The “unspoken truth” phenomenon has been around since the early 2000s, with people believing in conspiracies and unverifiable facts without ever asking the question: how do you know? Giordano Bruno wrote about this in 1580, saying ‘se non è vero, è molto ben trovato!’ (‘If it is not true, it is very well found/invented!’). In other words, sometimes the truth of a story matters less than how it lines up with the audiences’ beliefs and desires. Social media platforms, such as Facebook, have further enabled this manipulation of reality, by allowing political campaigns to reach millions of people without being transparent about their paid boosted posts. Read full article here
Oddities
Why Do Modern Pop Songs Have So Many Credited Writers?
The music industry has changed dramatically over the last few decades – with the number of songwriters credited on number one hits more than doubling. This is due to a combination of factors, including money, the computer and a changing definition of what songwriting is. For example, if The Beatles’ classic “I Feel Fine” was released today, it would likely have four writers credited instead of two, due to the influence of producers, samples and interpolations. With the rise of lawsuits, artists now preemptively add songwriter credits to their songs, even if the similarities between their song and the source material are coincidental. It all goes to show that the music industry is becoming more complex and competitive. Read full article here
Merv
March 29, 2023
