Julieta Venegas - "Explosión"

Julieta Venegas' new single is noteworthy not by its own urgent and charming virtue alone, but because we are living, writing, breathing, dying, and creating in the tragedy of historic times. As humanity edges closer towards proverbial doomsday, our pop stars are illuminating the individual and collective potential to continue challenging the course of neoliberal history - away from the systematic human sacrifices & methodical ecological collapse taking place.

"Explosión," Julieta's second single off the forthcoming Algo Sucede, isn't some cheesy world peace number. It is also not vague about who or what it is talking about. Julieta's singer songwriter genius is embracing the light and the dark, thematically recalling her Tijuana No! days. The chorus paints a colorful hymn: "que todo despierte" coupled with the most necessary nihilism, "que explote todo por aquí." She sings, "Dime si vas a permitir que esto suceda ante ti," speaking directly to our personal comfort, addressing what is left of our tarnished oversoul. Venegas directly addresses the desaparecidos  (it's not just the 43 students of Ayotzinapa, it's over 24,000 since 2005) and the thousands of women and girls being eliminated by a failed society that is raping and killing its own women, the symbolic Maria of the song. "¿Quien les va a pedir perdón o dar explicación?" Julieta asks, as if referring to the parents and loved ones of those directly living the nightmare of the current social order.

2015 is leaving an indelible mark as far as our pop insurrection: Gepe declared that he is not a proletariat but rather a leaf taken by the wind (this is brilliant because worker essentialism is literally so depressing, merci Baudrillard), everything Planeta No is doing, the self organized / corporate-free Pop Fest Santiago, Malportado Kids' anti colonial tropical punk, Fakuta's Tormenta Solar Tour that is full of these transcending gems, and Tony Gallardo's warrior youth anthem. A collective cultural shift is underway and our soundtrack is sounding eclectic, strange, pop. One of the catchiest protest songs of our generation, we are singing along to every word of "Explosión," embracing the necessary destructions that must take place in order for the mysteries of our individual and collective awakenings to continue flourishing. "¡Que el mundo tiemble!"