JD Vance Proves Hollywood Buzzword "Representation" Matters, Spotify Stealing from Musicians, The Political Right is Weaponizing "Cancel Culture" Against Society's Most Vulnerable (The Five 07/19/24)
Plus, Twisters expected to be a HUGE hit at the box office this weekend, and the soundtrack is full of bangers. Stranger Things hints at season 5 return.
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
Apologies, this one is a day later, due to some family travel.
Let’s get into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
Up first, the fact that the RNC Convention…actually belongs in the cultural issue of The Five this time around. I won’t be covering Trump’s speech (mostly because I didn’t watch all of it—we’re traveling seeing family, and I was getting the toddler to go to sleep in a new place—no quest for the weakhearted).
However, J.D. Vance’s (somewhat) surprising selection resonated deeply with me, although I suppose time will tell if I agree with his policies or not (Vance has already flipped back and forth on some big stuff—mainly, liking Trump—he was a never Trumper in 2016, and is now his Vice President).
Vance’s nomination hit me so deeply because of a buzz word most Conservatives hate…representation. I am a child of two hometowns, Pike County and Henry County, IL. If you’re reading this outside the Midwest, the quick explanation is that the former is pretty much all ag, and the latter is split between ag and manufacturing (specifically, John Deere). My dad’s side of the family also has deep ties to working for CAT, the heavy manufacturer that serves as Deere’s chief rival.
In the words of Canadian songwriter John Wort Hannam sings “I wasn’t born blue blood, I was born blue collar.” (Side note: go listen to this song). Three of my four grandparents worked blue collar jobs (farmer, farmer, nurse). The majority of my childhood friends’ parents farmed, held a union card, or both.
Vance has a very similar “two hometowns” background, growing up in a low income area in Kentucky before his family moved across the river to Ohio, closer to a base of better paying manufacturing jobs. I see myself in J.D.’s story in a way I haven’t in any other politician in my lifetime…because we both come from Appalachian culture, both know what broke feels like.
The Political Left was correct that “representation matters,” although they executed it very badly, specifically with Disney, Star Wars and Marvel franchises where Hollywood thought a “diverse cast” would cover up terrible scripts.
What the “Representation Advocates” don’t seem to get is that if you grew up blue collar and working class—you have very little representation in media, even if you are white. In the 1990’s of my middle and high school years, nearly ALL pop culture was about pretty people living on one of the coasts with lots of money (Friends, Dawson’s Creek, 90210, etc). That’s not to say these shows weren’t popular, but they might was well have been set on Mars as far as relating to audiences in the blue collar midwest. There was just one show that reflected the reality I saw around me—Roseanne, which showed an average Illinois family working blue collar jobs, struggling at times to pay bills, and going to the local bowling alley to blow of steam.
J.D.’s rise to fame this week hit me the say way Roseanne did in a TV landscape of 90210. Vance’s nod as Veep will likely resonate deeply with blue collar workers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, et al. And given that the Teamsters Union has thrown their support behind him—he might just advocate for that crowd as well (or hey, he might not…good people become corrupted by power all the time).
Elsewhere at the RNC’s surprising turn towards liberal tactics, former hip hop video vixen Amber Rose took the stage during the Republican National Convention, to explain her unorthodox journey to becoming a Trump supporter, despite originally seeing the 45th POTUS as a “racist and bigot.”
Some Conservatives, including Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire were Big Mad that a woman who’s only claim to fame is being famous (mostly from dating Kanye West) was given a platform at the Convention…because apparently Walsh, who’s mostly too grumpy to win new people over to his ideas, can’t see how letting someone who isn’t exactly like him talk expands the ideology he claims to champion.
Although Rose is white, she’s a cultural icon within hip hop culture, and boasts a fanbase across a pretty diverse spectrum of the American population.
Like “Representation,” it turns out the Political Left was onto something with the “Diversity” buzzword to (although both of those ideas have gone off the cultural rails), and Republicans are actually winning by stealing the very playbook they have screamed about on social media for years.
Finally…all this seems to be resonating with Gen Z, who are shocking the world by becoming more politically Conservative than their parents.
From The Free Press:
New polls show that the Gen Z vote, which Biden won by about 20 points in 2020, is now in play. A recent New York Times/Siena College survey—taken after Biden’s disastrous debate flop—puts Trump ahead of Biden by eight points among registered voters aged 18–29. And Pew research, conducted from February 1 to June 10, 2024, shows the GOP is leading among those under 30.
“Trump is a lot more competitive than he was four years ago,” said John Della Volpe, a Harvard pollster who helped advise Biden’s 2020 campaign. Much of that, he says, boils down to young men, who data show are politically drifting away from their increasingly liberal female peers.
“They generally think of Trump as the antihero,” says Della Volpe, once known as the Biden campaign’s “Gen Z whisperer.” “He’s a voice against the establishment.”
