Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Has Spotify Actually Cracked The Code To Your Musical Taste?
“People often think about taste as being really individual,. But in the social sciences we say: ‘Ah, that’s not really true.’ Your tastes are...
Has TikTok Killed The Pop Music Bridge?
If you have listened to pop music at all in the past few years, you may have noticed that something is missing. The bridge...
How The Greatest Generation Of Physicists Upended The World
The era upended the world as these men and women knew it, both scientifically and socially, and they heatedly debated how to reconceptualize their...
Just Who Is Victoria Ryan, This Year’s Turner Prize Winner?
The Caribbean-English artist Ryan, who is 66 years old, is the second Black woman and the oldest artist to ever win the prize, which...
A Century On, Looking Back At Three Classics That Were Deliberately Difficult
These books are deliberately, self-consciously challenging, in content and in form. They are also hard, beautiful, powerful, and brilliant. That account of their greatness...
Selfies Are Robbing Museum-Goers Of Experience
I can’t help but think that the artwork people are photographing in museums is falling on myopic eyes. Museumgoers are increasingly regarding the work...
Social Media Influencers Are Crashing Right Now
What does content creation look like during a cost-of-living crisis, when more and more people are shut out of the lifestyle that luxury influencers...
Maybe Not This Art, But Some Art Should Be Attacked By Vandals?
Every art lover, Blake Gopnik included, is aghast at the potential damage to cultural treasures. But he's also aghast at the damage being wreaked...
Audience Member Yells Racial Slur During Detroit Symphony Performance
The incident took place during a performance of “A Charlie Brown Christmas: Cyrus Chestnut & Friends,” a one-night-only event. - Detroit 4
KPOP Producers Talk About Why Their Show Failed On Broadway
"The immersive experience was fun because it had the audience moving through different rooms. But in my mind, and also in the minds of...
The Canadian Opera Company Reports Almost Selling Out Its Season, Budget Surplus, And Thriving...
Another highlight was the news that the organization reported a surplus for the season, despite the uncertainties and difficulties. Net revenues (after expenses) amounted to $7,782,000. -...
What If Generosity Is A Brain Disorder?
We normally think of generosity as pure and noble—evidence of the soul, not evidence of brain damage. But what if giving is largely a...
What To Make Of NFTs In The Artworld? Revolution Or Scam?
This polarization means that the real potential of NFTs, as well as their flaws, which are also very real, tend to be overshadowed by...
The Live Nation-Ticketmaster Monopoly Is Terrible For Artists
As Live Nation leverages its power across the concert ecosystem to increase its profits, concertgoers see higher prices, and artists experience challenging touring dynamics....
BBC Medical Drama Ditches Scripts To Improvise Chaos Of The Medical System
Casualty is the world's longest running medical drama, and it is the first time in its 36-year history that scripts have been ditched and...
Whooping it Up At The Opera (And Making It Fun)
Opera Revue is part of a growing cadre of Toronto arts organizations looking to make opera more accessible and challenge the art form’s stuffy...
The Parasite Companies Killing Creative Artists
Books on Amazon are cheap and arrive quickly. Spotify offers tens of millions of songs and podcasts for less per month than what we...
This Year’s Top Pop Culture Moments
The pandemic was over in 2022, phew! Well, of course it wasn’t. But live entertainment pushed forward, with mask mandates dropping, and people rushing...
How Screenshots Created A New Form Of Storytelling
A closer look at the screenshot tells us interesting stories about not only how media transforms over time, but also how even the humblest technical operation...
Annals Of Downsizing: Ye Olde Village Maketh Ye Painful Cuts
"After ample reflection and prayer, I have made the painful decision to downsize our blessed hamlet. Lord be praised, not all is lost. The...
Why Originalist Readings Of The Constitution Are A Fraud
Originalists and non-originalists agree that constitutional interpretation must begin with the text of the document. But originalists pretend that their method of interpretation is...
The Purposes Of Grief
Philosophically, the most important thing about grief is that it’s not always a form of self-pity. It’s not selfish. There are aspects of grief...
Holiday Season Used To Be Hollywood’s Biggest Box Office. Now It’s Vying To Be...
We’ll see if Saturday night business is so bad that that this weekend becomes the lowest of 2022, unseating that of Jan. 28-30 when...
Social Media Is In Disarray. Want A Better Model? Look To Coffeehouse Culture
Everything about discursive social media is suddenly open to question. What sort of news and discussion should it host and encourage? What should be...
Why AI Chatbots Can Easily Take Over Creative Work
“The Internet itself is just patterns—so much of what we do online is just knee-jerk, meme reactions to everything, which means that most of...
