That Was Fast....
Structure Vs. Contingency in Contemporary Culture
Hi All!
Happy to be back in your inboxes…it’s been a minute on the purely written front (although, if you’ve seen our last episode, we’ve certainly been busy along some other avenues).
As you may have seen, our last (video?!?) episode was based on a very long read of the bizarre World Cup halftime show. A dense text if there ever was one, we explored major label power plays, the tensions of evangelical R’n’B, the relationship between American styles and global culture, why Shakira is an anthem GOAT, the fact that Burna Boi without question looked Cool up there, and the painfully obvious we’re-all-in-this-togetherism of Chris Martin (specifically) and FIFA (generally).
At the end of this attempt at chasing whatever the opposite of the zeitgeist is, we went a bit broader on the position of professional sports within contemporary capitalism. Part of this was classic “what does the world look like if Adorno was right”-style inquiry: Is the connection + meaning that sports enables a powerful social good, enabling rooted tradition and genuine interaction despite the influence of the culture industries? Or is it ersatz experience that sells us a partial, commodified fix for a set of lacks that capitalism created?
But as we talked through the question, an interesting comparison between the relative position of music and sports in contemporary media began to emerge. Modern music is, as we’ve frequently argued, in the contradictory position of being omnipresent and undervalued. A crucial element of many of the most important platforms in the digital economy, its (selling) power and prevalence seems to cut against both its autonomy, and the cultural-position that this autonomy once offered. Music, that is to say, is everywhere, but somehow seems to matter less. And while the major labels and streaming services have continued to mint a profit off the situation, the popular mainstream that they once shepherded has definitively ceased to hold.
The opposite seems to be true in the case of sports. While it has also seen a transformative increase in ubiquity in the Internet-era, this expansion has not brought with it the centrifugal forces that so afflict music. The biggest leagues—NBA, NFL, and international Football in its many guises—are both more present and more popular than ever before. While we could, in an alternate universe, have all chosen our own sports, with cricket or hockey falling prey to curling, darts, lawn bowling, or handball, in this one, we very much didn’t. Part of this is clearly structural—leagues and teams have a continuity that bands do not, capable of remaining the same while changing.
We wondered, however, whether some of the situation was less innate, a product of the basic nature of professional sports, than contextual. Is the failure of the contemporary culture industries to produce the kind of large-scale shared experiences that once defined their operations actually pushing consumers towards the handful of shared spaces that remain? Has sports become so big because it’s the only thing left to talk about? And while that’s clearly overstating the case more then a bit, there may be some truth to the statement. In a world of sub-scenes and micro-targeting, agreeing on the brilliance of Messi or LeBron or Ohtani is…kind of nice. Certainly, the random person on the plane or at the bar or Discord server knows what you’re talking about.
But, if we accept that the influence of contemporary sports might be due, at least in part, to the media context in which they exist—does that mean a different context could produce a different outcome? Our gut is yes—and in the episode, we took a few swings at what might produce this type of situational difference, with the insidious spread of sports gambling and the all-gilt-everything of Trump-era Fifa coming in on top.
And…believe it or not, we didn’t have long to wait. Who knew that our first foray into sports that we would mostly predict the downfall of Fifa. Okay, that’s a major overstatement, but in the immediate aftermath of us dropping our episode, Gianni Infantino, head honcho of Fifa, announced a plan to create a separate commercial subsidiary and sell part of it to private investors for a cool $20 billion under the guise of a “more money keeps the sport healthy” presentation. Uh-huh.
We’ll keep the details short (here’s a brief breakdown), but the main point is that other, major continental governing bodies in soccer (UEFA, Concacaf, etc) and the people that run them stared into the mirror just long enough to realize this was a step too far. Despite their own histories of scandal, dubious governance and overt commercialization, even they seemed to recognize that some semblance of authenticity had to be maintained. Infantino’s plan threatened their own institutional power because it threatened the mythology of the sport. That actually what makes the maneki-neko purr for the major sports money coffers, is, in part, that shared, collective experience of joy and heartbreak unfolding in real time on the field that does not exist primarily at the behest of outside shareholders. The pushback suggests that fans…or at least the continued faith of fans in the product…still matter? There may, apparently, be some limit to the bull**** the captains of industry are willing to shove down our throats when doing so risks tainting the thing they are trying to sell.
…………Or maybe everyone is angry because Infantino didn’t include them in on the deal.
:/
Department of Actual Music:
Sam: I was lucky enough to (finally) see Lil Wayne this summer—a story for another time, but a performance with such precision and skill that it fulfilled…well…all my wildest expectations. I was shocked to see him pull out this song—from an EP of material omitted from the Carter III because of a pre-release leak. Wayne in his pomp and glory, ripping it over peak 2000’s southern bombast.
Saxon: Do you like julie? Somewhere between a discussion between Sam and I about if three major labels really is a problem opposed to there being six major labels, I noted that julie is on a major label which in 2026….feels….strange to say the least. This spurred a discussion about what can even count as shoegaze (Deftones? Sonic Youth?). Setting that aside, I don’t think it’s any great insight to state that majors take less risks now in their signings. And the days of 10000 offshoot sub-labels via Geffen (remember Fred Durst sublabel Flawless) is long gone. But then there’s julie. —a fine, we started in our parents garage, shoegaze band in the vein of MBV meets Swirlies meets Deftones-lite, quietly dropping records on Atlantic, a division of Warner and touring with Interpol. Good for them.
LUV,
Saxon and Sam