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    ‘The Interview’: K-Pop Trained Rosé to Be ‘a Perfect Girl.’ Now She’s Trying to Be Herself.

    South Korean pop, known as K-pop, is not just a type of music — it’s a culture, where bold style, perfectly choreographed dance moves and ebullient earworms that draw from pop, hip-hop and traditional Korean music attract a huge and particularly devoted global fan base. The genre’s stars, known as idols, are trained, often for years, by entertainment companies that then place the most promising trainees in groups, write and produce their music and obsessively manage their public images. It’s a system that works for the idols who make it big, but it has also drawn criticism for its grueling methods, which some call exploitative.One of the biggest stars to come out of that system is Rosé. Born Roseanne Park, she trained for four years with one of K-pop’s largest agencies, YG Entertainment, eventually breaking through as part of the girl group Blackpink. Now at age 27, she is striking out on her own with her first full-length solo album, “Rosie,” which comes out on Dec. 6 from Atlantic Records. (The album’s first single, “APT.” a collaboration with Bruno Mars, is a true bop and has made history as the first track by a female K-pop artist to break into the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.) She is still a member of Blackpink, and the group re-signed with YG in 2023. But after years of singing other people’s songs and performing as Rosé, which she described to me as “a character that I really worked hard on as a trainee,” writing her own songs for this solo album has made her think about where she came from and who she is, separate from the system that turned her into a global phenomenon.Listen to the Conversation With RoséThe Blackpink star talks about striking out on her own, away from the system that turned her into a global phenomenon.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppYou’re about to release your first full-length solo album. Can you tell me what you’re feeling? Like I’ve been waiting to release this album for my whole life. I grew up listening to a lot of female artists. I used to relate to them, and they used to really get me through a lot of tough times. And so I would always dream of one day having an album myself. But I never really thought it would be realistic. I remember last year when I first began the whole process of it, I doubted myself a lot.It probably would be surprising to anyone who would look at Rosé, with all your success, with the enormous fan base that you have, to know that you doubted yourself so much. I don’t think I ever learned or trained myself to be vulnerable and open and honest. So that was the part I feared, because it was the opposite of what I was trained to do.You were born in New Zealand to South Korean immigrant parents and then you moved to Australia when you were 8. In 2012, when you were 15, you auditioned for a slot in YG Entertainment’s trainee program, which is basically a boarding school for becoming a K-pop star. It was your dad’s idea, right? Yes. More

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    Chappell Roan’s Rocket-Ship Year

    Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicChappell Roan has become one of the biggest breakout pop stars of the past year, and made it happen in novel fashion: creating grand-scale, 1980s-influenced pop refracted through a queer lens; building a drag-inspired performance character; and calling into question the way that fans worship their heroes while rapidly accumulating fans online and in real life.Her debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” continues its rise toward the top of the album chart, more than a year after its release. And her festival performances have become wildly viral events. Roan’s ascent has tested the boundaries of contemporary pop, and also may create a template for a next generation of stars.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about the fits and starts of Roan’s early career, the events that propelled her to fame and the ways in which she is remaking the star-fan dynamic.Guest:P. Claire Dodson, associate director of culture at Teen VogueConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

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    Trump promueve imágenes falsas de IA para sugerir que Taylor Swift lo apoyó

    El expresidente ha estado preocupado por la popularidad de la megaestrella de la música pop, quien apoyó a Joe Biden durante las elecciones de 2020.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]El expresidente Donald Trump, quien le ha guardado un notorio rencor a la megaestrella de la música pop Taylor Swift, incendió internet el domingo cuando compartió mensajes en las redes sociales sugiriendo que Swift lo había apoyado y que sus fans podrían ayudarlo a ganar las elecciones de noviembre.En una publicación en su red social Truth Social, Trump llamó la atención sobre un grupo de imágenes creadas mediante inteligencia artificial. Una de ellas mostraba a Swift disfrazada del Tío Sam con el siguiente titular: “Taylor quiere que votes por Donald Trump”. Las otras mostraban a una multitud de mujeres jóvenes con camisetas a juego de “swifties for Trump”.Al menos una de las imágenes, que fueron compartidas por un influente de las redes sociales que simpatiza con Trump, fue etiquetada como “sátira”.“Acepto”, escribió Trump en una publicación, dando a entender que había recibido el apoyo de Swift.Un representante de la cantante, quien no ha hecho un respaldo este ciclo electoral después de apoyar a Joe Biden en 2020, no respondió inmediatamente a una solicitud de comentarios el lunes.Las burlas de los demócratas no se hicieron esperar.El representante por California, Eric Swalwell , quien apareció en CNN el lunes, dijo que la medida sería contraproducente para Trump.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Los fans de Taylor Swift ansían su respaldo a una candidatura presidencial

