It’s hard to believe this summer marks six decades since the Beatles, the greatest of pop-rock bands, released the album that truly catapulted them to that title. And I’m not talking about &#8220;Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.&#8221; Rather, I mean the album that consistently ranks among the greatest of all time: &#8220;Revolver.&#8221;
&#8220;Revolver&#8221; was the seventh studio release by the Fab Four. It came at a seminal moment for them as musicians and artists. After their appearance at Candlestick Park in August 1966 — the same month the LP was released — the boys decided to quit the road and focus solely on exploring the studio to its fullest. They no longer wanted to be hindered by creating music they would then have to reproduce live as a stripped-down quartet (not that anyone in the shrieking crowd could have heard the music anyway).
And so, &#8220;Revolver&#8221; became the Beatles’ first post-tour-mindset album (I’ll explain what I mean later). It came on the heels of another phenomenal record, &#8220;Rubber Soul,&#8221; released just eight months earlier. Although this preceding album still contained traditional pop love songs, it also began moving into, for lack of a better term, more mature territory with songs such as “In My Life,” “Norwegian Wood,” and “Nowhere Man,” along with perhaps the band’s first oblique foray into psychedelia: the addictive “Think for Yourself,” with its distorted fuzz bass.
I mention the previous album because some Beatles aficionados posit that &#8220;Rubber Soul&#8221; and the subsequent &#8220;Revolver&#8221; could have meshed well as a double album. Well, yes and no. In terms of simply delivering one great tune after another from first track to last, I place them on equal footing. But when it comes to taking a leap into uncharted musical territory, &#8220;Revolver&#8221; is where we see the transition in full.
All one needs to do is listen to the opening tune, George Harrison’s “Taxman.” It sounds, well, different — right down to a driving bass line and Paul McCartney’s blistering guitar solos that erupt throughout the song. One immediately understands that this was not &#8220;The Ed Sullivan Show&#8221; Beatles anymore. Freed from having to ask, “Alright lads, how will this sound live?” the Beatles let the entire studio become their instrument. And they played that instrument like virtuosos.
In &#8220;Revolver,&#8221; the listener is offered a Venetian hour for the ears — and the mind: a haunting string-octet elegy (“Eleanor Rigby”), wonderful horns (“Got to Get You Into My Life,” “For No One”), winsome melodies (“Good Day Sunshine”), sweet tenderness (“Here, There and Everywhere”), ripping guitar duos (“And Your Bird Can Sing”), an exposition of Indian music (“Love You To”), and even the whimsical undersea tale of “Yellow Submarine,” with Ringo Starr taking up the vocals while the boys make sailor talk and nautical sounds in the background.
However, the real “we’re not in Kansas anymore” moments come from John Lennon’s LSD-inspired creations. The monochord drone of “Tomorrow Never Knows” makes Pink Floyd seem like yacht rock (“Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream / It is not dying”). And the fractured “She Said She Said” (“I know what it’s like to be dead”) plunges us into the bewildered and dislocated mental state of someone on a mind-expanding acid trip.
The LP was released in August 1966, when “Wild Thing” by the Troggs topped the Billboard charts. It was a fascinating musical moment historically: &#8220;Revolver&#8221; arrived just as pop music was pivoting from straightforward rock toward psychedelia, experimentation, and studio-driven albums. The Beatles were not the only ones evolving, of course. The year 1966 saw a remarkable wave of experimentation that also produced &#8220;Pet Sounds,&#8221; &#8220;Blonde on Blonde,&#8221; &#8220;Freak Out!,&#8221; and other ambitious studio works, as popular music rapidly evolved from straightforward rock-and-roll into a vehicle for artistic exploration. A creative arms race, if you will. Still, &#8220;Revolver&#8221; — raw, edgy, avant-garde, kaleidoscopic, and at times unsettling — ushered in a sound that would go on to define the rest of the 1960s.
Even the title hinted that the lads had broken out of their pop-idol shell and that what lay inside was going to blow the listener&#8217;s mind. Which it did. Unlike earlier Beatles albums with straightforward titles, &#8220;Revolver&#8220; feels conceptual even before you hear the music — mechanical, psychedelic, and kinetic all at once. It is as if anyone putting on his headphones is being warned that the musical journey ahead will not move neatly from song one to song two to song three, but rather, in McCartney’s happy turn of phrase, “here, there and everywhere.”
And then there is the cover art. Unlike the clean, traditional group photographs that had defined earlier Beatles albums, the cover of &#8220;Revolver&#8221; was a stark, surreal black-and-white collage of swirling line-drawing caricatures and fragmented photographs created by Klaus Voormann, who won a Grammy for the work. Instead of affable mop-tops in suits, we see the Beatles presented as mysterious, introspective, and slightly unmoored. The photographs of the eyes Voormann inserted into the sockets of his four Beatles renditions belong to the actual musicians themselves, lending the artwork an eerie realism. Even before the needle touched the record, the cover telegraphed a dramatic artistic break from the band’s earlier image, suggesting something stranger, more experimental, and more psychologically complex than the polished Beatlemania of only a few years earlier.
All of this tends to overlook the ultimate reason for the success of &#8220;Revolver&#8221; — and its longevity now. (I have little doubt that, like Bach today, the Beatles’ music will still be ubiquitous 300 years hence, pulling succeeding generations into its creative embrace.) The reason is simple: It is an album without a bad track, one in which so many songs were instant classics that it beggars belief.
And let us not forget that at the band’s core were extraordinarily talented musicians. Great musicality is evident throughout the album. Ringo&#8217;s drumming, for example, was a vital part of the musical brilliance of &#8220;Revolver,&#8221; from the tumbling fills of &#8220;She Said She Said&#8221; and the relentless groove of &#8220;Tomorrow Never Knows&#8221; to the punchy, economical precision of &#8220;Taxman.&#8221; His inventive approach has prompted many modern drummers to cite &#8220;Revolver&#8221; as one of the finest examples of creative rock drumming ever recorded. 
The tightly synchronized and remarkably intricate twin lead-guitar lines played by Harrison and McCartney on &#8220;And Your Bird Can Sing&#8221; showcased a level of precision rarely heard in rock music at the time, while their harmonized passages anticipated the dual-lead guitar style that would later become a hallmark of bands such as The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Thin Lizzy, and Iron Maiden. Harrison, meanwhile, helped bring a beautifully played sitar to the forefront of Western popular music, adding yet another expansive element to the track list.
In the late 1960s and throughout much of the 1970s, &#8220;Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band&#8221; was widely regarded as the Beatles’ unquestioned masterpiece. By the 1990s, however, critical opinion had begun to shift toward &#8220;Revolver,&#8221; which many listeners and music writers felt was tighter, more varied, less concerned with its own artistic importance, and more musically adventurous from track to track. Today, the argument that &#8220;Revolver&#8221; is the greatest rock album ever recorded is no longer seen as contrarian, but as a thoroughly mainstream critical view.
Part of the record’s critical ascendancy may stem from a misconception finally being put to rest. Because 1967’s &#8220;Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band&#8221; was the first Beatles album produced after the band quit touring, it was often presented as the moment when they fully embraced psychedelia and studio experimentation, thus magnifying its artistic importance. But in 1966 the Beatles performed no songs from &#8220;Revolver&#8221; live. So even though they were technically still touring when they began writing the album, it seems clear they already knew what the next chapter would be — and chose not to wait to begin writing it.
And it is a story that will never grow old. 

