[contextly_auto_sidebar id="WjZxcPtWCK6ExlRGkfHJTGqGfWWntSeY"] RECENTLY your humble blogger was able to connect the current situation in the world of technology -- the money, the power, the self-deception -- with the history of the arts. Specifically, I'm talking about cultural patronage, and I take it back to Haydn, Moneverdi and Velazquez. This piece of mine from Salon may interest Arts … [Read more...]
“Sleeping Through a Revolution”: Technology and Culture
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ywu4fbbeaZ4xnIPum8dfcpIbDyG5zWSP"] ONE of the clearest and most powerful descriptions I've seen about the place where technology, culture and economic forces meet is in a lecture USC's Jonathan Taplin gave not long ago. He's transposed the speech into a piece for Medium called "Sleeping Through a Revolution." Taplin is especially good on the big picture, and on … [Read more...]
The Collapsing Fortunes of the Club Deejay
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Am8vEARmW7HozjXX5GcmuHgcQEc0fAD8"] WHEN people try to destroy my argument about a crisis in culture, one of their most common tacks is to suggest that I'm describing just the fading of an old world -- classical music, literary writing, print journalism and so on -- that is being eclipsed as a new, more democratic pop-culture-driven world rises, bestowing its … [Read more...]
Postmodernism and the Human Condition
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="4fl6TsMH8aaXBjpQRlz6uE4TNBUnTl8E"] ONE of our favorite controversies over the last few moths has been the tussle over Excellent Sheep, the William Deresiewicz book that criticizes the obsessive pragmatism and money worship that's come to define the Ivy League experience. Simultaneously, one of our least favorite recent developments has been the destruction of the … [Read more...]
The Dark Vision of Neil Postman
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="9SH7Jz0T3AVOjswZ9pMhaO2BBpIbBBbX"] ONE of my all-time favorite social critics is the late, great author of Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. (I'm even fonder of his book Technopoly, which came out in the early '90s but remains one of the great books about what the Internet would do to us.) So my senses were stirred when I … [Read more...]
Billy Bragg: Taylor Swift vs. Spotify
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="El8ggTki0ehHooViWfWostAjBU7WfB0A"] RECENTLY, I've been puzzled over how to frame the Taylor Swift vs. Spotify fight. Having to take sides in that battle -- between a plutocrat popstar and an exploitative streaming service -- really makes me feel like I live in a dystopia. It's sort of an illusion of choice. "Maybe I should just ignore it?" crossed my mind a few … [Read more...]
Techo-Utopianism and the TED talk
MOSTLY, I try to dig into the arts and culture in this blog. But there are times when digital technology demands attention; technology has become the water in which we all -- musician and scribe and architect alike -- swim. That's why I'm especially pleased to nudge readers toward a piece that's been floating around for a while which even some informed people may have missed: "We need to talk … [Read more...]
Rosanne Cash on Our Culture’s Big Lie
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="sMcHj6Lojb9dMZsYLz0bq8L0kVkN6RaH"] LATELY the country-steeped singer-songwriter has become vocal and eloquent on issues of artists's rights, including an appearance before lawmakers in Washington, DC; she's also on the executive board of the Content Creators Coalition. The freshest thing about the arguments made by this daughter of St. Johnny is that she looks not … [Read more...]
Will Cable TV’s Golden Age Last Forever?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xsRN9Irj889DZIdZgx4NQ6tyZZUOY1S9"] THE answer to this question, I must admit, eludes me. But the era of deep and complex narrative television born with The Sopranos (and carried through Deadwood, Mad Men, etc) seems to have moved into another chapter as HBO and CBS announce streaming services. Here's the beginning of my new piece on Salon: The most prestigious of … [Read more...]
What Can the Music Business Learn from TV?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ovgvpF5mVNWQ4VA6t0cWS8RxeXKTS2uP"] THE contrast is hard to miss: the great surge in television -- especially on cable -- as the music industry collapses. Culture writer Ted Gioia has written a short provocative post trying to make sense of the mismatch. He's also asking how music can replicate some of the success of HBO, Showtime and the others. Generally, Ted is … [Read more...]