Announcing CultureCrash

MY ardor for and fascination with the West Coast are undiminished. But recently I've put most of my blogging energies into my new project, CultureCrash: Scott Timberg on Creative Destruction. It's part of the ArtsJournal family, and I began it on the invitation of the site's founder, Doug McLennan.

On CultureCrash I'll be looking mostly at the plight of the arts, media culture in the 21st century: What are the forces arrayed against a healthy culture and a robust creative class, and what can we do to make things better? These are crucial issues that I'll get into more deeply into my book, which comes out on Yale University Press later this year.

Re. West Coast culture: As I said, my interest in these topics continues. I'll be moderating a panel at the Writing From California conference later this month: Watch this space.

And hope to see you all on CultureCrash.

Dave Allen on Rock Music and the Internet

RECENTLY I've been corresponding with Dave Allen, bassist for the British post-punk group Gang of Four. His ideas on digital culture -- mostly strongly opposed to those of David Lowery and David Byrne -- are as forceful as his bass playing on Entertainment!

I'll point out that I disagree with Mr. Allen on much of what he says; I'm less optimistic that the new system will work out for musicians (and I have seen from quite a close perspective how it works out for most journalists.) 

For example, he argues that there has been no golden age for musicians, that making a living has always been hard, and so on. Well, of course, that's all literally true, but just because a system was not perfect does not mean it has not gotten substantially worse.

I could argue to anyone who tells me, say, that Congress has run aground that we've always had conflicts in Washington, going back to the 18th century, and that Ted Cruz is just a latter-day version of whoever... Same with arguments about income inequality, or anything that matters. This argument does not help clarify where we are at present: You do not have to acknowledge the existence of a golden age to want things to be better or to resist and criticize the way they have gone. 

But Allen's an extremely sharp guy, a lively writer, and he deserves to be heard. Here's our Salon conversation. 

Print, Online and the Creative Class

TODAY I have another piece in Salon, this one about the folding of New York magazine into a biweekly, and the resulting conversation about where the media is (and isn't going.) HERE it is.

People trying to be "counterintuitive" are framing this as a win for journalists and journalism, since more people will read New York related copy on the blogs (some of which are quite good.) It's like saying musicians -- or music -- are thriving because more people listen to their songs on Spotify than ever did in the old record label-and-album model.

If you work in journalism, or the media business, you know that the phrase, "we've moving online" is typically a code word for de-professionalization -- something the creative class has gotten awfully familiar with. David Carr in the New York Times had the right take, I think.

The magazine also plans to bulk up its print publication with more fashion and luxury coverage, at a time when most Americans – among them, the new mayor tells us, a lot of New Yorkers -- continue to emerge only gradually from the Great Recession. (The Bloomberg operation will reportedly cover the arts, despite firing its arts staff, as a subset of luxury.) 

New York magazine – which has always combined the smartly serious with conspicuous consumerism, Frank Rich alongside frivolity – is not the only publication that is upping its fashion and luxury “content.” The way high-end fashion coverage, celebrity-worship and house porn continues to replicate in magazines three decades into flat middle-class wages is a paradox a greater critic than I will have to tackle. But whatever is driving this, it’s not something most Americans should celebrate, especially journalists, who increasingly toil to remain in the middle-class instead of buying $50,000 watches.

Like the David Lowery piece that ran yesterday, this gets into stuff I investigate deeper in my book Creative Destruction, which comes out next year.

David Lowery vs. Silicon Valley

CAMPER Van Beethoven's singer David Lowery has become the most ornery of those fighting for musician's rights. He's erupted over piracy, Spotify, lyric websites, and the battle between the surviving Beastie Boys (with the ghost of Adam Yauch) and GoldieBlox.

I speak to him for Salon here.

He makes a pretty good case for what's wrong with Silicon Valley techno-utopianism, which leaves artists out of the revenue stream.

(Lowery and his argument also make an appearance in my book Creative Destruction, which comes out next year.)

Cable TV and the Niche-ing of America

TODAY I have a story in Salon looking at the golden age of cable TV post-Sopranos, and contrasting this with the economic/technological forces in the culture right now.

And I ask: If HBO, or AMC, can find a profitable quality niche -- and stay in business -- can a jazz club? A book publisher? Theater company? I also look at the world of indie rock labels.

I speak to the authors of two new books, Brett Martin, of television chronicle Difficult Men, and producer Lynda Obst, of Sleepless in Hollywood.

The Web, Jaron Lanier and the Disappearing Middle Class

TODAY I have a long and I hope substantial Q+A with web visionary-turned-skeptic Jaron Lanier. Here it is. We get into some ideas that reflect on my investigation of the fate of the creative class in the 21st century, including the growth of a tiny digital plutocracy at the expense of the imperiled middle class.

