This week, Alexi is joined by music critic and columnist Ella Dorn to unpack her viral essay declaring Giallobrutalism as the defining visual language of mid-2020s pop, informed by the stylish delirium of Italian giallo cinema and a pervasive unease about surveillance and stardom. We discuss the aesthetic’s formal signatures—cool temperatures, split diopters, painterly tableaux, and more— as well as the rise of early-onset popstar histrionics, the existential glamour of centripetal girls in centrifugal settings, and the decade’s watershed fashion moments so far, from Miu Miu micro-minis to Sandy Liang mega-bows. We also challenge the default Y2K reading of modern pop aesthetics, arguing for a closer look at their 20th-century antecedents, and reflect on our shared past as stans of doomed K-pop girl groups.
Links:
“‘Giallobrutalism,’ or why everything looks like that” by Ella Dorn on Fairyland!
K-Pop Music Video Analysis w/ Alexi
One on Top of the Other (1969) dir. Lucio Fulci
A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971) dir. Lucio Fulci
“Music, Fashion, Film is Charli xcx at her subversive best” by Ella Dorn in The New Statesman
Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity by Edward Dimendberg
“The realities of being a pop star” by Charli xcx on charli’s substack
Ep. 102: Just Dance w/ Lexee Smith
Nicole Kidman wearing Miu Miu S/S 2022 for Vanity Fair’s 2022 Hollywood Issue cover
Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting by Sianne Ngai
“In Defense of the Leopard Print Midi Skirt” in Paper magazine (the original @leopardmidiskirt Instagram account is GONE omg)
New Giallobrutalist canon entries we discuss: YENA (최예나) – “캐치 캐치 (Catch Catch)”, aespa 에스파 – “Switchblade (Feat. Ty Dolla $ign)”, Gracie Abrams – “Look at My Life”, ifeye (이프아이) – “r u ok?” , aespa エスパ – “KISS N TELL”
LOONA/ODD EYE CIRCLE – “Sweet Crazy Love” (Official Music Video)
LOONA/Kim Lip – “Eclipse” (Official Music Video)
The iconic abandoned Brutalist building from every K-pop MV
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures by Mark Fisher
Federico Fellini: Painting in Film, Painting on Film by Hava Aldouby
no na - “honk!” (Official Music Video)
no na - “superstitious” (Official Music Video)
Elliot Shields on Instagram (creative consultant on Aespa’s “Kiss N Tell”)
Rocket Girls 101 (火箭少女101) K-pop plagiarism overview
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