***
Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, a columnist, and the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id%3D55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1785867990209000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3WzXlBAPGz6eMxbn5e-WIr">books</a>. You can follow him on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1785867990209000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1EDdEJu5Q1QXos7uMI_nXy">Substack</a>. His latest book, &#8220;A War For Half The World: Why the Real Battle for the Future was Fought in the Pacific,&#8221; will be released in February.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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Sixty Years Later, One Beatles Album Still Leaves The Rest Behind

Culture

History

Music

The Beatles

Upstream

Many music fans believe that one of the songs of the summer was generated by artificial intelligence.
The debate has been raging for months about Fenix Flexin’s single “Rubberz,” which debuted back in June. It currently sits at No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 
“<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl5_Lc6b3AU">Rubberz</a>” sounds like a synth-pop single with lyrics about “diamond chains,&#8221; “bankrolls on the table,” and not being able to &#8220;sleep through the night.&#8221; The overall sound of the song raised suspicion, as it&#8217;s very different from Fenix Flexin’s typical rap songs. Fenix Flexin&#8217; also has a distinctive voice that is totally changed in &#8220;Rubberz.&#8221; 
The controversy reached a fever pitch over the weekend when independent music producer Medasin posted a video claiming he had figured out how Fenix Flexin’ used AI to create the song using a platform called Treblo, as Wired <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/ai-music-app-treblo-just-snitched-on-rubberz-song-of-the-summer/">reported</a>.
“There&#8217;s just way too many coincidences,” Medasin told the outlet of his research into the AI-generation tool. “It is just a mathematical impossibility that he did not use Treblo.”
Fenix Flexin’ and the song’s producer Purps on the Beat have denied using AI to come up with the track, with the rapper saying he “freestyled” the lyrics, Wired reported. He responded to accusations of the song being AI-generated in June, saying, &#8220;No sirrrrrrr, recorded same as all music I do! Only difference is auto-tune reverb and me using my fake uk accent lol.&#8221;
As with most AI accusations, it’s hard to know for sure which side is telling the truth. But the owners of Treblo are glad for the publicity and created a <a href="https://treblo.com/blog/treblo-ai-music-classifier">new tool</a> to detect Treblo use.
“We think normal people and charting artists alike should be free to explore and create with new tools. However, we also think listeners should know what they&#8217;re hearing, and streaming services should have the tools to provide a great experience for their users,&#8221; a blog post on the AI site says. Running the song “Rubberz” through the new <a href="https://treblo.com/detect">Treblo detection tool</a> determines it to be “very likely Treblo.” 
&#8220;Someone appears to have used our model to find a sound that millions of people connected with, and that’s exciting,” Treblo co-founder Ryan Tremblay told Wired.

Fenix Flexin

Rapper Insists He ‘Freestyled’ Hit Song. Critics Claim It’s AI Slop.

Artificial Intelligence

Entertainment

Rap Music

Country music is having a moment. For the first time in history, all five of the top songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart are in the country genre.
Ella Langley’s meteoric hit “Choosin’ Texas,” the biggest single of 2026 so far, is still hanging onto the #1 spot as of Monday. It’s followed by Morgan Wallen’s new single, “Been by Now” at #2. In the third spot is Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which she penned for “Toy Story 5.” In the fourth position is a duet between Langley and Wallen, “I Can’t Love You Anymore.” Rounding out the top five is “Boston” by Stella Lefty. 
Langley’s other single, “Be Her,” is in the #9 spot. Non-country songs in the top 10 include Tame Impala and Jennie’s “Dracula” at #6, Olivia Dean’s “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” at #7, Ariana Grande’s “Hate That I Made You Love Me” at #8 and Dean’s “Man I Need” is at #10.
“Choosin’ Texas” made history already by surpassing Whitney Houston&#8217;s &#8220;I Will Always Love You&#8221; and Mariah Carey&#8217;s &#8220;We Belong Together&#8221; as the longest-running non-holiday #1 one songs by female solo artists without male-billed acts, as Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2026/music/news/ella-langley-choosin-texas-ties-whitney-houston-mariah-carey-records-1236816760/">reported</a>. 
Now, many wonder whether Grammy voters will finally recognize country after snubbing the genre for years. Last year, zero country artists received nominations for major categories including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist.
The snub was a surprise for fans and industry experts, especially as country music continues to have massive commercial dominance. After voters rejected country&#8217;s dominance, big stars such as Miranda Lambert, George Strait, and Morgan Wallen skipped the Grammys earlier this year.
&#8220;I really hope it doesn&#8217;t turn into that type of dialogue based around politics Right or Left, because it really is not that; it&#8217;s really about what the voters choose to vote for any given year, and it is cyclical,&#8221; Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. <a href="https://tasteofcountry.com/grammys-responds-country-snub/">said</a> earlier this year of country getting shafted.

