The social principles that guide the creation of culture.
I wrote — perhaps “inadvisably” — a cultural history of the first 24.5 years of the 21st century My third book, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the 21st Century , is out today from Viking Books. (If you're in NYC, I'm doing an
The superlative adulation for Taylor Swift as an artistic and business genius suggests a shift in the fundamental expectations for cultural excellence in the 21st century 📣 My new book Blank Space: A Cultural History of the 21st Century comes out on November 18. Pre-order here . NEW YORK: A
Thoughts on "our" culture in three pieces from Kyle Chayka, Kelefa Sanneh, and Joshua Rothman Kyle Chayka: "IRL Brain Rot and the Lure of the Labubu" Bloomberg's Amanda Mull wrote about Labubus, prompting me to write about Labubus, which prompted Katherine Dee to defend
Fads are nothing new, but an online-first culture has made raw trendiness the primary cultural value, which is moving the base of cultural production away from the U.S. Amanda Mull, Bloomberg : The Social Media Machine is Spitting Out Weirder and Weirder Results Mull’s article is a
The defenses of pop singer Ashlee Simpson after her 2004 lip-syncing scandal set in motion the 21st century’s core belief that the best pop culture is often the most openly manufactured Recently I got into a Bluesky spat with Jody Rosen, former Slate music critic and author
The best way to understand generative AI art and aesthetics is to consider how previous "synthetics" lost value in the long-run For the first half of the 20th century, white-collar workers wore business shirts made from cotton or linen that wrinkled in the wash. Ironing them
Critics in the 21st century embraced mass culture in a belief that it would liberate audiences — but it's directly responsible for triggering the feelings of stagnation I enjoy Spencer Kornhaber’s music journalism, so I was excited to read his Atlantic feature “Is This the
Reality TV, data-based editorial decisions, social media, and the principled rejection of exclusionary taste have spawned “popular” things that may not actually be very popular We generally refer to something as popular when it… enjoys support from a significant number of people, much more than its
Today the earnest progressive lyrics of 10,000 Maniacs feel extremely dated, which may help us understand why "resistance" in 2025 has become so bogged down in aesthetic rather than political concerns For all the Nineties-revivals and frequent cultural callbacks to REM and The Pixies in the
In the last three decades, youth culture has moved from a deep suspicion of commerce to a passionate defense of anti-anti-commerce to an entire generation of "creatives” who leverage the commercial market… to do even more commerce In the 1990s, there was a single ethical
My new book, Blank Space , is a cultural history of the last 25 years, scheduled for publication in November 2025. Now that I've finally emerged from writing and editing, here are some early thoughts about the process. I know: I haven't been sending very many newsletters.
A tour through Japan’s mid-century restaurants, kissaten, bars, and hotels that managed to survive earthquakes, firebombs, and urban redevelopment (along with a few that didn’t) Hello there. Culture: An Owner's Manual is a free newsletter. I have not added a paid tier, because
Without agreeing on what "culture" is, it's really difficult to understand whether we're at an optimal rate of change Katherine Dee on Wisdom of Crowds: “No, Culture is Not Stuck” Since Simon Reynolds published Retromania in 2010, there has been a debate
Society should withhold all esteem and attention to a nonfiction author whose entire oeuvre spitballs explanatory social theory under the bad faith idea that he holds his ideas “loosely” and readers should too The Washington Post: Malcolm Gladwell's new book rehashes "The Tipping Point"
The much-maligned 1985 boxing film provides a few hints about the causes of 21st century artistic stagnation: namely, popular artists now work in a risk-averse creative paradigm that avoids making instantly-outmoded artworks Sylvester Stallone’s 1985 film Rocky IV is so infamously schlocky that it’