Apple TV+ isn’t ignoring the existing streaming trend towards espionage and intrigue-infused shows. They’ve got Slow Horses as a mainstay and Prime Target on the way to satisfy those urges. What is also happening to a greater degree, however, is that the tech giant’s streaming service is going absolutely overboard (in the best way) with sci-fi offerings.
Both Foundation and Invasion will return for third seasons. Silo and Severance will be back for second helpings, and upcoming debuts will include The Gorge (starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy), Murderbot (starring Alexander Skarsgård), and Neuromancer (starring Callum Turner). Oh, and we must not forget to mention For All Mankind, one of the handful of shows that launched Apple TV+ in Nov. 2019 with a fifth season forthcoming.
Devotees of that particular series were not upset to learn that a spin off is afoot, too, so let’s talk about what to expect from Star City, which will travel into the alternate-history viewpoints of Russian cosmonauts who exist in the same space race (to the Moon, to Mars ^^^) as For All Mankind.
Plot
Apple TV+
As viewers know, For All Mankind began in a 1969-set alternate universe where the Soviet Union beat the U.S. to the Moon, and a catch-up scramble followed. This led to time jumps in between seasons anchored by Joel Kinnaman’s NASA astronaut, Ed Baldwin, and we’ve seen alternate-space-race conditions during the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia and reflections upon conflicts with both North Korea and private space tourism at large. Star City has now received hints from the For All Mankind creators, starting with Matt Wolpert and Ben Nevidi, who are also onboard for the newer series.
According to an Apple TV+ press release, Wolpert and Nevidi couldn’t help but be driven to more curiosity about the inner workings of the Soviet space program in the show’s alternate history. As a result, the spin off will explore how “[t]he more we learned about this secret city in the forests outside Moscow where the Soviet cosmonauts and engineers worked and lived, the more we wanted to tell this story of the other side of the space race.”
Further (and more candid) insight came from For All Mankind fellow co-creator Ronald D. Moore, who spoke with Collider about how much more knowledge he has gained about Russian cosmonauts while plotting out Star City, for which the envisioned structure will fill “several seasons”:
“I didn’t know a lot about the Russian space program before I started doing this project. I knew an awful lot about the American program, but I think most Americans don’t know a lot of details about that. It was pretty ballsy stuff that they did. The spacecraft were not quite as reliable as ours were; they lost a lot of good people on them. The conditions were tough. They also had things like the KGB being around and hanging out in mission control, so there’s a lot of espionage and Cold War kind of environments that you’re dealing with in that particular show.”
The streaming service has provided a description about the full-on alternate perspective to come:
A robust expansion of the “For All Mankind” universe, “Star City” is a propulsive, paranoid thriller that takes us back to the key moment in the alt-history retelling of the space race – when the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the moon. But this time, we explore the story from behind the Iron Curtain, showing the lives of the cosmonauts, the engineers and the intelligence officers embedded among them in the Soviet space program, and the risks they all took to propel humanity forward.
Cast
Star City producers haven’t dropped any hints on casting or discussed whether any crossover (with forward and backward time jumps as necessary) might occur with For All Mankind characters.
Release Date
Apple TV+ also hasn’t revealed a release date for Star City, although it’s fair to assume that the spin off will be staggered and not arrive at the same time as the next For All Mankind season. As for which series will land first, we’ll have to wait and see.
Trailer
Since we’re still waiting for a peek at Star City, here’s a trip back in TV time to the first season of For All Mankind with a far less grizzled Joel Kinnaman, who must be spending so much time in the make-up chair for later seasons. Space travel is a hell of a drug, man.
After her appearance on Childish Gambino’s Bando Stone And The New World soundtrack cut “In The Night,” Jorja Smith makes her return with new two singles, “Loving You” and “Don’t Let Me Go.” She also revealed her tour dates for 2025 supporting her album Falling Or Flying, which will include stops in Austin, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York throughout February and March — with new dates sure to come.
According to the new songs’ press release, “Loving You” is ten years old and was “rediscovered and revived” in a recent session. The sparse track pairs Jorja’s honeyed vocals with a warm piano track and a full-bodied gospel choir. Fellow Brit Maverick Sabre provides a counterpoint to Smith’s yearning verse, and as the song builds to a crescendo, the three vocal tracks blend into an uplifting, harmonious union. You can listen to “Loving You” above.
