The lives of musicians have always been of great interest to us! However, we hardly know anything about them. Today let’s discuss trivia about five musicians and their influence on the world! 

1. Mozart sold more CDs than Beyoncé in 2016. However, that’s not all. Mozart also beat Adele and Drake even though they had Grammy-winning hits that year. The reason for this was that the Universal Music Group released a box set to honour Mozart  on his 225th death anniversary. 

2. When we use YouTube, we must give a little credit to Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction controversy at the Super Bowl XXXVIII show in 2004. Jawed Karim, who founded YouTube with two others, said that he was inspired by two incidents. One, Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction and the other, the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in India. 

3. The official drummer for The Offspring left the band to become an obstetrician-gynaecologist and gynaecologic oncologist. James Lilja was the original drummer for the pop-punk band during the mid-1980s. He played on their debut single ‘I’ll be Waiting’ and their debut album ‘The Offspring’.

4. The Beatles could neither read nor write music! Paul McCartney admitted in an interview in 2018, that none of the band members understood music theory at all. He stated that music just came to them and was never written down.

5. Metallica holds a Guinness World Record for becoming the first musical act to play a concert on all seven continents. Talk about worldwide recognition! They did this in 2013 when they performed for scientists and competition winners in Antarctica. Earlier, they had played in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. 

– Riya Sohini

In ‘Mickey 17’, Bong Joon Ho continues his trademark examination of issues like as authoritarianism, economic injustice, environmental degradation, and the abuse of capitalism.  Although the film is comparable to ‘Snowpiercer’, ‘Okja’, and ‘Parasite’, it is more satirical in nature and has more overt political content than his other films.

Despite this, ‘Mickey 17’ is nonetheless a compelling and skillfully made movie, primarily because of Robert Pattinson’s outstanding performance.  The protagonist of the story is Mickey, a 2054 space mission “Expendable” who keeps dying and being reprinted with his memories unharmed.  The movie delves deeper into the themes of acceptance and self-worth when he meets Mickey 18, a new version of himself.  They represent personal development and learning to accept all aspects of oneself through their dynamic—one shy and people-pleasing, the other aggressive and confident.

Image Courtesy: People

Mark Ruffalo’s portrayal as Kenneth Marshall, a conceited, power-hungry leader, feels excessive and occasionally detracts from the primary plot, despite the film’s strong political satire in certain scenes.  Toni Collette’s outrageous portrayal of his wife and his character both make overt allusions to contemporary American politics, which can seem superfluous in a story that is already full of ideas.

 In the end, ‘Mickey 17’ works best when it concentrates on its central emotional theme, which is the quest for self-acceptance and the recovery of individual agency.  The film succeeds in telling a profoundly human tale through Pattinson’s captivating dual performance, despite its sporadic humorous undertones.

–Farheen Ali