The Awl charts the entire course, from the Conception Phase and Underground Phase, through the Indie and Hipster Phases, into and out of the Top 40, to the Shame Phase and beyond. (Not to forget the karaoke afterlife.)
Tag: 04.10.14
Why We Shouldn’t Trust People Who Predict The Future
“Why? Because there’s money in it; money and faith. I don’t just mean the few millions to be made from book sales; nor do I mean the simple geek belief in gadgetry. And I certainly don’t mean the pallid, undefined, pop-song promises of politicians trying to turn our eyes from the present – Bill Clinton’s “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow” and Tony Blair’s “Things can only get better”. No, I mean the billions involved in corporate destinies and the yearning for salvation from our human condition.”
How Can You Be Against World Literature?
What does a critic oppose, exactly, when she takes a stand “against world literature”?
Two-On-One: A Novelist And Her Editors
“As is the case with many novelists with an international profile, Emma Donoghue has more than one editor. … The Canadian novelist and her two editors [form Canada and the U.S.] talk about sharing responsibilities, resolving disputes, and the long list of ideas Donoghue has waiting for the novels to express them.”
Japan’s Big Pop Star Of The Moment Is A Hologram
“Even by the standards of pop stars, Hatsune Miku is eccentric and protean, her mystique elusive. Her eyes are too round and blue to be real. She can be buxom or boyish, and almost painfully sultry – all in a droid-ish, understated way. … And yet she never fails to elude the paparazzi.”
How Social Media Is Changing The Novel
The all-encompassing “age of social” is having a more profound effect on creative endeavour and the novel is no exception.
Relationships Between Fans And Creators Is Changing (But Some Of That Is An Illusion)
“People who create television – and all media, for that matter – have to navigate a sometimes awkward public/private balance when they go online. Many of them are present, and visible, and sometimes they do engage with fans, but just because you can tweet at someone doesn’t mean that it’s a dialogue.”
Major Broadway Tours Can Linger Longer In N.Y. Before, You Know, Touring
That’s because of a new tax break meant to stave off poaching from other states: “State lawmakers included the incentive in their recent budget after Louisiana, Illinois, and Rhode Island began luring nascent productions away with their own live-theater incentives.”
For The First Time, Online Advertisers Spend More Online Than On TV
Overall, online advertising revenue climbed 17% to a record $42.8 billion in the U.S. in 2013; by comparison, revenue generated from advertising on broadcast TV came in at $40.1 billion last year.
Ban Internet Slang? For Realz?
It’s an interesting cultural moment: on the one hand, the self-appointed cyberhustler experts in the “future of news” spend their time mocking the fustiness of old media; on the other hand, a star online destination wants to sound more like one of its paper-based predecessors.