The piece is provoked by his powerful and odd new book, Who Owns the Future?

Can Unions Save the Creative Class?

SALON is running a series on labor unions in the 21st century. My contribution is a piece asking if struggling artists, musicians, authors, scribes, etc. can make use of a union or collective to negotiate these strange times.

I spoke to a number of folks -- a laid-off journalist, a music historian, screenwriter who helped lead the Hollywood writers strike, cultural observer Thomas Frank -- for this piece. And took the whole thing back to about the 12th century. Complicated issue.

Here it is.

The End of Jazz?

THIS year -- soon drawing to a close -- has gotten me thinking about the American songbook in a major way. Part of this is because of the publication of Ted Gioia's wonderful The Jazz Standards -- which has shown up on a number of year's best lists, and through which I have whiled away many hours.

Another is the notorious Atlantic article, "The End of Jazz," which is both a review of the book and a larger essay -- intelligently argued, albeit not entirely convincing, I don't think -- about how the disconnection between jazz and the songbook has left them both dead.

The third, perhaps, is my own progress (if you heard me play, you'd know that this is probably the wrong word) as an amateur jazz guitarist, learning various numbers such as "All the Things You Are," "Autumn Leaves," "Chitlins Con Carne," "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," "Blue Bossa," and so on. I've been struck by how inventive, ingenious and musically bottomless these great songs, whether by Jerome Kern or Charles Mingus, remain. How far can you stretch 'em before they break?

And how does the shrinking of the jazz audience connect to my ideas about the crisis of the creative class?

For my latest piece for Salon, I've looked at some of the issues, and crossed them with a look back at jazz over the last year or so. My understanding of some of this mix of good and bad was bolstered by another very fine new book, Marc Myers' social history Why Jazz Happened.

I spoke to Myers, Sonny Rollins, jazz scribe Gary Giddins, head of Nonesuch Records Bob Hurwitz, and others. The question of how jazz can thrive in the future is important to me and I hope I've taken a step into understanding it.

Happy holidays to my readers from The Misread City.

Publishing and the Creative Class

IT was easy to miss, because of the chaos created by Sandy, but publishing may be on the verge of a serious contraction or at least rearrangement. It's hard to tell what is going on -- a lot of only vaguely related issues are coming together at once -- but this is not good news for people working in the business.

Here is my story from Salon, the latest in my series on the pressure exerted on the creative class. For now, my focus is on the announced merger of Penguin and Random House, but there could be more.

I speak to a number of people here, including FSG boss Jonathan Galassi and publishing veteran Ira Silverberg, now at the NEA.

Please don't let the story's provocative headline distract you from my argument. Capitalism is part of the problem here, indeed, but capitalism also allowed publishing (and the creative class itself) to develop and thrive.

What I fear is the wrong kind of capitalism -- the kind that would trouble not just people on the left, but folks like Teddy Roosevelt in his trust-busting days -- is taking over.

"Creative Destruction" Announcement

GANG, yesterday the Los Angeles news/media website LA Observed made the first public announcement of the book that grows out of my Salon series. Here it is.

The book's working title is Creative Destruction: How the 21st Century is Killing the Creative Class, and Why It Matters.

There's a lot up on the LAObs post, so I'll leave that to explain the project. (Here are links to individual parts of the creative class series as well as my interview on Studio 360 With Kurt Andersen.)

I should add that the photo of yours truly was taken by Steven Dewall, a photographer I've long been acquainted with who will have at least an occasional presence here on The Misread City.

Please stay tuned.

Musicians vs. the Internet

THIS week has seen an exchange between young music fan Emily White and indie rocker David Lowery about how fans consume music these days, and where that leaves the artists. 


So far, the argument between the two has remained civil – and Lowery refuses to condescend to White or her generational peers in his piece -- but the nasty tone of the Web all but guarantees that things will get ugly.


HERE is my piece for Salon on the matter, which dovetails with my recent writing on the plight of the creative class.

Collecting the Creative Class

MY recent stories on the struggles of the creative class have hit some people hard -- I've gotten more emotional responses from these, I think, than anything I've written in two decades as a cultural journalist. 


(Due to the mean-spirited, anonymous nature of Internet culture, I've also gotten nastier comments than I expected, along with some smaller doses of smart, reasonable criticism.)


In roughest terms, my stories take different angles to look at the same problem -- the decimation of the creative class, which includes artists of all kinds as well as the people who distribute and assess their work -- in recent years due to digital technology, the recession and changing values.


