Is culture dead or is it just the people making it?
Why #zombieculture is eating contemporary culture alive
It's Saturday November 4th 2023, a full eight years, one month and 14 days past the point in time that Marty McFly arrived in the future by flying car, strapped on his self-lacing boots and made us all want a hoverboard so what have I spent my morning doing? Listening to the biggest new music releases of the month from...The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. The future is definitely not what it used to be.
First, as a Beatles fan, let me say that the new single is poignant and beautiful and it really is eerie to hear a young John Lennon sing again (it's definitely more a John song than a Beatles song), but it does make me wonder - is new music dead or is it just the people making it?
I know what you're thinking; what about Taylor Swift? She's breaking records left and right with her 'Eras' tour and it's true, but she's also just released a new album which is exactly the same album that she released in 2014. And she has another five releases of old material to go.
Before her and Beyonce's box office breaking tours, the biggest tour this year was Elton John who keeps bidding farewell but never quite seems to leave, a bit like Madonna who is back on the road again. It feels like all the airtime is being sucked up by people who have had their time and I fear it's only going to get worse as artists cash in on their back catalogs.
You may recall, in 2021, Bruce Springsteen sold his songs and performance rights to Sony for more than $500 million, this was followed by Bob Dylan who sold his publishing for a reported $200-300million and his masters for around S$200 million, Neil Young's publishing went for S$300 million, David Bowie’s for $250 million etc. One of the biggest buyers of back catalogs is Hipgnosis Songs Fund founded by music manager Merck Mercuriadis and Chic front man Nile Rodgers in 2018, and part owned by The Blackstone Group, who have also started buying up producer rights and movie rights too.
The rights, or rather the copyrights, on most works last 70 years - a lifespan - which means investors have about 40-50 years remaining to make as much money off their investments as possible. How? Like this. First you'll start seeing these songs (and potentially their authors), creeping up in ads, films, TV shows and games more often, arguably cheapening their legacy.
Next you'll see them trying to create stage shows out of them a.k.a. jukebox musicals like 'Hot Legs' featuring the music of Rod Stewart, ‘Tina: The Tina Turner Musical’ and ‘We Will Rock You’ featuring the music of Queen. But the problem with stage shows is you need to employ actors and musicians who eat up your profit margin. But how about a stage show with holograms? Just plug in a memory stick, press play and, hey presto, Abba Voyage which, lest we forget, followed the films 'Mamma Mia!', 'Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again' AND 'Mamma Mia! The Party' (oh, you hadn't heard of that? Watch this: https://mammamiatheparty.co.uk).
And as much as these shows may bring great joy to fans they take airtime and physical space away from new artists and encourage people to lean into the easy, familiar and comfortable. The massive sums made don't even go to record labels to invest in new artists but, increasingly, to funds and fund managers who distribute the returns to their shareholders after they’ve taken their cut. It seems to me that, in an age obsessed with innovation, we are using data only to find out what's worked in the past so we can do more of the same. The only real innovation is in finding new ways to monetise old assets.
The same applies to movies too. This weekend’s big release is 'The Marvels' movie, which is based on a 29 year old comic book and is movie #33 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Disney are nearly done turning all of their beloved cartoons into less lovable live action remakes (Rachel Ziegler anyone?), and amongst the highest grossing films of 2023 were:
Guardians of The Galaxy 3
Fast 10
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 (which is actually MI:7)
John Wick 4
Transformers Rise of The Beasts (a.k.a. Transformers 7)
Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny (so…Indie #5 then!)
Creed 3
Insidious 5
The Equalizer 3
Scream 6
Saw 10
Titanic 25th Anniversary
Magic Mike 3...I shan't go on.
There's more originality on the streaming services and of course, this was the summer of Barbie and Oppenheimer, which were the first of their kind but I suspect the lessons learned from Barbie will be the wrong ones i.e. people want more movies about toys, instead of, people want more female led movies made by original cinematic voices like Great Gerwig and marketed as massive cultural moments, so brace yourself for the Hot Wheels, Mega Blox and UNO movies coming soon from Mattel!
As you can see from the A.I. generated ‘Barbenheimer’ trailer above, technology is amazing. It has allowed many more artists and creators to get their start online but how many will make the leap to the mainstream if it is already filled with holographic Stones and a creepy AI Tom Cruise still running for his life long after death in Mission Impossible 27! We need to make space for new talent on the big stages and the big screens, not just in our browser windows. The Beatles are the biggest band of all time and Tom Cruise is the biggest movie star in the world, they are both guaranteed chart toppers and I love to hear them on the radio and see them on the big screen for now...but not forever.
So, having waxed lyrical about the lack of original content, what am I reading, watching and listening to that’s new?
This week I discovered that British journalist and cultural commentator Helen Lewis has a Substack, thanks to her heartfelt tribute to Matthew Perry that went viral. The ‘Friends’ actor was found dead in his hot tub at just 54 years of age following a long battle with addiction.
‘Friends’ was formative for Helen and me and our generation who transitioned from teenagers to grown ups during it’s ten year tenure. It set a new aspiration for adulthood that, if we’re honest, was never really attainable but with his passing is now forever out of reach.
The Alliance Française French Film Festival is coming up and I’ve selected Luc Besson’s latest ‘Dogman’ for me, ‘Marinette’ for me and the Mrs, and ‘A Cat’s Life’ for me and my daughter to regarder.
Musically, I am on record as a fan of Singaporean shoegaze and dreampop and another new band has popped on to my radar, Blush are having their album launch at the Esplanade Annex Studio on 11th November but you can check out ‘Supercrush’ now on Spotify:
And finally, I have been working on my own new podcast this week, entitled ‘The Business of Storytelling’, the first eight episodes are in the can and I hope to launch by next month. Here’s a sneak peek:
‘Til next time, Nx
Looks like The Times' Richard Morrison agrees with me on this: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wonka-movie-richard-morrison-arts-column-opinion-bc373fzm3