This week on The Deep Dive: A quick and fun lesson in music theory, imagining and playing our way into a better world, breaking down that scary p-word in the Barbie movie, Clara Bow was an “it” girl both of her time and ahead of her time, and the consequences of assuming nature has a purpose.

Before we get into this week’s video essays, please consider donating to help Fadi AbuTaqiya’s family evacuate from Gaza and have a chance at building a new life for themselves in Egypt. Fadi has three school-aged brothers and another brother who needs urgent medical care. In Fadi’s words, your contribution – no matter how small – can have a big impact.

MUSIC

97% of pop is in 4/4… let’s look at the 3% that’s not by David Bennett Piano (15:24)

I used to swear that Sideways was the only YouTube channel that could effectively explain music theory in a way even I could understand…until today. In this video, David Bennett Piano takes a microscope to the teeny tiny minority of 21st-century pop hits that aren’t in a 4/4 time signature. I could explain what that means if you don’t already know, but this video does a much better job than I ever could. So with that, I’ll leave you with my list of favorite non-4/4 top 40 hits of the last 24 years: Love on The Brain, Dangerous Woman, Latch, Sweet Escape, SOS, and Breakaway.

CULTURE

Fascism and the Failure of Imagination by Zoe Bee (27:28)

Does losing our sense of imagination mean we’ve grown up to be pragmatic adults, or does it mean we’ve grown accustomed to the systems we were born into like fish to water, never learning to question them? In this video, Zoe Bee answers that exact question, examining the made-up society we live in today and getting to the root of what the “fascist imagination” is and why it just plain sucks. When we can’t even see the structure that exists all around us, how can we look outside of it for solutions to the problems we face? Zoe’s answer is to tap into our inner child and give ourselves permission to play pretend. Besides, how can we create a better world for ourselves if we don’t imagine what it would look like first?

A Sneak Peek at the Searchable Playlist:

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