iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mary Covey @maryecovey.bsky.social · 20h

The White Sox went from this frantic cry for help from Berto on the West Side in 2023, to a 41-121 record in 2024, to counting the literal Pope among their fans in 2025...and back to the playoffs now. Life really does come at you fast. Even as a Cubs fan I can appreciate this.

youtube.com

The Infamous 2023 Radio Caller Rant about the Chicago White Sox

YouTube video by Bat Country

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Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 04/10/2026

Live early for Patrons and YouTube Members... Yeah, if you think something has been off with pop music in the mainstream in 2026, you're not alone. This is my attempt to explore why. Over ninety minutes - enjoy!

YouTube thumbnail of a video essay featuring a lot of pop albums with white flames, featuring a dejected Spectrum Pulse and the tagline "These are not reviews, it's a breakdown"

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Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 05/10/2026

And we are live: I tried to figure out what happened with pop music in 2026... and in looking through a crap-ton of music, I wound up here. The Kids Don't Wanna Dance: How 2026 Destroyed Poptimism - enjoy! youtu.be/doOJLWSjvpw

youtu.be

Popping The Narratives of 2026

YouTube video by Spectrum Pulse

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Natalie Weiner @natalieweiner.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

like writing about things where people generally just coast on their assumptions gives me a lot more room to operate. but also means most people don't care (ESP about country. jazz you get to feel erudite if you make the leap)

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Natalie Weiner @natalieweiner.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

idk i like writing about country music and jazz precisely BECAUSE both genres are widely misunderstood, written off at opposite ends of the spectrum: one as too stupid to care about and one as too complicated and snobby. both wrong obvs. but damn those misconceptions can grate!

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Mary Covey @maryecovey.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I love that the guy (NOT the new puppet) in the commercials who says "Liberty Bibberty" is one half of one of the few truly popular daytime soap couples of the past decade--shoutout #Sinn Nation! #BoldCBS

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Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 03/10/2026

Just sayin' that there are plenty of artists in the modern country space with more actual, consistent convictions and principles than Zach Bryan and Jesse Welles. And who make vastly better music, too.

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Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 03/10/2026

Multiple concurrent truths: Bryan's behavior in his relationships has been a problem. On pattern, he tends to make a positive statement or gesture like this, then walk it back in a disingenuous way. So we'll see if this one sticks. Quotes and replies are exhausting in all of the expected ways.

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Mary Covey @maryecovey.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

See also: Chris Brown and the fact that he STILL somehow has a career post-2009.

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Mina Kimes @minakimes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Eh I think it’s a pretty accurate mirror for how much of society thinks about violence and SA against women

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Mary Covey @maryecovey.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

He isn't "inside the mainstream" in the way a lot of people think of the biggest country artists, but he certainly streams with the best of them and the stars of any other genre, so this is a BIG deal either way.

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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...

But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.

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Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 30/09/2026

Alright, new episode of Billboard BREAKDOWN is live, and it's a real mess - enjoy! youtu.be/8zGhpq2ahMU

youtu.be

Billboard BREAKDOWN - Hot 100 - October 3, 2026 (Last Thing You Need, Miss My Dawg, Joseph, RHYNO)

YouTube video by Billboard BREAKDOWN

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Mary Covey @maryecovey.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I am convinced he will be the next Democratic nominee for President. I have nothing to truly go by except my own political instincts as someone who spent years working in Democratic politics, but I truly believe he's it. #AndyBeshear2028

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Todd in the Shadows @shadowtodd.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Most Trainwreckords videos are long-gestating ideas before I start working on them, "Tao" is one of the few I threw together immediately after discovering it (also: the Carpenters, Will Smith, Run-DMC and Human League episodes)

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Sitcom People @sitcompeople.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Dennis Haskins 1950-2026 RIP

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Natalie Weiner @natalieweiner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

it will take more time to read this than it does to post an oh so witty quip, but you will definitely learn something if you decide to click bsky.app/profile/auge...

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Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 29/09/2026

Three albums so tremendous that there's no wrong way to cull a best-of list. (And I have similar feelings of foreboding about the new Lambert album, fwiw.)

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Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 29/09/2026

[slow clap] Best way On Here to remain willfully incurious about a subject is to Main Character dogpile someone who's an actual published authority on that subject until they're no longer On Here. But some white men felt *scolded*, so...