Ella Langley

Country Music Takes All Top 5 Billboard Spots For First Time Ever

Billboard

Country Music

Singer Ariana Grande plans to step back from the public spotlight after wrapping up her “Eternal Sunshine” tour next month, with her representative citing relentless public scrutiny as the reason. 
“Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour,” a statement from the rep said.
“She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” the statement continued. “This tour has been a beautiful experience for her. She loves her fans and has loved every minute of this tour so much.”
Grande will also no longer be appearing in the West End revival of the Broadway show “Sunday in the Park with George,” as People <a href="https://people.com/ariana-grande-taking-step-back-after-tour-amid-public-health-scrutiny-rep-exclusive-12032395">reported</a>.
Fans have been commenting on social media frequently about Grande’s appearance, saying she looks thinner than she has in the past and speculating on whether she has an eating disorder. These conversations really took off following the press tour for the movie “Wicked.” 
The singer has addressed comments about her body in the past, notoriously calling out those who voiced concern in her song “Yes, And?” from her 2024 album “Eternal Sunshine.”
Those lyrics say: “My face is sitting, I don’t need no disguise / Don’t comment on my body, do not reply / Your business is yours, and mine is mine.”
Many fans interpreted lyrics from her recent single &#8220;Petal&#8221; as addressing the ongoing scrutiny. 
“But I don’t need someone to save me / ‘Cause this music and I will never die,” the lyrics of the song say. “This is not a cry for help / A couple million for my thoughts, I’ve got plenty / But I am not the victim / B*tch, I’m practically drowning in my blessings.”
One of the top comments on the video says, “It’s not about wanting the old Ariana back. It’s about wanting her to be healthy.”
As concern over Grande&#8217;s appearance has grown online, some fans have drawn comparisons to singer Karen Carpenter, who died in 1983 from heart failure caused by complications of anorexia nervosa.

Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande Plans To Retreat From Spotlight As Her Appearance Fuels Speculation

Celebrities

Health

The Women’s Pro Baseball League had a rocky start on Saturday as social media fans reacted to the vocal stylings of the selected national anthem singer, Martha Reeves.
Reeves is no amateur, as she’s the lead singer of the Motown group Martha and the Vandellas — best known for the popular hit single &#8220;Dancing in the Street.&#8221; But despite her credentials, the singer is being criticized for the performance.
Reeves, 85, sang before a game between the Los Angeles Queens and the New York Heights and the commenters were out in force to share their opinions on her version.
“They probably should have just put a boombox up to the microphone instead,” one person <a href="https://x.com/adamlwingfield/status/2083884570307412398">observed</a>.
“‘Anthem singer’ must now be an entry-level, ‘no questions’ kind of position for the WPBL,” another <a href="https://x.com/nWo_notsql/status/2083804263793197523">said</a>.
“I can&#8217;t un-see/un-hear this,” echoed another.
“This is domestic terrorism,” another commenter wrote.
This was the first women’s pro baseball game played in the U.S. in nearly three decades, as Fox News reported. Los Angeles won the game, 10-8.
National anthem singing debacles are nothing new, including in the MLB world. In 2024, Grammy-nominated country music singer-songwriter Ingrid Andress received terrible reviews for her rendition of the national anthem at the MLB Home Run Derby in Arlington, Texas. She later apologized and said she was checking into rehab.
Last year, Latin R&amp;B singer Nezza made waves before a Los Angeles Dodgers game when she sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” in Spanish despite being told not to. She did so in protest of ICE deportations.
“I just could not believe when she walked in and told me no,&#8221; the singer said in a TikTok video to fans after the fact.
&#8220;I just felt like I needed to do it. For anyone who’s been following me for a while, you know everything I do is out of love,” she continued. “And I am proud of myself for doing that today. Because my parents are immigrants, and they’ve been citizens my whole life at this point. They got documented really early, but I just can’t imagine them being ripped away from me, just even at this age, let alone [as] a little kid. What are we doing?”