That kind of “cult of personality,” he adds, “could be quite attractive” to young men.
Trump has recently tried to reach young voters by joining TikTok, the platform he once tried to ban but has since embraced—and that has embraced him back. After news of his criminal conviction broke on May 30, many Gen Z voters flocked to the app to proudly announce they were “voting for the felon,” turning the phrase into a TikTok trend. A few days later, Trump posted his first TikTok, showing him rubbing elbows with UFC CEO Dana White while greeting fans, a post that earned him more than a million followers overnight.
As an elder Millennial who spent my junior high and high school during the Clinton Administration, I could have never predicted a-nearly-Octaganarian-with-a-felony-conviction would make Republicans cool with the teens…but here we are.
[two]
From The Pony Express:
In 2024, Spotify plans to stop paying artists who do not make 1000 streams yearly. This affects small artists who are just trying to start. It is nothing to be surprised about because the music industry has never treated music artists with consideration. Ever since the phonograph, the music industry has been a dirty trade. Record labels stealing music rights and not paying artists enough are just a few things artists have dealt with.
Spotify should be paying artists no matter how many streams they get. The company is still making money from them and the artist should see some of it. Spotify makes money from artists through advertisements and monthly payments, which are all generated by the work of the artist. It does not matter if it is $3 or three $3000, it is still money that is owed to the artist.
Even worse, Spotify only pays 0.3 cents per stream, which is a laughable amount. That means for every 1000 streams, the artists will only receive $3. For years, artists have wanted more pay on Spotify, but have been ignored by the large corporation. There is no reason why Spotify can not pay their artists more because Apple Music pays 0.8 cents per stream and has the same amount of expenses.
As far as alternatives go…more users are fleeing to YouTube Music than other streaming service, which includes YouTube Premium (aka ads on YouTube go away).
Because the YT Music is integrated with regular YouTube, the service has harder to find songs that competitors do not. Techradar gives the service high marks:
However, if you’ve ever felt like Spotify and the like aren’t catering enough for your tastes, then YouTube Music could be a great choice for you. Most of what you’ll find on rivals like Spotify are official tracks. On YouTube Music, you’ll find all of the music uploaded to YouTube, which means you’ll get mixes, fan uploads, work from amateur artists, more obscure tracks, rare stuff, and so much more.
That may sound like a dream to you (as it does to me)…but if you’re looking for simple and more mainstream…Apple Music pays the artist’s better than Spotify (and actually PAYS them) and offers a more streamlined experience.
It may sound painful to switch, but you can copy all of your saved artists, albums and playlists with Soundiiz for free.
Jumping from one tech platform to another is frustrating…but what Spotify is doing is outright theft, and I would highly recommend you check out some other options that will compensate the artists you love.
[three]
NOTE: This story is about how quickly an A-List pop star has fallen. You likely have a pretty good idea of the video content. I included the video as a reference point, not an endorsement. So don’t watch the video and then email me angrily and say “why did you subject me to that.”
I was actually a fan of Katy Perry in the early days of her career (first as singer/songwriter Katie Hudson—her real name, then of her pop star turn). Perry took her first record, One of the Boys, on the road with Warped Tour, a punk rock festival full of mohawks and aggression where pop stars don’t normally dare to tread (at least it was—RIP Warped Tour).
But despite having a very recognizable name in pop culture, the California singer’s first album since her 2020 comeback album…which flopped nearly as bad as her 2017 comeback album. She’s trying a third time to matter in the Zeitgeist…by empowering women, allegedly. But Perry’s mostly-female fanbase is not amused.
In a recent interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Perry said the “transcendental” experience of becoming a mother and unlocking a “feminine divine” inspired her to write “Woman’s World.”
“I always respected my mother, but after I gave birth, there was this huge level of growth of respect for her. Just watching her as I grew up, all the invisible work that she did … Just how women are unstoppable,” she said.
“They create life, they carry life. They do it with beauty, they do it with grace. They are not one thing. They are soft, they are strong, they are chaos, they are cool,” she continued. “They’re all the things, and they contribute to the world, and I feel so celebrated in my life, and I hope that other women feel celebrated when they hear this, and that everybody connects to the feminine part inside of them.”
The backlash has been…prolific. Perry has tried to label the video as “satire” (of what, exactly), but it’s done nothing to quell the negative PR inferno. One Instagram comment reads:
As an OG KP fan… this was such a missed opportunity. Could have shown real working women, mothers, military women, grandmothers. That’s what being a woman is about. We are not just our bodies.
In addition to the video about “women’s empowerment” being…designed for the eyeballs of men, to put it mildly, the song itself is objectively horrible as a pop anthem.
