Melissa Kacar

With the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards being one of the first big in-person events to be held since COVID-19 hit earlier this year, the show definitely had a noticeable change of pace in comparison to previous years. In an effort to maintain social distancing guidelines, most of the performances were prerecorded and there was no live audience (just cringey fake cheering in the background). The parts of the show that weren't prerecorded were filmed in outdoor locations across all five boroughs of New York City with no audience.  I look forward to the VMAs every year to see the always memorable - and often outrageous - performances, red carpet fashion, and iconic pop culture moments. This year was very different in that regard because of the prerecorded aspect, which took away from a lot of the spontaneity the show usually has. In addition, there was really only a few big performances that were actually worth watching. The opening performance of the night was The Weeknd with "Blin...

In the midst of what was set to be the cruelest summer yet, Taylor Swift's Folklore came along and saved it for us all. She made the surprise announcement on July 23 about the album being released just a few hours later that night at midnight - which of course was so exciting to look forward to!  I've been a huge fan of her music for the past twelve years and she has influenced so much of my life and music taste during that time. I was initially going to share my full review right when it came out, but I wanted to fully process everything about it and give more than just my first impressions. There is so much depth to this album, so I really wanted to do it justice for this review and analysis. I never dedicated a full blog post to one album review before, but I have so many strong thoughts on this album that I need to share!  "I'm doin' good, I'm on some new shit..." is the first line of the album's opening track "the 1" -...