“Don’t Let Me Go,” on the other hand, utilizes fuller instrumentation, with a gentle acoustic guitar loop buttressing Jorja’s pining message for a former lover. You can check it out below.
See below for Jorja Smith’s 2025 US tour dates.
Jorja Smith Falling Or Flying 2025 Tour Dates
02/18 — Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater
02/20 — Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center
02/21 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom
02/24 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy
02/26 — Chicago, IL @ Auditorium Theatre
03/01 — Cincinnati, OH @ The Andrew J Brady Music Center
03/02 — Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit
03/04 — Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
03/07 — Boston, MA @ Wang Theatre
03/08 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia
03/10 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount
03/13 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
The project is filled with bangers such as “Astronaut” featuring Chris Martin, “Tears For Fun,” and “Miss Me Too.” Still, there were a few records previously teased that didn’t make the final cut including the fan favorite “Last Night’s Mascara.”
Yesterday (November 7), Griff’s mourning over “Last Night’s Mascara” getting the axe ended as she formerly shared it as a post-Vertigo stand-alone single.
“As promised, ‘Last Night’s Mascara’ is now yours,” wrote Griff in a celebratory Instagram post (viewable here). “The love on this song has been so unexpected. This was a forgotten beat I’d made last year. It’s been sitting on my laptop, and I’m so grateful you guys wanted it enough to give it a new life.”
The doom-and-gloom song is a brave tale of overcoming a debilitating heartbreak (the bubbling songwriter’s favorite muse), as Griff sings: “Last night’s mascara’s such a pretty thing / It covers my eyes, I’m a beauty queen / Running down my face, listening to ‘Orinoco Flow’ / Yeah, last night’s mascara’s such a wonderful thing / It’s as dark as my heart, yet it’s sparkling / And it stayed with me sitting on the back of the last train home.”
Listen to “Last Night’s Mascara” above. But if you want to catch Griff performing the record live, as Griff is actively on the road for her European tour.
Vertigo is out now via Warner. Find more information here.
NBA players and musical artists have always been close with one another. One frequent way that we’ve seen that over the years is music videos, as NBA players have frequently made cameos in them, whether they’re just showing their face for a moment or they’re a main character in the story that an artist is trying to tell.
Today, we wanted to highlight some of our favorite appearances that NBA players have made in music videos over the years. Players from a number of different eras — and songs from a number of different genres — made it on the list, but all of them feature artists making it a point to get some of the biggest names in basketball into their videos.
Kobe Bryant: “Bug-a-Boo” by Destiny’s Child
This wasn’t the only time Kobe linked up with Destiny’s Child — he recorded a verse on a remix of their track “Say My Name.” He does have a cameo in the video for “Bug-a-Boo,” though, as Destiny’s Child — which is trying to get away from a group that is bugging them — dips into a locker room. While going through there, they come across Bryant, who is sitting there and getting ready to play basketball.
Michael Jordan: “Jam” by Michael Jackson
MJ and MJ just had to appear in a music video together at some point, no? The two appear on a basketball court and shoot hoops with one another, and at one point, Michael (Jackson) teaches Michael (Jordan) some dance moves. These might have been the two most famous people in the world when this video came out in 1992, and it’s a pretty remarkable cultural artifact.
DeMar DeRozan: “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar
The newest release on this list, DeRozan was one of the many celebrities who made a cameo in Lamar’s summer anthem that doubled as the high point of his feud with Drake from earlier this year. It turns out DeRozan has known Lamar for quite some time, and while he said he still has love for Drake despite appearing in this video, well, it sure seems like there might be some tension here.
Shaquille O’Neal: “Make ‘Em Say Uhh!” by Master P featuring Fiend, Silkk the Shocker, Mia X & Mystikal
Shaq, as we’ve laid out before, has been in a ton of music videos over the years. His first was the iconic “Make ‘Em Say Uhh!” video, where he sits courtside and looks like he’s having the time of his life as Master P and co. put on a show on the hardwood.
