Introducing a New Publication to Share Your Pop Culture Stories In
Plus a few other ‘classic’ publications & an upcoming new one for you to check out
First of all, I want to give a very huge and heartfelt THANK YOU to those of you who nicely reached out to me after my recent post about my plans to close up Plethora of Pop.
I was incredibly touched by your understanding of why I’m doing this and also by your well-wishes and kind words of encouragement. I was also very moved by several nice remarks I received about how much Plethora of Pop has meant to many of you, both as writers and readers.
When I started this place a few years ago, one of my biggest hopes for it was that it might someday become a sort of friendly ‘community’ for like-minded lovers of popular culture. I hoped that people would write and read here and maybe, over time, view it as a pleasant ‘go-to place’ they’d enjoy returning to regularly.
From what I saw in the messages I got, it looks like a lot of you did feel that way about Plethora of Pop — and that makes me happier than I can truly express here.
Several of you have told me that you’re now going to be looking for new places on Medium to share your writings about pop culture. I’m here today to share information about a brand new pop culture-related publication and some of my favorites that have been around for a while — plus one that will be starting very soon.
First, let’s start with the brand-new one that opened just yesterday.
Infinite Pop
Infinite Pop is owned and run by writer and podcaster Candace Estelle.
Over the past few months, Candace has written multiple great posts here and elsewhere on Medium, including these very popular pieces: My 10 Desert Island TV Shows and Why ‘Jurassic Park’ is the Best Summer Blockbuster.
Although Infinite Pop will be different from Plethora of Pop in some ways, it will feature the same topics that we’ve covered here, plus one popular topic we didn’t cover in PoP.
The below description of the pub is from Infinite Pop’s About page:
Your gateway to exploring the boundless world of pop culture — past, present, and beyond, from movies and TV to games, books, and everything in between.
We didn’t carry stories about games here, so that’s the topic I referred to above. I considered including games when I first set up PoP but I’m not a gamer — not unless you count games like Uno, Yahtzee, and Scrabble.
Anyway, Infinite Pop will include posts about games, so if that’s your thing, they’ll be a good publication for you.
Also…
Infinite Pop Has a Great Temporary Special Offer to Writers of Plethora of Pop!
Although Candace Estelle will not normally publish stories that were previously published on Medium, she did state the following in her Submission Guidelines:
I will publish pre-published works from the now-defunct Plethora of Pop from now until the end of October. **We love and miss PoP, and love and respect Buddy Gott so all the wayward souls from there are welcome here with open arms.
So, if you are/were a writer here and you’re looking for a publication in which to share your previously published PoP stories (which would be republished with their original publication dates) hurry up and join Infinite Pop soon!
I’m very excited about the publication and will be writing there from time to time myself. In fact, I was just added there as a writer. Woohoo!
- *I swear I didn’t share that above quote just because she said nice things about me in it. P.S. — Thanks, Candace!
Another New Publication For Pop Culture Lovers Is Coming Very Soon…
Although it’s not up yet, there will be a new pop culture related publication coming very soon (probably in the next week or so) from Kerry Purvis, one of our longtime editors and writers.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Kerry, she’s a written a wide variety of things here and in other places on Medium, including the below piece which became a very popular writing prompt/challenge in Plethora of Pop this year:
Because Kerry is still working on setting up her pub, I’m not going to share/spoil what I already know about it, other than its fantastic name:
Pop Goes The Prompt
I have a very strong feeling that it’s going to be a very fun place for readers and writers of Plethora of Pop!
If you’re not already following Kerry Purvis, I recommend that you do so. Then keep an eye (or so) out for information about her new publication!
Other Great Places To Write About Pop Culture on Medium
What I’m sharing below is by no means a ‘definitive’ list of all the pop culture-related publications on Medium. There are a lot of them out there — far more than I’ve been able to explore so far.
These, however, are some of my personal favorites. I’ve enjoyed writing for them and I also enjoy reading them regularly. Many of you will already be familiar with them. However, if you’re not, I suggest you check these out:
The Riff — This long-running publication is run by my friend Kevin Alexander. Its tagline is “Medium’s premier music publication” — and I don’t think anyone could say that the statement is not true. The Riff was one of the first places I wrote for on Medium. I loved it then and love it now.
Rock n’ Heavy — Many of our music writers (including me) have also written frequently for Rock n’ Heavy, which is an awesome publication run by my friend Rui Alves. Their tagline is “Stories that rock your world!” They do rock, so if you’re a music fan, I suggest you check them out.
Fanfare — Fanfare is a great pub run by my friend Eric Pierce and it covers — well, it covers a lot of things! If you enjoy reading and writing about film, TV, gaming, books, and music, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it a lot there!
Waxing Lyrical — This cool and unique pub is run by my friend Francis B. and its tagline reads “a home for positive music stories!’ One thing that makes Waxing Lyrical unique from many other music publications is that in addition to covering popular music like Rock, Country, and Folk, they are also welcome to stories about Gospel/Worship music.
And that’s it, my friends!
Thank you all again for helping make Plethora of Pop a community which so many grew to enjoy over the years.
I’ll always have very fond memories of the publication and of the people here.
Best wishes to you all!
Buddy Gott
P.S. — If you’d like to connect with me outside of Medium, you can also find me on X, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Goodreads, and my own website. I’m also the host of the GOTTA POP and BUDDY’S BOOK BUDDIES podcasts. Links to all of those things can be found here.