Martha Reeves

WATCH: National Anthem Butchered At First Women’s Pro Baseball Game

Baseball

National Anthem

Celebrities tend to balk at the idea that they might be seen as role models. Female pop stars who grew up with their fans, think Miley Cyrus, are particularly offended by the concept that the way they live might meaningfully influence someone else. But not Ariana Grande.
The 33-year-old singer and actress, who made a name for herself as a teenager on the Nickelodeon sitcom “Victorious,” said in an interview several years ago that she sees herself as an “honest” role model. 
“If I’m going to be a role model, the last thing I should be is perfect because that’s not realistic,” she <a href="https://people.com/music/ariana-grande-bbc-interview-everything-we-learned/">told</a> the BBC in 2018. “As long as I’m honest and genuine and I share with my fans my truest self, that’s the best that I can do because that’s allowing them to do the same thing.”
But it’s hard to be honest with your fans when you’re lying to yourself. 
Grande has spent the past few years pursuing a disturbing level of weight loss. The “Into You” singer, who also starred as Glinda in “Wicked,” looks as if she might actually be able to float away in a bubble without any movie magic to assist her. Lately, fans have been comparing her to Karen Carpenter, the lead singer of the Carpenters who died at age 32 after her eating disorder <a href="https://time.com/3685894/karen-carpenter-anorexia-death/">caused</a> her heart to fail. 
Yet somehow, Grande has spent the last few years criticizing fans for commenting on her body, suggesting that such concern amounts to something prurient, impudent, and decidedly anti-feminist. 
In a 2023 TikTok video she made to explain “what it means to be a person with a body,” she sweetly told fans to shove it. 
“I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what,” she said. “If you think you’re saying something good and well-intentioned … we just shouldn’t.&#8221;
She claimed that her former, larger-but-still-super-skinny body was more unhealthy than the current model. Before, she was on antidepressants, drinking, and eating poorly. Yet, even while suggesting that her physical health had improved, she seemed to admit that there was something wrong; she just didn’t think it was anyone’s business. 
“You never know what someone is going through. So even if you are coming from a loving place and a caring place, that person probably is working on it or has a support system that they are working on it with and — you never know.”
What does “working on it” mean for her, when “it” looks a lot like an extreme, possibly life-threatening case of anorexia? 
She clearly wasn’t working on it, and she doubled down the next year while on the Wicked press tour.
“I’ve been kind of doing this in front of the public and kind of been, you know, a specimen in a petri dish, really, since I was 16 or 17,” Grande said. “So, I have heard it all. I’ve heard every version of it, of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it, and then it’s wrong for different reasons.”
Couched in the language of self-care and compassion and feminism, her pleas for privacy made it into the verbiage of various headlines. “Ariana Grande gives &#8216;loving reminder&#8217; about body-shaming,” <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/ariana-grande-gives-reminder-body-shaming-rcna246548">cooed</a> NBC. Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/ariana-grande-fights-back-against-body-shamers-critics-comment-her-weight-during-wicked-press-tour">put</a> her in a more active stance, declaring, “Ariana Grande fights back against body-shamers as critics comment on her weight during &#8216;Wicked&#8217; press tour.”
But now, finally, the body-shamers may have won. Thank God. 
On Friday, Grande released the music video for her new song “Petals.” In it, she attends a casting call, each time reinventing her image to make herself more appealing to the old, grizzled men behind the desk. 
The first time, one of the men writes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it note: “couldn’t hurt to lose a few lbs.” The next time, she’s criticized for wearing too much makeup, and the third time, when she comes back with a boob job, the man scoffs that she’s had “too much work done.”
Then she lops off their heads with a chainsaw. Really.
Like Taylor Swift, she has the commentariat in mind with her video — and her lyrics. “But I don’t need someone to save me / &#8216;Cause this music and I will never die,” she trills. “This is not a cry for help / A couple million for my thoughts, I&#8217;ve got plenty / But I am not the victim / B*tch, I&#8217;m practically drowning in my blessings.”
Sawing off the heads of concerned fans seems like the wrong message to send, but her music video is saying exactly what she’s been proclaiming to fans for years: Talking about my dangerously skinny body is the same as telling me I’m too ugly or wear too much makeup or am too sexy or am not sexy enough. Gosh, we women just can’t win!
But the backlash this time was serious. “It’s not about wanting the old Ariana back. It’s about wanting her to be healthy,” reads a top comment on the video. “At this point, im judging her team, friends, and family. This is insane,” said another. 
Then, on Sunday, Grande’s reps announced she would be stepping out of the spotlight. 
“Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour,” her representative <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/08/ariana-grande-exits-west-end-sunday-in-the-park-with-george-1237015542/">said</a>. (This exit isn’t immediate: The tour for her new album ends September 1.) 
“She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily,” continued her rep in a pointed statement, “and then taking a much-deserved break from public facing work and appearances which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”
Hopefully Grande can finally get the help she needs, unless this is an elaborate marketing stunt. What’s really remarkable is that she’s still pointing a finger at us, the onlookers. She’s healthy, her rep insists, and she deserves a break from your endless scrutiny, you sick losers. By the way, where’s my chainsaw?
What’s most important is that Grande eat a cheeseburger, preferably with some tallow fries, but she also owes honesty to her fans. She is skeletal, visibly unhealthy by any objective measure, and insisting otherwise could cause vulnerable viewers to spiral in the same way. Criticizing her weight isn’t a matter of taste the way one might comment on her ever-present high ponytail. 
Ariana Grande is wasting away before our eyes, and she’s too afraid to admit it. We shouldn’t be.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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Ariana Grande Is Wasting Away — And Still Blaming You For Noticing

