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Scott Timberg on Creative Destruction

Collecting the Creative Class

May 3, 2012 by Scott Timberg

MY recent stories on the struggles of the creative class have hit some people hard — I’ve gotten more emotional responses from these, I think, than anything I’ve written in two decades as a cultural journalist. 


(Due to the mean-spirited, anonymous nature of Internet culture, I’ve also gotten nastier comments than I expected, along with some smaller doses of smart, reasonable criticism.)


In roughest terms, my stories take different angles to look at the same problem — the decimation of the creative class, which includes artists of all kinds as well as the people who distribute and assess their work — in recent years due to digital technology, the recession and changing values.


In any case, as I dig deeper into the issue, I wanted to make all of these pieces available to interested readers. Here’s the series, so far, in total.

The creative class is a lie

The dream of a laptop-powered “knowledge class” is dead. The media is melting. Blame the economy — and the Web

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/01/creative_class_is_a_lie/singleton/

Why “branding” won’t save the creative class

Freelance work — and a strong “brand” — will never beat a job. Free agency’s nice — but so is health insurance

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/13/why_branding_wont_save_the_creative_class/singleton/

Does culture really want to be free?

Are new media companies “digital parasites”? The author of “Free Ride” tells Salon piracy is killing art

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/01/does_culture_really_want_to_be_free/singleton/

The clerk, RIP

The clerk has been killed by the economy, Netflix, iTunes and Amazon. Computers might want your creative job next

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/18/the_clerk_rip/singleton/

The architecture meltdown

One of the coolest creative-class careers has cratered with the economy. Where does architecture go from here?

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/04/the_architecture_meltdown/singleton/

No Sympathy for the Creative Class

Taxpayers bail out Wall Street and Detroit. But there’s no help, or Springsteen anthem, for struggling creatives



http://www.salon.com/2012/04/22/no_sympathy_for_the_creative_class/singleton/




Steal This Album:
What happens if no one pays for music?


http://www.salon.com/2012/06/20/steal_this_album_what_happens_if_no_one_pays_for_music/
My Studio 360 appearance: 

All of my Salon pieces: 

Filed Under: art, creative class, downturn

Scott Timberg

I'm a longtime culture writer and editor based in Los Angeles; my book "CULTURE CRASH: The Killing of the Creative Class" came out in 2015. My stories have appeared in The New York Times, Salon and Los Angeles magazine, and I was an LA Times staff writer for six years. I'm also an enthusiastic if middling jazz and indie-rock guitarist. (Photo by Sara Scribner) Read More…

Culture Crash, the Book

My book came out in 2015, and won the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award. The New Yorker called it "a quietly radical rethinking of the very nature of art in modern life"

I urge you to buy it at your favorite independent bookstore or order it from Portland's Powell's.

Culture Crash

Here is some information on my book, which Yale University Press published in 2015. (Buy it from Powell's, here.) Some advance praise: With coolness and equanimity, Scott Timberg tells what in less-skilled hands could have been an overwrought horror story: the end of culture as we have known … [Read More...]

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