Latest / Ground Signal FM / Ground Signal: Culture — October 22, 2026

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Ground Signal: Culture — October 22, 2026 · Ground Signal FM

• 0:00
  Welcome to Ground Signal Culture. It's Thursday,
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  October 22. Today, we're in Paris and Belgrade,
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  Lagos and Seoul, Amsterdam and Lima. Here's what
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  young people are doing, wearing, and listening
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  to right now. Lead signal, France. Student protests
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  have now run since late September. Today, authorities
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  banned some planned demonstrations in Paris,
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  Lyon, Lille, and Grenoble. That follows a weekend
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  of looting and Grenoble. That follows a weekend
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  of looting and clashes. The Associated Press
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  reports thousands have been detained since this
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  began. The core grievances are school conditions
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  and the cost of living. Those are everyday pressures
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  for anyone studying or starting out. The question
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  now is whether bands cool things down or push
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  people into the streets anyway. Protest bands
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  often do the second. Watch what happens in the
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  next 24 hours. Music radar. In the UK, Iristar
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  and ZIYN hold the number one spot on the official
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  Afrobeats chart this week with Heaven Baby. It
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  got there in its ninth week on the chart. A slow
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  climb, then a clean win. Over in K -pop, last
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  week was crowded with comebacks. MEOVV, MCT Wish,
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  Plave, and Externary Heroes all dropped new music
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  between October 11 and 17. Fans now have plenty
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  to sort through. The pattern is easy to spot.
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  Afrobeats and K -pop both keep growing through
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  slow builds and loyal fanbases, not one -day
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  spikes. Heaven Baby is a good example of that
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  patience paying off. Street and style. Amsterdam
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  dance event opened this week, and the fashion
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  crossover is loud. One Million Black Tour Amsterdam,
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  a fashion launch, was part of opening night on
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  Wednesday. Then there's the J5 Sneaker Rave,
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  which mixes music, sneakers, fashion, and street
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  culture under one roof. The festival is treating
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  the dance floor and the closet as the same conversation.
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  Young crowds already do. On the ground, Serbia.
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  Students marched into Belgrade on Wednesday,
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  ahead of a parliamentary vote this Sunday, October
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  25. President Aleksandar Vucic held his own rally
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  in the south of the country. The Associated Press
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  describes the vote as a real test of his rule,
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  with the student movement at the center. Many
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  of these students started out protesting in the
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  streets. Now they're asking for votes. Screen
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  and sound. Clara and the Sun opens in theaters
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  tomorrow, October 23. Taika Waititi directs this
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  adaptation of the Kazuo Ishiguro novel about
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  an artificial friend watching over a lonely teenager.
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  Early reviews are mixed to negative. The Guardian
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  called it a sentimental mess. If you're going,
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  go for the questions about AI and companionship
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  and keep your expectations measured. City Pulse,
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  Lima. This Saturday, October 24, Los Mirlos play
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  Tropy Peru at CC Maracana in Jesus Maria. They're
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  pioneers of psychedelic Amazonian cumbia, a sound
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  young Peruvians keep rediscovering. A band that
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  shaped the genre, playing a hometown crowd that
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  grew up on their reissues and remixes. For a
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  lot of Lima, that's more than a concert. It's
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  a family history on stage. Forward signal. Tomorrow,
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  Clara and the Sun hits theaters. Saturday, Los
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  Mirlos play Lima. Sunday, Serbia votes, and Brazil
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  holds its presidential runoff the same day. Amsterdam
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  Dance Event runs through October 25. And keep
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  an eye on France. If the bands hold, calm may
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  follow. If not, the weekend could get loud again.
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  That's your signal for today. Go see something,
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  hear something, and talk to someone about it.
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  This is Ground Signal Culture.