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      Christopher Walken’s Hidden ‘Dune’ Connection

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      The actor who plays the malevolent emperor in the new film actually brought an element of the saga to life once before. Remember “Weapon of Choice”?If you turned on MTV for any length of time in 2001, you almost certainly saw Christopher Walken flying around the lobby of a Marriott in Los Angeles. Even in an era when music videos were far more hotly discussed than they are now, it was a weird sight. Walken’s trim shock of gray hair matched his gray suit, punctuated by a red tie; he looked less like the movie star he was than some guy on a long layover.The music was Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice,” a weird little ditty that did make you want to dance. Having trained as a dancer in his youth — and done a great deal of tap and more in “Pennies From Heaven” (1981) — Walken was well equipped for the concept that the video’s director, Spike Jonze, had cooked up: Normal-looking man hanging out in a hotel lobby hears the song, starts dancing, then flies off a mezzanine before, eventually, returning to his seat. The video was a hit, winning several MTV Video Music Awards and a Grammy.The lyrics to “Weapon of Choice” (sung by Bootsy Collins) are heavily distorted — the point isn’t the words so much as the hypnotic beat. But if you listen closely, you can pick up the line “Walk without rhythm/and it won’t attract the worm.”Yes, it’s a reference to “Dune.”In Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, giant ancient sandworms that live beneath the desert on the planet Arrakis are hugely dangerous to humans, though their power can be harnessed for travel and other purposes. They’re one of the most famous elements of the story, so instantly identifiable that they were made into a dubiously conceived popcorn bucket for the release of Denis Villeneuve’s new “Dune: Part Two.” And they’re attracted to rhythmic thumps on the surface, so the Fremen — people who live in the Arrakis desert — walk in strange, loping, arrhythmic steps to avoid accidental detection.In the video, Walken even seems to be imitating those steps:These lyrics also appear. They could mean anything, of course.Don’t be shockedby the tone of my voiceCheck out my new weaponweapon of choiceBut it certainly would make sense if it was a reference to “the voice” (or is it THE VOICE?), a powerful vocal distortion that the mystical sisterhood Bene Gesserit use to control people in “Dune.”This was all a funny reference in 2021, when the first installment in Villeneuve’s adaptation of “Dune” appeared in theaters. But it got much funnier in “Dune: Part Two.” In the new film, the role of Emperor Shaddam — who engineered the extinction, or so he thought, of the House Atreides, making him technically the baddest of the bad guys — is played by Walken himself.Coincidence? Maybe. Delightful? Absolutely. More

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      girl in red: The Popcast (Deluxe) Interview

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTubeThis week’s episode of Popcast (Deluxe), the weekly culture roundup show on YouTube hosted by Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, features an interview with the Norwegian indie-pop star girl in red (Marie Ulven) — whose second album, “I’m Doing It Again Baby!,” is out April 12 — in conversation about:Her early self-released songs that went viral in the late 2010sThe invention of the girl in red “character”Why she’s pursuing music in 2024 in a more powerful way than during earlier phases of her careerOpening for Taylor Swift last year on The Eras TourCollaborating with Sabrina CarpenterDeveloping a taste for fashion and watchesBuilding relationships with fans through social mediaTumblrHer teenage fingerboarding careerWriting about her current romantic relationship on her new albumHow the climate for queer pop performers has changed in the past five yearsEmbracing ambition and joy in her new musicMeeting the TikTok stars Pookie & JettBuying a car (and contending with capitalism)The difference between Norwegian success and American successSnack of the weekConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. More

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      10 Great Oscar Winners for Best Original Song

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      Hear tracks by Billie Eilish, Keith Carradine, Isaac Hayes and more.Billie Eilish, a potential two-time Oscar winner. (We’ll find out Sunday night!)Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDear listeners,Happy Oscar week! The 96th Academy Awards are this Sunday, and you know which competition we’re most excited about here at The Amplifier: best original song. Today’s playlist is a brief but star-studded tour through the category’s history.First awarded at the seventh annual ceremony, best original song has long been a reflection of popular music’s evolving style — the rare honor that’s been won by both Irving Berlin and Eminem. As the two-time winner Elton John can attest, it can be a sure path to an EGOT. As the veteran songwriter Diane Warren, who has been nominated 15 times but never won, might tell you, it can also be maddening.Warren is nominated again this year for Becky G’s “The Fire Inside,” written for Eva Longoria’s directorial feature debut, “Flamin’ Hot,” but she’s got stiff competition from the year’s most commercially successful movie, “Barbie.” (Heard of it?) That film boasts the highest-profile contenders: Ryan Gosling’s theatrical showstopper “I’m Just Ken” (penned by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt) and Billie Eilish’s wispy, haunting ballad “What Was I Made For?,” which last month won the Grammy for song of the year.Jon Batiste’s “It Never Went Away” or Scott George’s “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” could always upset if the “Barbie” songs split the vote, but my money’s on Eilish. “I’m Just Ken” is fun, sure, but in my humble, grouchy opinion, it overstays its welcome and contributes to an overall flaw of the film, which is that the supposed villain is far and away the most charismatic character. (I’m going to go hide now.)Eilish’s song is arresting and finely crafted; with all due respect to Warren, I think it’s the most worthy winner. And if you need another reason to root for the 22-year-old musician, a victory would make Eilish the youngest person ever to win two best original song Oscars, since she already won for her 2021 Bond theme, “No Time to Die.” (Her 26-year-old brother, Finneas, with whom she co-wrote both songs, would become the second-youngest two-time winner.)Today’s playlist is a reminder of some past best original song winners and a testament to the category’s stylistic diversity. Is it the first mix to contain both Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were” and Three 6 Mafia’s “Hard Out Here for a Pimp”? It’s certainly the first Amplifier playlist to do so.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Headlined the MadSoul Festival in Florida

