“Inside the Rise of the Multiracial Right”
Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/07/24/opinion/minority-voters-trump-right.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Zk8.UsOJ.lYWoS2WHSg0N&smid=url-share
This is the most important article you will read today.
When I wrote about Maggie Q in “Ballard,” I was accused of Asian hate. Not by an Asian woman, but by a white man. If I mention anything negative about a woman, I get blowback from white males, not women.
That’s the Democratic party in a nutshell. Elites defending those who don’t ask for it. People who think they know better who have no idea what minorities and women really think.
Israel is dropping food aid and halting some military action in Gaza. Was it because people protested in the street? No, it’s because the “New York Times” has been on the country’s case. for months now. And yesterday published an article saying that the Israelis admitted that Hamas was not stealing U.N. aid.
We live in a two-tiered system. The mainstream and the internet.
If you want to affect those in power, you must address them in the mainstream, most particularly in the “New York Times” and “Wall Street Journal,” although the “Washington Post” does have some influence.
Those in D.C. read the opinion pages of these newspapers and the letters in regard thereto. That’s how they take the temperature of what is going on. The world is run by print, not TV.
The other tier lives on social media. And the irony is the two rarely meet. It’s not very often you get those in power living in both camps.
So if you want to effect change on a grand scale, you’re probably better off with a top down effort. If you want to reach the Democratic brass/elite, tell them the truth in the “New York Times.”
If you want to build a movement, from the bottom up, you do it online, and in podcasts.
Yes, at this late date the powers-that-be don’t understand podcasts and TikTok. All they know is they have power. Why and how to utilize them…they’re clueless. They just know they have to be on them. But sans understanding of the culture, their efforts are fruitless.
Now we see a similar thing in the music business. The major labels have been out of touch with what the public wants. It still believes that the vast majority of people are interested in the shenanigans of rappers who shoot each other and glorify violence. Sure, the world is a dangerous place, but in truth homicides have gone down. Hip-hop has become a cartoon, akin to Marvel movies, and if you follow the box office those are no longer a slam dunk. Some succeed, but a whole bunch don’t.
Which is one of the main drivers to country. Although the banal lyrics about family and church turn off large segments of the public too.
And if you say anything against hip-hop you’re a racist.
And if you say anything against country, you hate the South and traditional values.
The fact that hip-hop might be out of touch and unappealing and country music may have no edges to catch you is completely discarded, the knee-jerk people on both sides are defending their fiefdoms.
What does the public really want in music?
Authenticity, credibility. Which is why Zach Bryan can sell out multiple stadium dates and many in the Spotify Top 50 can barely sell a ticket. Whilst those at the top of the chart are busy building brands, making deals with the Fortune 500, those with more credibility are not. We’ve heard for eons that the public doesn’t care about brand endorsements, the same way we heard that Blacks and Latinos would never vote for Republicans, but they did!
Another must-read this week comes from the “Wall Street Journal”:
“It’s Not Just You—There Are No Good New Songs This Summer – Hits from 2024, and even 2023, continue to rule the charts”
Free link: https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/music/top-songs-2025-benson-boone-shaboozey-justin-bieber-swag-133fd33f?st=HAZeCB&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
The headline says a lot, but the truth is a bit deeper.
Yes, the industry is out of touch with what the public wants. It created the construct of “Song of the Summer” which no fan ever cared about. The truth is the day of the ruling pop song is in the rearview mirror. Because everybody no longer likes the same thing. And the major labels and the media refuse to acknowledge this. They’re still waiting for new stars akin to Taylor Swift and Beyoncé to emerge. But Swift started in the aughts and Beyoncé in the nineties, eons ago! The world has completely shifted today. Today it’s no longer about the hit but the career. Not worrying about chart numbers but a dedicated fan base.
But if this is true, the major labels have much less power. As does the attendant media that propped up their hype/b.s. It’s akin to the Democratic party, rather than a redo, a rethink wherein the entity gets in touch with the real movers and drivers, those on the street, there’s a belief that they still rule, in a changed world.
