This week’s AJ Highlights: The Great Realignment
If there is a single thread running through this week’s news, it is the dismantling of the old cultural consensus. There’s a shift in who names our institutions, who funds our entertainment, and who delivers it to our screens.
The most visible symbol is the Kennedy Center, officially renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center— actually, according to the new sign outside, “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Let’s step back from whether or not the name change is even legal (it appears not to be) and the mismatched typefaces and look at the mangled grammar with the two “the’s.” And aren’t “memorials” supposed to be only for dead people? It is a rebranding that expresses political dominance as patronage as federal arts policy. (Axios).
While Washington fights over names, the real structural power in culture is moving to Silicon Valley and Riyadh. The era of “appointment television” for awards shows is officially over: the Academy Awards are leaving broadcast TV entirely for YouTube in 2029 (The Guardian), a move that validates streaming as the primary venue for mass culture. Simultaneously, YouTube is flexing its muscles against the music industry’s old guard, pulling its data from Billboard’s charts in a dispute that fundamentally undermines how musical success is measured (Hits Daily Double).
Where is the new culture money coming from? Increasingly, it’s Saudi Arabia. Two major stories this week detail the Kingdom’s rapid ascent as Hollywood’s “hot cash source” (Los Angeles Times) and its aggressive $300 billion bid to dominate the global video game industry (Washington Post). And in the world of legacy IP, consolidation continues, with Sony spending nearly half a billion dollars to take control of the “Peanuts” franchise (Hypebeast).
But the workforce that powers traditional cultural institutions is in revolt. Staff at the Louvre shut down the museum this week over crumbling infrastructure and security failures (Artnet), while workers at LACMA voted overwhelmingly to unionize (Hyperallergic). Even the British Library is facing strikes over “gross mismanagement” following its cyber crisis (The Standard).
We’re undergoing major realignments in the structures that support culture, and it’s getting very messy.
Here are all of this week’s stories below.
