Pop Vulture was born out of a lifelong obsession with popular culture. Music, TV, films, books, magazines, fashion… from the moment Elvis swung his hips and mandated a minimum camera height on the Ed Sullivan Show, so-called “low art” has been gradually replacing “high art” as not only the popular means of artistic expression – but as an equal means of artistic expression. Dostoyevsky or David Bowie? Bizet or Blondie? Leonardo da Vinci or Liam Gallagher? It’s all art, baby. It all moves you. The rest is irrelevant.
Pop Vulture was born out of a career in music journalism, and then arts journalism, and then tabloid journalism, and then finally music journalism again. It was born out of a teenage obsession with English Literature that also tallied with technicolour lost weekends in Mancunian nightclubs. It was born out of a dozen bands started and then disbanded, a haphazard side hustle as an Indie Disco DJ, a bunch of trashy TV tie-in books and a couple of published novels that nearly made it but not quite.
Pop Vulture was born out of the belief that a song lyric, snappy one-liner, or single sentence can change the world… or at least change someone’s worldview. Or if it doesn’t do either of those, definitely sound pretty cool as it tries to.
The products Pop Vulture make reflect all those things. Low art as high art. Merchandise as manifesto. From a back room in Oxford, picking the bones of popular culture to shout out belief in its beauty… and in its power. And to look pretty damn groovy as it does so.
This is Pop Vulture. Believe in what you wear.