“At the end of the ’80s, rock accounted for more than 40 percent of U.S. music sales, and guitarists still strutted the stage like kings. Yet by the year 2000, rock had fallen below 25 percent of the market, and rap artists were proving, week after week, that hit songs didn’t need any guitar.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Is Your Theatre Investing In Local Businesses? Here’s How
“We are regularly asking for local businesses to fund our work as sponsors and then we take the funds raised and distribute them elsewhere through corporate and online spending. Local arts organizations have to start taking seriously the role they play in the development and strength of their own local economies.”
New York Is About To Get A Shape-Shifting Buidling
Movable walls that raise up like garage doors and slide open allow the building to essentially become one big Tetris puzzle in which the users can slot in stadium seating for up to 1,250 people—or leave open for a standing audience of 3,000.
Intellectuals Are Smart. What They Aren’t Is Typical
“My point is that people who specialize in the life of ideas tend to be extremely atypical of their societies. They — we — are freaks in a statistical sense. For generations, populists of various kinds have argued that intellectuals are unworldly individuals out of touch with the experiences and values of most of their fellow citizens. While anti-intellectual populists have often been wrong about the gold standard or the single tax or other issues, by and large they have been right about intellectuals.”
Estonia Takes A Start-Up Approach To Kickstart Its Music Scene
“Estonia has a long history of music-making and state support for classical music, but we didn’t have a tradition of musical entrepreneurship. With the Tallinn Music Week, we wanted to kick-start an artistic entrepreneurship culture. We felt that the success of Estonian music was going to be dependent on artists acting like self-sufficient companies.”
A History Of American Violins – In 250 Instruments
“The fact that there will be all of them in the Library of Congress — they’ll all still be together, they’ll all be available for study. It’s the only memorial that hundreds of American violin-makers are going to have.”
Poll Of 150 International Conductors: World’s Top Symphonies
BBC Music Magazine surveyed 151 conductors working across the world to come up with a top 20 great symphonies.
Detroit Artists Are Having A National Moment. So Who Gets To Tell Detroit’s Story?
“The show also raises questions about the popular narratives surrounding Detroit art, the often narrow perceptions about what exactly defines art from Detroit and how the conversation is starting to change — or needs to change.”
Five Essential Stories From Last Week’s ArtsJournal Haul, Context Edition
This Week: The ways in which we experience art are about to change in big ways… Auction houses are becoming shadow banks for the super-wealthy with money to stash… The Met Museum’s super-successful year (at least at the admissions booth)… Predictably, Harry Potter slays sales records… Do we have a problem with the ways we develop artists’ careers?
That Time Atlanta Got All Dressed Up To Host The Olympics. Then The New Yorker Made Fun…
Imagine then the shock and disappointment when the July 22, 1996 issue of The New Yorker arrived at our house. The cover illustration featured a farmer in overalls with a pig under one arm and the other arm holding a torch. Roosters were at his feet as he stood ready to light the cauldron beneath a display of the Olympic rings. Across his chest a banner read, “Howdy.”