Pop Culture

Critic-at-large John Powers tells us about the TV shows, films, and books he didn't get to earlier this year, but wishes he had.

Emotions like lust and love serve as metaphors for social and political struggles on Lamar's new album. Critic Ken Tucker says the music on DAMN. signals the artist's bold refusal to back down.

Magic, Bruce Springsteen's first studio album with the E Street Band in five years, came out earlier this month. The event has occasioned at least a pair of network-TV appearances — including a live morning concert on NBC's Today show and a mortifying 60 Minutes interview.

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker says Springsteen's approach to promoting the album — and the way the news media are receiving it — says something about both the state of the media (precarious) and Springsteen's place in American pop culture.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "Where the Girls Are" by media theorist Susan J. Douglas.

Maureen Corrigan comments on high art and pop culture in her review of the High and Low show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibit sharply divided audiences. Corrigan says she was perversely pleased with everything she saw -- including the inclusion of advertisements, graffiti, and comic books.

Critic Maureen Corrigan gives us her family's version of how to celebrate St. Patricks Day, and recommends the novel "Motherland" by Timothy O'Grady as perfect St. Patrick's Day reading.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture" by George Lipsitz. The book examines how our collective memory has been shaped by popular culture since World War 2.