It’s an odd miss for Perry-who has written many of her own smash hits, plus “I Do Not Hook Up” by Kelly Clarkson and also penned singles for Nicki Minaj and Selena Gomez). Social media comments about calling the lyrics “cringe” and the rollout “painful.”
Just as bad, Perry is getting hammered over working with producer Dr. Luke, who was sued by pop singer Kesha for drugging and sexually assaulting her in 2005, as well as mental and emotional abuse. For an album about “empowering women,” it’s pretty gross to work with a known rapist, just to have a hit song (to not wind up with a hit song is all the more ironic).
A quick skim of Spotify reveals what while Perry does HUGE numbers…she’s a borderline nostalgia artist, with all of her top songs from 2009-2013.
It’s an epic fall for an artist that was neck-and-neck with Taylor Swift for popularity in the pop world just a few years ago…and Katie punches well above the average pop starlet with her songwriting chops.
It’s unlikely her talent is gone…just buried underneath a surreal life where, like many A-list celebs, she is insulated from real life and normal people alike…to the point where she can’t tell her lead single is a dud, the video offends her mostly-female fan base.
Before she was engaged to Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Carribean) and married and divorced Russell Brand, a casual contact of mine dated Katie. From what I heard, she was kinda crazy…but also happy to hang out with non-famous-people.
Based on Katie’s music…she no longer has people around her that aren't on her payroll and are willing to tell her the hard truth…the single, video and collaboration with Dr. Luke are all highly offensive to her fan base.
Crazy how often this happens…someone gets so famous that being famous is the reason they can no longer do the thing that made them famous in the first place.
If Perry wants to earn the respect of her fans back…she’s better have a heck of a second single from her forthcoming record.
[four]
Finally, the “chronically online” political right went WAAAY to far this week, when account Libs of TikTok started doxxing social media users who were “sad the assassin missed” in the Trump shooting, and whipping up an online mob to get those people fired from their (low paying) jobs.
Exposing someone’s personal information online is disgusting, full stop. Libs of TikTok getting people fired from blue collar jobs like Home Depot and a local restaurant in Michigan, and justifying it by saying “hey, the Left started Cancel Culture in 2020, and it’s our turn now” is a hell of a turn towards blatant hypocrisy, and abhorrent.
Best case scenario, the people who were fired are down on their luck for a minute and get another hourly wage job. Worst case scenario, we wind up with another mass shooter, out for revenge that strangers on the internet destroyed their life.
It’s disgusting behavior. As I said on Twitter…don’t join the mob. Ever.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
The biggest things to hit your screen this weekend…the tornado thriller sequel Twisters is expected to bring in $100M by Sunday, and the Roman Empire epic Those About to Die is getting a lot of buzz on Peacock.
No release date for Stranger Things season 5, but a behind the scenes teaser dropped.
XBOX may have just changed gaming, releasing a “No Console Required” app for Amazon’s Fire TV. Grab it for $78, and play on any TV without an XBOX, downloads or discs required.
After a truly horrible National Anthem at the MLB All Star Game…country/pop singer Ingrid Andress will seek treatment, saying she was drunk during her performance. Rather than link to her bad performance, I’d encourage you to check out Ingrid’s “More Hearts Than Mine” one of my favorite songs of the last decade.
Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies, Moulin Rouge), Liv Shreibmer (X-Men, Spotlight) and Dakota Fanning (Man on Fire, The Secret Life of Bees) star in The Perfect Couple, which is clearly a play to keep fans of Knives Out and Murder on the Orient Express tuned in. Color me impressed. Streaming 09/05.
Kate Winslett (Titanic, The Dressmaker) doesn’t just star in the passion project Lee, she actually paid the crew’s salaries out of her own pocket for two weeks to keep production running.
This true story about a WWII war photographer will likely be a tough watch, as the real life Lee Miller photographed the liberation of Dachau.Alexander Skarsgard (The Northmen, Big Little Lies) co-stars, along with Andy Samberg (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), who’s career takes a serious turn after years of following the blueprint of his SNL sketches throughout TV and movies.
[new music]
Apple Music | YouTube Music | Purchase Vinyl
Simply put, Twisters: The Album is the country music event of the summer. Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Breland, Shania Twain, Benson Boone, Leon Bridges, Wyatt Flores and Charley Crockett is a heck of a mix of Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z artists.
At 29 songs, it’s a lot to bite off, but my first impression of the album is certainly worth your time.
Apple Music | YouTube Music
This one is a bit of a personal connection, although I would never recommend something just because an artist is in my circle. Tommy Vext split with the multi-platinum hard rock band Bad Wolves after the other bandmates (allegedly) refused to work with Tommy due his politically conservative views.
To be honest, I hadn’t heard of Tommy or Bad Wolves until I had lunch with one of Tommy’s business team…and now I’m a huge fan. If you have any interest in heavy music at all, throw this one on at the gym and let me know what you think.
Until the next one,
-sth