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      How to Stream New Year’s Eve: 25 Shows From Pop, Jazz and Beyond

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyHow to Stream New Year’s Eve: 25 Shows From Pop, Jazz and BeyondIt isn’t too late to make (cheap!) plans to welcome 2021 with music. A host of concerts will be streaming around the globe and major stars will take the stage on TV.Jennifer Lopez will headline “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest” on ABC.Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesOlivia Horn, Elysa Gardner and Dec. 30, 2020THE AVETT BROTHERS If your appetite for sentimentality hasn’t been sated by holiday films, this may be the livestream for you. In their strummy folk-rock vernacular and tidy close harmonies, the brothers Scott and Seth Avett sing earnest songs about love and family. A slew of special guests — including Willie Nelson, Brandi Carlile, Norah Jones and Loudon Wainwright III — will bolster the star power of this New Year’s Eve performance (the 17th edition of an annual Avett tradition). At 8 p.m. Eastern, nugs.tv. Tickets start at $40. (Olivia Horn)THE BEST OF RADIO FREE BIRDLAND The pay-per-view virtual concert series has brought live-to-tape performances to pandemic-weary cabaret fans since April. To finally welcome a new year, it will present a compilation of them — all captured on the Birdland Theater stage with three cameras and no audience members — featuring Broadway and cabaret favorites such as Sierra Boggess, Reeve Carney, Nikki Renée Daniels, Darius de Haas, Telly Leung, Eva Noblezada, Laura Osnes, Christopher Sieber and Billy Stritch. Streaming on demand from Dec. 31 to Jan. 3; tickets are $10 at events.BroadwayWorld.com. (Elysa Gardner)Justin Bieber will take the stage to perform a full concert for the first time in more than three years.Credit…ABC, via Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJUSTIN BIEBER For a pop star, Justin Bieber has become a reluctant performer — often withdrawn when he does appear onstage, and prone to canceling shows altogether. With the pandemic (so far) sparing him the obligation of touring in support of his latest album, “Changes,” this livestreamed show is Bieber’s first full concert in more than three years. The sultry R&B of “Changes” trends mellower than much of his earlier work, making it a suitable soundtrack for an evening in. At 11 p.m. Eastern, justinbiebernye.com. Tickets are $25 (free for T-Mobile customers). (Horn)BIG HIT LABELS’ 2021 NEW YEAR’S EVE LIVE Owing to the success of their crown jewel, BTS, Big Hit has contributed substantially to K-pop’s growing global footprint. Their artist roster, which includes lesser-known (in the U.S., anyway) groups like Gfriend and Nu’est, will join forces for this concert, live from Korea. BTS’s past collaborators Halsey, Lauv and Steve Aoki have been tapped to expand the program’s international reach with a collaboration on the so-called “Global Connect Stage.” At 7:30 a.m. Eastern, on the Weverse shop app. The basic ticket option is sold out, but multiview packages are available for about $48. (Horn)BUD LIGHT SELTZER SESSIONS PRESENTS NEW YEAR’S EVE 2021 Post Malone’s ubiquitous, post-genre pop songs can be bacchanalian (for the New Year’s that we want) or brooding (for the New Year’s that we’re getting). At this virtual shindig, streaming live from Las Vegas, he’ll perform a selection with support from Saweetie, the cheeky rapper whose popularity has surged on the back of consecutive TikTok hits. The comedian Lilly Singh will host, with additional performances from Jack Harlow and Steve Aoki. At 10:30 p.m. Eastern, budlight.com/nye and on Bud Light’s Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. (Horn)BTS will cap a big year by performing at its label Big Hit’s New Year’s extravaganza. Credit…Agence France-Presse/Mtv, via Getty Images‘DICK CLARK’S NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN’ EVE WITH RYAN SEACREST 2021’ If the ball drops in Times Square and no one is around to see it, does 2020 actually end? Despite the absence of the usual crowds, Ryan Seacrest and his fellow hosts, the actors Lucy Hale and Billy Porter, will be on hand to capture the ball’s descent from One Times Square, with Ciara hosting a sister celebration in Los Angeles. Machine Gun Kelly, Miley Cyrus, Megan Thee Stallion, Cyndi Lauper and more will perform; Jennifer Lopez is the evening’s headliner. At 8 p.m. Eastern, on ABC. (Horn)‘CNN’S NEW YEAR’S EVE’ Andy Cohen, who co-hosts this broadcast with Anderson Cooper, described it as “an authentic experience” (a year ago, that authenticity manifested with a peer-pressured Cooper struggling through tequila shots on air). This holiday, the pair will be freewheeling masters of ceremony for a lineup of performers and special guests that includes John Mayer, Patti LaBelle, Kylie Minogue, the Goo Goo Dolls, Jon Bon Jovi and Carole Baskin, of “Tiger King” fame. At 8 p.m. Eastern, on CNN. (Horn)CLUB CUMMING’S NYE BLOWOUT For those willing to brave the elements for a live experience, the East Village night spot is offering an outdoor celebration in a socially distanced setting, hosted by Kareem McJagger. The 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. seatings will include a light dinner, with entertainment provided by the burlesque queen Dirty Martini; Emma Craig, channeling Dolly Parton; and Michael T channeling David Bowie; along with the singers Antony Cherry and Militia Vox, the Richard Cortez Trio, “boylesquer” Richard JMV, the drag squad the Covid Destroyers and the Club Cumming Band. At Club Cumming, Manhattan; clubcummingnyc.com, $80. (Gardner)Saweetie will join Post Malone and other pop stars for a Bud Light Seltzer Sessions event.Credit…Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Boohooman#DANCEAWAY2020 Clear some floor space and consider carb-loading before tuning into this marathon livestream, a 20-plus-hour dance party bringing together an intercontinental lineup of electronic D.J.s. From Melbourne, the longtime techno kingpin Carl Cox will book end the show with sets at 7 a.m. Eastern on Thursday and 3 a.m. on Friday. Other notables on the bill include Honey Dijon (live in Berlin), Tokimonsta (in Los Angeles) and Nicole Moudaber (in Barbados). At 7 a.m. Eastern, on Beatport’s Twitch, YouTube and Facebook. (Horn)NATALIE DOUGLAS The 12-time Manhattan Association of Cabarets Award winner will once again use her supple wit and soulful warmth to kiss today goodbye, this time with an assist from technology. For “A Virtually Natalie New Year 2020,” kicking off at 9 p.m., Douglas and her longtime music director Brian Nash will offer songs old and new, and take requests via Facebook and YouTube. In lieu of a cover charge, viewers are asked to simply pay what they can, at Venmo or PayPal. Streaming live at facebook.com/natalie.douglas.nyc and youtube.com/nataliedouglasmusic. (Gardner)ESCHATON NYE: THE DISSOLUTION The vibe of this interactive theater piece should hover somewhere between spooky cabaret and escape room. Originally conceived as an in-person experience, the Eschaton project nimbly pivoted to digital in the spring, maximizing Zoom rooms’ functionality by presenting a suite of interconnected virtual performance spaces, through which guests can meander. The organizers encourage festive attire. At 11 p.m. Eastern, tickettailor.com. Tickets start at $25. (Horn)Tokimonsta will play music from Los Angeles as part of the 20-plus-hour dance party #DanceAway2020.Credit…Timothy Norris/Getty ImagesHIROMI Among jazz musicians, pianists were among the best equipped to handle the doldrums of isolation this year — there’s a lot you can do with 88 keys, and the piano is the rare instrument that’s often performed solo in a jazz context. Over the past two decades, Hiromi has honed her own relationship to the instrument’s vast possibilities. Last year she released a redoubtable solo album, “Spectrum,” and she had just finished a tour promoting it when the coronavirus struck. She’s likely to draw from that material this week, as she does a run of solo shows at the Blue Note Tokyo; on New Year’s Eve, in a nod to her North American audiences, she will perform a livestream from there at 