A Crowd of People Stood and Stared

Hello! Over at my Substack “Please Take My Advice,” I wrote a little bit about two new Beatles documentaries (Beatles ’64 and Daytime Revolution) and the evolution of modern media. Recommended for anyone who likes the Beatles (which is everyone). Take a sip:

Re: Beatles ’64:

We speak often about our current world as the most surveilled in history — cameras to the right, cameras to the left, your phone is a camera, your lamp is a camera, etc. Watching Beatles ‘64 you realize how much they were a test case for consequences of global fame on a once unforeseeable scale. They are, it seems, always being watched.

And on the subject of Daytime Revolution:

Reasonable people can dispute the value proposition of a culture so balkanized that consumers can easily find an outlet which will service or underscore their preferences and worldview no matter how niche. That has its uses, and the monolithic stature of the three major television networks fifty years ago clearly crowded out a larger and more pluralistic cast of voices. And yet, as an alternative to cable news channels and social media feeds which somehow manage to be both brain-cavingly banal and utterly panic-inducing, it’s difficult to not feel nostalgic for a forum where a majority of people might agree to the simple proposition of listening to unfamiliar beliefs.

Roll up for the mystery tour!