Well. This is it. We made it to the mid-20s of the 21st century. We have officially entered the second quarter of the 21st century. There is something grand about the year 2025. Something very pivotal. Yet business is as usual. The fanfare began and ended on Jan. 1, and within a day our inboxes were flooded with information from NYUAD: pre-arrival checklists, flight information, course registration reminders, first Brightspace announcements, texts from anxious roommates… It is easy to lose all sense of grandeur and excitement with all this constant buzzing of our phones. Notification by notification, our routines got built faster than expected and left little room for dancing. But even if it is little, there is still some room, and in this column, I propose ways to maximize the enjoyment of your snippets of free time.

EUSEXUA by FKA Twigs Unexpected is an understatement. FKA Twigs has been teasing us with singles, special performances, demos, and photoshoot snippets for months. She published so much pre-release content that I really thought I had a pretty good idea of what the EUSEXUA the album was going to be like. It was nothing like what FKA teased. The only connection between the songs is their reinvented hyperpop sound, which some have called the love child of Bjork and Madonna, but there lacks a clear connection stylistically or lyrically between the songs. Strategically so.

In interviews with FKA Twigs for various platforms, but most notably her conversation with fellow musical inventor Imogen Heap for Spotify, FKA revealed her motivations and inspirations behind this album. With it, she is trying to build a new philosophy of bodily autonomy, uninhibited artistic expression, and freedom from the confines of social constructs, contracts, and expectations set out for us by the systems we participate in. The shows and parties FKA has hosted since the release of EUSEXUA have embodied the spirit of the album with their provocative fashion, intimate atmosphere, and community-centered approach to the album promotion.

FKA Twigs continues to offer more and more to her most devoted fans: she has since released an exclusive deluxe version of the album for those who downloaded the record digitally and extra photoshoot materials for members who opted for the digital release parties, among other things. The marketing of the album truly reflects FKA Twigs’s goal of making a community out of her fandom, with whom she is closely involved. This only sets up the already high bar for her upcoming tour: her performances might turn out to be the events of the year.

DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS by Bad Bunny

Bad Bunny decided to take a sharp turn in terms of his musical influences, at the height of his international fame, which might have been risky for any other artist. He became a global sensation with his hit reggaeton-trap album Un Verano Sin Ti. His latest record, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (abbreviated DTMF), deviates from the style he had created with his previous work and leans a lot more heavily on traditional Puerto Rican music. With clear musical and lyrical references to the genres plena, jibaro, and salsa, DTMF is not an album meant to be enjoyed sitting. Sunny, dynamic, and emotional, Bad Bunny’s latest record is for sure going to remain on top of charts all through the spring and well into the summer. Despite the overall happy vibe, the theme of the album is nostalgia for times past, hence the title of the record which translates to “I should have taken more photos.” The themes of the album are also explored through its accompanying short film. While musically it might be quite the departure from the typical reggaeton and is definitely a novelty for non-Latin audiences, DTMF can charm anyone.

Throwback At the beginning of this new year, I propose we go way back to the (rough) beginning of the music industry. While music recording and performing have definitely existed far longer, it is generally considered that music became a business in the 1950s. Exactly 70 years ago, in 1955, jazz and country were the main genres of music recorded by the newly established music recording companies. Artists like Frank Sinatra, Julie London, Sarah Vaughn, Hank Williams, Dinah Washington, and Louis Armstrong were the main characters in the American music industry.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, the recording companies of the Old World are starting to preserve the musical history of Europe, so the most popular genre of 1955 is classical music and folk music of each country. 1955 is also when the division between the East and the West is at its strictest, so little musical exchange is happening (legally) across the Iron Curtain. In a couple of years that is about to change as musical stars such as Serge Gainsbourg, Dalida, and Sophia Loren start infiltrating the Eastern Bloc, and folk ensembles from the East start touring the Western Bloc. It is early to talk of an established recording ecosystem in the Eastern Bloc though its roots are also in the early 1950s.

Similarly in East and Southeast Asia, a lot of the recorded music was traditional and folk music. In the 60s each country in the region would also start forming its own popular music genre. Hong Kong played a key role in distributing the music produced in Asia (predominantly China and Singapore) overseas most probably because of its status as a British Dependent Territory at the time.

The beginning of the year truly is an exciting time for fans of all cultures, as film and movie releases, performances, award shows, and festivals are only now being announced. Several musical projects are definitely worth the pre-release hype: Irish-based Inhaler is returning with a new record titled Open Wide on Feb. 7, The Lumineers will present new music on Feb. 14 in the form of the album Automatic, and The Wombats will make a grand re-entry with Oh! The Ocean on Feb. 21. In February still, some TikTok-famous artists will also be gifting us new music, most notably Tate McRae with an album on Feb. 21.