    La cantante dio su codiciado apoyo al presidente Joe Biden en 2020. Ahora, una silueta en una foto de Instagram ha llevado a algunos swifties a especular que defenderá a Kamala Harris.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]¿Están solo viendo cosas o la silueta de una bailarina de apoyo de Taylor Swift se parece a la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris?El ejército de fans de Swift en internet por lo general trata de descifrar los mensajes ocultos de la estrella del pop como un trabajo a tiempo parcial, por lo que la especulación se extendió cuando algunos sugirieron que una foto que Swift había publicado en Instagram de su Eras Tour, que ha estado recorriendo Europa este verano, podría ser una pista de su apoyo a una determinada candidatura presidencial.Sin embargo, no ha habido ningún respaldo por parte de Swift, quien ha puesto cada vez más su enorme influencia al servicio de la política progresista. En octubre de 2020, su declaración de apoyo a Joe Biden no dejó nada a la interpretación.La foto en cuestión, que Swift incluyó en una publicación sobre sus recientes conciertos en Varsovia, coincide con una transición estándar de la gira en la que sus bailarines de apoyo —con trajes de pantalón no muy diferentes de los que Harris prefiere— desfilan fuera del escenario entre canciones.A pesar de los argumentos en contra, algunos swifties estaban convencidos de que la publicación era un mensaje en clave. Un segmento liberal del público está ansioso por que la cantante dé a conocer sus lealtades, y la urgencia subraya el poder de Swift como alguien que puede influir en la política electoral con una sola publicación en las redes sociales. (En 2023, una publicación suya en Instagram dio lugar a 35.000 nuevos registros de votantes).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Taylor Swift Fans Crave a Presidential Endorsement

    Taylor Swift’s coveted support went to President Biden in 2020. A shadowy figure in an Instagram photo led some fans to make the leap that she will champion Kamala Harris.Are they just seeing things, or does that silhouette of a Taylor Swift backup dancer resemble Vice President Kamala Harris?The internet army of Swift fans often treats decoding the pop star’s Easter eggs as a part-time job, so speculation spread when some suggested that a photo Ms. Swift had posted to Instagram from her Eras Tour, which has been crisscrossing Europe this summer, could be a hint at support for a certain presidential ticket.And yet, there has been no endorsement from Ms. Swift, who has increasingly thrown her outsize influence behind progressive politics. In October 2020, her pronouncement of support for Joseph R. Biden Jr. did not leave anything up for interpretation.The photo in question, which Ms. Swift included in a post about her recent concerts in Warsaw, aligns with a standard transition from the tour in which her backup dancers — wearing pantsuits not unlike the kind that Ms. Harris happens to favor — strut offstage between songs.Despite the counterarguments, some Swifties were convinced that the post was a coded message. A liberal segment of the fandom is eager for the singer to make her allegiances known, and the leap underscores Ms. Swift’s power as someone who can influence electoral politics in a single social media post. (In 2023, one Instagram post of hers led to 35,000 new voter registrations.)A representative for Ms. Swift did not immediately respond to a question about the fandom’s reaction to the singer’s post.Ms. Swift’s Democratic leanings and her supercharged cultural prominence on N.F.L. broadcasts last season have irritated supporters of the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, some of whom have pushed conspiracy theories that her presence was meant to boost President Biden’s now-scrambled re-election. Ms. Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, named Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota her running mate on Tuesday.The chatter about Ms. Swift’s recent Instagram post revived debate over the role of a pop star in politics.“If we’re going to pay that much money as consumers, you don’t need to serve up politics for that,” Harris Faulkner, the Fox News host, said on television after the speculation about the concert photo swept the internet. “When people pay to see you, just perform.”The Eras Tour has been on its major European leg this summer. On Wednesday, three concerts in Vienna were canceled after Austrian officials announced the arrests of two men whom they accused of plotting a terrorist attack, saying that one of them had focused on several stadium shows Ms. Swift had planned for this week.Ms. Swift had begun to openly flex her electoral influence toward November’s election — but not toward any specific candidate. In March, when Mr. Biden was still at the top of the ticket, Ms. Swift encouraged her millions of Instagram followers to make a plan to vote in the presidential primaries, in a nonpartisan message that urged fans to “vote the people who most represent YOU into power.” More

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    Euro 2024 Tournament Runs Smoothly in Germany, but the Trains Do Not

