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America’s Culture Is Booming. Really. [Ted Gioia, The Free Press]

By William McClain
In [The Free Press]
February 18, 2023
262 views
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  • Jason Allen recently won an art competition with an AI-generated piece—just one example of our current culture boom time.
  • Our culture is just as important as politics, maybe even more so. And right now, some harsh truth-telling is needed.
  • The metrics for our culture have never been larger. A hundred thousand songs are uploaded daily to streaming platforms, 1.7 million books were self-published last year, 2,500 videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and there are now 3 million podcasts.
  • The supply of culture is huge, but the demand side of the equation is ugly. In many cases, the metrics have been shrinking or even collapsing, and there is an ocean of stuff out there, but consumers sip it through a narrow straw.
  • The most obvious saviors of culture are the large culture businesses, but they are the most cautious and risk-averse players in the whole culture ecosystem. They give grants to create more songs and poems and plays and books, but they hardly care one jot about building a smart, discerning audience for culture.
  • The future of culture lies in alternative culture, with platforms like podcasts, Bandcamp albums, YouTube channels, and Substacks. There are 36 YouTube channels with more than 50 million subscribers, and some of these are growing exponentially.
  • MrBeast has launched new music acts, and is likely to become a bigger force than Sony and Universal Music Group combined.
  • There are many other successful stories in alternative culture, although their metrics are often kept private.
  • Hundreds of start-ups are trying to revitalize our culture.
  • Alternative people and platforms are the only successful audience development force in contemporary culture.
  • We need a culture with hundreds or thousands of organizations doing audience development and outreach.
  • The MacArthur Foundation and other organizations should play a role in bringing good music, writing, film, and painting to a million people.
  • The real question is whether the huge dinosaurs like major record labels or movie studios will get on board.
  • We should support the arts by becoming discerning members of the audience.

Published February 18, 2023
Visit The Free Press to read Ted Gioia’s original post America’s Culture Is Booming. Really.

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Review: Patrick Bringley’s “All the Beauty in the World” [Freddie deBoer, Freddie deBoer’s Substack]

By Spencer Chen
In Freddie deBoer
February 14, 2023
267 views
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• Patrick Bringley’s book, *All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me*, tells the story of his ten years as a guard at the museum and what he learned about the institution and its collection.
• The book provides an intimate look at the operations of the Met and its art, as well as anecdotes about the many colorful characters Bringley met among the museum’s visitors.
• Bringley handles the connection with his brother’s death deftly, creating new insight and inspiring the intended emotions.
• The book has a bit of an overwriting problem, with Bringley stretching for images and metaphors that don’t quite work.
• The book ultimately serves as a book-length advertisement for reconnecting with the visual arts, encouraging readers to visit the museum and experience something uncommon or unexpected.

 

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Band Breakups Are No Simple Thing [Caroline Mimbs Nyce, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 14, 2023
199 views
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• Panic! at the Disco announced their separation after 19 years, with lead singer Brendon Urie citing his focus on family as the reason.
• Nabil Ayers, a drummer turned record-label executive, explains that a band is like a company, and often is a company, with different agreements between members.
• Ayers discusses the difference between a band breakup and a reunion, and the role of fans in the internet age.
• He also explains that breakups can be seen as a marketing tool, but that they can also be a way for members to gain freedom and pursue other interests.

Published February 14, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Caroline Mimbs Nyce’s original post Band Breakups Are No Simple Thing

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Go Ahead and Ban My Book [Margaret Atwood, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 13, 2023
202 views
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• The Madison County school board recently banned Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, from the high school library.
• Governor Glenn Youngkin enabled such censorship last year when he signed legislation allowing parents to veto teaching materials they perceive as sexually explicit.
• The novel is inspired by biblical stories, such as Rachel and Leah turning their “handmaids” over to Jacob and then claiming the children as their own.
• The authors of the United States Constitution framed the First Amendment to prevent the homicidal uproar that had gone on in Europe for centuries.
• Attempts to control media content have come from both the left and the right, each side claiming to act in the name of the public good.
• The last English writer before the late 20th century to have totally free rein was Geoffrey Chaucer.
• Margaret Atwood suggests that the school board’s real motive may be to limit what kids can read based on religious views.
• She encourages young people to explore questions of morality and censorship, and suggests that the school board’s actions may be a way to make sex more fascinating.

Published February 12, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Margaret Atwood’s original post Go Ahead and Ban My Book

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How AI Can Prompt Your Inner Artist [Jim Davies, Nautilus]

By Spencer Chen
In Uncategorized
February 8, 2023
200 views
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• AI-generated art has become increasingly popular in recent years, with programs like Disco Diffusion and Midjourney allowing anyone to create breathtaking images with just a few prompts.
• This has caused a stir in the art world, with professional artists worried about losing work to AI-generated art.
• AI art generators can enrich the art world in other ways, such as allowing more books to be lavishly illustrated and providing more original art for people’s walls.
• The debate about whether AI-generated art counts as art is ongoing, with some arguing that it is missing the communication between the artist and the audience.
• However, AI art can still generate meaningful experiences for viewers, as they can still interpret the art in their own way and appreciate it for what it is.
• AI art tools also allow everyday users to become active participants in the image-generating process, becoming art directors of their own personal collections.

