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

new quarter century more art more good

One year ago today, @slate.com published an excerpt from my essay collection Y2K, which came out in January 2025. It’s a braided narrative about Y2K pop culture, time capsules, and millennial disappointment, and I’d appreciate if you gave it a read. slate.com/life/2024/12...

An interview with William Gibson on men's wear fashion in Japan of all things. - Buzz Rickson collaborated with him because he included their brand in Pattern Recognition. - He's apparently a fan of Acronym & Self Edge. -A conversation on simulacra & authenticity www.heddels.com/2015/03/will...

From “anything goes” to “something holds.” A culture that treats pluralism as an end becomes a monoculture of scale; only a constructive ideology can turn pluralism back into a path toward truth and the common good. Read the Essay thinkingprospectus.substack.com/p/beyond-sca...

Intervju med forfatter og kulturkritiker W. David Marx. (+) https://www.europesays.com/no/117852/ W. David Marx Foto: Seishi Shirakawa «Det er vanskeligere å forestille seg slutten på Taylor Swift enn verdens…

In his new book, “Blank Space,” critic and historian W. David Marx argues that there's been a dramatic decline of creative innovation. But a number of works — songs and television shows, especially — might help shake us out of the malaise.

Preach, brother!

The 21st century as systems novel www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/m...

Big year for The Pixies having the "Where is My Mind?" chord sequence power two big songs for other artists. Liquidize removes the vi and goes straight to III before going to the IV, but still uses the same harmonic structure. But same key and guitar sound. www.youtube.com/watch?v=05qr...

New ep of Pure Tokyoscope! @patrickmacias.bsky.social and I invite @wdavidmarx.bsky.social to discuss his helming the first-ever English language issue of Japan’s legendary “Popeye” fashion magazine: www.tokyoscope.blog/p/pure-tokyo...

A thread on some recent @liberalcurrents.com bangers Today @sjsharkie.bsky.social interviewed @wdavidmarx.bsky.social on politics as culture www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

there's a kind of crass materialism familiar from marxists--and some technocratic libs--according to which politics is mechanically determined by economic forces. what's valuable about @wdavidmarx.bsky.social's work is how, as a culture critic, he shows us that culture has its own forces and logics

I am grateful to @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com for tolerating my internet connection's bizarre resistance to the podcasting software

I'm editing a bilingual magazine about the wonders of Japanese regional culture for NOT A HOTEL called THE NEW JAPAN. We just released our first issue on the Yaeyama Islands. thenewjapan.com/en

The “first major zeitgeist” of the 21st Century, writes @wdavidmarx.bsky.social in his new book “Blank Space,” was coolness as “raw, decadent, and a little dumb.”

My first book, The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region is officially out today (Dec 2). It’s an urban history of empire, an imperial history of urbanization, and contains the histories of many people who moved across the Tsushima Straits btw 1876-1953.

"There’s a ruthlessness that’s taken hold across all cultural making. Everything turned into a casino, 'traps' galore. Billions as the only goal. Leave “nothing on the table.” Epicurean maximizing. That sort of thing. AI now turning solid ground liquid for the next decade." craigmod.com/roden/109/

Restoring cultural invention doesn’t require upending the current industries—it just needs a small vanguard to change its direction, writes W. David Marx:

YCDTOTV is how I know Ottawa exists

Good example of, damn, I wish I knew this book existed... But never too late to catch up, I guess

Judge this book by its cover www.printmag.com/book-covers/...

I actually once went through Harold Bloom's American Literary Canon. 40 authors included. Only 10 could be said to have 'made it' through hard work and hustle. The rest came from wealth or had influential friends.

Restoring cultural invention doesn’t require upending the current industries—it just needs a small vanguard to change its direction, writes W. David Marx:

Is the Blossoms Shanghai theme song a Succession soundalike?

Este é um dos livros que mais esperei no ano. Pirei no anterior do @wdavidmarx.bsky.social , "Status and Culture". Neste, logo nas primeiras páginas, já toca em como a comercialização de tudo, acelerada pelo neoliberalismo, congelou a ideia cultural de vergonha. Se é malfeito mas vende, é sucesso.

