The Death of the Slow Dance (and Other Emerging Trends)
My latest briefing paper on the state of the creative economy
Every once in a while, I dig into emerging trends in arts and culture—with links to relevant articles. (See for example here and here.)
I try to focus on key developments that aren’t widely covered elsewhere. Some are amusing and others are deadly serious. The end result is an executive briefing paper on the culture.
These have been well received. So let’s do it again.
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The Death of the Slow Dance
Music has always been a leading indicator of trends in romance and courtship. (I wrote a whole book about that.) So what can we conclude from the disappearance of the slow dance?
Not long ago, these songs—played at slow tempos in dimly-lit dance halls—were how couples explored intimacy in a risk-free environment. This was so popular that guys paid to dance with total strangers.
And now? One DJ explains what he learned recently when playing at a dance for a young crowd: “There were a lot of 23–25-year-olds, and all they want to do is twerk.”
There’s a paradox here. The younger generation is sexually liberated but, according to another DJ, slow dancing is “too intimate and scary.”
Journalist Kyle Denis tries to explain this situation:
Ironically, the once-chaste act of slow dancing may now be more taboo among young people, because of the intensity of its intimacy. When you are slow dancing, you are face to face with another person, staring into their eyes for an extended period of time. That is a stark difference from most approaches to twerking, where a woman’s back is to another person’s front, as a song that emphasizes the casualness of sexual interactions blasts in the background.
This phenomenon deserves more investigation, and maybe even statistical research. I’d be curious, for example, to see what actual dancers have to say about front-to-front versus front-to-back musical courtship.
The Song Buying Mania in the Finance World is Over
Not long ago, the hottest investment in music was old songs. Finance groups and corporations were buying up song catalogs at a frantic pace.
Back in 2021, I predicted that this trend would soon come to a halt. I wrote:
At first glance, this obsession with old songs makes no sense. Songs are a depleting asset, much like oil in the ground. . . . I’ll cut to the chase: Old songs are hot right now. But they won’t be for long.
And now?
Song acquisitions have slowed to a trickle. And even the largest song investment group, Hipgnosis, may be forced to sell some of its songs—or possibly liquidate its entire fund.
Hipgnosis has been under pressure from its investors to shop around non-core assets with the goal of buying back the company’s shares to uplift the fund’s decreased stock price. Hipgnosis is set to hold an official shareholder vote in September that will determine the company’s next move — whether that be to liquidate or allow the fund to continue operating in its current form.
The most amusing part of this story is that it proves rock stars were smarter about money than financiers. I suspect that we will soon see conclusive proof that musicians wisely sold out at the top.
Audiences Finally Get Tired of Superhero Movies
Movie genres come and go.
There was a day when new cowboy films arrived at theaters every week, and drew huge audiences. There was a day when Broadway musicals were turned into surefire hit films. There was a day when people went on dates and saw date movies.
Yawn! All that is over.
And now even superheroes are proving less than invincible. In a detailed statistical analysis, Daniel Parris (a shrewd observer of cultural trends) shows that superheroes never recovered from COVID.
Six films have crossed $1B in worldwide ticket sales since 2020: Barbie, Super Mario Bros., Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World Dominion, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Avatar: The Way of Water. This list is notable for two reasons:
That movies can still gross over $1B.
That only one of these entries is of the superhero genre.
He believes that the quality of these films has declined—and this has dimmed audience enthusiasm. This suggests that better Marvel movies can reverse the trend.
But declines of this of this sort feed on themselves. Already we see studios cutting back on their investment in new superhero films. The pattern is eerily reminiscent of earlier shifts in audience genre preferences.
As a wise rock star once said: “All things must pass.” And that’s even true for Spiderman and Batman.
Maybe I’m dreaming—okay, I’m almost certainly dreaming—but this could lead to a revival of smarter, less formulaic movies. That really ought to happen, because character-driven and plot-driven dramas are a lot cheaper to make than Marvel spectacles.
If handled wisely, movies made with moderate budgets have significant upside; and, at a minimum, make it easier to diversify risk—which is hard to do in a blockbuster-driven culture.
I note that the original budget for Oppenheimer was $100 million. The same was initially true of Barbie, although it crept up to $145 million before completion. That’s less than half of what Warner Bros is spending on the repeatedly delayed Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom film (now slated for December release).
That might be the sink-or-swim moment for these films. But, in this new environment, even Aquaman may not be enough to keep the superhero franchises afloat.
What Happens to Coverage of the Writers’ Strike When the Same Company Owns Billboard, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, and Deadline?
You may not have heard of Penske Media Corporation, but you do know their periodicals—which include all of the above, and many more.
An in-depth article in Defector now looks at Penske’s role in coverage of the Hollywood strikes—and asks whether the top priority of these publications is independent journalism or supporting the existing power structure.
