By Trey Voegtlin and Greta Vianna Sletteland with music by Micah Kennedy
The Melt: Melting Down the Pop-Girls
Recapped by Trey Voegtlin
Welcome to the final recap of the spring 2025 season! This week, we discussed the cyclone that is Coachella 2025, the biggest festival for influencers, celebrities, and every listener in the country. Leading with raving reviews, iconic pop stars Lady Gaga’s week one performance has dominated everyone’s lists of best performances, serving high fashion looks and well developed performance production that tied together one of Gaga’s most artistic, and dramatic, performances of her career. From memes on everyones’ TikTok feeds to coming on stage with Charli xcx and Arca at Coachella, Addison Rae’s development is undoubtable. The newly labeled “pop girl” has been proving everyone wrong, delivering a new side of herself in every single. During the festival, she revealed the release on June 6 of her highly anticipated debut album, Addison, along with new single “Headphones On” that was released April 18, 2025. Speaking of internet controversies, Charli xcx wore a sash to the event saying “Miss Should’ve Been The Headliner,” poking at the fact that Greenday got the headline spot at the festival instead of her, even facing a response from Green Day when one of the members wore a sash the following week saying, “The Actual Headliner.” Although there were plenty of funny and iconic moments from the two-weekend-long festival, there were many times when even renowned influencers like James Charles said that the festival didn’t hit the same mark this year. From fans not knowing lyrics in the crowd to simply dead crowds to terrible camping conditions, the festival had some questionable faults this year. One of the highlights wasa $50 million lawsuit being filed against the brand Revolve for paying influencers to wear their clothes, sending them gifts, and saying that they were not, in fact, sponsoring the influencers. On a lighter note, PinkPantheress, who you may know from big singles like “Boy’s A Liar,” is set to release her second mixtape, Fancy That, on May 9, following single “Tonight” and upcoming single “Stateside.” Although all Lana Del Rey fans have been highly anticipating her new record following the release of two singles, “Henry, Come On” and “Bluebird,” sadly the album has been delayed and the title has been changed, for the third time…
Before we wrap up this week’s recap, I’d also like to give a moment to thank the amazing Greta Vianna Sletteland ’25 for her outstanding work on the podcast this year–without her, this podcast would likely never have happened. I wish her the best luck in college, and I hope she knows that the butterknife staff will deeply miss her.
This wraps the final recap of this semester’s release of The Melt! See you next year!!!
Sincerely,
Greta Vianna Sletteland, Trey Voegtlin