In his new book, “Blank Space” — one of Book World’s 50 notable nonfiction books of 2025 — the critic and historian W. David Marx argues that the last quarter-century has been marked by the dramatic ...

What does it mean that the top two pop artists in 2006 — Beyonce and Taylor Swift — were still the two top pop artists in 2024? In W. David Marx’s “Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First ...

Music is blending into an algorithm-generated playlist, cinema is dominated by blockbuster movies from decades-old franchises, and the rest of the cultural scene is as flat and bland as a pancake.

Twenty-five years into the 21st century, culture is markedly different than it was in the previous millennium. Everyday life has never contained more stuff—an endless reel of words, ideas, games, ...

Music without instruments and lyrics without meaning. Endless reboots, sequels and superheroes in the cinema. After a burst of magnificent TV dramas in the noughties, every glitzy new show is hailed ...

The author W. David Marx has a theory about 21st century culture. We're sorry, but something went wrong while fetching your podcast feeds. Please contact us at plus ...