    Sweltering train cars, frequent delays and regular cancellations: At the Euro 2024 men’s soccer tournament, Germany’s faltering rail system emerges as a tough opponent.Niclas Füllkrug arrived early at the Adidas campus just outside Herzogenaurach, a picture-postcard town in Bavaria that was to host the German national team before this summer’s European soccer championships. The staff had been told that players would start arriving on a Monday morning, a few days before their opening game. But Füllkrug, one of the team’s forwards, turned up on Sunday night.He had decided to make the 300-mile journey from his home in Hanover by high-speed train on Germany’s national railway carrier, Deutsche Bahn. The company was not just one of the tournament’s sponsors; it was also supposed to be a standard-bearer of the event’s ecological credentials.But years of failure to invest in rolling stock, upgrade railways and digitalize signal boxes have made Deutsche Bahn notorious for delays and cancellations. In a country that has long prided itself on its efficiency and punctuality, Germans — as well as fans — had been warning for months that the problems might mar the tournament.So Füllkrug was hardly surprised when he found himself crammed into a train car packed with high school students on a class trip. He spent the journey fielding their questions about life with the national team.By the time he made it to Herzogenaurach, he had been traveling for several hours longer than expected, hardly ideal preparation for an elite athlete on the eve of a major tournament. Still, the delays had at least vindicated his decision to build in extra time. In Germany, as Füllkrug said, it pays to “have a bit of respect for Deutsche Bahn.”Many of the hundreds of thousands of fans from across Europe — as well as a remarkable number from the United States — who have joined him in Germany will, after an often fraught opening week, doubtless understand what he means.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Fans of Charli XCX’s New Album Embrace ‘Brat Summer’

    Fans of the new Charli XCX album count themselves among them. But the term “brat” has cropped up elsewhere in culture lately, and it has subtly different meanings.Sheer white tank tops. Skinny cigarettes (not vapes). Questionable 3 a.m. decisions.These may be some of the trappings of a “brat,” otherwise known as a fan of the new Charli XCX album by the same name. Its arrival last week ushered in not only a slate of potential songs of the summer, but also an intense identification with the term — and a shift in mind-set.“I think there’s a bravado to Charli’s persona, and that’s often what people see in her and what they’d like to see in themselves,” said Biz Sherbert, a host of “Nymphet Alumni,” a culture podcast. “I think the word ‘brat’ is in on that — wanting things to go your way, being badly behaved or self-centered, acting pouty and having an attitude.”Kelly Chapman, a longtime Charli fan based in Washington, D.C., similarly defined a “brat” as “someone who misbehaves in a cheeky way and doesn’t conform to expectations.”Ms. Chapman, 31, mused that a “brat” summer would involve: “embracing being a woman in your 30s, rejecting expectations, being honest, having fun but making moves, dating a guy from Twitter.”Ever since Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hot Girl Summer” five years ago, pop stars and brands, as well as everyday people on social media, have spent each spring competing for the summer’s naming rights. There was the ill-fated Hot Vax Summer, Feral Girl Summer the following year, and of course, most recently, hot pink “Barbie” summer.There were not many contenders on the scene when “Brat” dropped. With its callback to the sweat-stained, mascara-smudged aughts — when singers danced away their pain rather than therapizing it — and its eye-catching toxic-sludge-green album art, “Brat” seemed to fill a gap in the culture.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Jennifer Lopez and Black Keys Tour Cancellations Raise Questions for Industry

    High-profile cancellations from Jennifer Lopez and the Black Keys have armchair analysts talking. But industry insiders say live music is still thriving.For the concert business, 2023 was a champagne-popping year. The worst of the pandemic comfortably in the rearview, shows big and small were selling out, with mega-tours by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Drake and Bruce Springsteen pushing the industry to record ticket sales.This year, as with much of the economy, success on the road seems more fragile. A string of high-profile cancellations, and slow sales for some major events, have raised questions about an overcrowded market and whether ticket prices have simply gotten too expensive.Most conspicuously, Jennifer Lopez and the Black Keys have canceled entire arena tours. In the case of the Black Keys — a standby of rock radio and a popular touring draw for nearly two decades — the fallout has been severe enough that the band has parted ways with its two managers, the industry giant Irving Azoff and Steve Moir. Through a representative, Azoff and Moir said they had “amicably parted” with the band.At Coachella, usually so buzzy that it sells out well before any performers are announced, tickets for the second of the California festival’s two weekends were still available by the time it opened in April.Those issues have stoked headlines about a concert business that may be in trouble. But the reality, many insiders say, is more complex, with no simple explanation for problems on a range of tours, and a business that may be leveling out after a couple of extraordinary years when fans rushed to shows after Covid-19 shutdowns.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More