#AF Decade in Review: 2010s

With "Dancing on My Own," Robyn Made the "Jolene" of the 2010s

It's been a roller coaster of a decade, even on the pop culture front. With the dominance of social media, the rise of streaming platforms and increasingly smarter phones, how we discover, ingest and interact with music has changed drastically. In an era where new hits can have the shelf life of a...

Liz Ohanesian

Can You Still Feel the Pull?A Decade of Now, Now

Cacie Dalager and Bradley Hale of Now Now, circa 2017. Photo by Sam San Román. Now, Now pulled many of us into the 2010s—right out of the Hot Topic era and into the brave new world of adulthood. Formed in Minnesota during the early aughts by frontwoman Cacie Dalager and drummer Bradley Hale, when...

Katie Wojciechowski

2010s IN REVIEWKesha’s ‘Rainbow’ Saved Me From Myself

TW: The following contains the author's recollection of childhood sexual assault. I remember the day only in fragments - like my head is broken. The sweet spring air rustled my short blonde locks, and white-hot sun peeked through the piney overhang. We were standing there on the grassy knoll. I was...

Bee Scott

How Kylie Minogue Became Part of Pop's Pantheon With Aphrodite

"Dance, it's all I wanna do, so won't you dance?" Kylie Minogue asks at the start of "All the Lovers," opening her 11th studio album, Aphrodite. Taking her cue from the goddess of love, the Australian pop star began this decade with a 12-track celebration of dance and romance that became one of the...

Liz Ohanesian

Jenny Owen Youngs' Transmitter Failure Still Provides Inspiration a Decade Later

Jenny Owen Youngs photo by Tucker Leary. It was the spring 2009, and I had a leisurely day off, getting ice cream and going to see a tribute event to the Brothers Quay. I rode the subway back to Davis Square, checked my voicemail, and panicked. I knew I was interviewing Jenny Owen Youngs for Venus...

Erin Lyndal Martin

2010s IN REVIEWComing of Age With Car Seat Headrest

I graduated high school in 2010, which means I have been an adult for the entirety of the decade, according to “society.” I spent six of those months in high school, three and a half of those years in college, four of them working at an office job that I thought I’d never leave, and the past year...

Erin Rose O'Brien

The Decade's Best Books by Women in Music

If I hadn’t read Sara Marcus’ Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution, I wouldn’t be a rock writer. It was 2013. I had recently graduated art school and was dividing my time between three retail jobs: a liquor store, a grocery store, and a clothing store. One of my friends...

Micco Caporale