My name is Hannah Davita Ludikhuijze, and I play the cello. What is your earliest music-related memory? Music was always very central in the house where I was growing up, it was always playing in the background. Music was and is very much my idea of home. Apparently, when I was just learning to walk,…
Synopsis of Two Recent Voices
Much of today’s music works in tune with the 21st century vogue, celebrating the ego and promoting dull highs of living. This can especially be seen in the tracks that surface in the charts, centering on the semantics of dance-floors, mood-pushers and libido. At the top of the chain stand some aloof mega-stars fishing in…
My Shameless Obsession with Lana Del Rey
The notion of “guilty pleasures” bugs me, especially when talking about music. People often associate certain musicians with this categorisation – ABBA, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, etc. – but really, there is no guilt in listening to music that makes you go wild and scream out the lyrics. So when I say I like Lana…
Stukafest Middelburg 2017 – A Festival Review
On a grim Tuesday night every year in February, artists from all over the world find their way towards the student dorms of Middelburg. For one night only, the entire town transforms into the vibrant festival heart of Stukafest, a national initiative organizing performances in student dorm rooms. The performances are spread throughout the town…
Plato, Bruce & Beyoncé: Three UCR Professors share their music inspirations
We sometimes forget that professors are also people. They have feelings too, interests and a personal life. In the classroom we only experience their teacher persona… not their actual personality. I interviewed three of my professors to experience what they are like outside of the classroom: professors Van Overveld, Tijsterman and Morris. Because it indicates…
Nostalgia, dreams and a whole lot of memes – A small history of vaporwave
Unless you live on the Internet or in Bagijnhof 3, you probably have never heard about vaporwave. And yet, I am here to argue that it is an essential part of every millennial’s life. Its irony, criticisms, but also its complete apathy may define our generation like no other piece of art does. Vaporwave is…
Romi Cage & Rondé at Zeeland Nazomerfestival 2016
Summer is slowly but surely coming to an end and that means it’s yet again time for the Zeeland Nazomerfestival. Every year in those final weeks of August, the Abbey Square in Middelburg is transformed into one of the most beautiful festival locations of the Netherlands. Tonight is full of sensitive, but very wayward, pop…
“Anacondas and Blank Spaces”—on women in the music business
By Lisanne Cheizoo (Editor in Chief) In September and October, something unique happened in the Billboard top 100: for the first time in the 56 year history of the Billboard chart, the top 5 slots of the world famous chart were dominated by women, and women alone. In the week of October 17th, the chart…