Tag: Anne DeLello ’20
SoundCloud Partners With Instagram: Budding Artists Rejoice
by The Cowl Editor on November 1, 2018
Arts & Entertainment
by: Anne DeLello ’20 A&E Staff
Instagram now has roughly one billion users, up from last year’s 800 million. As of Oct. 23, those one billion users will be able to access SoundCloud in their Instagram stories, allowing them to share music with their followers. This past week, SoundCloud integrated with Instagram, allowing SoundCloud to gain publicity and connect with even more people as Instagram users share SoundCloud music across the popular social media platform.
In recent years, Instagram has flourished in terms of its popularity. The New York Times describes it as “becoming Facebook,” in the respect that checking who has posted what on Instagram has become a daily fixture in the lives of people across the United States. SoundCloud’s new connection with Instagram will give the music platform more access to the masses because of Instagram’s popularity.
In SoundCloud, the user can now press the “Share” button and then click “Share to Instagram Story.” Typically, producers upload their music to SoundCloud and then post links to their social media. SoundCloud reported that there are tens of millions of these posts every month. The integration with Instagram eliminates the middleman posting links, at least on one platform. Because of this omission, Billboard reported that “creators will now be able to more seamlessly promote their new music.” This is not only a fun way to share music with friends, but a promotional tool for those who create their music using SoundCloud.
SoundCloud is not the first major music sharing platform to do this. Just this summer, Spotify also integrated with Instagram. When they announced this plan in May, Spotify said, “We’re excited to see all the different ways our creator community will take advantage of this new functionality.”
Both platforms are used by artists and producers to get their music out there, and this makes it much easier for them to do so. Not only are they now accessible through Instagram, but they are available to anyone free of charge. Spotify and SoundCloud both offer free use with advertisements. This makes them appealing to the masses and is why they have become so popular. Forbes reported that SoundCloud has over 175 million users while Variety reported Spotify’s 180 million active users.
This announcement followed SoundCloud’s recent decision to monetize, meaning that people who pay a premium, have a certain number of followers, and post original music can become part of SoundCloud Premium. According to TechCrunch, the people who join will be paid a stipend for their music on SoundCloud. This payment, combined with the integration with Instagram, makes it much easier for artists to gain popularity in the music industry. SoundCloud is creating a platform for its users to be successful, increasing its own popularity as it does so.
SoundCloud is helping its artists and itself by partnering with Instagram. When someone shares a song, the person who views it can be taken directly to the SoundCloud application with one click. Its convenience will not only help SoundCloud artists become more popular, but it will make more people download SoundCloud, and increase its users. All in all, the benefits of partnering with an app as popular as Instagram almost certainly ensure longterm success for SoundCloud.
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are a Perfect Match in A Star is Born
by The Cowl Editor on October 25, 2018
Arts & Entertainment
by: Anne DeLello ’20 A&E Staff
In the fourth rendition of the film A Star is Born, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper showcase their talent through both their acting and musical performances. Cooper has also been well received in his directorial debut. The film recounts a love story based on the musical careers of Ally Campana (Gaga) and Jackson Maine (Cooper) that ends in despair.
Gaga and Cooper are now the fourth pair to star in a rendition of A Star is Born. The first version came out in 1937, starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, the next in 1954, featuring Judy Garland and James Mason, and the third in 1976, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.
The basic storyline in each version follows a touring musician who falls in love with an unknown female singer. As he helps her reach stardom, his own problems with addiction and fame overtake him. Each version encapsulates this plotline while reflecting the time period in which it was produced.
One aspect of this fourth film that sets it apart from others, according to Vanity Fair and the film’s producer Bill Gerber, is the fact that, “It’s her pop turn that starts the rift between them, not her success.”
This difference aside, the current adaptation was as well received as the past ones, both in regards to the film itself and the music. According to Vanity Fair, the 1954 film was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Music, Original Song for “The Man that Got Away.” The 1976 version received four Oscar nominations, winning Best Original Song for “Evergreen.” The film’s musical success has continued into 2018.
A Star is Born has received strong reviews from critics so far with an average critic rating of an 8.1 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes. Manohla Dargis, a critic for the New York Times, states that the film “wrings tears from its romance and thrills from a steadfast belief in old-fashioned, big-feeling cinema.”
Not only has the film been popular among critics, but among fans as well. It has an 84 percent audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Deadline reports that the movie has grossed $101.4 million within the first 12 days since its release.
The success of this film cannot solely be attributed to the acting, but also to the music. The musical talent of Gaga and Cooper enhances the authenticity of the film and adds to its success. Their song “Shallow” is currently number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and according to Vanity Fair it is also “currently the film’s front-runner for a best-original-song Oscar.”
Although some moviegoers might find it boring for filmmakers to consistently retell the same stories, A Star is Born is an exception due to its depth of character, heartfelt music, and impressive directing.