Mental Health

weight Loss

Singer-songwriter Noah Kahan criticized the White House after it used his song &#8220;American Cars&#8221; in a social media post highlighting President Donald Trump&#8217;s visit to a Michigan auto plant.
The White House posted a slideshow on TikTok and Instagram featuring photos from Trump&#8217;s recent visit to Michigan, using Kahan&#8217;s song from his fourth album, &#8220;The Great Divide,&#8221; as background music.
The song is available for use across several social media platforms — thanks to a 2024 deal between the Universal Music Group and Meta — but that&#8217;s not stopping Kahan and &#8220;American Cars&#8221; co-writer, guitarist Noah Levine, from complaining that the White House used it.
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&#8220;Would never approve of my music being used in support of you or this administration,&#8221; Kahan commented on the White House&#8217;s Instagram post.
Levine, according to a Billboard <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/noah-kahan-slams-white-house-unauthorized-use-american-cars-1236305033/">report</a>, also commented on the post, saying, &#8220;You fat f*ck this song isn’t for you&#8221; — but the comment appears to have been deleted.
The music has since been disabled on the White House Instagram post.
Kahan is far from the first to complain about President Trump&#8217;s use of music for either a public appearance or a social media post.
Just last week, pop star Katy Perry complained that her song &#8220;Firework&#8221; was used in a White House video of military operations in Iran.
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<section><a title="@whitehouse" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@whitehouse?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@whitehouse</a>Iran has been warned. 🎆<a title="♬ original sound - The White House" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7665732646814665486?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">♬ original sound &#8211; The White House</a></section>
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&#8220;I am deeply appalled and angry to see &#8216;Firework&#8217; used on the [White House] TikTok account as a backing track for video footage of military strikes,&#8221; Perry wrote on X. &#8220;I did not approve this, I was not asked, and I absolutely do not condone it.&#8221;
&#8220;I wrote this song to be an anthem of hope, healing, and inner strength for people going through their darkest personal moments,&#8221; Perry complained. &#8220;To see a message of self-worth and upliftment weaponized to soundtrack destruction and violence is a complete violation of everything my song stands for. My music is for bringing people together, not celebrating warfare.&#8221;
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I am deeply appalled and angry to see “Firework” used on the <a href="https://x.com/WhiteHouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WhiteHouse</a> TikTok account as a backing track for video footage of military strikes. I did not approve this, I was not asked, and I absolutely do not condone it.
I wrote this song to be an anthem of hope, healing, and…
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) <a href="https://x.com/katyperry/status/2081032309508047136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2026</a></blockquote>
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As several quickly pointed out, however, Perry&#8217;s music is also available for use on TikTok under the platform&#8217;s licensing agreements with major record labels. The White House later removed the music from that post as well.

MACY’S 4TH OF JULY FIREWORKS

A Deal Put Noah Kahan’s Music On Meta. Now He’s Mad Trump Can Use It.

Donald Trump

Katy Perry

Media

Politics

Social Media

K-pop singer Jang Won-young surprised fans when she threw the opening ceremonial pitch at the Mets game on Sunday with a “helluva windup.”
On Sunday, the IVE K-pop band, with over six million daily listeners across the globe, was invited to attend the New York Mets game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. While the entire IVE group was there, Jang had the honor of throwing out the first pitch, and her mechanical windup caused people to question whether South Korea taught basic pitching mechanics to its students. 
“​​To be fair, Jang has a helluva windup, which has me thinking, do they teach pitching mechanics in elementary schools in South Korea and Japan?” <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/mets-trot-korean-pop-star-amazing-windup-first-pitch-duties-wemby-plays-soccer-rosie">OutKick Senior Director of Content</a> Joe Kinsey asked.
Kinsey wondered how Jang could come over here and put “our travel ball kids to shame?”
The K-pop group also filmed content with former Korean major leaguer Kim Byung-hyun and former professional pitcher Dustin Nippert. 
“I’m honored to have the opportunity to throw the first pitch at a game watched by baseball fans around the world,” Jang said according to <a href="https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/entertainment/k-pop/20260717/ive-invited-to-mlb-game-jang-won-young-to-throw-1st-pitch">The Korean Times</a>. 
“I’ll do my best to share positive energy with both the players and everyone in the stands,” she added.
The IVE K-pop group participated in the ceremony while on the North American section of its second world tour “SHOW WHAT I AM.” Called an “undeniable force in K-pop&#8217;s next generation” by Billboard, IVE will perform in eight arena shows in both the United States and Canada from July to August. Their world tour launched late in 2025 also includes performances in Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.
This is not the <a href="https://www.mlb.com/news/bts-soundtracks-mlb-opening-day-2026">first time</a> the MLB has integrated K-pop stars into the league in an effort to appeal to a younger audience. On the league’s opening day, <a href="https://www.grammy.com/news/bts-facts-proof-k-pop-butter-dynamite-records-collaborations-songwriters/">BTS</a> — one of the most popular music groups in global history — teamed up with MLB after its album “ARIRANG” debuted shortly before the baseball season began. MLB used the song for a hype video on Instagram.
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BTS band member V threw the ceremonial opening pitch at Dodger Stadium and met baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani in 2025.
K-pop has exploded in popularity in the United States, particularly due to BTS, who <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/today/2026/03/10/curiosity-why-k-pop-so-popular-united-states">won</a> the Billboard Music Award for Top Social Artist in 2017.