Isiah Thomas, Chris Mullin, and David Robinson: “2 Legit 2 Quit” by MC Hammer
One of the biggest music videos of all time — it’s a little more than 14 and a half minutes long, and is absolutely jam packed with some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment at that time. Names like Deion Sanders, Rickey Henderson, and Wayne Gretzky make cameos, while the NBA is well-represented with two members of the Dream Team and, uh, a third player who was almost on the Dream Team.
Jimmy Butler: “So Much (for) Stardust” by Fall Out Boy
Easily the most … unique video on this list. It features Jimmy Butler dressed up in what I can only describe as an emo cowboy costume and really committing fully to the bit. (The bit, of course, is “Jimmy Butler dressing like this in a Fall Out Boy video.”) There is no one in the NBA quite like Jimmy, and this video is a pretty good example of why that is the case.
Charlie Puth has some experience with Christmas music, like when he performed an all-star rendition of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” in 2016 alongside DNCE, Sabrina Carpenter, Tinashe, Fifth Harmony, and a few others. Now, he’s giving holiday originals a try, as he just dropped “December 25th.”
Puth explains in a press release, “I wrote and recorded December 25 completely on a whim a few weeks ago in my studio while working on my new album, and though it sounds absolutely nothing like anything on the album, I figured why not share it for the holidays. So here you go…”
Meanwhile, in his recent Uproxx cover story, Puth said of his public perception, “I do feel like a lot of people still don’t know me. My goal is, after this year, to have people know me. I feel like a lot of people don’t like me, and they hold a little bit of disdain for me because I’m in your face a lot. I don’t rub the ‘perfect pitch’ thing in, but it can come off as a little braggadocios. My personality can be loud at times, but I just wish people knew that [it’s because] I care so much. I can understand why people get annoyed with me sometimes — thinking that I feel like I do know everything. But I really don’t.”
Welcome to another installment of Ask A Music Critic! And thanks to everyone who has sent me questions. Please keep them coming at [email protected].
I feel like back in 2016/2017, there were so many of those compilations of indie rock artists reacting to the impending Trump presidency. Did they actually do anything? Are we going to see that again? Were there any examples of good music that came about as a reaction to Trump? Sorry, that’s probably too many questions, I’m in a weird space right now. — Joe from Philadelphia
Hey Joe, no need to apologize. Our collective space is definitely weird this week. I appreciate that you would turn to me, a music critic, for insight, though that might be the most illuminating example of just how weird the space is right now.
I’m intrigued by the wording of your first question: “Did they actually do anything?” If by “do anything” you mean “persuade the majority of voters in the future to not pick Donald J. Trump to be their 47th president,” then the answer is clearly no. Though I think that probably puts too much pressure on music to save humanity. Protest music at best can galvanize individuals by showing them that they are not alone in recognizing a societal wrong, and therefore inspire them to do something collectively to correct that wrong. Bob Dylan sings “The Times They Are A-Changin,’” an audience of young people agrees that the times are indeed a-changin’, and the rest is history.
What protest music can’t do is move those who don’t already see the wrongs. Right now, there are more Americans who view the latest election as a triumph, not a tragedy. Not much an ethically minded troubadour with a fiery political song in his heart can do to counteract that, at least not in the short-term, electorally prescriptive sense.
Looking back to the protest songs of the first Trump presidency, I think your question about “good political music” has a self-evident answer: If there were good songs, we would probably remember them. I consulted this round-up from Pitchfork of anti-Trump songs from 2017, and out of the “20 urgent tracks that spoke truth to power” I couldn’t recall a single one beyond Kendrick Lamar’s “XXX.” And I only remember that track because it’s the one Kendrick song that features Bono singing on the chorus, which in retrospect seems unfortunate for all involved parties.
As for the others … does anyone remember “Tiny Hands” by Fiona Apple? (“We don’t want your tiny hands/Anywhere near our underpants.”) How about Broken Social Scene’s “Protest Song,” Downtown Boys’ “The Wall,” or Eminem’s “The Storm”? Can anyone hum me a few bars from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Almost Like Praying”? Actually, I’m good, please don’t hum.
I mean no disrespect to these artists — speaking your mind and taking a chance on possibly alienating your audience in service of a political cause is not easy. But the challenge of protest music is that tying a song so specifically to a moment in time automatically implants it with a limited shelf life. If your lyrical content resembles a political tweet, it will age like a political tweet.