The Democrats are f*cked. Kamala lost and all they can do is beat up the Republicans, they can’t look at themselves and see what is really going on. They were afraid not to run Kamala because Blacks would resent it. The same Blacks who voted for Trump? They kept to the canard of Bidenomics, that the economy was doing well for everybody when nothing could be further from the truth. They catered to fat cats with money when income inequality has never been worse in our lifetimes and the rich are resented. Jeffrey Katzenberg? Who the f*ck cares what he thinks, who put him in control, pushing his Biden agenda? Everyone on the street could see that Biden was too old, it was only the insiders who couldn’t see or admit the truth.
You might find the above uncomfortable. But we live in a changed world where the old tropes and techniques no longer apply. Fads, trends, movements happen online, period. And almost all of them happen on TikTok. Instagram Reels with an inadequate algorithm is a distant second. As for YouTube…do not mistake its competition in viewing hours with Netflix for its impact on trends. Visual podcasts are a thing. But trends don’t start on YouTube, they start on TikTok, and then move over to YouTube and/or Spotify.
And it’s almost impossible to game TikTok, although the labels continue to try and do so.
But it’s outside their wheelhouse, they think TikTok is akin to MTV, that you only have to be on. That’s wrong, today everybody can be on, it’s about creativity. Unique clips that engender virality.
And then you’ve got the oldsters criticizing the successful youngsters on TikTok because their songs may only be thirty seconds long. But that’s the way you do it today, money for nothin’ on the device that’s in everybody’s pocket.
The Democrats don’t want to believe they’ve lost control of their constituents. Ditto with the labels. What is their response? That the audience is dumb! Voters are voting against their interest and the music that works on TikTok is tripe. But to quote Journey, who’s cryin’ now?
The Democrats can’t adjust, they need a rewrite. An expulsion of the out of touch oldsters hanging on to power and a takeover by the youth who are in touch with what the public wants.
As for the music business… In truth, the promoters have taken up the slack, they know that you don’t need a hit to sell tickets.
However, like the Democrats, the entire music community has been tainted by lowest common denominator cartoon music that has turned off a majority of the public.
If you said you didn’t understand Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance the problem was you. You were racist and out of touch, you didn’t get the references. But in truth it’s the reverse… Most people didn’t get either the music or the references, to them it wasn’t powerful. But to say that is racist!
But is it? Is that how far we’ve come, you can’t speak your truth because an elite cabal says so? This is why Trump got elected and one of the reasons there are no hits. I’ve got no problem with Kendrick Lamar, good for him and his audience, but don’t tell me everybody else must love his music and what it means or STFU!
You can’t speak truth anymore. You’re shouted down by institutions. Your only hope is to go online and find like-minded people. That’s the essence of the Joe Rogan podcast and those who’ve followed in his footsteps. But all we hear from the educated elite is we must read and watch Heather Cox Richardson. Fine if you do, like those who like Kendrick Lamar, but if you think the average person can relate to educated Richardson and her analysis, you’re plain wrong. They need someone they can relate to, on their level, who speaks their truth. Sure, Trump may be out of control testing laws and norms, but what does that matter if I lost my job and I can’t make ends meet. Who is speaking to me?
And the minority voters who switched to Trump in the “Times” article above have not let go of MAGA yet. That’s not how change happens. You can’t change people’s minds that fast. Just like in music, we keep being told we want radio and Spotify Top 50 hits when the audience is looking for something deeper and more fulfilling. And we need a number of these out of the box successes before public perception changes to the point people believe new music is worth listening to.
But it’s easier to just believe one is always right and bury one’s head in the sand and resist all change.
The world has changed, and too many in power don’t know it, never mind admit it.
But the joke is ultimately on them. Like the Democrats. They think it’s about the system and elections, whereas the public no longer believes in the system or elections. You’ve got to start there.
But they refuse to do so. That means everything they’ve invested in is now wrong.
But that’s the truth.