Los Angeles Dodgers v. New York Mets

K-Pop Singer Takes The Spotlight At Mets Game With Polished Windup

Los Angeles Dodgers

New York Mets

Driving down Tennessee roads with rolling green fields, a big blue sky, and beautiful 19th-century homes, I wasn’t sure what to expect from my interview with Lakelin Lemmings, but I couldn’t wait to find out. Three years ago, the rising star signed a publishing deal with Quartz Hill Records at 17 and a label deal at 19. Just days before the release of her debut album, the Gen Z singer spoke with me about her music, passion for God, goals of motherhood, and mission to &#8220;remain country.&#8221;
Lakelin arrived at the recording studio in a boot-cut denim jumpsuit and red paisley scarf around her neck, and I knew right away this girl wasn’t someone who takes herself too seriously. When I told her that we share the same birth year and I couldn’t wait to hear from a woman who’s dealing with the same issues as other Gen Z girls our age, she smiled. With Lakelin&#8217;s <a href="https://open.spotify.com/prerelease/1UnCpJJNyTv1D8nlKVlgiI">first album</a> coming out on Friday, she is excited.
“I&#8217;m feeling like all the hard work and stuff is about to pay off, and that hopefully everybody loves it as much as I do,” Lakelin said. “I think one of the earliest songs in the album I wrote was when I was freshly 16 and the last one when I turned 19. It&#8217;s finally gonna be introduced into the world.”
Many of the songs in the album tackle the topics of young love, relationships, and heartbreak. As someone who loves “How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days” and any good rom-com, Lakelin said she sometimes pulled inspiration from shows she watched, but she has also dealt with a series of her own relationship struggles.
Like other young women her age, Lakelin has had her share of situationships — a <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/experimentations/202403/are-you-in-a-situationship/amp?utm_source=chatgpt.com">term</a> Gen Z uses to describe a romantic relationship without commitment labels. Lakelin&#8217;s song “What Are We Doing” is trying to figure out just that. In “Get Around Boy,” the song lists the places Lakelin hopes to travel to and describes a young man who stays behind in Tennessee as she chases her dreams. Eventually, Lakelin did travel to nearly all the places she mentions, and now says she has a boy “in the back of my mind.”
As the title “19 &amp; Single” suggests, the song touches on the pressure to get married with lyrics like, “I’m all for a Friday night with the girls / &#8216;Cause 19 and single ain’t the end of the world.” Lakelin said she feels pressure when friends get engaged, married, and start having babies. With earnest hopes for marriage and motherhood, Lakelin said she has made sacrifices to be where she is, but still wants to perform her music and pursue her dreams.
Not all of Lakelin&#8217;s lyrics were inspired by what you’d expect. After singing along in the car to Lakelin’s <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbHG1muBl1G/?hl=en">“He Ain’t Coming Back,”</a> I had to get the scoop behind this earworm. Another smile.
“Yeah, so everybody thinks that, you know, ‘He Ain&#8217;t Coming Back’ is about some boy that did me wrong and something like that,” Lakelin said. “But the story of it is actually — I was finishing up writing the album and we needed an up-tempo song.” 
Just days before it was time to record the album, Lakelin texted her two favorite co-writers to tell them the emergency: They had to come up with one more track. They convened on a Friday, but the co-writers had to cancel another appointment to make the timing work. 
“We get there, and we’re writing, and we hadn&#8217;t really gotten a title or anything yet, and — a knock on the door. It&#8217;s the guy that they were supposed to write with,” Lakelin said.
After the co-writers explained the rescheduling and the man’s confusion passed, he left. But the situation was “just really awkward,” Lakelin said.
“My co-writer, after he leaves, is like, ‘Man, I hope he comes back,’ and I just look at him, and I go, ‘Oh, he ain&#8217;t coming back.’ And a light bulb and a flip switched, and we were like, ‘We&#8217;re writing that.’”
Throughout Lakelin’s journey, her faith in God has been central. There have been difficult moments, Lakelin said, but she believes “God’s called me to country music.” Lakelin describes herself as a Christian who writes country music, not as a Christian country artist.
“I feel like there&#8217;s a need in country music for somebody that loves country music and can talk about those types of things, but also is rooted in her faith and is genuinely someone who&#8217;s only after God&#8217;s will,” Lakelin said, noting that Christian country singers often sing traditional Christian songs that feel less “country.”
“I love Christian music, and I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;ll dabble in it,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And I have a little bit to keep the faith life of mine, but I&#8217;m always going to remain country.”
As someone who stays with her family whenever she’s not on the road, Lakelin loves seeing her two little sisters — aged one and three — who know her as “Lae Lae.” Lakelin said she’s like their second mother, with a large age gap between them and the three oldest siblings. Lemmings was the middle child for years with her now 23-year-old sister, whom she would compete with in singing, and a 17-year-old brother. However, after the first daughter left the nest, Lemmings said her parents wanted more kids, dreaming of having a family of eight.
Lakelin’s family couldn&#8217;t be more supportive of her burgeoning music career. Since she was little, Lakelin has performed in competitions, and her extended family still recalls when she was performing at their barbecue singing competition. Lakelin said she does wonder what they think watching her grow from small performances to standing on grand stages. 
How does she stay grounded in some sort of routine with a life that is always moving from writing and recording sessions to performances and tours? She named only two things: her coffee in the morning and her Bible in the evening. 
“After a long week or a long day in the music world, I like to just go home and have a cup of coffee, read my Bible, maybe tan a little bit, and just spend time with family and friends,” she said.
Lakelin has a message to other girls who are dreamers with a desire from God but see too many roadblocks.
“If you&#8217;re gonna be a dreamer, you got to be a doer. And I think that if you have a dream, then chase it,” Lakelin said. “If it&#8217;s God&#8217;s will and his plan, then it&#8217;s going to work out just the way it&#8217;s supposed to. It&#8217;s going to be hard at times to trust that and trust in Him, but you just got to keep the faith.”
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