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Passes are $20 at bluenotelive.com. (Giovanni Russonello)JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT Widely regarded as one of Music City’s great storytellers, Jason Isbell writes deftly about world-weary, embattled characters; his songs strike a tone befitting a year that has left many worse for wear. In May, Isbell celebrated the release of his new album with a livestreamed show at an empty Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville, with accompaniment from his wife, the singer-violinist Amanda Shires. For the holiday, the pair will return, this time with the full band in tow. At 9 p.m. Eastern, fans.live. Ticket packages start at $25; day of, they jump to $30. (Horn)THE JUNGLE SHOW This blues supergroup, anchored by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, convenes annually for a New Year’s show at Antone’s Nightclub in Austin, Tex. Gibbons and his compatriots — including the singer-guitarists Jimmie Vaughan and Sue Foley — will forgo an in-person audience to keep the tradition alive this year, delivering rollicking guitar riffs from the empty club via livestream. At 8 p.m. Eastern, jungleshow.tv. Ticket packages start at $25. (Horn)KISS Never ones to skimp on the theatrics, the glam rock titans are plotting to break world records with the pyrotechnics display that will accompany their show at the Atlantis in Dubai. Tune in for hedonistic guitar anthems and, inevitably, a glimpse of Gene Simmons’s tongue. At 12 p.m. Eastern, kiss2020goodbye.com. Ticket packages start at $40. (Horn)The cabaret star Natalie Douglas is asking patrons only to pay what they can for her New Year’s show.Credit…Walter McBride/Getty ImagesMET STARS LIVE IN CONCERT: NEW YEAR’S EVE GALA After scraping together an ambitious at-home gala just weeks into the pandemic — quite the achievement, with only a couple of mishaps — the Met Opera has leveled up the production value on their digital programs. Their year-end celebration is set to broadcast on location at a neo-Baroque theater in Augsburg, Germany, with performances by the sopranos Pretty Yende and Angel Blue and the tenors Javier Camarena and Matthew Polenzani. At 4 p.m. Eastern, metopera.org. Tickets are $20. (Horn)‘NBC’S NEW YEAR’S EVE 2020’ Carson Daly hosts NBC’s addition to the crowded New Year’s prime time market, welcoming musical guests including Chloe x Halle, Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton, Sting, Bebe Rexha and Doja Cat. At 10 p.m. Eastern, on NBC. (Horn)NEW YEAR’S QUEENS: GOODBYE 2020! Sixteen alumnae of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” comprise the lineup for this New Year’s glitterfest, with hosting duties split between Alaska, Bob the Drag Queen, Katya, Miz Cracker, Peppermint and Trixie Mattel. Can’t get enough? Season 13 of “Drag Race” premiers on New Year’s Day. At 6 p.m. Eastern, sessionslive.com/NewYearsQueens. Ticket packages start at $49. (Horn)PINK MARTINI’S ‘GOOD RIDDANCE 2020’ For most people not named Kardashian, long-distance trips became an untenable risk this year; lucky for Pink Martini, globe-trotting through music — and traveling back to supposedly simpler times — has always been its stock in trade. A little big band that achieved worldwide renown in the late 1990s, its wide repertoire consists of old show tunes, cabaret fare, romantic songs from around the world and original compositions that sound like all of the above. On New Year’s Eve, Pink Martini will present a streaming holiday concert, filmed in its hometown Portland, Ore., that will be broadcast twice: once at 9 p.m. Paris time, and again at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Streaming passes can be purchased for $15 at ourconcerts.live, and can be used to watch the show at any point for the next 48 hours. (Russonello)The pianist Hiromi will perform a livestreamed show from Blue Note Tokyo.Credit…David Wolff/Patrick, via RedfernsCHRIS POTTER Since the 1990s, Chris Potter has been among jazz’s most casually fearsome saxophonists, and left entirely to his own devices during quarantine, he has proved just how deep his virtuosity goes: This month he released “There Is a Tide,” a slinky, coolly funky album for which he recorded every instrument — overdubbing saxophones, clarinets, flutes, bass, drums, guitars and keyboards. Potter has played New Year’s Eve at the Village Vanguard for the past two years, and this week he’ll return to the club for livestream performances on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, at 8 p.m. each time. There will be no live audience, but he’ll be accompanied by a stellar quartet of longtime associates: David Virelles on piano, Joe Martin on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums. Tickets cost $10 at villagevanguard.com. (Russonello)KT SULLIVAN AND RUSS WOOLLEY KT Sullivan, the ebullient cabaret veteran and champion, and the producer Russ Woolley will present “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?,” a benefit for the Mabel Mercer Foundation, featuring the jazz pianist Jon Weber and the singer and pianists Eric Yves Garcia and Larry Woodard. The virtual festivities, taped live and streaming at 10 p.m., will include a countdown to midnight with champagne, noisemakers and masks. The stream is free of charge, though donations for the fund-raiser are appreciated. At mabelmercer.org. (Gardner)LUCINDA WILLIAMS When she started her own label in 2014, this roots-rock rebel was clear on her artistic mission: To do whatever she wanted. Lately, what she wants is to play covers. In an ongoing virtual concert series that supports independent music venues, Lucinda Williams has devoted full sets to greats like Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. For the sixth and final installment of the series, which coincides with the holiday, she’ll pay tribute to the Rolling Stones. At 8 p.m. Eastern, boxoffice.mandolin.com. Tickets start at $20. (Horn)Lucinda Williams will conclude her covers series with a show devoted to the Rolling Stones.Credit…Jeff Spicer/Getty ImagesYANDEL GOODBYE 2020 This O.G. reggaetonero helped forge a path that artists like J Balvin have followed to mammoth crossover success. With his performing partner Wisin, Yandel came up with the first wave of international reggaeton stars in the early 2000s; two decades after their debut, the pair remain prominent voices in the genre, both together and individually. Their plans for a Vegas-style residency at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico this month were, of course, scrapped. Instead, Yandel will offer fans this free virtual concert, broadcast live from Miami. At 8 p.m. Eastern, on Yandel’s YouTube channel and the app LaMusica. (Horn)YOUTUBE’S HELLO 2021 Lest any one New Year’s special feel too boilerplate, YouTube’s in-house content studio is producing five different, regionally specific variations, each carried by (mostly) local talent. The “Americas” version will offer urbano courtesy of J Balvin and Karol G, modern country from Kane Brown and disco pop from Dua Lipa. On triple duty, Lipa also features in the U.K. special alongside the pop singer Anne-Marie and the shapeshifting rapper AJ Tracey, and in the Indian edition, alongside the comedian Zakir Khan and the rapper Badshah. At 10:30 p.m. Eastern, on YouTube Originals’ channel. (Horn)JOHN LLOYD YOUNG The Tony Award-winning star of “Jersey Boys” — both the original Broadway production and Clint Eastwood’s 2014 screen adaptation — has in recent years parlayed his affinity for pop and R&B classics into a busy cabaret career. To ring in 2021, John Lloyd Young will lend his robust, rangy voice to such material along with originals and perhaps a show tune or two. Young’s live-streamed, hourlong set, beginning at 11 p.m. Eastern, will be followed at 12:15 a.m. Eastern with a V.I.P. after-party and interview, with the singer answering audience questions submitted in advance. From Feinstein’s at Vitello’s, Los Angeles (and available On Demand for a limited time after the event); 818-769-0905, feinsteinsatvitellos.com, $30 plus $5 for the V.I.P. experience. (Gardner)AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      When Is a Comedy Special Also a Corporate Synergy Message?