In any case, as I dig deeper into the issue, I wanted to make all of these pieces available to interested readers. Here's the series, so far, in total.

The creative class is a lie

The dream of a laptop-powered "knowledge class" is dead. The media is melting. Blame the economy -- and the Web

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/01/creative_class_is_a_lie/singleton/

Why “branding” won’t save the creative class

Freelance work -- and a strong "brand" -- will never beat a job. Free agency's nice -- but so is health insurance

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/13/why_branding_wont_save_the_creative_class/singleton/

Does culture really want to be free?

Are new media companies "digital parasites"? The author of "Free Ride" tells Salon piracy is killing art

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/01/does_culture_really_want_to_be_free/singleton/

The clerk, RIP

The clerk has been killed by the economy, Netflix, iTunes and Amazon. Computers might want your creative job next

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/18/the_clerk_rip/singleton/

The architecture meltdown

One of the coolest creative-class careers has cratered with the economy. Where does architecture go from here?

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/04/the_architecture_meltdown/singleton/

No Sympathy for the Creative Class

Taxpayers bail out Wall Street and Detroit. But there's no help, or Springsteen anthem, for struggling creatives

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/22/no_sympathy_for_the_creative_class/singleton/




Steal This Album:
What happens if no one pays for music?


http://www.salon.com/2012/06/20/steal_this_album_what_happens_if_no_one_pays_for_music/

My Studio 360 appearance: 

All of my Salon pieces: 

Creative Class on Studio 360

MY latest Salon story on the plight of the creative class has gotten more attention than anything I've written this year -- thanks to those who read and passed around this story.

"No Sympathy For the Creative Class," as it's called, looked at the distance between our assumptions about artists, musicians, writers, etc. and the reality of a life in the arts, especially during times that are hitting the creative class especially hard.  In any case, it seemed to strike a nerve.

So I'm pleased to announce that I'll be on Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen over the weekend. (Times vary.) This is one of the nation's finest arts/culture shows, and it was a real pleasure to discuss these topics, however grim, with the SPY magazine co-founder.

Kurt is an excellent interlocutor, and our conversation was lively. But I admit to being a bit tongue-tied when he asked me about solutions to our current plight. Part of what's happening is structural, grounded in technological changes, and cannot be easily reversed. Part of it may budge with changes in thinking and doing.

The simple answer, which I should have given Kurt, is that so far I have concentrated on the root causes and human, tangible effects of this new world we find ourselves in. As for a path out of the current crisis, to a less punishing world for creativity and culture, stay tuned. Ask me in six months.

I'm also going to start posting small items that relate to my argument. Here's a story from UK's The Guardian whose title is quite direct: "Other professionals don't work for free. So why are writers expected to?" As someone who broke into journalism by writing for nothing, because I was told this was an important exercise in "dues paying," and who continues to get offers to work for free, this hits me particularly hard. I welcome comments on it.

Thanks again for following these issues, folks, and see you on Studio 360.

UPDATE: HERE is the link to my interview, which broadcasts nationally over the weekend.

The Creative Class: Idle Dreamers

THE latest of my series for Salon on the damage the recession, digital technology and the Internet have exerted on the creative class runs today. I'm consumed with the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this weekend but will try to post on it more extensively later.

This piece looked at the crisis and said, Why aren't we hearing about it? Why has it not entered the cultural conversation? And why do is our first gut reaction that artists and creative types are, as one of my sources puts it, idle dreamers?

I'll just say this one required the most work, the most research and I think has the most depth and sweep. HERE is the new piece.

Architecture and the Creative Class

THINGS seemed to be going so well: The architect was a figure tailor-made for the heyday of bourgeois bohemia, and Frank Gehry was palling around with Brad Pitt.

But things changed, badly, and it's not clear now when, or how, they'll change back. Corporate firms are in some cases doing fine, and architects who design for the 1% are doing better than those who depend on civic projects, but many others are hurting.

The latest of my stories about the creative class in the 21st century -- part of Salon's Art in Crisis series -- just went up HERE. I spoke to a number of architects and observers to get a sense of this important but imperiled field.

Death of the Clerk

TODAY I've got a new story from my Salon series on the demise of the creative class. It looks at the humble store clerk and asks, What does it means that these people -- and the places they work, like Rocket Video, Tower Records, Dutton's Brentwood Books, and so on -- are disappearing?

I spoke to a video store clerk, writers Jonathan Lethem and Dana Gioia, an MIT research scientist and others.

Here is that story.

UPDATE: Here are some late-breaking figures about the decline of creative jobs in Southern California.