed help them remember why they chose the career in the first place. They deserve so much more, yes, but, as we can see from the exchange below, knowing they made a difference in their students’ lives is priceless.

Watch:

Yang’s teachers weren’t the only ones moved by her generosity. Several folks commended her attitude in the comments section.

“What’s amazingly beautiful is that every teacher seems to have saved the notes she sent them. What a caring human being, one that touched a lot of adults in her life. That is priceless and doesn’t happen often.”

“She is an upstanding human being who recognizes and respects her teachers who molded her as a person and helped her grow. She is an inspiration to many and will no doubt succeed in life because of her character and the fact that she values the relationships with those who helped her along her journey.”

“We need more people like her in the world, especially in this day and age. God bless you Minna in all you do.“

Yang might be the student here. But she’s giving a great lesson on kindness that we can all learn from.

Given that language evolves so rapidly, it’s hard to imagine what people sounded like 200 years ago, let alone 500 or a thousand. Even when we watch movies about ancient civilizations, the characters usually speak in a language similar to the audience, giving us a false sense of what people in those times were like.

The folks at Equator AI are giving people a realistic idea of what people in ancient civilizations sounded like by recreating the languages of 15 languages that haven’t been heard in centuries. In the video, the languages are spoken by computer-generated recreations of people who lived in that era.

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The Equator channel on YouTube has numerous videos that recreate historical figures to make them relatable to people of today. Equator “strives to preserve and revive the past of mankind, making it closer and more understandable for people of our era.”

One of the most interesting parts of the video is the young man speaking 5th-century Old English. It sounds a bit like a mix of English spoken by a modern-day Scotsman with a dash of Latin rhythms and a lot of R-rolling. English has changed so much over the past 1500-plus years that it bears little resemblance to the language spoken today.

“Old English is mind-blowing! How could it sound so different?” TechnoGlowStick commented.

“They really loved rolling the ‘r’s, don’t they,” Huai Wei Edmund Teo added.

The video is a wonderful way to visit the past while also a reminder that our language will continue to evolve. And one day, in the not-so-distant future, people will dig up old footage of people speaking English in 2023 and have no idea what they’re saying.

Here’s a list of all the languages in the video:

0:01 Old Norse

0:24 Mayan

0:53 Latin

1:29 Middle Chinese

1:57 Old English

2:28 Old Japanese

2:57 Old Church Slavonic

3:26 Proto-Celtic language

3:56 Middle Egyptian

4:26 Ryukyuan language

4:56 Ancient Greek

5:30 Phoenician language

5:53 Hittite language

6:23 Quechua

6:53 Akkadian language

Childrearing is always a touchy topic, and with the rise of newer parenting techniques like gentle parenting and free-range parenting, people get passionate about their techniques. To be fair, parenting is a very personal journey and every parent out there will parent differently than the next. In fact, even within the same household, each child is parented differently when they have the same exact parents.

This is because as parents we are constantly learning what works and what doesn’t. We’re also learning that each child has a different personality and needs a different approach. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to parenting, but there are some evidence-based practices that have been proven to work well as a guide for your personal style.

When I first started having children a little over 20 years ago, my family had a lot of opinions about my parenting style because there was no “punishment” for unwanted behaviors. It seemed like a foreign concept back then, and it still feels foreign now to some people. But the truth is, my children have never experienced punishment at my hand.

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When my children were younger, I had grown accustomed to defending the way I parented them, and while it was a source of frustration, it didn’t change the way I approached the task. I had an advantage that not every parent has when raising children–I was in college for my bachelor’s degree in child development and family relations when I was raising my first child, and I graduated when my second was six months old. I essentially had an inside scoop on how kids’ brains worked and the best approach to interact with them.

This is the reason I steered away from punishment and focused instead on natural and logical consequences. I view punishment as something unrelated to the behavior. Sometimes the punishment can be a child being grounded because they failed a test, or time-out for swearing. Obviously, there are more severe punishments as well, like corporal punishment or the newer trend of public humiliation via social media. (For instance, recently a mom posted a video to TikTok showing her running over her young child’s television because he was misbehaving in school.)

Natural consequences always happen on their own without much parental intervention, while logical consequences are typically enforced by the parent. Natural consequences are usually predictable, and as long as your kid is in no immediate danger, then it’s usually safe to let them play out.

Here’s an example: When my daughter was 4 or 5 years old, she was playing outside with some friends and had taken her shoes off in front of our backyard swing set and left them there. This was a Saturday and she had P.E. on Tuesday. I gave her multiple reminders to pick up her shoes along with the warning that her shoes would be gross if she left them outside.

She continued to live her best life going to dance, school and having playdates all while she ignored my advice to pick up her shoes. When P.E. day rolled around, she happily ran outside to grab her tennis shoes and promptly screamed and ran back into the house. Her shoes were filled with slugs and spider webs, so she was unable to wear them to school and had to go in jelly shoes. This was a natural consequence for the action and not a punishment.

But what is a logical consequence? I’ve got an example of that too, and yes, these are all real things that have taken place, though this one isn’t nearly as dramatic. My youngest is supposed to be in bed by 8 PM and lights out by 8:30 every evening, but he likes to get really silly before bedtime and wants to find ways to play more before going to bed. We inform him that all of the extra play is taking away from his television time in his room because no matter what, the television goes off at 8:30. If he wastes his “TV time,” it’s upsetting, but it’s not a punishment.

I have found that allowing for natural and logical consequences has given my children the ability to think critically for themselves in difficult situations. One of my four kids is now an adult and two of them are teens, and they information seek through me or Google when making certain decisions for themselves. I’ve never shielded them from safe natural and logical consequences even when they were painful to watch, like failing a grade or gossiping behind a good friend’s back.

Have I made mistakes as a parent? Absolutely. I’m not perfect and neither are my children, but from an early age, they saw me as someone to help guide them as they made their own choices. This aided them in achieving confidence in their decision-making abilities.

Every parenting style isn’t for every parent or every child. This is what has worked for me, but people should do what works best for their families to raise well-rounded and kind future adults.