One artist not mentioned in that Pitchfork article is Father John Misty, whose 2017 album Pure Comedy is an exception to the anti-Trump music rule, in that it endures as worthwhile music outside of the year it was released. And that’s because the record was only accidentally anti-Trump — it was written, recorded and mastered before the 2016 election, though it came out five months later. Certainly, Josh Tillman must have been inspired by the campaign as he worked on Pure Comedy — this Trump-inspired rant from a concert in July of 2016 presages the album — but the lyrics never reference the president directly. Tillman instead writes about bigger, more universal subjects: the emptiness of contemporary show-biz entertainment, the self-defeating ideologies to which people willingly shackle themselves, the cyclical innocence-to-corruption hamster-wheel humanity has been on since inception. These ideas were relevant in 2017, and they are relevant now. I’ve been playing Pure Comedy a lot this week, and I would recommend that you do the same, whether you hate Trump or not. It’s just a great album. (That the record is also funny, albeit in a “whistling past the graveyard” sense, helps.)
But what about the future? The election was only a few days ago, and no matter how you voted, there hasn’t been enough time to fully process what is about to happen for the next four years. So, any speculation on how Trump’s second term will affect culture seems premature. Nevertheless, I am going to prematurely speculate.
I expect two things to happen. No. 1, I don’t think we’re going to see the same rash of anti-Trump songs that we did in the 2010s. Again — it’s early and people are feeling dazed and confused in that weird space we talked about earlier. Four years is a long time — four weeks is a long time — so a lot can change. But right now, there are palpable feelings of exhaustion, defeat and retreat, at least culturally. (And not just on the left — voting for Donald Trump isn’t typically regarded as an act of joy.) In 2016, Trump’s win felt fluky. He didn’t win the popular vote, and there was the feeling that the media (and maybe the Russians? Remember those dastardly Russians??) sandbagged Hilary Clinton at the last possible minute.
But in 2024, it feels like something more significant and definitive has shifted. What exactly has changed remains to be seen. But that full-throated “charge into the breach and fight!” energy from eight years ago isn’t evident this time. People, for now, appear to be ducking into the nearest, warmest hole with their bottle of choice.
No. 2, I think we’re going to see a significant wave of anti-PC, knowingly provocative, and proudly offensive music. One of the revelations of this election is that 42 percent of voters under the age of 30 went for Trump. Many (though not all) of those people are young men. At the risk of being incredibly reductive, I think it’s fair to say that popular music in the 2020s thus far has been left-leaning and dominated by female artists, which one could reasonably assume reflects the audience for that music. Young men, meanwhile, apparently are listening en masse to podcasts hosted by Joe Rogan and Rogan-adjacent comedians.
I predict that these worlds are about to collide. This could manifest in any number of ways. We might be hearing more country songs in the vein of Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” that profess an unabashedly reactionary Trumpian worldview. Actually, I would be surprised if we don’t hear more songs like that. But I can also envision the rise of an Eminem 2.0-type artist — a rapper (or maybe country/hip-hop hybrid) who becomes famous for saying the worst things about any number of non-white guy demographics, just for the sheer thrill of it. Like Tony Hinchcliffe with even more smarm and a Trap beat.
I want to be clear that I don’t think Trump will cause any of this. I actually feel like culture is already moving in this direction, and it might have been even more pronounced if Kamala Harris were elected, as a “rebellion” against the dominant political ideology. Electing Trump, if anything, might actually reduce the heat in this corner of pop culture.
To me the most important cultural event of 2024 — not the best, but the one that signified a bellwether for where culture was heading — was Netflix’s The Roast Of Tom Brady. So many people watched that, and they heard the crude jokes and the “ironic” racism and the unapologetic flaunting of naughty “non-woke” posturing, and they absolutely loved it. Around that time, I heard the same refrain, over and over: “We get to be funny again!” What they really meant was “We can say what we want again!” without consequences. Or maybe it was, “This roast is making America great again!” At any rate, I can envision that spirit taking more prominence in popular music. Call it R-pop, a roast with a catchy hook. The audience is certainly there for it.
I make this prediction without judgment. I love a lot of transgressive art, so maybe we’ll get another Guns N’ Roses, N.W.A. or Pulp Fiction out of this moment. No matter where you fall politically, you’re probably at least a little bit sick of all the lecturing and shaming that’s been taking place in pop culture for the last several years. This could be the remedy.
