Graphic by Meher Yeda.

[“Look What You Made Me Do,” by Taylor Swift]

Trent: Hello everyone and welcome to Pop Chaos, the pop culture podcast. This is our very brief introduction episode, Episode Zero. I am one of your hosts, I am Trent, I am the editor-in-chief of NBN. But I’m not a regular editor-in-chief, I’m a cool editor-in-chief. So this is my – don’t laugh at me. So this is my, yeah, this is where I’m gonna let myself go loose a little bit.

Bailey: I am your other host. I’m Bailey, and I also obviously am on staff here at NBN. I’m a managing editor, but I’ve been here for a really long time. I was entertainment editor for a very long time because I love all things entertainment. Thus, this podcast. And I will also be managing our Twitter this quarter, so look forward to that as well.

Trent: Bailey and I are very, we’re very goofy and silly. We’re in a very goofy and silly mood constantly when we’re together. So, this is just – we’re just going to talk about whatever pop culture because that is all we talk about. Whatever is trending on Twitter, basically, is what we’re going to talk about. Because when we’re together, like in our NBN newsroom, and we need to actually get stuff done, anyone who's on managing NBN staff will tell you we are like the least productive people because we just laugh at each other. It’s bad, it’s not good, so we’re going to let all that energy out here.

Bailey: Honestly, this is just us talking into the void. This is more for us than it is for you or anybody else.

Trent: Finally, to sort of get to know us a little bit better, we decided we’re going to share – what is it, our Spotify Wrapped? Our top artists I think from 2021? Yeah, so Bailey, who is your top artist?

Bailey: My top artist for 2021, and actually for all time – she’s always in my top artists, even when I like exclusively listened to rap music in high school, she was still there. She was still there, every year … is Taylor Swift. It is.

Trent: Really?

Bailey: It is.

Trent: I thought you were gonna say, like, Phoebe Bridgers.

Bailey: I’m an undercover Swiftie.

Trent: My number one is Charli XCX. I like that beep-bop, pots-and-pans, explode-my-eardrums kind of music. My number two is actually Taylor, so maybe I’m also an undercover Swiftie.

Bailey: Yeah, I was gonna say like, when this first came out, I was very confused. I was like, “How – number one? What are you doing here?” But then I realized it’s because frickin’ Fearless (Taylor’s Version) came out and I actually wrote a story for NBN about it. And I talked about how much Fearless means to me. And it came out on my birthday! And I was like, “How did she end up on there?” Like, because I had Red (Taylor’s Version) on my mind because that’s what came out right before this. But no, it was Fearless, and it just like escaped me somehow that I had like been streaming that for like a month straight. So that’s how she got up there.

Trent: No, I definitely saw you like in my Spotify, like in the sidebar, like listening to that. I was like, “I listened to that album once.”

Bailey: I’m very much a Fearless, Speak Now Swiftie, so.

Trent: Do you want to run through your other four real quick?

Bailey: Yeah, yep, yep yep yep. So my other four, um, Phoebe Bridgers, so you were almost right. We’re actually in my room right now, and if you look behind me, there’s a nude poster of her on my wall. So I think that speaks for itself.

Trent: There is.

Bailey: I love her and three of her songs are also my top songs for the year. And then number three is One Direction. We’re not surprised. Number four is … [clears her throat] Bo Burnham. We’re just gonna move past that real quickly. We’re gonna move past that. I had an Inside phase and I’m not gonna apologize for it. I’m not gonna apologize for it. I’m gonna cry about it a little bit, but I’m not gonna apologize for it. And then for number five, we have Hozier ‘cuz I had a huge Hozier phase in the spring.

Trent: I’ll take you to church. No.

Bailey: Yeah, please do. Actually, please don’t. [laughs]

Trent (overlapping): We should go. We should go to Alice Millar Chapel.

Bailey: Please don’t. There’s so many churches in Evanston, it’s absurd.

Trent: Okay, so Charli XCX is my number one, Taylor Swift is my number two. But number three is Halsey [laughs].

Bailey (laughing): Let’s move past that, yeah.

Trent: Number four is the “Friday” girl, Rebecca Black but she makes actual music now. I’m seeing her in two weeks, maybe a week.

Bailey: She’s always made – don’t, don’t discredit her like that. She’s always made real music. Queen.

Trent: No, you’re right. Rebecca, if you're listening, I love you. And my number five is Lady Gaga. Speaks for itself.

Bailey: Those are our top artists. Give you a little bit of background on us, who we listen to.

Trent: Yeah, so that is us. That is the podcast. Welcome. I hope you keep listening. And stay tuned for Episode One, which should be up – you should be able to listen to it right now, actually.

Bailey: That, and also, we won’t only be talking about music. We just wanted to start off with that. Yeah. There’ll be plenty of other topics.

Trent: Okay, cue the outro music!

[“Look What You Made Me Do” by Taylor Swift]