The Culture Journalist

What do Ticketmaster price gouging and widespread journalism layoffs and have in common? They’re both downstream consequences, at least in part, of lax antitrust enforcement. If that sounds obtuse, consider this: antitrust law — the legislation that aims to prevent monopolies from forming and keep business competition healthy — directly impacts how power is being consolidated across American socie...

This week, we’re re-upping our episode with writer Cord Jefferson, who just won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for American Fiction , which he also directed. American Fiction was adapted from the 2001 novel Erasure , by writer Percival Everett. And since Sunday night, the film, and Cord’s comments about it, have been provoking a lot of interesting conversation about Black representation in H...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit theculturejournalist.substack.com Note: If you are a media worker who has lost work or been laid off, email us at theculturejournalist@substack.com and we'll send you the full episode for free. This week, we explore why 2024 has been such a terrible year for journalists, with so many publications announcing cuts or closures—and in such...

Hey pals. In January, Condé Nast shocked the entire independent music world when it announced it was laying off most of Pitchfork’s staff and folding what remained into GQ. Emilie especially felt this one — Pitchfork was her first media job, working as an editor for their underground music sister-site Altered Zones, which made it particularly strange to hear that the publication was merging with a...

What do TikTok voice , generic “hipster coffee shop” decor, and Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Super Bowl kissing photos have in common? According to Kyle Chayka , a staff writer at The New Yorker , they’re all products of something called “filterworld,” his word for a “vast, interlocking, and yet diffuse network of algorithms that influence our lives today.” His new book, Filterworld: How Algorith...

Hey pals. Here’s a development that we never had on our 2024 bingo card: shoegaze is back, and it’s arguably bigger than ever. Andrea first got wind of this in October when she interviewed one of the architects of the genre , which dates back to the 80s and early 90s and is characterized by reverbed-out guitars, heavy feedback, and vocals that sit way back in the mix. On the heels of their fifth a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit theculturejournalist.substack.com Welcome back to the Culture Journalist. To kick off our 2024 programming, we’ve cooked up a special, New Year’s-themed episode for paid subscribers. Elliot Aronow—a fashion and music media veteran and founder of the minor genius newsletter, which focuses on helping artists unlock their “minor genius”—jo...

Before we dip for a short end-of-year break, it’s time for a music streaming check-in. Our own “Wrapped,” if you will. There’s a lot going on.  Just last month, Spotify announced that it would stop paying artists completely for tracks with fewer than 1000 streams — just a few weeks before slashing 17 percent of its workforce (about 1500 people) in its third round of cuts this year. And those aren’...

To celebrate the release of Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion of Big Tech by the great tech journo Brian Merchant (Buy it! Read it! It’s terrific!), we’re reupping our conversation with Brian from back in June — which, between the OpenAI shakeup, Hollywood strikes, and the growing number of Big Tech antitrust cases, has only become more relevant since then. It’s also a great compl...

Back in 2012, a YouTube user called @taia777 posted a 59-minute video of some dreamy white clouds obscured by thorny green vines, soundtracked by the music for Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong’s Quest . It was just another example of the popular trend of video game soundtracks on YouTube, but then something strange happened: Down in the comments section, strangers started spontaneously...

Six months ago, Goldman Sachs published some research valuing the creator economy at $250 billion — a number they say could roughly double over the next five years. But it also found that just 4 percent of creators are considered “professionals,” meaning they pull in more than $100k per year. ( Sound familiar ?) As Google , Meta , and Amazon square off with regulators over their ownership of more...

This week, our regular programming resumes with a survey of the state of post-pandemic nightlife, from ubiquitous Britney Spears remixes to artists griping that DJing is “embarrassing” now . Joined by Shawn Reynaldo, creator of the popular First Floor newsletter and author of a recent book of essays on the evolving nature of electronic music culture and the industry that surrounds it, Emilie and A...

