Black Sky Thinking
Essays, investigation and opinion on today’s cultural landscape
Black Sky Thinking
GIFwave, Groundhog Day & Culture After The Apocalypse
The recent announcement that the OED had made "GIF" its word of the year prompts Ryan Diduck to consider the similarities of that tiny looping file format to culture in 2012, and why, like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, being doomed to repeat ourselves might not be entirely a bad thing
Black Sky Thinking
Gangnam Style & How The World Woke Up To The Genius Of K-Pop
Robert Barry takes a deeper look at the k-pop phenomenon and Western responses to it, and argues that this natural extension of South Korea's high-tech culture is this some of the most innovative music currently being made
Black Sky Thinking
Dance ‘Til The Police Come: Post-Punk Politics In 2012
In our latest Wreath Lecture, Joe Kennedy argues that now the flaccid post punk revival of ten years ago is over, in 2012 artists are making music that embraces the imperative to move forward and reflect troubled times. Header image: artwork for test pressing of Prurient's Bermuda Drain
Black Sky Thinking
Too Loud & It All Sounds The Same? Why Researchers Were Wrong On Pop
Kicking off The Quietus Wreath Lectures 2012: After scientists earlier this year claimed to have proved that music has been sliding a path of diminishing returns and actually does all sound the same, musicologist Stephen Graham points out why pop music is probably as exciting now as it was in 1955.
Black Sky Thinking
Social Media Myth: Why Facebook Hasn’t Stolen Your Friends
Over the past few months, Facebook has been heaving under panic postings from bands and so on claiming that their posts were being hidden in a Zuckerberg quest for cash. Not so, says Charles Ubaghs, head of social media for a major radio group
Black Sky Thinking
It’s Time For Brits To Stop Fawning Over US Politics & Set Our House In Order
From the reaction to this just-completed American election, you'd think that Britain was the 51st State. Luke Turner argues that it's time for us to stop looking over the Atlantic, and prepare for 2015 in our own back yard
Black Sky Thinking
For Those About To Mope: How Rock Learned To Love The Smiths & Morrissey
The battle lines were clear in the 1980s: you either loved Iron Maiden or you loved The Smiths, you couldn’t love both. So how did it come to pass that Morrissey would release a pop punk album and become one of the most dropped names in metal and heavy rock? John Doran investigates
Black Sky Thinking
An Olympic Cynic On Why Britain Won More Than Medals
Olympic cynic Luke Turner was largely won over by the achievements of the London Games. Here he argues that, despite all the still-extant reservations about how the Olympics are run, the true legacy ought not be Team GB's bling, but a Coalition-proof sense of our National identity
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