false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg 102839 4 John Seabrook, <I>The New Yorker</I>'s "Buzz Studies" writer, deftly conveys the hubbub of modern pop culture, the blending of highbrow and lowbrow tastes, into a new sensibility he dubs "Nobrow." In Nobrowland, nobody can sell out, because art and commerce have fused like colliding electrons. America used to be split between "stark intellectuality and the plane of stark business," but now, as Puff Daddy observes, "It's all about the Benjamins [$100 bills]." It's not just that an Oxford-bred guy like Seabrook is a connoisseur of Biggie Smalls, it's that everyone, high and low, wants to feel part of the Buzz, to soak up the power of celebrity success. Puffy's rap hit constitutes "merchandising, advertising, salary-boasting, and art all at once," says Seabrook. Nowadays, "commercial culture has to do the work that both high and folk culture used to do--not only enlighten and teach but bond families and communities."<p> <I>Nobrow</I> is itself a work of Nobrow art, shape-shifting like a Beck tune: it's art appreciation, memoir, social history, high-altitude academic theory, and shoe-leather reporting all at once. Seabrook captures world-historical figures in action: George Lucas, MTV's Judy McGrath, music exec Danny "Nirvana" Goldberg, and kabillionaire David Geffen, who helped bring you Tom Cruise and DreamWorks. The big book on Geffen may be <I>The Operator</I>, but Seabrook can nail him in a phrase: "The boredom in his eyes, which seemed on the verge of spilling over into other parts of his face, was held in check by his lively eyebrows." And no one has outdone Seabrook's jaunty account of his elite magazine's Nobrowification by Tina Brown, who established "a hierarchy of hotness."<p> Seabrook doesn't score on every shot, but it's fun to watch him play. He's like a kid brother to his cult idol, George W.S. Trow, author of the prescient 1978 classic <I>Within the Context of No Context</I>. If Eustace Tilley, <I>The New Yorker</I>'s famous monocled snob icon, got zonked on "chronic bubonic" pot and gangsta rap, he might have written this dizzy yet erudite book. Indeed, one might not be altogether amiss in calling it "da bomb." <I>--Tim Appelo</I> 956292 2000 Nobrow : The Culture of Marketing, the Marketing of Culture total:120|5:9|4:30|3:52|2:20|1:9| 120 370 178 21 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 1 12 false Mon Oct 29 20:08:34 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 29 20:14:08 -0700 2007 more...]]> 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 4 1 false Thu Mar 29 12:05:46 -0700 2007 Thu Mar 29 20:05:15 -0700 2007
If you are interested in learning about how a...more...]]> 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 3 0 false Mon Dec 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 07 13:18:19 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 08 05:49:18 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 3 0 false Thu Feb 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 09 10:45:29 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 04:07:38 -0800 2009 The New Yorker. This was actually a memoir pinned to a framework of musings on culture, and was significantly less structured and systemic that I was expecting given the subtitle. Perhaps it's ap...more...]]> 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 2 0 false Wed Aug 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 07:29:40 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 26 05:55:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 3 0 false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 24 19:34:41 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 18:20:46 -0700 2007
I liked it, reminded me of a lot of the stuff we talked about in this History of American Consumption class I took. Seabrook comes off as an elitist prick sometimes (esp in the chapter about his father's closest...who gives a fuck about how man...more...]]> 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 3 0 false Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Apr 27 18:57:18 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 18:58:04 -0700 2009 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 3 0 false Sat Jan 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 21:42:24 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 24 23:08:22 -0800 2009 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 3 0 false Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2002 Wed Jan 28 21:15:35 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 28 21:15:55 -0800 2009 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 2 0 false Tue Feb 26 13:04:14 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 26 13:07:27 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1350191 0375405046 9780375405044 5 2 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182920243m/1350191.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1350191.NoBrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 4 0 false Sat Aug 23 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Sun Sep 30 16:32:07 -0700 2007 Thu May 15 14:58:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 4 0 false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 07 07:06:33 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 07 07:10:36 -0700 2007 more...]]> 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 3 0 false Thu Jun 26 13:57:12 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 26 13:58:45 -0700 2008 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 3 0 false Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2002 Tue Aug 21 11:07:17 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 11:08:59 -0700 2007 1350191 0375405046 9780375405044 5 2 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182920243m/1350191.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1350191.NoBrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 0 0 false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Nov 12 09:03:42 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 15 09:36:33 -0800 2009 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 0 0 false Tue Nov 27 07:48:39 -0800 2007 Mon Jul 13 09:10:19 -0700 2009 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 2 0 false Sun Apr 01 21:10:25 -0700 2007 Sun May 27 19:42:05 -0700 2007 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 5 0 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sun May 18 22:31:02 -0700 2008 Thu May 22 03:09:16 -0700 2008 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 2 0 false Wed Apr 30 17:49:48 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 30 17:52:09 -0700 2008 102839 0375704515 9780375704512 113 19 3.08 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171487576m/102839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102839.Nobrow_The_Culture_of_Marketing_the_Marketing_of_Culture 4 0 false Wed Apr 16 20:18:12 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 20:18:28 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=102839