Noah Berlatsky

Art without politics actually results in a sweeping Puritanism. For art to have power, it needs to engage with power, with politics.

"The look on Miley's face during Nicki Minaj's savage, expletive-laden rant says it all," Salon tweeted the day after the VMAs. Less than 140 characters, but still enough to link a black woman to a longstanding racial slur.

Metal aggression isn't sexual, but existential. As a result, women in the genre are both rare and unexpectedly equal.

Bus ads comparing Muslims to Hitler have been replaced with images of a superhero. And not just any superhero.

David Ress' Aphexswift is genius precisely because it's so unlikely.

A recent controversy at the Calgary Expo suggests MRAs care more about making opponents look bad than they do about discrimination.

There's a good argument to be made that the earliest, and the best, rockabilly performers were women. Slicked-back, hiccuping, hopped up cool.

The loss of gospel history has meant forgetting how important black women have been to American performance styles.

Illicit passions aren't less enjoyable because they're illicit. Quite the contrary.

So, if there are so many ways to sing this song, and if it's meant different things at different points, why complain about Beyoncé's version?