Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image description: Rodrigo sticking her tongue out and standing against a purple background, with stickers on her face and the letters spelling ‘SOUR’ on her tongue. Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR is the perfect debut album. It draws on familiar genres and themes, which is probably why Rodrigo has been compared so much to the likes of […]
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Image Description: Stormzy performing at a festival, with a dark background and red white lights around him. Much of British culture can be simmered down to the constantly brewing tensions between the elite and the outsiders that refuse to commit the sin of deference. Even though everything I write seems to conclude with me despairing […]
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Image Description: Charli XCX performing at a festival It is sometimes said that while art is how we fill up physical space, music is how we fill up time. Music is a language that can say something individual and unique to everyone it touches. It is part of what makes us human. Recently I have […]
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Image description: Eurovision crowds in purple and turquoise lighting turned to a stage with a spotlight Following Saturday’s Grand Final, another Eurovision has come and gone. In what felt like the quickest grand final in recent memory, 26 countries competed for the glass microphone trophy, with Italy pulling up ahead of the jury-favourites Switzerland and […]
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Image description: a large crowd and colourful flags in front of Glastonbury Festival’s Pyramid Stage The world-renowned Glastonbury Festival attracts 200,000 seasoned festival-goers and newcomers alike to its home in Pilton, Somerset, every year. While well-accustomed to the odd ‘fallow year’ to allow the site’s land to regrow, the festival first opened its gates to […]
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Image Description: All seven members of BTS posing in suits. She stood beside me, awaiting my judgement. I could feel her eyes, trying to detect some microexpression of approval. On her phone I watched seven men, clad in billowy robes in varying shades of pink, sashaying across the screen. Their movements, sharp and fluid with […]
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Image description: many different Smiths albums scattered over each other CW: xenophobia, transphobia, Holocaust denial A dreaded sunny day So I meet you at the cemetry [sic] gates Keats and Yeats are on your side While Wilde is on mine Cemetry Gates, The Queen Is Dead (1986) A few months ago I was […]
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Image description: Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu with his bodyguard Frank Senteza aka Frank during campaigning. Frank is wearing a red top with a picture of Robert, they both have a fist raised. Uganda’s January elections saw Bobi Wine, a musician who gained political credibility and a loyal following through his pop career, challenge President Yoweri Museveni, […]
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Image Description: An array of vintage cassette tapes One of my favorite things about music is that there truly is never a shortage– new music is constantly being created, and in the streaming age we have access to recordings from the early 20th century onwards. Still, somehow I frequently find myself in phases where I […]
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The latest alumni interview is with Vashti Bunyan, who studied at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford during the 1960s. The singer-songwriter has had a decidedly unique career – disenchanted by the lack of commercial success achieved by her debut album Just Another Diamond Day after its release in 1970, Bunyan abandoned music. Over the […]
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Image Description: poster used to advertise the production, a tree made out of abstract images of people on a black background Exploring grief through music, Oxford Contemporary Opera Society has commissioned 5 pieces that move through the stages of grief. Throughout the performances, dissonant chords and large ranges in the melody present challenges for the […]
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Image description: the Radcam and a tree in blossom, and some sheet music Students have criticised the Music faculty over confusing reports of changes to the Music curriculum published in various media outlets. The faculty today responded to student concerns, reassuring students that the course was not being changed beyond changes that had already been […]
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Image description: A violin resting against a sunlit cupboard For the past year, like many others, my experience of ‘live’ classical music has been confined to a 11” x 13” laptop screen. Initially, I found the virtual version a pale substitute for the very human experience of hearing an orchestra live, feeling the atmosphere created […]
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Image Description: A crowd in a concert venue, a silhouette of a hand is in focus on a background of yellow lighting. In better times, concerts were easily my favourite night out. There’s something about the ebb and flow of a crowd that makes music that much more thrilling. I have very vivid memories of […]
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Image description: newspaper clippings with the words ‘agony aunt’ written in block letters. Previous column themes have been tenuous, but this is probably the most tenuous yet. Look, it’s seventh week. We’re pretty tired, both of life and of answering all of your tedious — pardon, extremely important problems. So, we humbly beg our loyal […]
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Image Description: a headshot of Amelia Fletcher against the backdrop of a drawing of Oxford’s skyline and the text ‘Amelia Fletcher: Alumni Series’ This week’s alumni has had a double career of sorts. In one world, she is a respected economist: former chief economist at the Office of Fair Trading and now Deputy Director at […]
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Image Description: a close-up photo of a condenser microphone against a purple background Picture this: it’s 2008. Britney Spears has just shaved her head! It’s in all the magazines and game show Family Fortunes US runs a round on it. “What has Britney Spears lost this year?” “Her husband! Her hair! Her sanity!” cry the […]
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Image Description: Nupur Patel’s DPhil Diaries The last time I noted down my thoughts here, I was in a bit of a miserable place with my DPhil. In all honesty, I was bored, fed up and anxious about the thought of getting stuck into corrections and preparing for a second draft. Being so close to […]
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Image Description: Musicians Alexander 23 (left) and Jeremy Zucker (right) standing in front of a doorway. I remember the day I first listened to Jeremy Zucker’s music. Predictably, the Spotify algorithm threw up his most popular track ‘comethru‘ and I found it an easy enough listen while I packed away my things on the last […]
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