If you grew up reading publications like The Village Voice and LA Weekly , you probably remember flipping through pages and pages of edgy, hyper-local journalism, concert and movie listings, and classified ads of both the romantic and non-romantic variety. But what is the role of the alt weekly in the 21st century, when a lot of these functions have been swallowed up by the internet? And, perhaps...

For most of the so-called “content creators” we know, marketing is a necessary evil. You make the work you want to make, then wait until the last possible moment to figure out how you’re going to get people to click on it. But what would it look like if you became super obsessed with the marketing side of the equation and let it become the driving force of the entire creative process? What if you...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit theculturejournalist.substack.com With Hollywood actors and writers joining forces on the picket line for the first time in 63 years, “ hot labor summer” is officially upon us — and on this week’s subscriber-only episode, Emilie and Andrea try to pinpoint the sweltering, revolutionary, distinctly Barbie-pink feeling in the air. We discu...

Hello everyone. We’re interrupting our regular programming this week to bring you a taste of something different: On Monday, the journalist Max Tani reported that VICE Media paid its executives out over a million dollars in bonuses in the weeks before filing for bankruptcy — so our friends at Nersey , a new podcast that bears no relation to the VICE music vertical by the same name, convened an eme...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit theculturejournalist.substack.com In this week’s subscriber-only episode, Andrea and Emilie introduce listeners to Emilie’s concept of “jobflation,” based on her observation that more and more of the “laptop jobs” on the market now actually seem like three or four jobs rolled into one. In other words, just like with the decreased spendi...

Hi gang. You ever notice how every generation, in every big city, seems to have a moment when the scene that defined them — the music venues, artists’ lofts, dive bars, and misfit inhabitants that collectively forged a cultural zeitgeist — is declared dead? Think: The closure of CBGB in Manhattan, the arrival of Erewhon in Silver Lake, the memeification of Berghain in Berlin. The phenomenon raises...

Hey friends. Have you ever fantasized about smashing your phone or throwing your computer into the sea? If so, you’re in good company, because today’s episode is all about the story of the Luddites, an underground network of early 19th century machinists and textile workers in England who took up arms against industrialists looking to automate them out of a job. They did this, quite literally, by...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit theculturejournalist.substack.com This week, in response to a question from a listener, Emilie and Andrea wax philosophical about one of the most harrowing aspects of trying to make a living as a writer in today’s gnarly media economy: pitching! We discuss how this particular system for commissioning stories ended up becoming so ubiquit...

Since May 2, the Writers Guild of America has been on strike, shutting down film sets across the country and demanding a fair shake in the face of a changing Hollywood landscape that, if we’re being honest, looks a lot like the one that we’re dealing with over here in the media industry. Hint: It has a lot to do with the ways that some of the world’s biggest tech companies — including Netflix, App...

Spring is here and the outside world is beckoning. So we’re taking a break from talking about evil billionaires , digital surveillance , and shadowy financial instruments to bring you a special conversation with boyfriend-of-the-pod Drew Millard, who just published a book called How Golf Can Save Your Life . If that sounds pretty far afield from our usual programming, it’s not: Inspired by his exp...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit theculturejournalist.substack.com Note: If you are a media worker who has lost work or been laid off, reply to this email and we will send you this episode for free. Between the layoffs at Buzzfeed and Insider , VICE reportedly preparing to file for bankruptcy , and Elon’s multi-front war against public media and independent journalists...

How did tech giants like Spotify and Meta and TikTok get so good at separating us creative workers from the value we generate with our work? According to a fascinating new book by Melbourne Law school professor Rebecca Giblin and journalist, science-fiction author, and activist Cory Doctorow , the answer lies in something called “chokepoint capitalism”: the phenomenon whereby platforms insert them...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit theculturejournalist.substack.com In the hours before Silicon Valley Bank imploded last week, setting off a chain of events that would send the entire tech (and finance) world into an existential tailspin, Andrea and Emilie made the somewhat excruciating decision to watch Spotify’s annual business presentation, “ Stream On ” — all hour...