byzantium

How come every gaga "record" comes with an asterisk (*)?

Its like last year when this forum was convinced Mayhem was a frontrunner and should win AOTY over DTMF. I am not convinced everyone here has interactions with people outside this echo chamber of an asylum.

Easily Olivia R. or Lux. Either could and should be the winner.

It's Shakira's team, it could be for 3 weeks from now.

It's low key giving maga.

Can you care to tell us what fraction a Latino stream is worth compared to a European stream?

I think the artist should make it the best that they can. Each artist has their own particular strengths that they should lean into and make the cover their own. So they should generally change it, but how much you change it depends on who you are as an artist.

Ok here are my predictions for the senate. Based on this I still think republicans hold the senate. high confidence- Dems win North Carolina Georgia Michigan New Hampshire Low Confidence-Dems Win Texas Alaska Minnesota Low Confidence-Republicans Win Maine Ohio High Confidence-Republicans Win Iowa Kansas Florida

I can't wait to have her in congress!

Upstate New York doesn't vote blue anyways. I mean, it's likely she could win the primary. And then in that case you think New York is going red in 2028?

We can when there is trust in system to do a proper investigation…which clearly it has failed to do in this case.

The golden rule just means, "don't be a sh*ty person". We don't have to do a textual analysis. Just be a good person.

Taylor - London: reasonably beautiful, incredibly capitalistic, and too often committing crimes against humanity Shakira - Rio De Janeiro, iconic, globally known, beautiful, always great for a party, not currently in its peak, but still a gem on this earth. Olivia - Mexico City, beautiful, lush, and inarguably one of the best in the world. One of the biggest cities on this planet and still underrated Pink - AIPAC's headquarters. (Self explanatory) Billie - Austin. Popular at the moment and good music offerings. Likes to think of itself as "not like the other cities".

^this isn't true anymore. There has been a swing of low propensity voters to democrats. This is because high propensity voters are often wealthier and more educated which is a demographic that has gone for democrats. This doesn't mean that the polls are right or wrong, but more so that republicans voters are now less likely to vote in midterms than the general. It is also worth noting that polls in 2018, and 2022 were relatively accurate (within an acceptable margin of error). It's also worth noting that polls in 2025 overestimated republicans (not democrats). I would not read too far into that, but just want to point out that it's not a forgone conclusion that the polls are wrong or that they are overestimating democrats chances.

Swifties were too busy doxing a vegan oat cookies and forgot to stream it.

Plenty of you are calling both maga. In fact, I don't know anyone not called maga on this site.

And a non-English song at that! Quite an accomplishment!

This sentiment is exactly what I was talking about though. The rhetoric in the U.S. is always, "I am not against protests, I am against these protestors". I've heard this my whole life. People always find a reason to be against whatever certain protest is actually happening even if in their head there is a conception of the "perfect protest". In Mexico or France, for example people don't necessarily take protesters that seriously. It's more just an accepted part of daily life and the world keeps spinning. Most of the time they are unreasonable and dumb. It's fine. Sometimes people need to let off steam and then move on with life. I just feel like the American disdain for dissent is more harmful even if the disdain might be reasonable to some degree.

I'm confused by this reaction. Is it not clear that The Cure has had the best longevity and is the general favorite of the album? The Cure seems like an obvious choice for these awards.

This thread is interesting and I think exposes the American tendency to be against protests. There are a lot of countries where protests are a very natural and normal part of the political process. And in fact it can be both normal to both support a politician and protest against them on specific issues. The U.S. seems to have a much more binary approach of either "you are with us or against us". There is this perceived need to hush political dissent and virtue signal which team you support. Personally I find this American perspective to be more destructive. A healthy democracy embraces dissent as part of the process. It doesn't weaken, but in fact builds trust because it establishes more of a feedback loop between politicians and the people they govern. On these specific protests, I think it is healthy and normal. I think a lot of us were disappointed in Mamdani's appeals to Zionists and racists. He is not my mayor, but if he was, I still would support and like the guy. Both sentiments can exist. So overall I don't think we really need to blow this out of proportion.

Chicago. I don't count that festival show.

NO! I need her to come to my city first.

I do think it is true and this extends beyond just gay men. I also think it is interesting how this is different in different places. Anecdotal, I will say a lot of gay men in the American Midwest or from the Midwest that I know are in long term relationships and married. I lived for a while in the Pacific Northwest and New England and far less of my gay friends are in relationships. I am not sure what this means but I do find it interesting.

Did you really open this thread and think, "how can I make Billie the victim"?

I don't have an issue with this on the respective charts. However I have an issue with then how they use both charts to determine "Artists of the year". It generally does not reflect the biggest artists but rather who had big singles due to the aforementioned double counting.