Swedish House Mafia unpack their Miami Ultra festival mega-set

Editor’s pick — Culture quick take: the cultural angle (trend signal, audience insight, crossover with fashion/music/art) in 1–2 lines. Swedish House Mafia’s headline performance at Ultra Miami festival wasn’t just your regular set; they delivered a block party-style mega-set in which the decks were helmed by a number of both established and rising DJs. On…

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‘It’s just the aesthetic’: The Drama and the allure of violent subcultures

Editor’s pick — Culture quick take: the cultural angle (trend signal, audience insight, crossover with fashion/music/art) in 1–2 lines. Warning: this article contains major spoilers for The Drama. In season one of the animated TV show Smiling Friends, there’s an episode that follows an anthropomorphic shrimp on a quest to win back his ex-girlfriend. This…

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Inside looksmaxxing’s black-market beauty economy

Editor’s pick — Culture quick take: the cultural angle (trend signal, audience insight, crossover with fashion/music/art) in 1–2 lines. Step inside the looksmaxxing manosphere and you’ll be inundated with tips and tricks on how to become more attractive. Whether you want to achieve a chiselled jawline or obtain “hunter eyes”, the majority of this advice…

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Queer nightlife is thriving in Bucharest’s abandoned backrooms

Editor’s pick — Culture quick take: the cultural angle (trend signal, audience insight, crossover with fashion/music/art) in 1–2 lines. Waves Penetrate Me Fiercely watches like a fever dream. Opening with a group of friends pre-drinking in a brutalist Soviet-era apartment complex, the video soon collapses into a flurry of neon-lit images: a finger stretches across a…

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