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      The New York Democrat had top billing at a recent concert event in Florida that took a partisan approach to politics as entertainment.Two acts received top billing at MadSoul, a music and arts festival in Florida, on Saturday. The first was Muna, an indie-pop group that opened for Taylor Swift at some Eras Tour stops. The second: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York.She and several elected Democrats shared a stage with musicians like Phoebe Bridgers during the daylong event at Loch Haven Park in Orlando. Other politicians included Representatives Greg Casar of Texas and Maxwell Frost of Florida, the first Gen-Z member of Congress.Mr. Frost, a percussionist, is also the founder of the MadSoul Festival, which he started in 2018 when he was working as an organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union. He said in an interview before this year’s event that he had “personally booked the whole lineup.”Mr. Frost — who played drums for Venture Motel, a local band, during its set at the festival — described the event as a way to reach people who might not be as interested in politics as they were in politics as entertainment, a concept that has spread since the election of the country’s first reality-TV-star president.Representative Maxwell Frost, Democrat of Florida and the founder of the MadSoul Festival, played drums for a local band during its set.Todd Anderson for The New York TimesAlmost 3,000 people attended the event, with many saying they were primarily drawn by the promise of music and arts.Todd Anderson for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Taylor Swift’s Singapore Shows Stir Anger in Southeast Asia

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      The country is defending paying the pop star to play nowhere else in Southeast Asia. Thailand’s prime minister said the price was up to $3 million per show.Taylor Swift has descended on Southeast Asia, or one small part of it at least: All of her six sold-out shows are in Singapore, the region’s wealthiest nation.Many of her fans in this part of the world, which is home to more than 600 million people, are disappointed. But the Singapore leg of Ms. Swift’s wildly popular Eras Tour, which began last weekend and ends on Saturday, is a soft power coup and a boost for the country’s post-pandemic economic recovery.The shows — and the undisclosed price that Singapore paid to host them — have also generated diplomatic tension with two of its neighbors, Thailand and the Philippines.Last month, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin of Thailand said publicly that Singapore had paid Ms. Swift up to $3 million per show on the condition that she play nowhere else in Southeast Asia. A lawmaker in the Philippines later said that was not “what good neighbors do.”Singapore pushed back. First its culture minister said the actual value of the exclusivity deal — which he declined to name — was “nowhere as high.” The country’s former ambassador at large later called the criticism “sour grapes.” And on Tuesday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told reporters that he did not see the deal as diplomatically “unfriendly.”Fans in other Southeast Asian countries are disappointed Ms. Swift isn’t performing elsewhere in the region.How Hwee Young/EPA, via ShutterstockWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Disgraced but Embraced: Pop Culture Pariahs Are Making Big Comebacks