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Mary Covey @maryecovey.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Side note: I find it hysterical that with how dominant a song CT has been/how big a booster of women in country music I am, my birthday this year was during one of the few weeks she WASN'T at the top (That honor instead went to Taylor Swift's "Opalite").

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Mary Covey @maryecovey.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

More words from one of my favorite people who love to talk about music! 🥰 @augetoffmygold.bsky.social

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Steven Hyden @stevenhyden.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

For my latest Ask A Music Critic column, a reader inquired about Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" and the recent conversation about what it means to be totally unfamiliar with the most popular song in America for about six months running. stevenhyden.substack.com/p/ask-a-musi...

stevenhyden.substack.com

Ask A Music Critic: Does It Matter That I Haven’t Heard The Year’s Most Popular Song?

Or: What does it mean to have a No. 1 song for almost six months in 2026 anyway?

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Mary Covey @maryecovey.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I am embarrassed to admit that it was only very recently that I learned he had a role in writing and playing on one of my favorite Van Halen songs ever!

youtube.com

I'll Wait (2015 Remaster)

YouTube video by Van Halen

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Country Universe @countryuniverse.net · 28/09/2026

Absolutely stunning. As always, Kacey's vocal tone is a wonder.

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Chris Williams @gaffa.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I'm reminded of this classic:

When someone disagrees with you online & demands you prove your point to their satisfaction by writing a logically sound defense, you can save a lot of time by not doing that.

Dude, I've known you for ten seconds and enjoyed none of them, I'm not taking homework from you.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If you dont have a church home, I’m not even sure you can run as a Black Democrat. Wut.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Ninety invitations for candidate prayer breakfasts in my inbox and I am confused about this premise.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Are Black Democrats not a thing or…

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Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 28/09/2026

I hope I'm done with the Ella Langley conversation here. I'm so tired of this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxxw...

youtube.com

Ella Langley - Dandelion - Album Review

YouTube video by Spectrum Pulse

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Ally Roth @alinaisyou.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

We have covered the VMAs for seven years and this is genuinely the worst one by a lot. Please listen so our suffering means something.

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Marissa's Rolling Stone piece made clear she knew why you may not have heard "Choosin' Texas," 2026's biggest hit. Her question was, why be aggressively *proud of it? Sadly, she overstated it in that out-of-context quote. But all the over-the-top/"country sucks" reactions mostly support her point.

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Craig Jenkins @craigsj.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

got into a lot of this re what history was being made and what country artists are and aren't doing about the shifting political climate earlier in the run, as long as y'all talkin about it www.vulture.com/article/coun...

vulture.com

Country Music’s Middle Road

As MAGA grows more unpopular, the genre once perceived as redder than ever is moving to the center.

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Craig Jenkins @craigsj.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

like, a bonnie raitt type beat smoked half everybody's pack on the charts this year and we are weeks out from seeing if mariah reclaims her crown. that's just good clean fun.

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Craig Jenkins @craigsj.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

choosin texas is an objective paradigm shift and a sturdy ass song that doesn't even fit the mold of the pop shit y'all hate. you don't have to care or be tapped in on why ella is hard to read and thus easy to hate on but if you don't care then don't care right lol

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Craig Jenkins @craigsj.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

the kneejerk anti-country sentiment on here is drab but i put a lot of the blame on the likes of morgan wallen but if you judge any genre by what breaks containment you're gonna have a weird ass view of it bc nobody is in the pilot seat there

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Alex @purplechrain.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

tbh just do what I do: follow @countryuniverse.net and keep them in the background of your feed so you can read their capsule reviews and you’ll regularly get opportunities to check out singers with diverse viewpoints and incredible talents who you probably haven’t heard of

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Alex @purplechrain.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

if you just don’t like country music, that’s fine. just say so. otherwise, you can check out 2026 albums by Rhiannon Giddens, Andrew Sa, Willow Avalon, The War & Treaty, Orville Peck, Kashus Culpepper, Jake Blount, Chris Housman, Allison Russell, River Shook, etc. etc. etc.

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Alex @purplechrain.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

your dislike of a popular song doesn’t need to be the basis for yr opinion of an entire genre, aesthetically or politically. writing it all off as monolithic conservative slop does a disservice to artists aligned with the values some of you cite to cloak your personal taste in high-minded principle

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Alex @purplechrain.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

you are not obligated to like any particular genre & the corporate channels of country labels & radio obviously merit a fuckton of criticism, but writing off the entire genre is not a bold progressive stance & there are lots of people marginalized by the industry making vital work in the genre.

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