[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xGXLuZLba3ZaZcAz5ytDQ3Clj72bbrjB"] MOST of the coverage of musicians opposing streaming services -- especially on this site -- has concentrated on indie and alternative figures like David Lowery or Thom Yorke. But the suburban center has staked its claim now that Jimmy Buffett has come out against Spotify. From a Business Insider story: At the Vanity Fair Summit … [Read more...]
The Winner-Take-All Culture: Beyonce’ Edition
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="s7QjDjoKc7tKlcAxYUDRApP9riUN4cz9"] NO, you're not reading an article from the Onion, but rather a news report of an an extreme and literal instance of the winner-take all culture. This brief story from Poynter, "News station lays off journalists, will play Beyoncé songs instead," quotes Houston Chronicle reporter David Barron: Radio One owns the station, known as … [Read more...]
The Commodification of Cool
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="cA06WrBWrX1QdeSrOH4sa9wEJQ8lEH07"] READERS of this blog know that one of my primary concerns is the way economic shifts -- especially as they affect rents and the costs of living -- have direct and profound meaning for the creative class. So I want to go back to The New Republic story on Berlin and other "cool" cities But the greatest risks posed to the “next … [Read more...]
The Origins of the Creative Impulse
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="CjGJi1ElzHO4Eiypu9nm3yJ0WNWxidhx"] WITH the release of my book getting close, I'm going to start salvaging some of the great epigraphs that helped me tell the story -- in some cases, the history or even prehistory -- of the creative class. These, then, are other people's words which helped me to explain things, but which I lost in the edit. Here is the first, from … [Read more...]
Where Does the Creative Class Go After Brooklyn and Berlin?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="yn9axOyZHqiOw8ewg8ssVPhGCVhfNenL"] RECENTLY we've been hearing that artists and writers are being priced out of Brooklyn, and the search for "the new Berlin" -- an affordable city for creatives -- is on. (Krakow? Vilnius?) And is Portland getting better, or worse? A number of stories have tackled the issue from different angles. (It all reminds me of the Talking … [Read more...]
Poet Dana Gioia Endorses Culture Crash the Book
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="i8fGP35j28y9jQ6G5JGv4lGoSeq95eDP"] NOTORIOUS to some, beloved by others, the California poet has this to say about Culture Crash, my upcoming book: Scott Timberg has written an original and important study. He explores some of the most pressing cultural issues affecting the arts and intellectual life with remarkable clarity. This is the first analysis of our current … [Read more...]
Switching Sides in the Digital War
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="eJnmz4EFyiZtMYvvDKNPqiDekKwUDUR1"] DIDN'T we hear about how great it was going to be? Those early days, when we were told how funky and non-commercial and liberating the Web was going to be, now seem like ancient history. One writer who believed in the promise of the Internet in the early days has come to see what a much more complex issue the digital revolution … [Read more...]
Who Broke Hollywood?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="aA6rMNBdTA1u43J91OGEfmvqLnJK7cWf"] WITH an awful and low-yielding summer movie season recently concluded, I've been meaning to try to make sense of the continued decline of grownup film, independent and otherwise. Two LA Times stories get at the problem, which is both economic and aesthetic. The first story, by Josh Rottenberg, takes the point of view of … [Read more...]
Author M.G. Lord on Culture Crash
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="gXQfcIniw8p3iX6eCSgrKCkQ9mR6Oq04"] Over the next few weeks I'll be posting the endorsements I get for my upcoming book Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class, due in January from Yale University Press. 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 … [Read more...]
The Sad State of New Music
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="U0Diha6KNzqSf3E00pDolCNSLLKJwBcT"] THESE days I'm working on a series about commissioning new music -- and some of the news is good, offering more and different kinds of options to composers and audiences alike. But this Guardian piece recounting a survey of British composers reminds me how complex, wide-ranging and sometimes depressing the field of composing … [Read more...]