Cat Zhang

Hey, I’m Cat! I cover cul­ture at New York Magazine’s The Cut. Previously I was an as­so­ci­ate ed­i­tor at Pitchfork, where I edited re­views and wrote widely across the site. In 2022, I re­ceived the American Society of Magazine Editors’ Next Award for Journalists Under 30.

Reach out with work-re­lated re­quests at cat.zhang @ ny­mag.com
Send recs, links, jokes, ad­vice, thoughts on the be­low — just not pitches! — to per­pet­u­al­novice0 @ gmail.com

On my mind:
re­ally good jazz al­bum
book of ama­zon re­views
waf­fle-mak­ing poly­cule mu­sic video
les­bian chore­o­g­ra­pher who ac­ci­den­tally set her­self on fire
what­ever gabby has to say

Essays and Features

• 2024 in Review: The Year of the Bisexual
• 2024 in Review: The Year the Office Brought Sexy Back
• Discord and the Future of Music Fandom
• The Anatomy of a TikTok Hit
• TikTok Face
• The Endless Lifecycle of Japanese City Pop
• What Is Asian American Music, Really?
• The Sapphic Audio Erotica Boom

Reviews

• Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume I & II
• Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection
• Esther Yi’s Y/N
• Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want to Turn Into You
• Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts
• Barbie: The Album
• Water From Your Eyes’ Everyone’s Crushed
• Mitski’s The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
• Kesha’s Animal

Profiles / Interviews

• Tinashe
• PinkPantheress
• Greta Lee
• Chappell Roan
• Yaeji
• Jane Remover
• Grace Ives

Scene Reports

• Doggy Drag Pride Parade
• NYFW with JoJo Siwa
• F1 for Sailing
• NYPL Halloween Costume Competition
• New York Fungus Festival
• Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

Appearances

I’ve been a guest on the New York Times’ Popcast, NPR’s All Things Considered, Slate’s ICYMI, Vulture’s Switched on Pop, and the Pitchfork Review. Netflix sub­scribers can find me on sea­son 3, episode 11 of the Vox do­cuseries Explained.