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn ComedyWhen Is a Comedy Special Also a Corporate Synergy Message?Two year-end shows from Amazon and Netflix deliver some laughs, yes, but also serve as veiled ads for the streaming services themselves.Samuel L. Jackson in “Death to 2020,” a new Netflix comedy special.Credit…Saeed Adyani/NetflixDec. 30, 2020, 11:00 a.m. ETAt the start of “Death to 2020,” a reporter played by Samuel L. Jackson sits alone in an abandoned office listening to a disembodied voice explain he’s looking back at the past year. “Why would you want to do that?” Jackson responds, with an additional curse for emphasis.The question haunts the next hour. One reasonable answer is that hearing Samuel L. Jackson swear is one of the finest pleasures in popular culture. Another: Where else are you going to go for some new jokes by famous people right now? The last week of the year is traditionally rich with live comedy events, but the pandemic has sidelined beloved annual shows from Sandra Bernhard and Dave Attell. Two streaming services have tried to fill the void by creating their own new genre. With talent-rich one-off specials, “Death to 2020” (on Netflix) and “Yearly Departed” (on Amazon) are comedy’s answer to journalism’s year-end lists.“Death,” slickly produced by Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones, the pair behind “Black Mirror,” is a fake documentary starring a fantasy team of actors, while “Yearly,” a more stripped-down affair hosted by Phoebe Robinson, imagines a funeral for things lost in 2020 attended by a cast of superb female comics. But both conceits are essentially thin pretexts to throw a bunch of jokes together recapping recent news under socially distanced conditions. Some of the bits are solid, others aren’t. But they never add up to more than fine diversions.“Death to 2020,” which lists no fewer than 18 writers, presents an array of talking heads, all caricatures, quipping about a highlight reel of news events: Tom Hanks getting Covid-19, Trump talking about injecting bleach, Biden in the basement and more of the greatest hits. There isn’t a strong perspective here outside of ugh, this year, can you believe it? And there’s fun to be had with these performances, including Hugh Grant playing a foppishly pretentious academic with impeccable condescension.Phoebe Robinson is the host of “Yearly Departed,” on Amazon.Credit…Nicole Wilder/Amazon StudiosGrant, who has aged into a masterful player of villains, always begins in seriousness before veering into dumb absurdity. Describing the fires that ravaged many parts of the world early in the year, he states: “It left these areas utterly inhospitable,” before pausing for the punchline: “Even to Australians.” Then there’s: “People think democracy is permanent and unchanging,” he says. “In truth, it’s something you must perpetually nurture like a woman. Or a professional grudge.”Many of the actors don’t play new characters so much as version of ones that have been popular elsewhere. As Dr. Maggie Gravel, Leslie Jones alternates between abrupt rage and pleading lustfulness. And in a turn that will delight fans of “The Comeback,” Lisa Kudrow turns a pathologically lying White House aide into hilarious cringe comedy.My favorite is Cristin Milioti’s Kathy Flowers, the ultimate Karen, whose series of monologues add up to the closest thing to a fleshed-out character arc here, starting in placid suburban normalcy before the internet radicalizes her, shifting into eye-bursting, conspiratorial madness. It’s silly sketch comedy performed with the commitment of an elite actor. More often in this special, the joke takes precedence over character, and the monologues have the feel of a collection of punch lines doled out like cards at a table.“Yearly Departed” also looks back in anguish, but instead of actors playing types, standup comics act as eulogists, taking turns at a lectern to pay their respects. Tiffany Haddish bids farewell to casual sex, and Natasha Rothwell speaks about giving up on “TV cops.” Everyone appears to be together, watching each other, but they were all filmed separately and cut together with reaction shots. The resulting feel is oddly uncanny.Not only are there seasoned stars like Sarah Silverman, but they mix in some new breakouts like Ziwe Fumudoh and up-and comers like Patti Harrison, who delivers one of the funniest, most acutely observed eulogies on the obsolescence of “rich girl Instagram influencers.” With mock poignancy, she asks: “Who could forget your surface-level love for photography, which you tried to get people to call ‘memory remembering,’ a term you coined.”The guest “eulogists” include Patti Harrison mourning the loss of “rich girl Instagram influencers.”Credit…Nicole Wilder/Amazon StudiosThe comic Natasha Leggero has a sharp set on the death of her desire to have kids, where she speaks for many parents during the pandemic saying: “I love my daughter, but I love her in the same way I love LSD. In microdoses.”Along with the stand-ups, some actors made cameos including Sterling K. Brown, laying on the floor to illustrate the span of six feet, along with Rachel Brosnahan, perhaps to remind you that “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” can be seen on Amazon. Her flat set about the death of pants is a reminder that playing a stand-up is not the same as being one. “Yearly” is hit or miss, but so are most stand-up sets at clubs, and by showing us a well-curated collection of female talent, there were more good jokes than in “Death to 2020.” And fewer stale ones.And yet watching both these shows repeatedly bemoan the miseries of the past year, I couldn’t help but think how the streaming services producing them actually did very well. Just as the pandemic has disproportionately hurt marginalized and disadvantaged groups, it has devastated small theaters and clubs while benefiting digital behemoths.That Jeff Bezos made $90 billion during the pandemic goes unmentioned on Amazon’s “Yearly Departed.” And while the script for “Death to 2020” points out how people stuck at home during lockdown spent more time on Netflix, name-dropping the reality shows “Love Is Blind” and “Floor Is Lava” amid the tragic news events makes you wonder if this was self-mocking comedy or corporate synergy? Spoiler alert: It’s both.In our ever more consolidated culture, where product placement is the norm and only a few companies produce the vast majority of large-scale entertainment, Netflix covers all the bases, pumping out escapist content for an audience stuck at home, then poking fun at themselves for doing it. “Death to 2020” was billed as a departure for the creators of “Black Mirror,” a comedy instead of a haunting vision of technology gone awry. And yet, seen from a different angle, it might be their darkest dystopian production yet.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      With No Tickets to Sell, Arts Groups Appeal to Donors to Survive

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWith No Tickets to Sell, Arts Groups Appeal to Donors to SurviveVirtual cocktail parties have replaced black-tie galas as cultural institutions struggle to pay their operating costs.Many nonprofit cultural institutions, whose ticket revenues have fallen sharply during the pandemic, are struggling to collect donations as well. A donation box at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Credit…James Estrin/The New York TimesDec. 28, 2020One of the headliners of the New York Philharmonic’s fall gala last month was Leonard Bernstein, leading his old orchestra in the overture to “Candide.”Yes, Bernstein died three decades ago. But since the gala, like so much else, was forced to go remote, the Philharmonic had some fun with the format, filming its current players performing to historical footage of Bernstein wielding his baton. The virtual gala had some advantages: it cost less to produce, with no catering, linen rentals and flower arrangements for a black-tie audience, and it reached some 90,000 people, while the concert hall holds around 2,700.But when it came to the bottom line, the picture was less rosy. The virtual event raised less than a third of what the gala concert took in last year: $1.1 million, down from $3.6 million, a vivid illustration of the steep challenge of raising money for the arts during a global pandemic.With little or no earned income coming in amid canceled performances and proscribed public gatherings, nonprofit cultural institutions across the nation are scrambling to attract a source of revenue that is often even more important to their bottom lines: philanthropy. Now, as they anxiously await the results of their year-end appeals for donations, they are facing competition from pressing causes including hunger, health care and social justice.