712844759_18468127816106889_5214607018557455055_n

The Country Star Bringing Faith To Center Stage

interview

Tennessee

It has become something of a cliché to proclaim that “rock and roll will never die,” but the Rolling Stones — a band formed when my grandfather was a sprightly youth — seem intent on keeping it alive until I am a grandfather myself. It is 2026, and we have a brand-new Rolling Stones record: their 25th studio album in 64 years together, and their first since 2023’s &#8220;Hackney Diamonds.&#8221;
Whether jolted by the passing of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021 or simply less inclined to believe that “Time Is on My Side,” the 82-year-old Mick Jagger has summoned the troops, written some songs, and, together with producer Andrew Watt, created a remarkable late-late-era record. Which brings us to &#8220;Foreign Tongues.&#8221;
I will spare you the trite sophistry of declaring it “the best Rolling Stones record since” — insert some arbitrary benchmark such as &#8220;Some Girls&#8221; or &#8220;Tattoo You.&#8221; Mick Jagger is not granting me an interview anytime soon, and I doubt he believes such plaudits himself. But &#8220;Foreign Tongues&#8221; is a great, energetic, and joyous record on its own terms, and an even better one than &#8220;Hackney Diamonds.&#8221;
The opening track, “Rough and Twisted,” begins with a gritty and bellicose blues in E, chugging on an E7 chord while threading playful licks through the arrangement. Jagger’s howling vocals arrive with the force and ferocity of a far, far younger upstart eager to make his mark. He also plays harmonica throughout the record — perhaps his most underappreciated virtuosity — and it acts as an extension of his voice, lending the arrangement a soulful, rhythmic pulse.
The Rolling Stones have long maintained a playful tension between the modern and the traditional. Jagger’s appetite for momentum and new sounds has driven the band forward, while the purist instincts of Keith Richards and the late, jazz-trained drummer Charlie Watts kept it firmly rooted in the blues.
My favorite Stones record has always been &#8220;Exile on Main St.&#8221; for its maximalist arrangements, replete with gospel singers, brass instruments, and piano frills. Many of my favorite Stones recordings feature Nicky Hopkins on piano; on &#8220;Foreign Tongues,&#8221; that role is served by Steve Winwood, who plays both organ and piano throughout. If I could offer one criticism of Watt’s production, it would be to turn up the piano tracks. On recordings such as “Let It Loose” or “Loving Cup,” each instrument occupies a distinct place in the mix; here, Winwood’s piano is too often buried beneath it.
The tension between old and new is especially apparent on “In the Stars.” Its opening bars evoke a polished pop aesthetic, driven by piano chords and high-production vocables. Soon afterward, Steve Jordan’s drums go into full throttle and Richards begins strumming his signature open chords, which ring out like the exhaust note of a V-12 sports car. The Stones sound as energetic and lively as they did on &#8220;Tattoo You.&#8221; Fans of the band’s later catalogue will also recognize a verse structure resembling “Doom and Gloom.”
The Stones have been around for so long that much of popular music’s evolution can be traced through their catalogue, from American blues and country rock to disco and beyond. “Jealous Lover” sounds like an outtake from &#8220;Some Girls&#8221; and features some of Jagger’s finest falsetto vocals since “Emotional Rescue.” I promised to spare you the “finest since” plaudits, but Jagger’s extraordinary performance cannot be overstated.
Similarly, on “Mr. Charm,” Jagger sings in a rapid-fire, rap-pastiche cadence, delivering biting lyrics over a track that harkens back to “Shattered” while remaining unmistakably modern. Watt’s production pulls the vocals to the forefront and sharpens the instrumental tracks. Amid its wry jabs at tech billionaires, Jagger lauds Elon Musk for saving the astronauts, singing: “Who would you really trust? / Is it Boeing, is it NASA / Is it mad mogul Mr. Musk?”
For “Ringing Hollow,” Jagger revives his country drawl for a Gram Parsons-inspired ballad redolent of the twee “Far Away Eyes.” There is a great deal on this album that leads back to &#8220;Some Girls.&#8221; Reluctant to traffic in specific political references, Jagger instead paints a broader malaise across the political spectrum. “Lady Liberty don’t look so good / When there’s a tear in her gown,” he sings, before turning to the fentanyl crisis — with some irony for a Rolling Stone who has encountered more drugs than the average pharmacy — with the lines “So pass ’round the fenty / Pass ’round the coke.”
Yet his profound love for America and its virtues remains resolute and palpable: “I drove through the suburbs / And I lounged in the malls / Let the dreamers get the dream they want.” It is because Jagger loves America and believes in its greatness that he pines for it.
Alongside this stellar track list, we have been treated to a generous press tour featuring a more open and candid Jagger than we have encountered before. For possibly the most famous man on the planet over the past five decades, he has remained something of an enigma in the public eye. Decidedly too old now for such artifice, he has given longtime Stones fans a treat in his recent interviews.
In one segment, he concedes his reluctance to opine on politics. “My job in the live music world is just those people that come have the best time they possibly can … to forget all their problems and the problems of the world and their mortgages and their whatever.” Contrast this with Bruce Springsteen, whose recent $300-plus concerts have been dedicated to tirades about immigration enforcement and whatever nonsense “No Kings” entails.
The Rolling Stones have always been a band of dualities: Mick and Keith, classic and modern, up-tempo rock and roll balanced by tender ballads. Think of “Start Me Up” and “Waiting on a Friend,” among countless other examples. On &#8220;Foreign Tongues,&#8221; that tender side arrives with “Back in Your Life,” the longest song on the record.
Its melody and atmosphere evoke the Beatles’ wistful “In My Life,” inviting us to reminisce. It features a beautiful guitar solo from Ronnie Wood, which the guitarist explained he recorded in a single take after learning of Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson’s death, hoping to convey a tribute to the American genius. And what an inspired tribute it is.
It is fitting that the record ends with “Beautiful Delilah,” a Chuck Berry cover. The Stones’ lo-fi interpretation reaches back to the country-blues textures of their &#8220;Beggars Banquet&#8221; days, awash in Richards’s acoustic strumming and slide guitar from Wood, painting a melancholy vignette of desolate, arid plains.
Jagger has already confirmed that he is working on another album, with a possible tour planned for 2027. Whatever fire has ignited in the venerable frontman, we can only hope it burns for as long as it can.
Formed in the tradition and image of American blues and R&amp;B, the Rolling Stones adopted that uniquely American export and spent the ensuing decades infusing it with new styles and sounds. That they continue doing so on &#8220;Foreign Tongues,&#8221; more than six decades later, is remarkable. The record is a mosaic of their past that still points unmistakably forward. To borrow a title, “Time Waits for No One,” but we should all be grateful it continues waiting for the Rolling Stones.
***
Harry Khachatrian (<a href="https://x.com/harry1t6">@Harry1T6</a>) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner. He is a software engineer, holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and writes about wine at <a href="https://www.betweenbottles.com/">BetweenBottles.com</a>.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

