Jenessa Williams
Jenessa is a freelance music journalist, fandom academic and the writer of Subtweets, our weekly column that dissects the trending topics setting Music Twitter alight. She likes millennial hip-hop, noughties emo and advocating for a new era of diversity and representation in both.
#FreeBritney and the challenge to regain female pop autonomy
For any 90s babies, Britney Spears has long been an emblem of freedom. The sugary-sweet princess of pop with a headstrong, fourth-wall-breaking edge, her...
It’s time to legitimise women of colour’s place in rock music
Like her or loathe her, Doja Cat is an artist rarely out of the news. Having gone viral in 2018 with the captivatingly-absurdist ‘Mooo!’...
Taylor Take 2: Swift is free to re-record her early work, but can you...
For those who haven’t been following, the day of Taylor Swift’s musical emancipation has been a long time coming. The mammoth legal saga all...
Should Harry Styles be bringing his Golden ticket to smaller venues?
Let’s get this out the way early; I adore Harry Styles. He is a precious fish-feeding, lust-inducing sunflower of a human and I want...
Instead of focusing on Billie’s body, we should be admiring her political influence
At a time where we’re all stuck at home perpetually scrolling Twitter for some kind of enlightenment, it doesn’t take much for a popstar...
Mariah Carey is back and making an early bid to save Christmas 2020
Who does pop personality quite like Mariah Carey? A beacon of excess with the voice of five octaves, she remains one the true few...
We all love the arts, but when are we going to finally start respecting...
How have you spent your lockdown? Whether you are front line staff or furloughed, working from home or stuck in quarantine isolation, I’d be...
Can Little Mix’s ‘The Search’ re-humanise Talent Contest TV?
For those old enough to remember their origins, TV singing contests were once a genuine cultural zenith. Exposing the process of making a star,...
IDLES: “We are allies whether people say we are or not”
Joe Talbot doesn’t care about what people think of him, except when he does. At the end of an elongated stretch of interviews for...
In a year of great upheaval, Michael Kiwanuka’s Mercury win is a testament to...
As with any system that seeks to pit incomparable styles of music against one another in a bid to find ‘the best’, the value...