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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 28, 2024

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puts out a work that everybody—critics, the public, etc.—agrees is terrible, it's probably not terrible in any metaphysical sense, it's just that the artist's genius has advanced beyond our ability to understand it.

So there is hope for Freddie Got Fingered? Some thing are bad and irredeemable. Or relegated to cult status. Has there been a piece that was poorly received and then gained widespread popularity?

1959 was arguably the most important year in American musical history.

maybe Jazz history, but the genre is still so tiny. It's amazing how A Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album ever, sold only 5 million copies in over 60 years despite all its acclaim. Probably the invention of rock and roll was a bigger deal, but harder to pinpoint a year.