The Rolling Stones Announce New Album Foreign Tongues – Inside

Mick Jagger’s Latest Move Leaves Other Rock Icons In The Dust

Rock and Roll

Longtime Journey band member Jonathan Cain shared some strong criticisms about far-Left activist Bruce Springsteen, basically telling him to stop talking politics and perform.
“Guys like Bruce Springsteen should shut up, you know,” the keyboardist told The Complete Disaster Network podcast. “Honestly, shut up, Bruce.”
Cain, who is conservative, did the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdHnBWt_hDc">interview</a> back in May but is just now going viral with his comments after it was featured on Blabbermouth and Ultimate Classic Rock over the weekend. Springsteen has been making headlines recently for aggressively anti-Trump rhetoric during his “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour.
“Bruce, I mean, what the heck? I used to like him, and now he’s just annoying,” the “Don’t Stop Believin’” co-writer added. “He’s an annoying, bitter old man. I mean, stop it.”
Cain may be conservative, but he said it’s not something that comes up during performances.
“Now, people say, ‘Well, you’re Christian, and you’re conservative,’” the musician said during the podcast appearance. “And I’m like, ‘So what?’ I don’t preach it on stage. I don’t spend 10 minutes talking about it.”
“You know, you were ‘Born in the USA,’ weren’t you, dude? So act like it,” Cain went on. “But even that song, if you look at the lyrics, I mean, it’s a kind of a diss to our country.”
The far-Left singer, 76, made <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bruce-springsteen-doubles-down-on-trump-bashing-calls-it-patriotic">endless political statements</a> during the tour, both on and off the stage. “There’s some very weird, strange, and dangerous sh*t going on out there right now,” Springsteen said during his Manchester stop.
“In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now. In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death.”
He also criticized the Trump administration’s handling of illegal immigration and claimed they were “taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers.”
President Trump shot back with a social media post laying out exactly how he felt about Springsteen’s endless tirades.
“Bad, and very boring singer, Bruce Springsteen, who looks like a dried up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon, has long had a horrible and incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, sometimes referred to as TDS,” the president wrote, echoing what many on social media were saying. “The guy is a total loser who spews hate against a President who won a Landslide Election, including the popular vote, all Seven Swing States, and 86% of the Counties across America.”

Jonathan Cain

Journey Star Slams Bruce Springsteen As ‘Bitter Old Man’ Over Anti-Trump Rants

Musician Slams Leftist Agitator Bruce Springsteen: 'Annoying, Bitter Old Man'

Bruce Springsteen

Trump Derangement Syndrome

Rapper Boosie BadAzz is demanding money back after two lobbyists allegedly charged him $600,000 in exchange for a Trump pardon that never came.
The 43-year-old hip-hop artist has had multiple run-ins with law enforcement over the years and was most recently facing prison time for felony possession of a firearm, which could result in up to 10 years in prison, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/18/us/boosie-badazz-pardon-lawsuit.html">reported</a>. 
He had previously pleaded guilty to a third-offense marijuana possession charge in 2009 and was sent to prison in Louisiana.
Boosie, whose real name is Torrence Ivy Hatch Jr., was reportedly approached by Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl with a promise that they could help secure a pardon. But they didn’t, so Hatch is requesting half his money back, the outlet noted.
“I was in a bad position, and they preyed on me, bro,” Hatch told NYT in an interview. The lobbyists disagree, saying the fallout has tarnished their reputation. Burkman wrote in an email that the rapper “has smeared us unfairly.” 
Burkman added that the duo had conducted a “massive, highly tailored advocacy campaign across Congress, the executive branch and leading political influencers and media figures” as they attempted to secure the promised pardon. “In 25 years, we cannot think of a single client for whom our firm has done more work than Boosie,” he said. 
The outlet reported that a signed contract states that if a pardon was not secured by a certain date, Hatch was entitled to half the money back, which is what he is requesting. But NYT noted that there appears to be a typo, as the pardon was promised by January 2025, but the contract was signed in September 2025. 
The rapper was sentenced to three years of supervised release and 300 hours of community service in January 2026.
While he’s not back behind bars, Hatch is unhappy with his sentence as it keeps him from performing in other countries. “I’m loved all across the world and I can’t even go overseas and make money,” he told the outlet.
Rappers seeking presidential pardons from Trump are a hot topic lately. Last week, convicted sex offender R. Kelly submitted a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-issues-response-after-random-r-kelly-pardon-request">“random” pardon request</a>, prompting a response from the White House confirming the submission without indicating whether it would be approved. Kelly is currently serving a 31-year sentence for racketeering, sex trafficking, and child pornography.
The White House shot down rumors last fall that a presidential pardon for rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs was imminent. As of now, Diddy is still behind bars, serving a four-year sentence for soliciting prostitution after being acquitted of the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.

Boosie Badazz

Rapper Seeks $300K Refund After Bid for Presidential Pardon Falls Apart

Rapper Requests $300K Refund After Lobbyists Fail To Secure Presidential Pardon

Pardon

Rapper

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