Anti-anti-poptimists rushing to Google to locate random negative reviews of a book they haven't read to feel better after hate-reading a mildly-positive review of the book they haven't read

Read @jenszalai.bsky.social quote @wdavidmarx.bsky.social “This long-term project to rebrand conservatism as cool and transgressive succeeded precisely because we removed cultural invention as a potential countervailing force.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/b...

This was highly anticipated. The part that drives me crazy about Gladwell and Harari is their total dedication to never correcting errors nor ever acknowledging that counter arguments could possibly exist.

BLANK SPACE: A Cultural History of the 21st Century OUT TODAY 11/18/25 culture.ghost.io/my-new-book-...

chicago pope been reading up

I really enjoyed BLANK SPACE by W. David Marx, a look at how barren and repetitive culture has been in the first quarter of this century. My column is in Sunday's print @bostonglobe.com but you can read it here now. Please subscribe! www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/13/a...

Our brains are, in Zoomer parlance, cooked. In his new book, W. David Marx takes a sip of the braising liquid: an unctuous stew of poptimist pap and reactionary bile. Mina Tavakoli reviews his tasting notes.

A punchy new book by W. David Marx, explains why 21st century culture feels samey and dull. Mr Marx makes a trenchant case, but he—and maybe you—are too gloomy

"As one Reddit commenter wrote, 'Country music is perfect for AI. Every song sounds the same.'" AI may be more attractive to provincial audiences who demand their culture to be conventional, because AI is fundamentally a mechanism for regurgitating conventions. www.garbageday.email/p/the-un-pop...

Bostonians/Cantabrigians: I'm at Harvard Book Store on Wednesday November 19 with author/professor Josh Lambert to talk about my new book BLANK SPACE www.harvard.com/event/w-davi...

"The large numbers don’t quite mean what they used to as signals of relevance or clout, as social media has become more aged, more manipulable, and more automated by artificial intelligence." This value shift is important for restoring cultural progress and it looks like it's happening organically

Excellent essay in The Baffler about my new book Blank Space thebaffler.com/outbursts/bl...

Excellent essay in The Baffler about my new book Blank Space thebaffler.com/outbursts/bl...

Whom we designate as a "genius" in 2025 reveals a lot about shifts in the collective cultural values culture.ghost.io/our-geniuses...

NEW YORK BOOK LAUNCH for BLANK SPACE: Greenlight Books in Brooklyn is hosting me and special guest Emily Sundberg at SJNY because we had too many already registered for the in-store event. Grab tickets while you can! www.eventbrite.com/e/book-event...

All of this is true, but I increasingly think the ease of non-creatives being able to flood the internet with media will lead to a massive devaluation of *all* media. (And then that likely leads to a revaluation of real life experiences.)

Interviewed by @jasondiamond.bsky.social for his newsletter The Melt about the English edition of Popeye: www.getthemelt.com/p/japanese-m...

I enjoyed "One Battle After Another" ending with Geese's "Cobra" rather than just doing the cheap trick of tapping into 20th century classic rock to add emotional punch

Yet again @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social of Garbage Day manages to describe the roots of our global cultural predicament in a single paragraph. This is from today's essay on the manosphere turning against Trump: www.garbageday.email/p/the-great-...

Rolling Stone compiled a "The 250 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century" list, and while the specific inclusions are debatable, it gives a sense of the 21st century canon as it's forming. I noticed a bias towards the early 2000s so I ran the numbers: www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

“著者デーヴィッド・マークスにその後のアメトラについて振り返っていただきました。翻訳は『AMETORA』と同じく、奥田祐士” / “10,000部突破記念！『AMETORA』著者、デーヴィッド・マークスによる特別寄稿「執筆から10年後のアメリカントラッドと日本」｜DU BOOKS” (1 user) https://htn.to/43oZDR66fF

Lefsetz called this "clickbait" but fascinating that so many of the very top songs date from The Long 20th Century (2000-2004) rather than from recent years: www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

Coolness eventually trickled down to the very people it was created to devalue