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.
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...
Could Queen RiRi really take the Bajan throne?
To put it plainly, putting musicians in positions of political power does not normally make for a positive effect. The idea of Kanye’s Presidential...
In the age of performative wokeness, do we expect too much of our musicians’...
In the midst of 2020, everyone is using the Internet to say everything and nothing. We’re scrolling more than ever, and there’s no shortage...
45 of the week: SZA, Bloxx, Nine8 and more!
Perto & Banoffee – 'I Miss You '
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4YDHcrmvfI
As is only fitting for a song that shares a name with Blink 182’s most wistful banger, this...
Can You Knot? Adele, Cultural Appropriation and Transatlantic Outrage Fatigue
During most of lockdown, the lethargy of staying indoors has left me often sleeping in, checking my phone from bed for the day’s Twitter...
Lost In Translation: Can Foreign-Language Pop transcend the British need for lyrical connection?
For those who like to follow music news, the headline "BTS break another record” will hardly come as a surprise. Korea’s leading boy band...
Moo-d Music – The enduring success of Chilled Cow’s playlists in an anxious world
I’m not 100% sure when I discovered Chilled Cow, but I have a lot to thank it for. It has seen me through a...
Beabadoobee: “I called myself Beabadoobee – do you think I thought this was going...
B E A B A D O O B E E
As she prepares to release her debut album, Beabadoobee is determined to be an...