Or it could just be a heaping dose of poison. My gut — the same gut that suspected that Trump would win this time — tells me that what we are about to hear and see will likely be incredibly obnoxious. Like Bob Dylan once sang (in a non-protest song): Bring that bottle over here.
It’s music’s biggest night! Or it will be on February 2, 2025, when the 67th Annual Grammy Awards take place inside Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Today is music’s morning morning! The 2025 Grammy nominations were announced on Friday — will Taylor Swift break her own record and win Album Of The Year a fifth time? Or will it go to Beyoncé or Billie Eilish? Can Chappell Roan demystify the Best New Artist curse? And will the year’s biggest song, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey, take home Song Of The Year?
Check out the full list of 2025 Grammy nominees below. The list will be updated as nominations are revealed.
With the 2024 Latin Grammys quickly approaching, Colombia’s rising and solidified music stars have joined creative forces to craft a new unofficial national anthem.
Today (November 8), Karol G, Feid, and DFZM released their hometown pride single “+57.” The trio was sure to recruit other Colombian musical forces Ovy On The Drums, J Balvin, Maluma, Ryan Castro, and Blessd to demonstrate the musical might of the region.
All hailing from Medellín, Antioquia province’s capital, it is no wonder how the collective effortlessly blended into one massive record. Despite the song’s title being pulled from the country’s telephone code, the sonic influence pulls from reggaeton rather than local sound staples salsa, cumbia, vallenato, and champeta.
With each musician delivering their best vocals and lyrics, it is hard not to ignore the star power of leading lady Karol G and highly sought after titan Maluma.
“And even though that baby girl has a man, she goes out whenever she wants to / She’s getting higher, and she’s grinding in this drunk night / Passing shots mouth-to-mouth, rolling it up and lighting it / And if they ask if she has a boyfriеnd, it depends,” sing Karol G and Feid.
Maluma dials things up a bit with an X-rated verse, singing: “She’s got all the codes / Listening to 2Pac and that booty’s notorious / I put Oreo cream on her stomach / To spend on her at the club / Nobody’s exposing her, not even in Q’hubo.”
But there is nothing but collective unity in the track’s video as they party in the studio. “Colombia Gang,” screams the room. This is a moment that would forever be etched into Colombia’s music history books.
She shared a moving tribute on Instagram, which reads:
“My dad was nocturnal his whole adult life. He kept ‘jazz hours’ starting in high school and never looked back. When I was little, I would wake up in the middle of the night to search for him. Undoubtedly, he would be somewhere in the house, composing (old school, with a pen and sheet music). He would never send me back to bed. He would smile and bring me into his arms while he continued to work…there was no safer place in the world for me.
He was a giant. An icon. A culture shifter. A genius.
All accurate descriptions of my father but his music (and ALL of his work) was a channel for his love. He WAS love.
He made everyone he ever met feel loved and seen. That’s his legacy.
I was fortunate enough to experience this love in close proximity. I’ll miss his hugs and kisses and unconditional devotion and advice. Daddy, it is an honor to be your daughter. Your love lives forever.”
The comments section is full of supportive messages from some recognizable figures. “I love you lady,” Natalie Portman wrote. “So heartbroken. I love you so much,” said Gwyneth Paltrow. “(((((((((Hug))))))))))) for you all,” Questlove wrote.
While appearing on Thursday’s episode of The Tonight Show, the Blitz actress was asked by host Jimmy Fallon about her resemblance to the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer. Ronan is aware of tweets like this one, and “the person who made me aware of it was Chappell,” she said. “I became so obsessed with her over the summer, just like everyone else. Her and Charli XCX.”
Ronan went to one of Roan’s concerts “and randomly lovely Brie Larson was there as well, who I know a a little bit. She brought a friend of hers, and afterwards, her friend was like, ‘I’m gonna go over. I’m gonna talk to her parents.’ And we were like, ‘No, you’ve got to play it cool. We can’t, like, let her know that we love her as much as we do.’ And so he went over, and it turns out that her friend is from the same town as Chappell’s family.” When Ronan and Roan met, the pop star told her, “Oh, everyone says that we’re the same.”
You can watch Ronan — not Roan (although she does a good Chappell impression) — on The Tonight Show above.
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