Taylor Swift is America’s Artist of the Year: So, What’s Next?
by The Cowl Editor on October 18, 2018
Arts & Entertainment
A Record-Breaking Tour and a Successful Discography Set High Expectations
by: Anne DeLello ’20 A&E Staff
After taking a few years off from touring, Taylor Swift has come back this past year with a vengeance. Her sixth album reputation has been wildly successful, selling over two million copies in the United States alone. She also wrapped up her tour that began in May, which brought her across the country performing to sold-out stadiums.
This past Sunday night, fans across the country watched as Swift won Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards (AMAs) for her most recent album.
This has been a pattern for Swift since she came onto the music scene at just 15 years old: write albums, tour, win awards, repeat. However, as Swift wraps up touring for her fifth album, fans cannot help but wonder what will come next.
Swift started her career with her self-titled album Taylor Swift in 2006, and after that she released an album every two years until 2014: Fearless, Speak Now, Red, and 1989. According to the Inquirer, all but the first of these albums sold over two million copies, like reputation, within months of coming out. Fans were drawn to her right off the bat, and this popularity only grew as she continued to come out with new music.
With her reputation stadium tour, Swift has hit a new high, being both the first performer to play back-to-back nights at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, and the first female performer to play three nights in a row at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
According to Billboard, Swift also broke attendance records at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona to kick off the tour, and Forbes said that she topped Billboard’s Hot Tours list due to her stellar performance at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey. With all these records, and her win at the AMAs, if Swift decides to get out of the game now, she would go out on top, but she is not quite ready to retire.
Reputation seems to be a jumping off point for a new type of music, and a new, more confident Swift. In her acceptance speech for Artist of the Year Swift said, ”I like to think of albums as chapters in my life and I am so excited to see what the next chapter has in store.” Not only does she indicate here that she is going to capture the next chapter of her life in another album, but Billboard reported that she claims,“the next album will definitely be out before I’m 30.“
Fans around the world can breathe a sigh of relief as the industry begins the wait for America’s top artist’s new album.
Paint Night: Reflecting on Campus Beauty
by The Cowl Editor on October 4, 2018
Arts & Entertainment
BOP Fine Arts Committee Provides Relaxing Night for PC Students
by: Anne DeLello ’20 A&E Staff
On Friday, September 28, the Board of Programmers’ Fine Arts Committee put on its first event of the year: Paint Night. Mermaid Masterpieces, a business based in Newport, Rhode Island that throws paint parties for groups of all sizes, came to McPhail’s to instruct students in painting the Slavin lawn clock.
The objective of the Fine Arts Committee of BOP is to “present students with the opportunity to enrich their college experience through cultural events on, and off, campus…and expand their knowledge of the arts.” The committee certainly achieved this goal with Paint Night.
Painting is a skill not often used on Providence College’s campus. College students, with the exception of art majors or minors, are not usually caught filling the potential of a blank canvas with some abstract beauty. This general lack of ability made the event that much more fun to experience with friends. It brought a group of Providence College students together to get out of their comfort zone and paint, or attempt to paint, an iconic image from campus.
Not everyone is an artist, but at this party, everyone who went got to be one for the night. Becky Killian of Mermaid Masterpieces worked through the painting in simple steps, so everyone had his or her own masterpiece by the end of the night. The painting, sure to be hanging in many common rooms around campus, turned out to be the Slavin lawn clock at sunset. Outside of the common room, the painting serves as a conversation-starting piece of dorm art.
The event made for an entertaining night. The music playing, Killian’s fun attitude, and a group of people getting to do something that they would not normally get to do on a Friday night, made for a lively and refreshing event.
Killian has been doing such events for three and a half years now. Her fun personality and painting expertise made this paint night better than expected. She expressed how much she loves what she does, particularly when she gets to do events with college students. After the paintings were finished, she said, “College is stressful, and I love being able to come out and have fun with you all.”
After a long week of classes, tests, and general college business, Paint Night was exactly what this campus needed to start off the weekend. To be able to relax and do something out of the ordinary with part of the PC community is not something students get to experience enough. The Fine Arts Committee organized a memorable, fun paint party that will not be forgotten by those who attended. They have their paintings, for better or worse, to help them remember.
Max Tychsen ’20 is on the Fine Arts Committee of BOP and helped orchestrate the event. He commented, “I think Paint Night was a huge success! Everyone’s paintings of the Slavin lawn clock at sunset turned out really well and overall it was a great start to the weekend. We’re hoping to have another Paint Night event later this year!” The smiles and completed masterpieces indicate more success for future Paint Nights.
The Emmys 2018: A Step Toward More Diversity
by The Cowl Editor on September 27, 2018
Arts & Entertainment
by: Anne DeLello ’20 A&E Staff
At the 2018 Emmy Awards, some unexpected twists made for both excited and disappointed actors, actresses, and fans. However, there was one overarching victory that represents something more important than individual winners and losers. For the first time in the history of the Creative Arts Emmys, four African American individuals won in the four guest categories at the award show.