“I am pedaling quickly to try to make sure that we can try to figure out how to make it through,” said Deborah F. Rutter, the president of the Kennedy Center in Washington, which ended its fiscal year on Sept. 30 with a $500,000 deficit compared to last year’s balanced budget. “We are heavily dependent on contributed revenues to survive.”The going has, indeed, been rough. Box office revenues for many institutions have fallen off a cliff: ticket sales for performing arts groups in the United States were down 96.3 percent in November compared to that month last year, according to a report released last month by the analytics group TRG Arts. And donations do not appear to be making up the difference.Despite an outpouring of contributions when the virus first struck, individual giving to arts organizations fell by 14 percent in North America during the first nine months of the year, the group found in another report. The average size of gifts from the most active, loyal patrons fell by 38 percent, the survey found.With live performances and large events canceled, arts groups have had to move their fundraisers online. Clockwise from upper left: Zadie Smith at the BAM Virtual Gala, Meryl Streep during Equality Now’s Virtual Make Equality Reality Gala, Cate Blanchett at the BAM gala and Aubrey Plaza at the Equality Now event. Credit…Getty Images for BAM (Smith and Blanchett); Getty Images for Equality Now (Streep and Plaza)A survey of performing arts administrators by the publication Inside Philanthropy found 45 percent reporting “reduced funder interest and resources as a result of the current shifting of funds for Covid and racial justice.”The outbreak has forced institutions to find creative ways to interact with donors: virtual cocktail parties, music quizzes, meet-the-musician online events.“It’s a long way to make up for the gap, and I think we should all be realistic about the fact that this is nowhere near a substitute,” said Henry Timms, the president of Lincoln Center, who helped develop #GivingTuesday in 2012, a day to encourage philanthropy on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. But he added that “when the traditional fund-raising vehicles return, a lot of us will have also learned some new digital tricks.”Among those tricks: New York City Center has invited audiences to “Make Someone Happy” this holiday season by sending as a gift (for $35) digital access to its Evening With Audra McDonald, available on demand through Jan. 3. And earlier this month, Ars Nova, an artists incubator in New York, raised more than $400,000 during its 24-hour livestream telethon, which featured more than 200 artists.Museums are struggling to raise funds in the absence of events, and because they were forced to close during the first few months of the pandemic. “We count on the front door for about 30 percent of the budget, so to lose that in one fell swoop is perilous,” said Richard Armstrong, the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which is projecting a $13 million deficit and had to cancel a potentially high-traffic Joan Mitchell touring retrospective because the timing no longer worked.Rather than pivot to a virtual gala, the Guggenheim decided to scrap that event altogether — instead inviting donations to a “Gala Fund” — in part because of Zoom fatigue and because online programming had not been a strong point.“We were a little far behind on virtual previously, so we had to catch up and we’re still figuring that out,” Mr. Armstrong said. “We certainly put out a lot of content in the seven months. We’ve learned, I think better, how to make the online museum more comparable to the physical space.”New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet typically hold a benefit each year after a Saturday matinee of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker,” followed by a backstage tour and party on the promenade of the David H. Koch Theater. This year they went online.The principal dancer Tiler Peck gave a backstage tour, told the story of the ballet and performed an excerpt. People who purchased benefit tickets received treats delivered to their homes, and were able to interact with dancers on Zoom. Dancers, in costume, were streamed live from their theater dressing rooms, where they did makeup demonstrations, talked about their characters and answered questions. And attendees received a free link to watch the company performing the full ballet on marquee.tv through Jan. 3.But many arts institutions must navigate a sensitive fund-raising climate — making the case for culture as a worthy cause, while remaining mindful of the international health crisis, rising hunger and a national reckoning around racial and social justice.“We were careful not to be overreaching, allowing partner organizations to do what they had to do, like United Way or other community service organizations that were literally dealing with life and death situations,” Mark A. Davidoff, the chairman of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, said. “How much is enough, and how much might be too much?”This month’s annual summit of the Arts Funders Forum, which aims to increase private funding for arts and culture in the United States, emphasized how arts institutions need to demonstrate to donors what they are doing to drive social change.“Of the causes that Americans of all generations do support,” said Melissa Cowley Wolf, director of the forum, during her opening remarks, “arts and culture do not make the top seven.”With no performances of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” this season, New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet had to move their family benefit fundraiser online.Credit…Rachel Papo for The New York TimesMany nonprofit institutions are hoping to apply for aid available in the stimulus bill that President Trump signed Sunday night.Amid the crisis, some foundations are stepping in to try to help keep institutions afloat, and large organizations are seeking emergency support from their boards.Virtual fund-raising has benefited a bit from the fact that people are stuck at home, making them eager for engagement as well as less heavily scheduled.“People have the bandwidth for those kinds of conversations,” Ms. Rutter, of the Kennedy Center, said. “In the past, it would be like, ‘Let’s get together for lunch,’ and it would take six months to get it on the calendar. Now it’s like, ‘I’m free tomorrow.’”Still, fund-raising challenges remain formidable. What is typically a subtle dance — we’ll give you this perk, if you give us your dollars — has now become a more brazen cry for help.This month, the Metropolitan Museum of Art placed donation boxes in the lobby of its Fifth Avenue entrance: “Please give to The Met to help us connect others to the power of art.” The Detroit Symphony launched what it is calling a Resilience Fund “to ensure that our world-class orchestra keeps the music playing for our community during the Covid-19 crisis and beyond.”The New York Philharmonic has established the “It Takes an Orchestra Challenge,” trying to raise $1.5 million by Dec. 31. David M. Ratzan, a New Yorker who typically takes his son to several concerts a year, contributed $100. “If people don’t pitch in,” he said, “these places won’t exist.”The orchestra was forced to cancel its entire current season, and this month its musicians agreed to substantial salary cuts as its administration was reorganized to allow Deborah Borda, its president and chief executive, to focus on two priorities: renovating David Geffen Hall, its Lincoln Center home, and fund-raising.“It’s an incredibly serious situation,” Ms. Borda said. “Our last concert was March 10 and we can’t play this entire year and then the next question is, looking forward, what will happen in the fall of 2021? What is going to happen with the vaccine? How comfortable will people feel about coming back?”Given this uncertainty, cultural executives still find themselves far outside the bounds of the traditional arts management playbook.“I’m not talking about whether Yo-Yo is available,” said Mark Volpe, the chief executive of the Boston Symphony, referring to the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and noting that the symphony would typically have started selling tickets for its summer Tanglewood season in November. “I’m talking about what the future is going to be.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      New Year's Eve Playlist From Around the World

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      A ‘Great Cultural Depression’ Looms for Legions of Unemployed Performers

