“The group formed in 1999 to bring classical music to communities that may otherwise not have access to it. It consists of three ensembles,” including one that attracts kids to music and “adults later in life” back to music. - OPB
“For a century now, country music has been a parallel universe of hitmaking that didn’t always register on the national pop charts—for data reasons more than popularity reasons.” Streaming is changing everything. - Slate
Teens and 20-somethings are, again, driving the shift back (related: so are K-Pop bands). One fan, on switching out phone for CD player: “It gives me a different feeling. … I feel like I’m listening to an artist’s work. It brings me joy.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Other companies in Meta’s social media cohort, like Snap, TikTok, and YouTube, have opted this year to settle some suits that allege their platforms have harmed kids’ mental health. Meta instead chose to go to trial, only to very publicly lose and pay massive fines.” - Wired
“More than three billion people globally play some form of video games. For a media industry with falling revenues and growing audience distrust, games — ranging from simple quizzes to fully-fledged downloadable games and augmented reality experiences — have become a new way to engage and inform audiences.” - Nieman Lab
From the editors: “Rather than translating existing work from The Rumpus, El Alboroto will commission and publish original Spanish-language writing spanning cultural criticism, personal essays, interviews, fiction, poetry and comics.” - LitHub
The big thing is “Disney’s push into the booming vertical media space — aka microdramas and other shortform clips designed to be viewed on mobile phones .” - Variety
A Nick Jonas concert “reminded me of an obscure phrase coined by a 19th-century sociologist – Émile Durkheim’s ‘collective effervescence.’ … Individuals who are normally preoccupied with their personal concerns get swept up into a kind of electric, communal intensity.” - The Guardian (UK)
Cell phones are the least of it. Yes, of course they occasionally find people having sex in the auditorium or restrooms, but they've encountered things even worse. - The Guardian
"We tricked them by putting soccer in a comedy show. … The first thing you’ve got to do to get somebody to become a soccer fan is just make them care about one team, to find one team.” Even if it’s fictional. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
“I want to see the eyes of the actors, I want to get closer to the emotion - which is what theatre can’t give you. It’s a different thing,” says the Hadestown pro-shot director. - NPR
“There are countless reasons behind the demise of any Broadway show, each of which is essentially a start-up business taking its chances in a volatile market.” - The New York Times
No, not just The Odyssey. “A new audience is finding poetry, particularly (though not exclusively) through social media: a new generation of poets, particularly but not exclusively performance poets, have come to prominence through Instagram, TikTok, and other short-form video formats.” - The Guardian (UK)
