Olivia Rodrigo's 'Guts', Taylor Swift and women in music: Students discuss

After a long anticipated wait by her fans, singer-songwriter Oliva Rodrigo returned to stardom with the release of her sophomore album “Guts," which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and showcased hits like "Vampire" and "bad idea right?". Admist the album's growing popularity, however, heated controversy has arisen on social media as users accuse Rodrigo of copying song patterns and sounds from artists like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Miley Cyrus. With the debate trending across the internet, Michigan State University students expressed their opinions on the subject.

Lansing celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month

As the sun went down on Saturday night, the streets of downtown Lansing lit up with music, dancing, entertainment and individuals from all different backgrounds gathered to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

'Welcome Home, Spartans': MSU gears up for homecoming parade

MSU's homecoming parade will be on Friday, Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. The parade, which travels through the streets of East Lansing and campus, will feature the Spartan Marching Band, Michigan high school marching bands, MSU campus groups, community organizations, university officials, Sparty and more.

East Lansing Farmers Market welcomes students with "Spartan Appreciation Day"

The East Lansing Farmers Market, or ELFM, welcomed ‘Spartan Appreciation Day’ on Sunday Sept. 17. ‘Spartan Appreciation Day’ was meant to recognize the city’s special relationship with Michigan State University and welcome students to the community. 

Students discuss summer of pop culture, redefining feminism

The summer of 2023 has been a whirlwind for popular culture and feminism, with Taylor Swift's Era's Tour causing a small earthquake, "Barbie" making pink waves in the film industry and Beyoncé's Renaissance Tour projected to become the highest-grossing tour of a female artist ever. For many Michigan State University students, all three have been integral in redefining feminism, beauty and sexuality.

Spartan Remix showcases campus culture at Breslin Center

MSU alumnus Aaron Foley's 'Boys Come First' book adapting into TV show

In May of 2022, Michigan State University and the State News alumnus Aaron Foley debuted his book "Boys Come First," a novel exploring the lives of three gay friends from Detroit. Now, the book has reaching new heights, after Amazon bought its rights with the intention of adapting it into a TV series. 

How 'man on the street' interviews are becoming more intrusive

If you've scrolled through TikTok or Instagram in the past few months, you may have come videos that involve enthusiastic influencers running up to a random passerby, shoving a mic in their face and then asking a slew of questions, like "how much rent do you pay," or "can you rate how attractive this girl is?" MSU legal experts and students weighed in on whether the trend is an invasion of privacy or not.

'Its impact is with us': City of Lansing hosts 9/11 memorial service

Today, the City of Lansing hosted a memorial service to honor the lives lost and the bravery of not only first responders, but the citizens of the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Key members at the memorial included Lansing mayor Andy Schor and first responders from across the city. 

Fourth annual FEMfest reclaims MSU Union through celebration of feminism in arts

Yesterday, MSU's fourth annual FEMfest filled the MSU Student Union with positive energy through an empowering display of the arts.This year, FEMfest aimed to reclaim the Union as a safe and community space for students following the Feb. 13 shooting on campus.

'It offers these multimodal ways of expressing your experience': Looking back on 50 years of Hip-Hop

“It gives people ways to express themselves, whatever they're going through whatever their experiences are,” he said. “That's a way to express themselves in many different ways, not just verbally with your voice by say, rapping or singing, but by dance, with your body, or visually with stylized letter writing, or just sonically by making beats or turntablism, or reinterpreting music through hip-hop practices."

‘Trying to bring happiness and comedy to all aspects of life,’ State Tonight is MSU’s first late-night comedy live show

State Tonight, the new campus live comedy talk show, is taping this fall with comedy and special guests coming to campus.

'Miss Michigan 2023' winner, MSU grad advocates for arts

2023 Miss Michigan discusses winning the title and her hopes for the future.

'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse': Students discuss representation, themes

Since its release on June 2, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" has sparked a whirlwind of discussion and praise around its animation styles, plot, characters and soundtrack. Students voice their opinions on diversity, themes of belonging and accurate representation of POC in superhero films.

Netflix not-so-chill: Students discuss streaming service's crackdown on password sharing

In May, Netflix announced that subscribers who want to have an extra member on their account must pay $7.99 a month or transfer an existing profile to the account. For MSU students like neuroscience sophomore LaMonica Reeves, who uses her parents' account, the policy crackdown may mean losing access to her favorite films and TV.

MSU 'Swift Squad' members reflect on Eras Tour experiences

Even with The Eras Tour featuring a marathon 44 songs, spanning nine eras, over the course of two nights of approximately 180-minute shows, fans were ‘Ready for It’ and left wanting more of Taylor Swift’s performance in Detroit. Swift brought the highly anticipated tour to Ford Field on June 9 and June 10, attracting a combined 130,000 concertgoers. 

Third annual MSU Juneteenth event to be held June 16

MSU will host its third annual Juneteenth celebration on June 16 from 5:15 to 8 p.m. at the Breslin Center. The event, which is open to the public, will feature music, food, vendors and conversations about the holiday’s significance. 

'Wicked' returns to the Wharton Center, seats still available

“Wicked” has returned to East Lansing, running May 10 to May 28 at the Wharton Center. In addition to the themes of friendship and sisterhood, Valli said that many people find Wicked relatable because Elphaba’s story is a tale of an underdog. “I think that this is a story that people can relate to because it's about an underdog,” Valli said. “It's about somebody who's rising into power, and somebody who's finding themself and their voice and not letting anybody bring them down or water themselves down for the comfortability of others.”