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A review of one I just finished + some recommendations

I just finished Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century by W. David Marx; and here’s my review; as well as some other cultural criticism recommendations. Enjoy :)

I absolutely love these kinds of deep dives into the cultural zeitgeist. The form of this one reminded me of another cultural criticism deep dive that I loved from last year: Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert; although the theme of Blank Space was a lot more aligned with Kyle Chayka’s 2024 book Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture (which I also loved).

In Blank Space, Marx does a comprehensive cultural history of the 21st century, tracing how avant-garde movements (and bold innovations more broadly; be it music, film, or fashion) became stagnant due to the rise of commercialism and technology, leading to where we are now: algorithms homogenizing culture and creating a monoculture of brain rot, which ultimately has paved the way for Trumpism.

I found this book incredibly sharp. It reinforces what I love about cultural criticism: how it can be philosophy, sociology, and politics all through the lens of current pop culture. I STRONGLY recommend this one.

And again, if you wanna dig deeper, I highly recommend pairing this with Chayka’s Filterworld, which I mentioned earlier in the review, as well as Liz Pelly’s book from last year, Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, and Chris Hayes’s 2025 book The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource.

Idk if reading or listening to these books will “save” culture (or democracy, for that matter). But hey, it doesn’t hurt to be informed. And at the very least, I’m sure it’ll help make you more mindful of how you engage with culture and inspire you to seek out music, film, and art outside of algorithms, helping to bring back some of the joy of discovery