Molly Mary O'Brien
Molly Mary O'Brien is a writer for GQ.
Culture
How Industry Curated the Best Soundtrack on TV
Music supervisor Ollie White talks about treating the trading floor like a dance floor, and the Season 4 soundtrack cut that almost broke the bank. Plus: A playlist of Industry's greatest needle drops.
Culture
Charli XCX Blows Up the Music Doc
The Moment is a quasi-ironic meta-movie that can't quite figure out what to say about its subject, but nails at least one deserving target.
Culture
The Year in Pop
2025 might go down in history as a weird rebuilding year for pop music—but girl-group postgrads, Swedes and reality-TV survivors were forging compelling new storylines everywhere you looked.
Culture
Chappell Roan Threw a Ren Faire for Roanies at the Rose Bowl
A crowd of 40,000 fans packed the Pasadena venue to witness the biggest headlining show ever by pop music's reigning rock star.
Culture
How Taylor Swift’s Life of a Showgirl Producers Max Martin and Shellback Shaped Modern Pop
The Swedish legends, sole coproducers credited on Taylor Swift's new album ‘Life of a Showgirl,’ have almost three decades of chart-steamrolling hits to their credit. Let’s run back the highlights.
Culture
What Jessie Murph Is Trying to Tell Us
The Alabama singer-songwriter's late-night-TV performance of her single “1965” has gone viral, sparking a debate about whether the lyrics are problematic tradwife propaganda or an obvious satire thereof. Her sophomore album, Sex Hysteria, raises more questions than it answers.
Culture
HBO's Big Beautiful Billy Joel Documentary Delivers Maximum Piano Man Per Minute
Billy Joel: So It Goes, a five-hour epic, will fully prepare you to teach a college class on Joel the angry young man, Ex-Wife Guy, and unlikely rock superstar.
Culture
Sabrina Carpenter and Addison Rae Are Making Pop Music Sexy Again. Why Is This Freaking Everyone Out?
Performative sexuality has been a part of pop music for as long as pop has existed. But what happens when a time-honored aesthetic meets a culture that can't be normal about anything?
Culture
Why I Believe in Benson Boone (and Why You Should, Too)
The reviews of his second album American Heart haven't been all ice cream and moonbeams, but writer Molly O'Brien is still betting on the backflipping Utah sensation. Here's why.