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyA ‘Great Cultural Depression’ Looms for Legions of Unemployed PerformersWith theaters and concert halls shuttered, unemployment in the arts has cut deeper than in restaurants and other hard-hit industries.Soon after the pandemic struck, a year’s worth of bookings vanished for the acclaimed violinist Jennifer Koh, who found herself streaming concerts from her apartment.Credit…Elias Williams for The New York TimesDec. 26, 2020Updated 5:32 a.m. ETIn the top echelons of classical music, the violinist Jennifer Koh is by any measure a star.With a dazzling technique, she has ridden a career that any aspiring Juilliard grad would dream about — appearing with leading orchestras, recording new works, and performing on some of the world’s most prestigious stages.Now, nine months into a contagion that has halted most public gatherings and decimated the performing arts, Ms. Koh, who watched a year’s worth of bookings evaporate, is playing music from her living room and receiving food stamps.[embedded content]Pain can be found in nearly every nook of the economy. Millions of people have lost their jobs and tens of thousands of businesses have closed since the coronavirus pandemic spread across the United States. But even in these extraordinary times, the losses in the performing arts and related sectors have been staggering.During the quarter ending in September, when the overall unemployment rate averaged 8.5 percent, 52 percent of actors, 55 percent of dancers and 27 percent of musicians were out of work, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. By comparison, the jobless rate was 27 percent for waiters; 19 percent for cooks; and about 13 percent for retail salespeople over the same period.In many areas, arts venues — theaters, clubs, performance spaces, concert halls, festivals — were the first businesses to close, and they are likely to be among the last to reopen. “My fear is we’re not just losing jobs, we’re losing careers,” said Adam Krauthamer, president of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians in New York. He said 95 percent of the local’s 7,000 members are not working on a regular basis because of the mandated shutdown. “It will create a great cultural depression,” he said.The new $15 billion worth of stimulus aid for performance venues and cultural institutions that Congress approved this week — which was thrown into limbo after President Trump criticized the bill — will not end the mass unemployment for performers anytime soon. And it only extends federal unemployment aid through mid-March.The public may think of performers as A-list celebrities, but most never get near a red carpet or an awards show. The overwhelming majority, even in the best times, don’t benefit from Hollywood-size paychecks or institutional backing. They work season to season, weekend to weekend or day to day, moving from one gig to the next.The median annual salary for full-time musicians and singers was $42,800; it was $40,500 for actors; and $36,500 for dancers and choreographers, according to a National Endowment for the Arts analysis. Many artists work other jobs to cobble together a living, often in the restaurant, retail and hospitality industries — where work has also dried up.They are an integral part of local economies and communities in every corner of rural, suburban and urban America, and they are seeing their life’s work and livelihoods suddenly vanish. Terry Burrell, an actor and singer in Atlanta, saw the tour of her show “Angry, Raucous and Gorgeously Shameless” canceled after the virus struck.Credit…Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times“We’re talking about a year’s worth of work that just went away,” said Terry Burrell, whose touring show, “Angry, Raucous and Gorgeously Shameless,” was canceled. Now she is home with her husband in Atlanta, collecting unemployment insurance, and hoping she won’t have to dip into her 401(k) retirement account.Linda Jean Stokley, a fiddler and part of the Kentucky duo the Local Honeys with Monica Hobbs, said, “We’re resilient and are used to not having regular paychecks.” But since March hardly anyone has paid even the minor fees required by their contracts, she said: “Someone owed us $75 and wouldn’t even pay.”Then there’s Tim Wu, 31, a D.J., singer and producer, who normally puts on around 100 shows a year as Elephante at colleges, festivals and nightclubs. He was in Ann Arbor, Mich., doing a sound check for a new show called “Diplomacy” in mid-March when New York shut down. Mr. Wu returned to Los Angeles the next day. All his other bookings were canceled — and most of his income.Mr. Wu, and hundreds of thousands of freelancers like him, are not the only ones taking a hit. The broader arts and culture sector that includes Hollywood and publishing constitutes an $878 billion industry that is a bigger part of the American economy than sports, transportation, construction or agriculture. The sector supports 5.1 million wage and salary jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. They include agents, makeup artists, hair stylists, tailors, janitors, stage hands, ushers, electricians, sound engineers, concession sellers, camera operators, administrators, construction crews, designers, writers, directors and more. “If cities are going to rebound, they’re not going to do it without arts and cultural creatives,” said Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and School of Cities.Steph Simon, a hip-hop artist from Tulsa, had been booked to perform at South by Southwest when the virus hit and eliminated the rest of his gigs for the year. Credit…September Dawn Bottoms/The New York TimesThis year, Steph Simon, 33, of Tulsa, finally started working full time as a hip-hop musician after a decade of minimum-wage jobs cleaning carpets or answering phones to pay the bills.He was selected to perform at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, played regular gigs at home and on tour, and produced “Fire in Little Africa,” an album commemorating the 1921 massacre of Black residents of Tulsa by white rioters.“This was projected to be my biggest year financially,” said Mr. Simon, who lives with his girlfriend and his two daughters, and was earning about $2,500 a month as a musician. “Then the world shut down,” he said. A week after the festival was canceled, he was back working as a call center operator, this time at home, for about 40 hours a week, with a part-time job at a fast-food restaurant on the weekends.In November, on his birthday, he caught Covid-19, but has since recovered.Performers on payrolls have suffered, too. With years of catch-as-catch-can acting gigs and commercials behind her, Robyn Clark started working as a performer at Disneyland after the last recession. She has been playing a series of characters in the park’s California Adventure — Phiphi the photographer, Molly the messenger and Donna the Dog Lady — several times a week, doing six shows a day.“It was the first time in my life I had security,” Ms. Clark said. It was also the first time she had health insurance, paid sick leave and vacation.In March, she was furloughed, though Disney is continuing to cover her health insurance.“I have unemployment and a generous family,” said Ms. Clark, explaining how she has managed to continue paying for rent and food.Many performers are relying on charity. The Actors Fund, a service organization for the arts, has raised and distributed $18 million since the pandemic started for basic living expenses to 14,500 people.“I’ve been at the Actors Fund for 36 years,” said Barbara S. Davis, the chief operating officer. “Through September 11th, Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 recession, industry shutdowns. There’s clearly nothing that compares to this.”Higher-paid television and film actors have more of a cushion, but they, too, have endured disappointments and lost opportunities. Jack Cutmore-Scott and Meaghan Rath, now his wife, had just been cast in a new CBS pilot, “Jury Duty,” when the pandemic shut down filming.“I’d had my costume fitting and we were about to go and do the table read the following week, but we never made it,” Mr. Cutmore-Scott said. After several postponements, they heard in September that CBS was bailing out altogether.Many live performers have looked for new ways to pursue their art, turning to video, streaming and other platforms. Carla Gover’s tour of dancing to and playing traditional Appalachian music as well as a folk opera she composed, “Cornbread and Tortillas,” were all canceled. “I had some long dark nights of the soul trying to envision what I could do,” said Ms. Gover, wholives in Lexington, Ky., and has three children.She started writing weekly emails to all her contacts, sharing videos and offering online classes in flatfoot dancing and clogging. The response was enthusiastic. “I figured out how to use hashtags and now I have a new kind of business,” Ms. Gover said.But if technology enables some artists to share their work, it doesn’t necessarily help them earn much or even any money.The violinist Ms. Koh, known for her devotion to promoting new artists and music, donated her time to create the “Alone Together” project, raising donations to commission compositions and then performing them over Instagram from her apartment.The project was widely praised, but as Ms. Koh said, it doesn’t produce income. “I am lucky,” Ms. Koh insisted. Unlike many of her friends and colleagues, she managed to hang onto her health insurance thanks to a teaching gig at the New School, and she got a forbearance on her mortgage payments through March. Many engagements have also been rescheduled — if not until 2022.She ticks off the list of friends and colleagues who have had to move out of their homes or have lost their health insurance, their income and nearly every bit of their work.“It’s just decimating the field,” she said. “It concerns me when I look at the future.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Kristen Wiig on “Wonder Woman 1984” and Cheetah

