[contextly_auto_sidebar id="YYQ5BrKAlLhK2VSvLagOYij5KMvYrB2z"] WELL, both, and neither, I can hear someone out there growling. But what I mostly hear in the culture at large is that we -- citizens, worker bee, student, scribe -- need to "adjust" to the brave new world of digital technology. Some of us do. But as someone who's been to numerous exhibits and conferences on "art and tech," I've … [Read more...]
What Are Humans Good For?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="NUIeoMZoQbFSCCvhJftok1FkbupHfdXm"] WELL, folks, it's gotten to the point where we've gotta ask this question. With various kinds of automation and AI replacing human labels even at the most cerebral and professional level -- it's not just bank tellers any more -- we've got to ask, What can humans do that a computer or algorithm can't? A new Slate story notes that … [Read more...]
The Dead End of Rock Touring
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Za9VcxtAw6iJYej9lpme3Ycia9NvqadT"] JUST go on the road! Musicians who've seen their earnings from recorded music collapse should just tour more often, digital utopians tell them. But a new report shows that even with ticket prices getting higher, a 60 percent growth in touring revenues since 2000, and a supposed recovery from the depths of the recession, the … [Read more...]
Songwriters Struggle in the Digital Age
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xeTmAux4K4TAnAkSYsPJtKcQYgjbcieM"] TWO more musicians have expressed their frustrations with the post-label era of music distribution, which many technologists tell us is the best of all possible worlds. The first is the estimable eclecticist Van Dyke Parks, who writes in the Daily Beast about "How Songwriters Are Getting Screwed in the Digital Age." (I know Van … [Read more...]
Announcing Culture Crash the Book; and Kylie the Appalling
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ftixoeOJRzszHlmMuaxS6xpP6qUMIuEH"] EAGER for more of the uplifting optimism of the CultureCrash blog? Then you'll love my upcoming book, Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class, which Yale University Press has just formally announced. Here is the press's page. The book is about a crisis in the arts and culture, one provoked by digital technology, changing … [Read more...]
Trouble With iTunes, and More On San Diego Opera
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="QbQ1AU6Xrnco2mhImRDlqE6xwuPHZulj"] WHEN it comes to the collapsing sales of recorded music, and subsequent loss of revenues for musicians, I go back and forth between blaming the record labels for dropping the ball, and seeing the revolution of digital music as relentless and unstoppable. Either way, musicians have been the prime casualty. But it looks like one of … [Read more...]
Novelists in the New Economy, and a National-ist Goes Classical
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="hPd2FVtPIrH02PAHBYXfxFyuIQJdbTd3"] HOW are novelists doing in the post-recession, Internet-besotted world? In Britain, apparently, even purportedly successful and well-reputed writers are hanging on by their fingernails. That's the conclusion of a nuanced and well-reported piece by Robert McCrum in the Observer. The story starts by describing Rupert Thomson, an … [Read more...]
Snubbing Sarah Polley, and Musicians Souring on Facebook
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="C9J6uLN8DJGJrhAieA8jJpyWE47Vp38G"] IT’s always healthy going into Oscar weekend angry about something, usually a good film that you feel has been ripped off by not being nominated. For me, that’s Sarah Polley’s ingenious and deeply felt documentary, Stories We Tell. The movie follows the Canadian actress/director into some odd family history; saying any more will … [Read more...]
Celebrating Eric Dolphy, and the Threat of Spotify
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xOdJRgN2pWgbTiyFwQwSUxKpJatgoqCK"] THESE posts have become fairly grim lately, so I'm pleased to be able to offer some unqualified praise. Eric Dolphy's LP Out to Lunch now marks its 50th anniversary, and the record remains both radical and, I think, oddly accessible. Dolphy is perhaps my favorite avant-garde jazz player. Kevin Whitehead says on NPR: 1964 was a … [Read more...]
New Group Fights for Artists
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="NvvIzO2UWJlX4uUIoRf2LjL4Y3FqhcNC"] TODAY I have an interview in Salon with rock musician John McCrea, who is announcing a group he's helped assemble, Content Creators Coalition. The group, which puts on a free rally tonight in New York that will include David Byrne, aims to bring artists and artisans of all kinds together as a way of making the creative life less … [Read more...]