Pop Culture

GEM Magazine • 5th May 2025

Brat Summer and the Hope of a Femininomenon

The phenomenon of ‘Brat’ was unavoidable in summer 2024, whether in global music charts, on American television (‘Saturday Night Live’), online on various social media platforms, in fashion choices and trends, and culturally in interpersonal relationships and patterns of behaviour. ‘Brat’, – the way Charli XCX introduced us to it – soon became a word that created its own meaning, defined by so much more than a spoiled, badly behaved child. Everything impactful became ‘brat’, everyone wanted to c...

GEM Magazine • 20th October 2024

The journey of being a fangirl and the tragic death of Liam Payne

It was late 2011 when I spent yet another afternoon watching MTV after school and a new boy band called One Direction was praised as “the next big thing” before their music video started playing. As I never quite understood the Bieber fever, I was sure seeing videos of five boys running around on a beach wasn’t going to do anything for me either. For some reason, they continued to show up on my TV screen and everywhere else, and soon enough I found myself looking them up on my mum’s laptop when...

GEM Magazine • 9th August 2024

Taylor Swift and the threat against female safe spaces

Today, August 9th 2024, should’ve been one of the happiest days of my life that I’ve been looking forward to for over a year, ever since I somehow was lucky enough to secure two tickets to see Taylor Swift live for the first time ever in my hometown Vienna. Growing up, I would’ve never classified myself as a Swiftie (I eventually would end up joining the snake hate train in 2016, but we don’t want to get into that right now) – I only knew a few of her most famous songs, but as I’ve gotten older,...

GEM Magazine • 26th April 2024

Amplifying Change

In the bustling world of social media, where voices are constantly clamouring for attention and causes contend for support, Solana Lord-Baptiste emerges as a distinct figure, intertwining her roles as a London-based influencer, independent artist, and advocate for social justice. At 22 years old, Solana's journey into activism was not a predetermined path but rather a convergence of personal passion and unexpected circumstances.

GEM Magazine • 6th October 2023

Welcome To Barbieland

"I love being a girl", my friend Emily sighs with a smile while my girlfriends and I are all getting ready together in the same room for the Harry Styles concert at Wembley Stadium in June 2023 - various make-up items cluttered all over the dining table, straightener and curling iron hanging from chairs by their cables (don't try this at home), mirrors in hands and propped up against walls, glitter and lose feathers from our boas scattered all over the floor. "Men will never understand", she giggles.

GEM Magazine • 31st March 2023

Movie Review: Louis Tomlinson – All Of Those Voices

British singer-songwriter Louis Tomlinson, who rose to fame as a member of the global phenomenon One Direction, recently released his very own documentary. With a focus on his personal life and career path more than on the making of his music, the film isn’t a music documentary or a concert film per se, but more a look behind the scenes that allows Tomlinson to be vulnerable and show the world who he is as a person.

The movie starts off with clips of his One Direction days and how he, a simple

GEM Magazine • 10th March 2023

Kissing Matty Healy

"My life is a fanfiction", says 24-year-old The 1975 fangirl Isabella Alfie - the "chosen one" for lead singer Matty Healy at the band's concert in Las Vegas on November 11th, 2022. "So, what happened was, there was a girl with me in the pit who had a sign that said, "Play 'Girls', it's my birthday", and Matty

GEM Magazine • 11th March 2021

A Modern Fairytale

On Monday night, 2 am European time, we got to witness yet another historical moment that will impact our generation. Prince Harry’s and Meghan Markle’s interview with American talkshow legend Oprah Winfrey, recorded earlier this year in a friend’s backyard in California and under Covid-19 precautions, premiered on the American television network CBS. Right at the beginning Winfrey made it clear that there was no agreement, the pair did not know beforehand what kind of questions she was going to

GEM Magazine • 8th March 2021

International Women’s Day (Miley Cyrus)

On this year’s International Women’s Day GEM wants to celebrate all the female artists that have shaped us to become the people we are. This is not an exclusive list rather just a short selection of women that have taken on the patriarchy, excelled within their field and became icons for everyone who feels slightly less alone because of them. We should applaud and support women every day of the year in a world that seems to be against them succeeding and therefore, this day is not just to celebr

GEM Magazine • 18th January 2021

Review: Downfalls High

Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun released the short film ‘Downfalls High’ for MGK’s latest album ‘Tickets To My Downfall’ on 15 January– “the first of its kind musical film experience”, as the both of them and the cast described it multiple times on social media. Expectations were set high, since MGK compared it to ‘Grease’ last fall during filming, saying it’s the new pop-punk version. “It was almost like shooting 14 music videos back-to-back, but with a narrative that’s outside of my personal lif