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyKristen Wiig Would Have Said Yes to One Line in ‘Wonder Woman 1984’Getting to play Cheetah was even better for the “Saturday Night Live” star, who loves superhero movies: “It was huge on my list of things I wanted to do.”Told that her performance as the villain recalls her “S.N.L.”  misfits and loners, Wiig said, “They’re all inside me. I don’t know how to get rid of them.”Credit…Mary Ellen Matthews/CPi SyndicationDec. 25, 2020, 7:00 a.m. ET“I want you to know, I dressed up for the interview,” a dryly sarcastic Kristen Wiig said from a computer screen. Clad in a well-worn sweatshirt, she was relating a familiar plight: how a monthslong regimen of video chats and conferences had gradually worn down her efforts to appear presentable on camera.“First you’re fully trying to look normal,” she said Tuesday. “And then you’re only normal from the waist up. And now I’m just like, this is me. I’ve got baby food on me and we just have to accept ourselves.”Wiig had recently returned to Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband, the actor Avi Rothman, and their two young children, after a whirlwind New York trip. She was there to host “Saturday Night Live,” the NBC institution where she was a cast member, playing dozens of endearing eccentrics and likable outsiders.That would be a fitting finale to anyone’s 2020, but Wiig still has one more act: She is a star of “Wonder Woman 1984,” the DC superhero sequel that Warner Bros. will release in theaters and on HBO Max on Friday.This follow-up to the 2017 blockbuster “Wonder Woman,” directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot as the Amazonian champion of the title, might not seem like an obvious fit for Wiig: She is better known for outrageous comedies like “Bridesmaids” (which she acted in and wrote with Annie Mumolo) and melancholy independent films like “The Skeleton Twins” and “Welcome to Me.”Wiig’s Cheetah facing off with Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot).Credit…Warner Bros.But when you look more carefully at her character, it’s not hard to see why Jenkins chose Wiig to play Barbara Minerva, a timid antiquities expert whose desire for acceptance and fascination with her colleague Diana Prince (Wonder Woman’s alter ego) eventually drive her to become the villainous Cheetah. Playing Barbara Minerva lets Wiig trade blows in comic-book action sequences, while also calling upon her finely tuned talents for introversion and extroversion.As Wiig said Tuesday, “I’m excited and equally nervous” to see how viewers will respond to her performance in what’s easily the biggest film of her career.She also spoke about how the role came about, her love of superhero movies and her new life as a mother of twins who were born earlier this year. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.Before “Wonder Woman 1984,” did you ever imagine yourself playing a villain in a comic-book blockbuster or aspire to play one?It was an aspiration, for sure. It was huge on my list of things I wanted to do. I love big action movies and I love superhero movies. I loved all of Chris Nolan’s Batman movies and all the “Avengers” movies, “Deadpool” — you name it, I’ve seen it. I saw “Wonder Woman” in the theater when it opened, and when she came over that trench, the crowd was cheering. And it was a female superhero, so I got really emotional about it.You’ve made a lot of idiosyncratic independent movies, too. Is it now impossible for you to go back to that world?I don’t know if I could say I only want to make a certain type of movie. I’ve done movies with literally no budget and the dialogue was all improvised, like “Nasty Baby,” which I made in Brooklyn with my friends. I always tell myself I want to be happy when I show up on set, and I say yes to things I want to do.Wiig and Tunde Adebimpe in the indie “Nasty Baby.”Credit…The OrchardWiig, opposite Rose Byrne, in her big-screen breakout role in “Bridesmaids,” which she also co-wrote. Credit…Suzanne Hanover/Universal PicturesHow did you find out that you were being considered for “Wonder Woman 1984”?I got a call from my agent that Patty Jenkins wanted to talk to me. And I was like, just tell her yes, no matter what it is. I was hoping it was a “Wonder Woman” thing, but I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know if I would have one line — if she wanted me to be the crazy neighbor next door that’s like, “Goodbye, Diana!”Did your feelings change when you learned she was considering you to play Barbara Minerva?I knew about Cheetah, but there are so many different versions of that character and I was curious as to what she was going to be. But when I heard Patty’s ideas, I understood a little bit more why she thought of me. Maybe because Barbara’s really awkward in the beginning — I do have that side to me. And then after I got the part, she got into more detail of who Barbara was.What interested you about the role at that stage?I always love bad guys that you’re rooting for a little bit, where you understand why they’re bad. The thing that I loved about her is that there’s always Barbara in there. Even when she fully becomes Cheetah, you can see Barbara in there and Diana can see Barbara in there. I loved that conflict that it puts her in, and puts the audience in, because she’s so likable and nervous and insecure. We all have moments where we’ve felt like Barbara before.Is it pigeonholing you if I say that I saw flashes of some of your best-known “S.N.L.” characters — uncomfortable loners like Penelope and larger-than-life misfits like Target Lady — in your performance?I mean, they’re all inside me. I don’t know how to get rid of them. [Laughs]The Target Lady (with Justin Timberlake) is one of the comedian’s many “S.N.L.” characters.Credit…Dana Edelson/NBCAre the introverted characters just natural extensions of yourself?On “S.N.L.,” I have to find in me, what does insecurity feel like? And then take it to a 10 or 11. But whether I’m doing a character on “S.N.L.” or in “Wonder Woman,” I have to find what I think that is in me. There’s definitely characters I’ve played where I don’t have anything in common with them, and I still have to figure out how to get there in an authentic way.Do people expect you to be big and boisterous in real life because they’ve seen you play those kinds of characters before?Oh yeah, all the time. When people know you are an actor, period, they think you’re going to tell this amazing story of what happened to you on the way to dinner and it’s going to be captivating. Add the fact that I’m known for doing mostly comedy and it’s like, “OK, where are the voices?” I’m not going to do characters right now. It’s assumed that acting is an extroverted thing. But it’s not, necessarily.So where do you find those qualities in yourself when you’re playing those kinds of roles?It depends on the character, but once I’m doing it — especially on “S.N.L.,” because it’s live and you have millions of people watching — you just get in a zone. And then afterward you snap out of it. It’s funny because even though Barbara in the beginning is nervous and unsure of herself, I found it harder to play that than who she becomes later.Why was that harder?Because I was resistant, at the beginning, to add humor to her. I didn’t want her to seem too much like things I had done before, or to seem like I wasn’t able to do this part without adding something that wasn’t Kristen. But Patty and I had this one talk that completely shifted my brain, where she was like, if you allow yourself to just let that humor come out, it’s going to feel authentic and it’s not going to feel as strange as you think it does. And it completely changed my experience. When Cheetah is evil, it’s like, OK, now I’m this person. Maybe because there is more of me in Barbara, I actually had a more challenging time with that part of the shooting.Was there physical training for this role?[Exhales audibly] Yesss. Almost two months before we started shooting, I got a trainer — the movie wanted me to, just to get started. When you watch the movie, we learned and did all of those fight sequences, in addition to our stunt people. There’s definitely some C.G.I. elements later on, but for the most part it’s wire work. That’s all real people. I was basically sore for like nine months. And it’s very easy to complain and say, oh my God, I can’t even walk up the stairs. But to be honest, being stronger was so helpful, to get into who this character was. It just made me feel really good.