popular culture — Bunk History

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Larry David.

The End of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Marks the End of an Era

Larry David is the last of his kind—and in several ways.

by Daniel Bessner via The Nation on April 8, 2024

Marvin Gaye walking on a basketball court, with players and the crowd behind him.

Marvin’s Last Protest

In 1968 Gaye shifted his musical vision to give voice to impoverished Black urban communities and the rising dissent against involvement in the Vietnam War.

by Mark Anthony Neal via Medium on April 1, 2024

Two 1950s cars in front of a diner

You Can’t Go Home Again

Our thinking about nostalgia is badly flawed because it relies on defective assumptions about progress and time.

by Charlie Tyson via The Hedgehog Review on March 19, 2024

Past Tense

The historical novel isn’t cool. Popular? Yes. Enduring? Yes. A bit, well — for nerds? Also yes. Coolness lies in being at the right place at the right time.

by David Schurman Wallace via The Drift on March 12, 2024

"Alien Embrace" repeated artwork

The Institute for Illegal Images

Meditating on blotter not just as art, or as a historical artifact, but as a kind of media, even a “meta medium.”

by Erik Davis via The Paris Review on March 4, 2024

A photograph of an AR-15 rifle, a pistol, and a knife in camoflage print, as well as bullets and a pair of gloves.

Give Your Mom a Gun

America’s favorite gun.

by Geoff Mann via London Review of Books on March 1, 2024

Peanuts' Franklin as a flat two-dimensional character.

It’s Flagrant Tokenism, Charlie Brown!

Peanuts’ Franklin has been a controversial character for decades. A new special attempts reparations.

by Troy Patterson via Slate on February 16, 2024

A bedroom decorated with Bob Marley merchandise and the Jamaican flag.

Bob Marley’s ‘Legend’ Is One of the Bestselling Albums Ever. But Does It Tell His Full Story?

After 40 years and more than 25 million copies sold, what story does ‘Legend’ tell us about Bob Marley and the people listening to it?

by Eric Ducker via The Ringer on February 14, 2024

Jewish moneylender choking debtor

"A Fiendish Fascination"

The representation of Jews in antebellum popular culture reveals that many Americans found them both cartoonishly villainous and enticingly exotic.

by David S. Reynolds via New York Review of Books on February 1, 2024

Bottom half of a red sheet music cover with the words "Sung by Aida Overton Walker with the Smart Set Co" written on it with a portrait of Aida to the right

Sheet Music Covers for the Gotham-Attucks Company, ca. 1905–1911

Beginning in 1905, one star-studded song-publishing company would push the aesthetic limits of how Black popular music was shown to the public.

by Dorothy Berry via The Public Domain Review on February 1, 2024

Green frog with white circles and squiggly lines surrounding it denoting sound

The Many Lives of ‘Sounds of North American Frogs’

This metamorphic record is a teaching tool, a flirtation device, a college radio favorite, a nostalgic object, and more. BOOP!

by Cara Giaimo via Atlas Obscura on January 23, 2024

Parental advisory sticker warning of explicit content.

Who Gets to Regulate #*%&? Free Speech in Popular Culture

When speech offends, who decides where boundaries should be drawn?

via Retro Report on January 18, 2024

John Montgomery Ward and Helen Dauvray.

Before Taylor and Travis, There Was Helen and John

She was an actress. He was a shortstop. What we can learn from the press parade around this 19th-century power couple.

by Scott D. Peterson via Zócalo Public Square on January 11, 2024

Two American soldiers in UCP uniforms with an Iraqi man in the background.

Universal Failure

Universal Camouflage Pattern became a symbol of an unpopular war. Today, it’s being reappraised by those too young to remember the invasion of Iraq.

by Charles McFarlane via The Baffler on January 4, 2024

A turntable and records.

What’s Old is New Again (and Again): On the Cyclical Nature of Nostalgia

Retro was not the antithesis to the sub- and countercultural experiments of the 1960s, it grew directly out of them.

by Tobias Becker via Literary Hub on December 13, 2023

Sly Stone with daughter Nove, ca. 1980.

On the Sly

A memoir of the Family Stone.

by Carl Wilson via Bookforum on December 4, 2023

Cover of "Outrageous," with tomato on face of man holding microphone

Endless Culture Wars

On Kliph Nesteroff’s book, “Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars.”

by Chris Yogerst via Los Angeles Review of Books on December 1, 2023

Person holding a blonde American Girl doll and American Girl bag

All Dolled Up

How American Girl transformed the doll world—and why millennials love it so.

by Jayne Ross via The American Scholar on November 30, 2023

Girl holding a pile of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls

The Droll Capitalist Parable of Cabbage Patch Kids

A new documentary, “Billion Dollar Babies,” shows how a product of Appalachian folk art drew the blueprint for all holiday toy crazes to come.

by Jessica Winter via The New Yorker on November 20, 2023

A photograph of the back of a woman's head, superimposed over a photograph of a body of water as if looking out over it.

What if Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be?

As our faith in the future plummets and the present blends with the past, we feel certain that we’ve reached the point where history has fallen apart.

by Thomas Mallon via The New Yorker on November 20, 2023

Snoop Dogg.

The Snoop Dogg Manifesto

A pop star’s road map to decadence.

by Armond White via National Review on November 15, 2023

Members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

'Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)' Turns 30

How the album pays homage to hip-hop's mythical and martial arts origins.

by Marcus Evans via The Conversation on October 31, 2023

Collage of Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet, waving, and smoking, and a picture of his home in Queens.

Louis Armstrong Gets the Last Word on Louis Armstrong

For decades, Americans have argued over the icon’s legacy. But his archives show that he had his own plans.

by Ethan Iverson via The Nation on October 30, 2023

Charlie Chaplin.

A Man Without a Country: On Scott Eyman’s “Charlie Chaplin vs. America”

Our favorite artists may not be our favorite people.

by Chris Yogerst via Los Angeles Review of Books on October 26, 2023

A woman volunteering with the Salvation Army serving doughnuts to American servicemen.

We Have the Salvation Army to Thank for the Hipster Doughnut

Even during the worst of war, the ring-shaped confections offered a bite of joy and a much-needed morale boost to weary soldiers during World War I.

by Claudia Geib via Eater on October 24, 2023

Why Generational Thinking Isn't Bull

Reflections on Pavement, Nirvana, the very meaning of history, and the end of neoliberalism.

by Charles Petersen via Making History on October 8, 2023

Jewish characters in television and film

The Long History of Jewface

Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose is the latest example of the struggles around Jewish representation on the stage and screen.

by Jody Rosen via The New Yorker on October 7, 2023

Sly Stone performing at a concert.

The Undoing of a Great American Band

Sly and the Family Stone suggested new possibilities in music and life—until it all fell apart.

by James Parker via The Atlantic on September 16, 2023

A man sits at a bar countertop. His face is turned away from the camera.

1973: A Golden Year for Film That Rewrote the Rules of Cinema

It was a year that showcased the audacious talent in Hollywood experimenting with darker themes and new film techniques.

by Lesley Harbidge via The Conversation on September 12, 2023

NY skyline including 33 Thomas Street, a skyscraper in the Tribeca neighborhood of Southern Manhattan, New York City.

Apocalypse-Proof

A windowless telecommunications hub, 33 Thomas Street in New York City embodies an architecture of surveillance and paranoia, an ideal set for conspiracy thrillers.

by Zach Mortice via Places Journal on September 12, 2023

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