Jon O'Brien
Joined: Jul 28, 2020
Jon O'Brien is a freelance entertainment journalist with bylines in Esquire, Billboard, Vulture, New Scientist, Vinyl Me, Please, i-D, The Guardian and Paste. He spends most of his spare time going to gigs, but he's also a soccer enthusiast, garage drummer, Icelandophile, and carrot cake connoisseur. He lives in North West England with his partner and King Charles Spaniel.
The Actress Who Relived Her Own Stalker Ordeal On Camera
‘Phantom of the Paradise’: How Brian De Palma’s Flop Rock Opera Became A Cult Classic
How MTV’s First Rival Became Cable TV’s Biggest Flop
How David Bowie Helped Pave the Way For the Download Age
The groundbreaking artist made history in 1999 with his album ‘Hours’ when he sold it as an internet download before it hit stores: “Mark my words … we are not going back to record companies and through shops.”
How An Unsuccessful TV Pilot Spawned One of the Greatest Films of the 1990s
Before there was ‘Heat,’ there was ‘LA Takedown,’ a TV pilot-turned-TV movie that aired on NBC in 1989.
10 Hit Songs That Weren’t What They Seemed
From Milli Vanilli’s “Girl, You Know It’s True” to Technotronic’s “Pump Up the Jam,” these songs all made it to the Billboard Hot 100—and they all had something to hide.
10 Great Olympics Movies
From ice skating comedies to wrestling tragedies, Tinseltown skillfully draws upon the world’s biggest sporting spectacle.
40 Years Ago: When Breakdancing Crashed the Box Office of 1984
In 1984, a succession of breakdancing-themed movies did battle at the box office.
15 Surprising Facts About ‘The Thick of It’
Armando Iannucci’s iconic BBC comedy is one of television’s finest, and sweariest, sitcoms
Make “Believe“: How Cher Staged One of Pop Music’s All-Time Greatest Comebacks
In 1998, Cher reinvented herself yet again—and forever changed the way hit songs were made—with “Believe.“
15 Celebrities Who Played (Versions of) Themselves in Movies
From Nicolas Cage to Jean-Claude Van Damme, plenty of Hollywood stars have performed on screen as fictionalized versions of themselves.
10 Wonderfully Weird Muppet Duets
The Muppets have squared off against everyone from Johnny Cash to Celine Dion.
‘In the Line of Duty’: The Waco Movie Made Before The Siege Ended
In 1993, just 34 days after the Waco siege ended, NBC premiered 'In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco'—a TV movie greenlit, scripted, and largely shot while the tragedy was still unfolding.
11 Fictional Bands Who Scored Very Real Hit Songs
The Monkees may not have been a "real" band, but their chart-topping legacy speaks for itself.