[The next few questions contain mild spoilers for “Wonder Woman 1984.”]There’s a scene where Barbara, just starting to come into her powers, enters a party and is delighted to find she’s the center of everyone’s attention. Was that as enjoyable for you to make as it is for her to experience, or do you feel the glare of the spotlight even more?It’s a combination of both. The set was really amazing and whenever you’re in a scene with a lot of background [actors] looking at you, you can’t help but feel a little more self-conscious. But it was the part in the story where Barbara’s really starting to turn and feel it. She probably went to those parties before feeling so invisible. And this is different for her — her life is changing. So that was really fun to play.Wiig as the newly empowered Barbara at a party in “Wonder Woman 1984.”Credit…Clay Enos/Warner Bros.There’s another sequence where, in classic comic-book fashion, Barbara gets to take revenge on a scummy guy who harassed her in an earlier scene. Was that satisfying to make?I loved shooting that scene. Barbara is so sad and has always wanted this other life, and with that comes so much anger that she didn’t even realize she had. And to see her be able to just unleash it, and be like, “Oh, I like how this tastes — I’m going to keep going,” it was really fun to shoot that. I like how it wasn’t just a random person that was robbing someone in an alleyway. As a viewer, you’re a little conflicted — you’re like, oh, I like that she’s doing this to this guy. But then she goes too far. We have to acknowledge that. I’m not condoning it.Is it possible that Barbara doesn’t just want to be Diana’s equal or superior, but that she’s attracted to Diana?Like, attracted attracted? I’ve heard people suggest that. As far as my intentions in how I was playing it, it was really just her seeing Diana as the beautiful, popular girl that has the best life and everything I don’t have. There’s so much admiration there. But if people want to see it that way, it’s definitely up for interpretation.[Spoilers end here.]Warner Brothers’ decision to make “Wonder Woman 1984” and other coming movies immediately available on HBO Max has elicited a wide range of reactions from filmmakers, talent and audiences. How do you feel about it?It’s a complicated question. We’re all still mourning the whole theater experience and it’s hitting a lot of people. But I will say I didn’t personally feel comfortable telling people to go out if it’s not safe, and I’m happy that people can watch it now without worrying about their health. It’s really complicated and no one’s winning right now. But it being out on Christmas and knowing that people get to watch it and be safe is the best scenario, if it has to be this way.Are there any lessons you can take from a movie of this scale and apply to your smaller, more intimate comedy and drama performances?Yes — going into a role and being nervous is probably normal for most actors. It is for me. But when it’s over, that feeling that you did it, it just makes you feel like you can take more risks on the next thing you do. There were definitely times where I was very self-aware of just how big the role was. Truthfully, I don’t go on the internet, but I know there were people that were, like, surprised that I was playing this role. That can get in your head, even though I try not to read any of that. But ultimately I do want to take more risks and I think it’s important for me to feel that nervousness when I’m doing stuff. It makes me find something deep inside that I didn’t know was there.How are you finding motherhood so far?It’s great. Great isn’t even the word — it’s better than great. It’s strange that it’s all in quarantine. That’s a huge negative side to it, because we obviously can’t do anything or go anywhere or see certain family members. But they’re amazing and I’ve never been happier in my whole life. I’m such a homebody. I’m happy to be with them all day. Obviously not under these circumstances, but I love being home with them.What are you hoping to get for Christmas this year?I would love a nice, framed photo of me and my husband and my kids. It would just be a nice thing to have. And maybe some good moisturizer.Now that you’re a mom, is everyone going to get you a robe for Christmas?[Laughs] I hope not!AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      How Pop Music Fandom Became Sports, Politics, Religion and All-Out War

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Great ReadHow Pop Music Fandom Became Sports, Politics, Religion and All-Out WarOn social media this year, the stan was ascendant, fueling commercial competition, trolling and other arcane battles. How did we get here?Superfans’ antics reached the mainstream this year, but have operated at a constant hum since the internet helped turn pop music loyalty into a 24-hours-a-day job.Credit…Son of Alan/Folio ArtDec. 25, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ETBenjamin Cordero, a high school student from western New York, has a thing for pop divas, but especially Lady Gaga.Previously a casual fan of whatever was on the radio, Cordero was converted when the singer performed during the Super Bowl halftime show in 2017, and in the bountiful time since — which included “A Star Is Born” — his devotion has only grown.Earlier this year, as Lady Gaga prepared to release her latest album, “Chromatica,” Cordero joined Twitter, the current hub of pop superfandom, where he dedicated his account to all things Gaga. He tweeted thousands of times during the pandemic, often in dense lingo and inside jokes, along with hundreds of his fellow travelers, known as Little Monsters — internet friends whom he calls his “mutuals.”But these days, in these circles, joy and community are rarely enough. There are also battles to be waged and scores to be settled with rival groups or critics. And for Cordero, that meant trolling Ariana Grande fans.In October, with “Chromatica” having registered as a modest hit, Grande’s own new album, “Positions,” leaked online before its official release. Cordero, who liked Grande well enough but found her new music to be lacking, shared a link to the unreleased songs, much to the consternation of Grande fans, who worried that the bootlegged versions would damage the singer’s commercial prospects.Taking on the role of volunteer internet detectives, Grande fans proceeded to spend days playing Whac-a-Mole by flagging links to the unauthorized album as they proliferated across the internet. But Cordero, bored and sensing their agita, decided to bait them even further by tweeting — falsely — that he’d subsequently been fined $150,000 by Grande’s label for his role in spreading the leak. “is there any way I can get out of this,” he wrote. “I’m so scared.” He even shared a picture of himself crying.“They were rejoicing,” Cordero recalled giddily of the Grande fans he’d fooled, who spread the word far and wide that the leaker — a Gaga lover, no less — was being punished. “Sorry but I feel no sympathy,” one Grande supporter wrote on Reddit. “Charge him, put him in jail. you can’t leak an album by the world’s biggest pop star and expect no consequences.”This was pop fandom in 2020: competitive, arcane, sales-obsessed, sometimes pointless, chaotic, adversarial, amusing and a little frightening — all happening almost entirely online. While music has long been intertwined with internet communities and the rise of social networks, a growing faction of the most vocal and dedicated pop enthusiasts have embraced the term “stan” — taken from the 20-year-old Eminem song about a superfan turned homicidal stalker — and are redefining what it means to love an artist.On what is known as Stan Twitter — and its offshoots on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Tumblr and various message boards — these devotees compare No. 1s and streaming statistics like sports fans do batting averages, championship wins and shooting percentages. They pledge allegiance to their favorites like the most rabid political partisans or religious followers. They organize to win awards show polls, boost sales and raise money like grass roots activists. And they band together to pester — or harass, and even dox — those who may dare to slight the stars they have chosen to align themselves with.“These people don’t even know who we are, but we spend countless days and months defending them from some stranger on the internet,” said Cordero, who later revealed his Grande prank, gaining nothing but the ability to revel in the backlash.“When someone says something about Lady Gaga that’s negative, a little bit of yourself inside is hurt,” he explained of his own loyalty. “You see yourself in your favorite artists — you associate with them, whether it’s just the music or it’s their personality. So when someone insults your favorite artist, you take that as a personal insult, and then you find yourself spending hours trying to convince someone in China that ‘Born This Way’ was her best album.”