The Forty-Dollar Record
A forty-dollar vinyl record passes through manufacturing, distribution, retail, labels, and contracts before an artist gets paid. Follow the money.
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The journal
Josh
How the Gay Club Built the Pop You Stream
Disco, house, remix culture, and ballroom grew through queer Black and brown clubs. The hidden lineage beneath the pop you stream now.
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Madonna, Confessions II, and the Record You Can Hold
Madonna's Confessions II reunites her with Stuart Price into a vinyl market that just crossed one billion dollars for the first time since 1983.
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The DCU Is Selling Genre, Not Spectacle
James Gunn's new DC slate sells genre, not spectacle. Why the strategy remains the most interesting bet in studio filmmaking after Supergirl's opening weekend.
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America at 250: The Founders Never Meant for Any of This to Be Permanent
The semiquincentennial is being staged as a celebration of continuity. The men we are being asked to celebrate would have found that idea ridiculous.
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Pride in a Year the Map Keeps Redrawing Itself
Pride 2026 arrives amid a Gallup dip, Chiles v. Salazar, and nearly 800 anti-trans bills. What the holiday is for when visibility costs something.
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Madonna is still here. So are we.
The Queen of Pop's real legacy isn't the records. It's that she's still here, and so are the people she refused to let the eighties erase.
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The Monster Was Always Ours. Horror's Big Moment Proves It.
Obsession and Backrooms are running the box office, Sinners just rewrote the Oscar record book, and the genre carrying Hollywood through 2026 is the one queer audiences have…
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Ken Burns Finally Got Thoreau Right. The 250th Anniversary Will Get Him Wrong Again.
The new Ken Burns documentary tells the truth about Thoreau, the abolitionist and tax resister who was jailed for his beliefs. The country watching it is in no…
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He-Man was always a little bit ours. The new movie is finally in on the joke.
A blond barbarian in a fur loincloth pulls a sword from the air, shouts a magic phrase, and transforms into a bigger, oilier, more powerful version of himself.…
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