PopCon 2025 Opening Keynote: Something Better Than You Are Today

Something Better Than You Are Today:

Fashion, Style and Pop Music in Times of Crisis

A Pop Conference Keynote Conversation with

Atlantic Records singer and songwriter RAVYN LENAE

Oscar-nominated costume designer and stylist ARIANNE PHILLIPS

Grammy-nominated songwriter, producer and performer JUSTIN TRANTER

Moderated by

NPR Music writer and author ANN POWERS

Pop music has always been rich with fashion and style references: from blue suede shoes and diamond-soled feet, to boots made for walking and raspberry berets; from Adidas tracksuits and pink Cadillacs; to cowboy hats and shout-outs to Versace and Gucci. Over the decades, fashion and style have been inseparable from the influence and reach of pop music. Many of music’s fabulous figures—from Frank Sinatra and Little Richard, to Fela Kuti and Graces Jones, to Harry Styles and Doechii—have revolutionized the ways we think about sartorial agency. Music audiences—long prior to the 1980s rise of televised music videos—have equally contributed to pop’s visual language, using fashion to aspire, defy, and resist. In pop music, style is connected to pleasure, fun, and frivolity. But it can also be a powerful, and at times divisive, weapon.

The opening night keynote of the 23rd Annual Pop Conference—hosted for the second consecutive year at USC by the Thornton School of Music—focuses on the role of fashion and style in pop music, particularly in times of crisis. There’s an argument to be made that music and fashion play a heightened role during times of political turbulence and despair, offering us all ways to move through the world, or escape from it.

This year’s keynote—moderated by acclaimed NPR Music critic ANN POWERS (author of Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell)—welcomes Chicago-reared singer-songwriter RAVYN LENAE; JUSTIN TRANTER, founding member of the glam-punk group Semi Precious Weapons turned hitmaker for artists like Justin Bieber and Chappell Roan; and ARIANNE PHILLIPS, the visionary designer and stylist known for her decades of work with Madonna before emerging as a four-time Oscar-nominated designer for films like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and A Complete Unknown. They’ll explore and illuminate the complex and changing intersections of music, fashion, and style.

March 13, 2025, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM. Doors open at 7:00 pm.

Bovard Auditorium, Bovard Administration Building, University of Southern California; 3551 Trousdale Pkwy, Los Angeles, CA 90089

This event is free and open to the public with advance registration. No one will be admitted without advance registration. Admission to the venue is first come, first serve for those who are pre-registered; seating is not guaranteed.

Recording devices will not be allowed in the venue.

Keynote produced by Jason King.

Register for the main conference at this link.