“It’s definitely a playing field to us,” Cordero said. “We throw them in the ring, they battle it out, we cheer them on.”This year — one in which so much of everyday life was confined to virtual spaces because of the coronavirus — such antics garnered mainstream attention when fans of the K-pop group BTS targeted President Trump (and donated to Black Lives Matter) or when Taylor Swift supporters spit venom at those critics who thought her new album was anything less than perfect. Recently, NBC was forced to apologize after fans of Selena Gomez revolted in reaction to an off-color joke about the singer in a reboot of “Saved by the Bell.”But these battles also occurred at a near-constant clip on a smaller scale, in large part because of the incentives of the platforms where we now gather.In the past, “the media that we had didn’t facilitate these huge public spaces where attention is a commodity,” said Nancy Baym, an author and researcher who has studied fan behavior online since the 1990s. “There’s been this very long process of fans gaining cultural attention, gaining influence, and recognition of how to wield that influence, and now we’re seeing it more because media are at a point where it’s really putting it out there in front of us.”Before destinations like Twitter, YouTube and Spotify — where numbers and what’s trending are central to the interface — there were self-selecting mailing lists, bulletin boards, Usenet news groups, fan sites and official URLs, where Grateful Dead or Prince fans could gather to digitize lyrics, sell tickets or trade tapes.The availability of analytics, including sales figures and chart positions, has helped transform fandom into something quantifiable.Credit…Son of Alan/Folio Art“It was more about the community within — connecting with other fans of the same artist — and wasn’t as competitive,” Baym said. “In some ways it was competitive, but it was more, ‘How many times have you seen them live?’”In the early 2000s, Myspace in many ways marked a turning point, presaging an era of social media in which fans could connect directly with artists in a way they hadn’t before, causing some people to become more hostile, abusive or entitled, Baym said. At the same time, “American Idol” pitted fandoms against one another in the form of a popular vote, and what were once more insular conversations among enthusiasts began oozing outward.Matthew James, 22, who started the nostalgic blog Pop Culture Died in 2009 when he was 15, recalled when music forums like ATRL or LiveJournal communities like Oh No They Didn’t! were a temporary escape. “You would log in after your day at school or work, and you had that small window of time on the internet,” he said. “Even 10 years ago, it was still confined to these corners — you could really distance yourself very easily. Now that is not possible since everything has been moved from separate websites to these centralized social media platforms.”“With iPhones and everything, we’ve seen that small window of time you could be a fan turn into 24/7,” James added. “People never log off.”Paul Booth, a professor of media studies at DePaul University, researches how people use popular culture for emotional support and pleasure. In an interview, he noted that in the last decade, “It’s gone from a general understanding that there are people out there that call themselves fans, but we don’t really know who they are or what they do to, ‘I’m a fan, you’re a fan, everyone’s a fan.’ It’s absolutely become everyday discussion.”“Before, those people existed, but they were meeting in the basement yelling at each other,” he said. “Now they’re meeting on Twitter and yelling at each other, and everyone can see it.”While early stereotypes about fanatics focused on possessed, shrieking teeny-boppers or stalkers and killers, from Mark David Chapman to “Misery” and Yolanda Saldivar, fans were taken more seriously as a subculture in the late 1990s and 2000s, when they were seen as creators themselves, spawning zines, fan fiction and YouTube montages.But with the rise of internet-first congregations like Beyoncé’s BeyHive, Justin Bieber’s Beliebers and Nicki Minaj’s Barbz in the 2010s, an evangelical fervor became a prerequisite and the word “stan,” used as both a noun and a verb, continued to gain prominence and even positive connotations.“It’s a reclamation of the negative term as a badge of honor — ‘I am a stan because I feel so much for this artist,’” Booth said.As the politicization of the internet ratcheted up after Gamergate in 2014, fan groups increasingly adopted the tactics of troll armies from 4chan and Reddit, working in large anonymous groups — often behind celebrity avatars that broadcast fealty — to bend online conversation to their will. And unlike admirers of “Star Wars” or Marvel properties, which are more sprawling narrative fandoms, music fans — like supporters of Bernie Sanders or President Trump — are often investing in a single individual, making things even more personal.“It all boils down to emotions, which is something we don’t take seriously enough in our culture,” Booth said. “When people are passionate about something to the point that they’re identifying with it, and it becomes part of who they are — whether it’s a political party, a political person or celebrity — they’re going to fight.”They’re also going to buy. As artists have come to recognize their direct influence over swaths of their online public — sometimes siccing them on detractors, or at least failing to call them off — they have also come to rely on their constant consumption, especially in the streaming era.“You might have a local” — stan slang for a casual fan — “buy a record,” said Cordero, the Lady Gaga loyalist. “But a person on Stan Twitter probably bought that record 10 times, streamed a song on three separate playlists and racked up hundreds and hundreds of plays.”He added: “It’s basically promotion, free labor — we’re practically chained against the wall with our phones.” (Lady Gaga recently advertised “Chromatica”-branded cookies as an “Oreo Stan Club.”)In addition to fueling a merchandise boom, these pop fans have taken it upon themselves to learn the rules governing the Billboard charts and the streaming platforms that provide their data, hoping to maximize commercial impact for bragging rights.“Shall we tighten up our muscles and get ready for a long march?” asks the “Ultimate ARMY Streaming Guide” posted to one fan site for BTS, whose faithful call themselves Army. Tips include to avoid bulk buying (“there is usually a purchase limit or it will count as one purchase only”); to compile playlists instead of looping tracks (“it will appear as a bot”); and to not put the songs on mute (“Don’t worry, you can plug in earphones if you’re planning to stream the whole day!”).The guide was written by a BTS fan named Avi, who is 26 and lives in Jakarta, Indonesia. She went “down the rabbit hole” after seeing the boy band perform at the American Music Awards in 2017, she said, and found community in the fandom. In addition to gathering online, Avi and her fellow BTS fans like to get together in person to celebrate the members’ birthdays from afar, buying them a cake, posing for pictures and making charitable donations in their name.“I’ve never seen anyone insincere when it comes to BTS,” Avi said in an interview. “No one is forcing us to do anything. It feels like we’re promoting BTS, but we are also promoting our own voices, our own struggles, our own hope for a better world.”By running up the group’s numbers, landing them atop various charts and trending-topic lists, the fans hope to inspire curiosity in others to check out BTS and take in the group’s messages of self-love. “I think of it as my own voice,” Avi said. “What I do for BTS, it’s not for them. I’m doing it with them.”But some see these relationships between fans and idols as parasocial ones — largely one-sided interactions with mass-media figures that masquerade as friendship — and worry about the long-term mental health effects of such devotion.Haaniyah Angus, a writer and former teenage stan who has written about her experiences in the subculture, noted that standom was “very heavily dependent on capitalism and buying” in a way that convinced consumers, on behalf of “really rich people,” that “their win is your win.”“For me and a lot of people I knew, a lot of it stemmed from us being very lonely, very depressed and anxious being like, ‘I’m going to forget what I’m going through at the moment and I’m going to focus on this celebrity,’” she said.This dynamic often served to stamp out dissent within the ranks, which was once seen as a crucial component of fandom.“I don’t think that toxic fandom is synonymous with stan culture,” said Booth, the fan studies researcher. “But I think one of the dangers of stan culture — that is, the danger of a group of fans who are so passionate about something that they’ll shut down negative comments — is that it can often shut down much-needed conversations where our media and celebrities let us down.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More