Culture Crash

Cultural Optimists and Pessimists

IF 3-D Thinking means viewing a phenomenon from different vantage points, I’ve been doing that by simultaneously reading two recent books examining the state of American culture.

Derek Thompson

One, Hit Makers by Derek Thompson, published in 2017, examines culture from the standpoint of marketing experts and consumers. According to the data and the algorithms, all is as it should be– more increased technological tools lead to increased cultural efficiency, with what the public wants (whether they know it or not), quickly selected and brought to the front of the pack.

Scott Timberg

The other book, Culture Crash by Scott Timberg, I’ve already referenced, here. Timberg takes a broader view, putting culture into context as part of larger societal trends marginalizing the middle class. The culprit? Culture treated as content designed to adhere to profit-loss statements, instead of as art.

The difference between the two approaches is exemplified by their discussions of the music industry. “That the top 1 percent of bands and solo artists now earn about 80 percent of all music revenue” Derek Thompson sees as a good thing, due to “a lot more honest” ways of identifying and tracking hit records. Meanwhile, in his discussion of “the music industry’s one percent,” Scott Timberg abhors the phenomenon– and attributes it in part to corporate consolidation and the monopolization of radio by Clear Channel beginning in 1996.

To Thompson, Max Martin– one of the Swedish “superproducers” behind scores of hit records– is a musical genius. “The construction of a pop song is almost mathematical,” he quotes a Max Martin protege as saying. (A similar mindset to those in 2023 promoting the creativity of AI?)

Timberg discusses a different-but-similar Swedish producer, Lukasz Gottwald aka Dr. Luke, and uses a quote from John Seabrook to describe him: “He can make a song that’s also a business plan.”

They’re discussing the same phenomenon, the same technique, but with different opinions about it. Scott Timberg:

But this isn’t democracy– it’s the kind of monopoly capitalism Theodore Roosevelt hated, dressed-up with bling and low-cut jeans. As for hope: synthed-out with gang choruses, or purplish and overwrought over lost love, Dr. Luke’s songs sound like the music piped into the waiting room in hell.

In his book, Scott Timberg is almost relentlessly pessimistic about the state of the culture industry today, blaming the imposed-from-on-high, winner-take-all reality of it. Derek Thompson– the optimist of this examination– celebrates winner-take-all, as maybe he should, as he became a staff writer at prestigious The Atlantic magazine– owned by billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs– at age 23. (The same magazine, incidentally, which sided with billionaires’ yachts over orcas during the recent dispute in sea lanes between the two groups.)

XXX

What of myself? Where do I stand? Though I generally side with Timberg, critic of the status quo, over its defender, Thompson, I consider myself an optimist. It’s because our culture today is so monopolistic, one-note, and bland; run by data-oriented techies– so extreme in its security and complacency– that it’s set itself up for a mighty fall; data, algorithms and all. In this complex universe strength is weakness, weakness strength. Something unexpected and new will come along to topple the smugsters– and all their AI technology, focused on the now, on what is, will leave them unprepared for it.

KW

(But what do you think?)

Scott Timberg’s Culture Crash

Scott Timberg’s 2015 book Culture Crash is necessary reading for anyone seeking to understand the trends writers and other artists are living through now, in 2023. One can disagree with some of what Timberg says and still recognize his book as the best examination of today’s cultural crisis– where a handful of writers, musicians, and artists garner a large amount of attention, and make an enormous amount of money, while the rest can scarcely, or can’t, make a living at what they love. In many cases no matter how good they are at their art. Since the book’s publication, the trends Timberg outlined have intensified.

It’s a truth much of the writing community fails to admit– and so there are endless recriminations at publishers and editors, without the recognition that it’s impossible for any literary publication (at least the way things stand now), to be self-sustaining from sales alone. Even the Paris Review is kept going by a large number of sponsors and donors. You’d better have an endowment, a university behind you, or a trust fund to truly make it without treating the writer as a customer, via submission fees as such. (Which we’ve avoided doing.)

In Culture Crash, Scott Timberg makes it plain that there needs to be a new model for cultural creation– talented writers and artists need to collaborate in developing that model.

In our view, the cultural status quo isn’t good enough. The canon promoted by the literary establishment is fine– but the art needs to change. There’s no reason why good creative writing can’t be meaningful and deep yet contain pop elements at the same time.

Writers and editors need new ideas and we need to compete.

-KW