Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
How Regulation Tamped Down Montreal’s Legendary Nightlife
The history of Montréal’s night-time regulation reveals how managing nightlife expanded police power and budgets — and how burdensome effects of these changes fell...
Why Music Needs Its Dissonance
Music has a variety of “jobs,” as the other arts do. It can calm, soothe, and delight. It can also provoke, disturb, bite. No...
Has The UK Fallen Out Of Love With Non-Fiction?
A recent report from NielsenIQ found that trade nonfiction sales have slipped sharply. In volume terms, the category is down 8.4% between last summer and the...
We Used To Have One Version Of History. Now It’s Messier
Unity, cohesion, and a sense of epic narrative have been lost. Freedom, pluralism, sensitivity, and a respect for difference have been gained, and, overall,...
Why Rational Behavior Might Not Be The Best Model
Behavioral economics has identified dozens of cognitive biases that stop us from acting ‘rationally’. But instead of building up a messier and messier picture...
Today’s Challenge For Writers: Don’t Write Like AI
Increasingly, both professional writers and everyone else is facing a new, unwelcome constrained writing challenge: don’t sound like AI. - ArtsHub
The Louvre Is In A Historic Crisis
Behind the walkout are not only frayed labor relations, but a building itself under strain, with crumbling parts of the aging former palace now...
Inside The Kennedy Center Renaming
“It was such a surprise to me when they said we’re going to rename it,” she recounted in a phone interview. “I said, ‘Oh...
How Did A Former Rapper Become The Recording Industry’s Favorite Influencer?
Rather than serve the public’s curiosities, he said, he wants to serve artists—to give them “a place for them to learn a little bit...
Kennedy Center Board Votes To Rename As Trump Kennedy Center
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the "Trump-Kennedy Center" name changer earlier Thursday after a board that the president handpicked earlier this year voted unanimously...
How Did US Museum Design Get So Boring?
As trends go, one can only hope the style spreading through US museum design today will eventually fall out of fashion. All forms of...
2025 — The Year AI Slop Crossed The Rubicon
At first, slop was a widely derided format, the kind of clicky nonsense churned out by content farms or trolls. But, in September, with...
Designs For The Las Vegas Museum Of Art
The newly updated renderings follow news announced last year that the studio led by Pritzker-prize-winning architect Diébédo Francis Kéré is designing the building, which will be located in a former...
Who Went To Movies In 2025? You’d Be Surprised
Gen Z moviegoer attendance grew by 25 percent over the last 12 months — the highest increase of any age group. - IndieWire
Musicians Are Wary Of AI. So Why Are Big Music Companies Making AI Deals?
Those worries are being deepened by how the major labels, once fearful of the technology, are now embracing it – and heralding a future...
NPR’s Top Music Stories Of 2025
In an ever-changing and fast-paced attention economy, musicians hustled to put out records, connect with listeners and demand accountability from some of the industry's...
YouTube Pulls Its Music Data Off Billboard Charts Because It Disagrees With How The...
“Billboard uses an outdated formula that weights subscription-supported streams higher than ad-supported. This doesn’t reflect how fans engage with music today and ignores the...
What It’s Like To Be Performing In The Kennedy Center These Days
Looking out across the hall’s empty seats, he often thinks of the pandemic—of that dismal year when the orchestra couldn’t perform, when he’d drag...
Reading, Literacy, And Brain Rot
If we consider literacy not as the ability to parse simple sentences but as the capacity to comprehend and enjoy complex texts, and ultimately...
While Many Regional American Theatres Struggle, Some Are Thriving
For a struggling industry, these two theaters — and a handful of others — are models of success: They are producing a healthy menu...
When Your Ownership Of Something You Bought Depends On Continuing To Pay
With the Internet of Things, and more broadly the layering of networked computers into every interaction, the function of almost anything, or the availability...
Now That We’ve Lost Trust In Institutions, Can We Get it Back?
Now that so many of us say that we mistrust or distrust things like Big Pharma and the government, we need to think about...
The Art Market Roars Back In the Fall
Sellers tracking the market downturn started slapping lower price-tags on their pieces as well, which stoked momentum in the second half of the year....
Warner Board Rejects Paramount Offer
With the rejection official, Paramount will need to persuade WBD shareholders to tender their shares at that price, or to submit a higher bid than its...
The Threat Of AI Is Not To Art But To The Ability To Make...
What A.I. imperils is not human creativity itself but the ability to make a living from creative endeavor. - The New York Times