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      Shane Gillis hosted “S.N.L.,” the show that rebuffed him. Ye topped the Billboard chart after making antisemitic remarks. Has the mainstream given up on banishing bad actors?Last weekend, the comedian Shane Gillis hosted “Saturday Night Live,” five years after he was fired from the show before ever appearing on it, when old podcast appearances in which he’d used slurs were brought to light. During his opening monologue, Gillis showed how he had evolved since then, which is to say, only slightly. In a tame bit about his parents, he fondly recalled spending time with his mother when he was younger, noting sweetly, “Every little boy is just their mom’s gay best friend.”For the past two weeks, Ye — formerly Kanye West — has sat at the top of the Billboard albums chart with “Vultures 1,” his collaborative album with the singer Ty Dolla Sign. In late 2022, Ye began a public stream of antisemitic invective that, for a while, effectively imploded his career, leading to the dissolution of his partnerships with Adidas and the Gap. He seemed, for a time, persona non grata. But he, too, has returned to something approaching old form, with a single, “Carnival,” that went to No. 3 on the Hot 100, and a series of arena listening sessions that have been the hallmark of his album rollouts in recent years.Ye debuted his latest album, a collaboration with Ty Dolla Sign, at a series of arena listening events.The New York TimesCancellation was always an incomplete concept, more a way of talking about artists with contentious and offensive personal histories than an actual fact of the marketplace. Except in the most extreme cases, moral failure has never been an automatic disqualifier when it comes to artistic work.What changed in the years since the beginning of the #MeToo movement is the presumption that strong enough discursive pushback might indeed lead to actual banishment. That proved to be true in the wake of #MeToo, in which powerful men like Charlie Rose, Bryan Singer and Matt Lauer were effectively cast out of public life after allegations of sexual misconduct. (And it should be noted: Most of those facing banishment, or the threat thereof, have been men. Roseanne Barr is perhaps the most high-profile woman to meet that fate, following racist and antisemitic public statements.)The sense that bad actors could be weeded out at the root was satisfying liberal fantasy, though. What’s happened instead is the emergence of a class of artists across disciplines — call them the disgraced — who have found ways to thrive despite pockets of public pushback. Their success suggests several possibilities about cultural consumption: Audiences that don’t care about an artist’s indiscretions can be more sizable than the ones that do; those who publicly agitate on these matters might be privately relenting; or that perhaps some audiences may have a tolerance — or maybe even an appetite — for offense.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      11 Essential Kim Gordon Songs

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      Hear her latest work and enduring classics from Sonic Youth and beyond.Molly Matalon for The New York TimesDear listeners,Recently, I had the honor of interviewing Kim Gordon, the legendary co-founder of the now-defunct alt-rock pioneers Sonic Youth, who has lately become a formidable and fearless solo artist. As I prepared to write this profile, I revisited her great 2015 memoir “Girl in a Band”* and listened repeatedly to a playlist featuring some of my favorite Gordon songs, which I’m going to share with you today.Gordon is at heart a California girl — “too young to be a hippie but brushed by whatever rebellion and amped-up freedom there was in the air,” as she put it in her book. Art school brought her east, and the allure of late-1970s New York eventually introduced her to a downtown scene in which anyone, even non-musicians, could pick up an instrument and start a band. Intoxicated by that D.I.Y. ethos, Sonic Youth formed in 1981 and, improbably, kept putting out great, challenging and singularly influential records for the next 30 years.The band broke up in 2011, shortly after Gordon announced that she and her bandmate Thurston Moore were divorcing after 27 years of marriage. Gordon has been admirably candid about her anger and sadness in the wake of that split, but the woman I encountered in our series of interviews was long past all of that now, deep in a new chapter of life and art.Today’s playlist highlights some of Gordon’s recent work — especially the brash, wild singles from her second solo album, “The Collective,” which comes out March 8 — and contrasts it with some of her enduring classics.I try to keep Amplifier playlists relatively short, but this one proved quite a challenge: Given Sonic Youth’s three-decade run and remarkably dense discography (not to mention Gordon’s work in other bands like the improvisational duo Body/Head) this mix easily could have been 50 or 60 songs long. So consider this not a completist collection of Gordon’s music, but merely a tantalizing and deliciously distorted sampler.Bettin’ on the bullllll in the heather,Lindsay*Though I read “Girl in a Band” when it first came out, this time around I listened to the audiobook — an experience I highly recommend since Gordon reads it herself, in her inimitable deadpan. As her friend Kathleen Hanna marveled when I interviewed her for the profile, “She has that voice when she talks to you, in normal.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      St. Vincent Channels Nine Inch Nails, and 11 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Cardi B, Mdou Moctar, T Bone Burnett and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.St. Vincent, ‘Broken Man’“I can hold my arms wide open/but I need you to drive the nail,” St. Vincent — the songwriter and guitarist Annie Clark — sings in “Broken Man.” It’s a volcanic buildup of a song, from the sparsest ticking electronics to a hard-rock stomp to a full-scale pileup of guitars, drums and horns. Clark sings about power, defiance, abject need and imminent breakdown, riding an onslaught of a song that lives up to the title of her album due in April: “All Born Screaming.” JON PARELESMdou Moctar, ‘Funeral for Justice’Over a hurtling beat and a chain of frantic, trilling, overdriven guitar riffs, the Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar insists that African leaders should work together and push back against foreign interests, to “Retake control of your resource-rich countries.” The band couldn’t sound more urgent. PARELESPharrell Williams and Miley Cyrus, ‘Doctor (Work It Out)’We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More