Published February 8, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Jim Davies’s original post How AI Can Prompt Your Inner Artist

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Pitchfork and the Death of Things as Themselves [Freddie deBoer, Freddie deBoer’s Substack]

By Spencer Chen
In Freddie deBoer
February 8, 2023
280 views
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• Pitchfork’s review of Måneskin’s album *Rush!* is at risk of busting at the seams due to its internal contradictions.
• The review suggests that people like the band for reasons other than the sonic quality of the music, to serve an unconscious need to appear neither cool nor popular.
• Pitchfork has gone from being a hipster review site to an enforcer of the consensus “poptimist” worldview in music criticism.
• Poptimism has been the utterly dominant ideology in music criticism for years, yet it is still treated as an oppressed discourse.
• Carly Rae Jepsen is a good example of how poptimism distorts how we discuss artists, with a level of critical defensiveness about her career.
• Poptimism is fundamentally about mandating a particular taste, and failure to properly appreciate massic pop culture commodities makes you guilty of having bad taste.
• The author would like to see celebration of more music that sounds truly different, and for people to stop mistaking their devotion to popular music for some sort of statement on social justice.

Published February 8, 2023
Visit Freddie deBoer’s Substack to read Freddie deBoer’s original post Pitchfork and the Death of Things as Themselves

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‘The Last of Us’ Reveals the Best of Us [Rob Henderson, The Free Press]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Free Press]
February 7, 2023
274 views
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• The Last of Us is an HBO series about a global pandemic that has echoes of real life.
• The show follows the story of Bill and Frank, two men who form a relationship in the midst of an apocalypse.
• The show highlights the need for humans to rely on and trust one another in order to survive.
• In modern society, people are less reliant on their communities for help and support.
• In developing countries, social capital is still high and people rely on each other for support.
• In the US, trust in institutions and people has declined, leading to feelings of alienation and isolation.
• The Last of Us hints at the possibility of a world where people can overcome these feelings.

Published February 7, 2023
Visit The Free Press to read Rob Henderson’s original post ‘The Last of Us’ Reveals the Best of Us

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Bad Bunny Overthrows the Grammys [Xochitl Gonzalez, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 6, 2023
252 views
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• Bad Bunny is the official patron saint of Latinidad, making history as the first Spanish-language artist ever nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys.
• His commercial success forced an acknowledgment that you cannot have American pop culture without Latinos.
• Bad Bunny bucks the misogynistic and homophobic history of reggaeton, wearing skirts, painting his nails, and making out with backup dancers both male and female.
• His performance at the Grammys opened with a bomba beat, featuring female dancers in traditional skirts and papier-mâché heads of Puerto Rican icons and independence advocates.
• The medley shifted to “Después de la Playa”, a merengue beat inspired by the rhythm of enslaved people cutting cane while their legs were chained together.
• Bad Bunny’s lyrics, performances, and music videos are part of a tradition of rebellion, such as his collaboration with iLe and Residente in response to the corruption scandal of then-Governor Ricardo Rosselló.

Published February 6, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Xochitl Gonzalez’s original post Bad Bunny Overthrows the Grammys

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How Ideologues Infiltrated the Arts [Rikki Schlott, The Free Press]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Free Press]
February 1, 2023
323 views
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• Lincoln Jones, a celebrated Los Angeles-based choreographer, faced backlash for not posting a black square on his company’s Instagram in support of Black Lives Matter.
• Jones faced an uphill battle for funding, as many grant-giving institutions started to insist that applicants abide by new diversity requirements.
• Kevin Ray is suing New 42, a performing arts nonprofit in Manhattan, for forcing him and other employees to take DEI instruction and read “racially-discriminatory propaganda.”
• Following the death of George Floyd, a petition called “We See You, White American Theater” was circulated, dubbing the theater community “a house of cards built on white fragility and supremacy.”
• Keith Wann, a sign language interpreter who worked on a production of The Lion King, alleged that he was removed from the production because he is white.
• Title VII federal law—part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin—means hiring people purely on the basis of race could be deemed “a potential violation.”
• Even some artists who are far in their career are too scared to comment about the new DEI demands.
• Renowned Broadway theater producer Rocco Landesman said he started noticing DEI creeping into the arts world around 2013 and has “no doubt” that “we’re seeing increasingly coercive guidelines.”
• Bari Jones, a ballet dancer and founder of the American Contemporary Ballet, has noticed a shift in the arts world towards a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
• This shift has been noticed by Rocco Landesman, a former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, who believes that DEI initiatives are becoming increasingly coercive.
• Landesman was shocked when a San Francisco school board voted to paint over a mural of George Washington because it was deemed offensive to black and Native Americans.
• Many arts funders have made social justice the criteria for grants, and some require DEI statements or demographic data from applicants.
• The Ford Foundation has dedicated $160 million specifically to BIPOC arts organizations, and President Biden has signed an Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and the Museum and Library Services.
• Bari Jones is still trying to keep the American Contemporary Ballet afloat without giving in to DEI demands, and Landesman worries about what is happening to the world of art.

Published February 1, 2023
Visit The Free Press to read Rikki Schlott’s original post How Ideologues Infiltrated the Arts

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Dubai Paid Beyonce $24M. She Gave Them Her Integrity. [Tanya Gold, The Free Press]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Free Press]
January 28, 2023
280 views
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• Beyoncé headlined the grand opening of Dubai’s newest luxury hotel, Atlantis The Royal, and was reportedly paid $24 million for the occasion.
• Dubai is a place where tyranny meets hyper-capitalism and Westerners come for the indentured servitude and the weather.
• Beyoncé’s latest album is an homage to black queer culture, but she performed none of its songs at the opening, likely due to the country’s stance on homosexuality.
• Other celebrities, such as Rebel Wilson and members of the Kardashian-Jenner dynasty, were also present at the opening.
• Sports figures, such as FIFA president Gianni Infantino and football stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, have also been involved in promoting the country.
• These celebrities are being used to normalize tyranny and distract from the suffering of migrant workers in the country.

Published January 28, 2023
Visit The Free Press to read Tanya Gold’s original post Dubai Paid Beyonce $24M. She Gave Them Her Integrity.

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