I want to stress again that all three of these publications [Variety, Hollywood Reporter and Deadline] are owned by the same company. And they’re making the same mistakes over and over, burning credibility with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. At the end of the day, without outright stating it, by printing these stories they are effectively taking the side of management in a labor dispute. That’s a bad look for anyone, it’s frankly a weird look when one of the groups striking is the writers. Because you’d think if anyone would fully understand the situation of the WGA, it would be other writers suffering from the same squeeze as the ones who work for TV and film.
This is a bigger issue that just a Hollywood strike. And it makes clear how important indie voices on Substack (and other alternative platforms) are in a time not only of shrinking coverage, but also consolidation and homogenization in the media.
Even Infants Prefer Live Music
I take every opportunity to celebrate real human beings making music is real-life situations. The business of music is built on tracks, but they can never convey the full experience. Or so I think.
It turns out that babies agree with me.
A recent study at the University of Toronto shows that infants have longer attention spans when experiencing live music. We’re told how much kids love staring at screens, but even video playback doesn’t captivate them as much.
Other physiological changes were noted. For example, heart rate synchronization—a useful measure of our organic connection with a song—was heightened.
“Findings suggest that performer–audience interactions and social context play an important role in facilitating attention and coordinating emotional responses to musical performances early in life.”
Japan Treats Isolated Loners at Re-education Camps
These people are called hikikomori In Japan. But we see the same phenomenon in the US and elsewhere. These are loners cut off from society, living in a private world of video games, the internet and pop culture.
In Japan, a surprisingly large number of these recluses are middle-aged. Half are women (that surprised me). Few seek out treatment because of “feelings of embarrassment or shame.”
“Many of these middle-aged hikikomori have been living reclusively since they were in their twenties,” explains journalist Tim Hornyak. “What will become of them when their parents die is a topic of anxious speculation.”
Now treatment is available. But it involves re-education camp where a new regimen is imposed:
Pretending you reside in isolation at Hito Refresh Camp is not allowed. At a minimum, the residents are required to keep up the house communally, including taking turns cooking and cleaning. Beyond that, when they’re ready, they can participate in collective farm work such as cutting grass. All of these activities involve interacting with staff, counselors and locals, who impart skills, join monthly parties or go on excursions.
I haven’t heard about this happening in the US or Europe. But surely it’s coming.
Automakers Battle Over the Ideal Soundtrack for Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicles offer a quiet ride. But is that what motorists really want?
Auto manufacturers are pursuing different strategies. Some just replicate the recorded sound of actual engines. Others pay big bucks to hire Hollywood composers—as BMW did with Oscar-winner Hans Zimmer.
The new trend is techno music. The emerging view is that electric vehicles deserve an electric soundtrack. So Renault has enlisted Jean-Michel Jarre. One journalist has described this move as “an EV soundscape war with BMW.”
In some instances, these projects are morphing into full-fledged corporate partnerships—for example, Japanese auto-maker GLM is working closely with Roland, a major manufacturer of synthesizers.
But others fear that an excessive reliance on electric sounds creates an inhuman experience. According to Attack Magazine, the next trend may be “pushing things into a friendlier and more human-embracing zone.”
“By incorporating audio from human musicians—vocals, instruments, music—they’re making the cars themselves more human. Less dystopian cyberpunk and more utopian synergy of man and machine.”
Let me close with a couple of amusing diversions.
I enjoyed this article on Japanese nail houses—celebrations of individualism in the face of authority and pressures to conform. These buildings are owned by stubborn people who refuse to sell when modernization projects arrive in their neighborhood.
You can read more about them here.
Finally, here’s a link to an online musical clock. It plays tracks with the current time in the song title.
The death of slow dancing: I was reminded of my high school slow dancing experiences when I read that Paul, of Paul and Paula, had passed away last week. I don't ever recall feeling that dancing then, in the early-mid '60s, was intimate, but was more about trust, and closeness. As I got older it became more about intimacy to the point that slow dancing in social circles could be uncomfortable with that level of intimacy on display. Maybe that's the real issue behind it disappearing--hook up culture has little to do with intimacy and displays of any kind of intimacy have come to make people very uncomfortable. That could be why the most intimate dance scenes as portrayed in the media are typically shown with the couple in solitude, with no one else around.
I doubt I had any physical contact with a boy until my middle school dance. I was largely ignored unless they wanted to pound a dodgeball straight into my face.
So imagine my surprise when I was asked to dance.
“Stairway to Heaven” to be exact.
The longest 8 minutes of my life. Avoiding eye contact, rocking back and forth, shuffling around awkwardly through increasing tempo changes. “Do I stop touching him now? Can I pull the fire alarm and run?”
Twerking is appalling but had it been around in 1983…