W. David Marx

I’m actually not sure we can come back from “prediction markets for war crimes”, as a society. I think this might be it for us.

Rygterne om kulturens død er stærkt overdrevne - Føljeton

Til mine dansktalende venner

www.foljeton.dk/post/rygtern...

I think status and culture is coming to Portuguese but no offers yet for Blank Space

Les artistes sont-ils de moins en moins créatifs ? Dans son ouvrage “Blank Space”, dont le titre fait référence à une chanson de Taylor Swift, l’écrivain américain W. David Marx avance l’idée que nous nous trouvons aujourd’hui face à un “épuisement cu...

In France, they invite erudite professors on the radio to debate and debunk a summary of a summary of my book:

www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

There should be! I pitched an "Ametora of Japanese indie music" but publishers wanted Blank Space instead. I'd love to do it someday

One of the challenges of writing a cultural history of the 21st century is that you have to recognize the following reality about what people see as "culture" today

"How can he say there's no creativity when there's [a very interesting artist who is in no way a household name, which is my point]!"

I never make the claim that there's fewer creative people, just that there is less innovation *in the system* and less from the representative stars of our era

I know I brought this upon myself by writing a sprawling book, but I feel like 75% of the debates about BLANK SPACE are people arguing against a summary of a summary of what I actually wrote

I've requested multiple times!

Not to go all Harold Bloom, but the stronger artists of the next generation always reshape the history to explain their own emergence. Joy Division explained the subsequent decades of music in a way that Christopher Cross couldn't.

The Hilarious Decline of MAGA’s Brief Cultural Relevance A year ago, everyone was doing the “Trump dance.” Now the president is too scared to show his face at the Super Bowl, and the right’s “alternative” halftime show features the cringey, washed-up Kid Ro...

"The biggest story of the last year is that Trump has, in a very short amount of time, squandered most of his political capital by running a belligerent, unlawful, and fascist regime. But the second biggest is that the right has squandered all of the cultural capital his election brought them."

It took me three attempts... You have to just make it part of your life for a long time

Interestingly, a similar thesis was made by this book, though not as a positive thing: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/769187...

The author's claim was that once you equate fame/wealth with success (above e.g. artistry, insightfulness) many things go to shit.

Robin Williams came into Tokion, and was looking at a shirt and I said we also have it in other sizes and he made a very animated WHUZAA sound and gesture and then bought something and left

Thanks for reading. I don't think cultural omnivorism is a "problem" and I show throughout that it could be quite creative; it just has a logical end point that we hit in the 2020s where there's nothing left to blend that creates the same effect

Pictures of our February Literary Thursdays guests—W. David Marx, Brian Jones, Victor Luckerson, and Brianna Holt—and their book covers.

Our virtual Literary Thursdays series brings you live conversations with amazing writers.

Learn More about our February guests: @wdavidmarx.bsky.social, @brianjoneseducator.bsky.social, @vluck89.bsky.social, and Brianna Holt!

queenslibrary.org/calendar?sea...

#BlackHistoryMonth

My new book Still In A Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers, and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984-94 is out in June on @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social . It's a love letter to the music of my youth and a flashback to the most exciting time of my writing life. Pre-order geni.us/StillInADream

That's very young. My memory is that he released a punk rock album before he went to Harvard.

The only good part of the first "Melania" film is the Wes Anderson-esque opening credits sequence where they got Paul Simon to sing a cover of Paul McCartney and Wings' "Mamunia" with every instance of "Mamunia" replaced with "Melania"

What do Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump have in common?

As cultural critic @wdavidmarx.bsky.social argues in his book Blank Space, they are all representatives of a single MONOCULTURE that has taken over the planet...

Full convo HERE 👇🏻

youtu.be/d_fwbtnUr5Y

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meu deus o w david marx citando vampire weekend e pulp no mesmo parágrafo de análise cultural do capitalismo tardio estou assim

Have the show runners considered opening an episode with Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" and ending it with Underworld's "Born Slippy"?

The Industry score is nice but the soundtrack declines to ever be more obscure than a high schooler's mixtape from 1998

Oh wow, how did you ever think to use Henry Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary? Was it possiblely because it's already famous as the main theme in A Clockwork Orange?

"If you watch an episode of Cheers, you might hear references to foreign filmmakers, to classical musicians, to Russian novelists. The level of assumed knowledge back then was far greater; now, TV is rarely adventurous in its allusions."

Our Algorithmic Grey-Beige World Made with OpenAi/ChatGPT I start my morning going through nearly 250 feeds that flow into my “reader” app. Today, two quotes stood out in my early morning reading. “The main purpo…

What used to require shame and ostracism is now baked into the internet’s economic infrastructure. The algorithmic reality of technology platforms has codified conformity into the human condition. And it is very profitable—the real late-stage capitalism.

✒️ CHRONIQUE – La culture du 21e siècle est-elle nulle ? Pour l'essayiste américain W. David Marx, la culture du premier quart du siècle se déploie dans un « espace vide ». https://www.scienceshumaines.com/la-culture-du-21e-siecle-est-elle-nulle

And yet those monsters dare say culture is stagnating

My 2026 New York Times Pick — Nagasaki

Some additional notes on my 2026 New York Times 52-Places to Go pick: Nagasaki

craigmod.com/ridgeline/221/

You can buy liquid packs in some groceries

The series "M. Son of the Century" about Mussolini establishes that '99-era Electronica is the sound of fascism