Actors Tiffany Haddish and Katt Williams won in the guest comedy categories for their roles on Saturday Night Live (SNL) and Atlanta respectively, along with Ron Cephas Jones on This Is Us and Samira Wiley on The Handmaid’s Tale, who won the drama categories.
Haddish received rave reviews for her relevant and hilarious performance on SNL, which was a step in the right direction in and of itself. AV Club reported that she was the first black female standup comedian to host SNL in over 40 years.
Williams also received praise for his role as Donald Glover’s Uncle Willy, also known as the “Alligator Man” on Atlanta. According to Complex, the actor said he “interned at an alligator farm for three-and-a-half weeks, just so I could get comfortable enough that we didn’t use a stuntman.”
Jones also put in the effort to truly embrace his character, William, in This Is Us, going so far as to read August Wilson and James Baldwin, favorite authors of his character. The success for black Americans in the guest actor category continued when Wiley won for her role as Moira in the Hulu hit The Handmaid’s Tale. Deadlinedescribed her as being able to “wow viewers with her specific blend of resilience and vulnerability.” Not only were these awards important to the individuals, but the recognition also marked a step in the right direction for the non-white acting community.
The actors’ victories are not only a testament to their exceptional performances in the previously mentioned television shows, but to a growing representation of non-white actors in television. As the population of non-white actors in television grows, they are beginning to gain more recognition, just as these four did at this year’s Emmys.
With this acknowledgement in the world of television, black actors have a platform to speak about the lack of diversity in the past, and how they think the American television industry can improve in this area. When discussing how she came to audition for the role of Moira, and if it had anything to do with the book version of The Handmaid’s Tale, Wiley stated, “In that book, that whole world, Moira is definitely not black, let’s just put it like that.” She stepped into this role with full awareness that she was not what the author pictured when writing the novel and made it her own.
Wiley also expressed her hope for more African American recognition in television via understanding producers. According to Deadline, Wiley joked that, “they’re the kind of straight white men that make me believe.”
Jones also acknowledged the progress that is being made. Deadline reported that his character would not have even had a place in television when he was younger, and Jones acknowledged this statement with the comment, “We are moving forward and moving ahead.”
To make the field narrower than just television itself, the Emmys have seen an increased representation in actors of color in recent years. Variety reports that there were 36 non-white actors nominated for awards this year, a 20 percent increase from the 30 that were nominated in 2017. This year in the guest category alone, 11 of the 24 actors and actresses nominated were African American, which is another sign of improvement in diversity in television.
It has taken the Emmys too long to get to this point, and there is a still longer road ahead with regards to diversity and television. There has never been this much representation on television, but just as Wiley finds hope in her experience on The Handmaid’s Tale, this breakthrough, and these four actors, can give others hope too.
Joey King: From Child Actress to Star on the Rise
by Kerry Torpey on September 20, 2018
Arts & Entertainment
by Anne DeLello ’20
A&E Staff
The transition from child to adult roles has been a consistent issue for child stars in Hollywood. The public generally recognizes them for their more minor roles in films and dismisses the idea of them starring in leading roles in films of their own. An example in this phenomenon is 19-year-old actress, Joey King.
Until recently, many movie fans were not familiar with the name Joey King, despite her presence in movies and television shows going as far back as The Suite Life of Zack & Cody in 2006. Many recognize her for her role as Ramona opposite Selena Gomez in Ramona and Beezus as well as from major motion pictures, such as The Conjuring and The Dark Knight Rises. However, in these cases King plays the role of a child, which is how she was perceived by the public and critics alike until her new movie, The Kissing Booth, premiered on Netflix this past May.
The Kissing Booth became a Netflix sensation as viewers watched the main characters fall deeply in love despite the forbidden nature of their relationship. Since her role in this romantic comedy, King has been recognized as the star of the movie, catapulting her into the next level fame that she never achieved in past projects.
The same is true of her two co-stars, Jacob Elordi and Joel Courtney. According to the Los Angeles Times, “none of their projects have given them the instant recognition of The Kissing Booth.”
Because of the stigma surrounding child actors trying to make a name for themselves as they grow up, King was careful in choosing this role. The L.A. Times reported her desire to do the film as an opportunity to escape the childish roles that she has always played in the past. She described herself as being “afraid, of course, that it would get kind of lost in the crowd of all the Netflix content.” However, King took the risk and decided to take on the project, a decision that paid off.
The Kissing Booth has become surprisingly popular on Netflix over the past four months and as it has become more well-known, so has King. Even though the movie has a 13 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the audience score is at 64 percent. Even better is the fact that Netflix reported that one in every three users has watched the movie.
Despite a low critic rating, King has moved into a new level of stardom with this movie that has allowed her to develop a much larger fanbase to follow her through whatever she chooses to do next.
King currently has eight million followers on Instagram, a drastic increase from the 600,000 she had before the movie released. King’s huge growth in popularity because of The Kissing Booth makes her transition into adulthood stardom a successful one, and the public will definitely be interested in her career from here on out.