In Defense of the Trend Piece
March 25, 2016 9:24 AM Subscribe
This past weekend saw the latest eruption in a long-running campaign to shame the New York Times into no longer publishing trend pieces in its Styles section. It’s a tradition that goes back more than a decade—remember Jennifer 8. Lee’s canonical “man date” story or Warren St. John’s paradigm-shifting “Metrosexuals Come Out”?—and one that owes its longevity to the tantalizing sense of superiority many readers of trend pieces experience when scolding the often lovely and exuberant reportorial form as an affront to serious journalism.
Trend pieces are feculent and should be permanently banished to the tabloids, where they belong.
posted by panama joe at 9:32 AM on March 25, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by panama joe at 9:32 AM on March 25, 2016 [5 favorites]
Apparently this jackass thinks news should be fun. I say if he wants to laugh, he can go watch Man Getting Hit By Football. The only legitimate emotions for news to evoke are anger and sorrow; joy has no place in journalism.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:34 AM on March 25, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:34 AM on March 25, 2016 [8 favorites]
My counterargument to all this is: Sure, fine, probably—but really, who gives a shit?
Kant would be proud
posted by theodolite at 9:36 AM on March 25, 2016 [5 favorites]
Kant would be proud
posted by theodolite at 9:36 AM on March 25, 2016 [5 favorites]
I have nothing against trend pieces, per se, but I think they end up exposing a failing of journalism in practice. The great fiction of journalism is that we can become an expert, or expert enough to write a column, in a very short while just by doing a little background reading and interviewing a few people. So trend pieces tend to be written by people with very little knowledge about trends -- I mean, by their very nature, trends pop up, are popular among a few people, and either catch on or fade away, so there's no reason to assume one of your reporters is already going to have an interest in, say, lumbersexualism.
But this tends to lead to shallow reporting, and reporting that can be easily gamed, because the only way you know something is a trend is if people tell you it's a trend, and people can just make up trends for the sake of it. Additionally, real trends have complicated lifespans, and so don't do well in snapshot form. As a result, trend pieces tend to veer sharply between clueless credulity and mean-spirited dismissiveness, often being cluessless about things that are transparently put ons and dismissive of things that are genuinely beloved and long-lasting.
I mean, the Times coverage of hipsters is like a multi-year essay in trying to make fetch a thing, and I never come away feeling like "hipster" is a meaningful category, any actual trends are being examined, and any significant information is being imparted. Here's a good compilation of stories about hipsters from the venerable Gray Lady, and you tell me if a trend is being examined in any worthwhile way at all.
posted by maxsparber at 9:48 AM on March 25, 2016 [26 favorites]
But this tends to lead to shallow reporting, and reporting that can be easily gamed, because the only way you know something is a trend is if people tell you it's a trend, and people can just make up trends for the sake of it. Additionally, real trends have complicated lifespans, and so don't do well in snapshot form. As a result, trend pieces tend to veer sharply between clueless credulity and mean-spirited dismissiveness, often being cluessless about things that are transparently put ons and dismissive of things that are genuinely beloved and long-lasting.
I mean, the Times coverage of hipsters is like a multi-year essay in trying to make fetch a thing, and I never come away feeling like "hipster" is a meaningful category, any actual trends are being examined, and any significant information is being imparted. Here's a good compilation of stories about hipsters from the venerable Gray Lady, and you tell me if a trend is being examined in any worthwhile way at all.
posted by maxsparber at 9:48 AM on March 25, 2016 [26 favorites]
NY Times trend pieces are the knock knock jokes of journalism.
posted by srboisvert at 8:03 AM on August 23, 2010
posted by srboisvert at 9:49 AM on March 25, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 8:03 AM on August 23, 2010
posted by srboisvert at 9:49 AM on March 25, 2016 [8 favorites]
I will say that the trend piece about fall clothes in the age of climate change really spoke to me. Of course, that's not something where you need a lot of expertise, and the point of writing it is mostly so that everyone who likes sweaters can just go, "I know, right?" and talk about how sad it makes them that sweater season has shrunk from five months to three.
posted by Frowner at 9:51 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 9:51 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
Hate reading Sunday Styles is a noble tradition. Man buns and monocles make for good Sunday brunch.
posted by betweenthebars at 9:52 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by betweenthebars at 9:52 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
But each one got at something true about the ever-evolving predilections and mores of a great city’s denizens, and described them with verve, intellect, and a good-natured wink.
Every word of this is false.
posted by straight at 9:52 AM on March 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
Every word of this is false.
posted by straight at 9:52 AM on March 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
Do you think that when Leon Neyfakh was pitching this to his editor, he actually wrote out #slatepitches, or was that just understood?
posted by strangely stunted trees at 9:54 AM on March 25, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by strangely stunted trees at 9:54 AM on March 25, 2016 [8 favorites]
Slate's taking the opposite position on something to stand out and draw ad views?! I'm so shocked.
posted by downtohisturtles at 9:54 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by downtohisturtles at 9:54 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
The author is a total cob nobbler.
posted by stevil at 9:56 AM on March 25, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by stevil at 9:56 AM on March 25, 2016 [11 favorites]
Someone needs to write a listicle of the 'top 11 best trend pieces' but it should also be secretly an advertorial for the best content recommendation platforms, like outbrain and taboola. I would so not read that.
posted by sexyrobot at 10:04 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by sexyrobot at 10:04 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
There's so much ink spilled about millenials, but no one has ever thought to write about their important precursor - Willenials.
posted by to sir with millipedes at 10:11 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by to sir with millipedes at 10:11 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Is no one else amazed you can have a number for a middle name?
posted by Monochrome at 10:15 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Monochrome at 10:15 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
I always thought the problem with NYT trend pieces wasn't about serious journalism or whatever but that they refuse to write about a trend until grandmothers in Iowa are doing it? Like the one that kicked off the article was about millennials running companies, like this is some crazy new thing. Mark Zuckerberg is a millennial. Everyone on the Forbes 30 under 30 is a millennial.
posted by Wretch729 at 10:19 AM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Wretch729 at 10:19 AM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
TRENDPIECES:TRENDING, RETREADS OR TIRED? OUR TRENDY TRIBE OF TRENDSPERTS WILL INTERPRET CURRENT TRENDS ON TRENDS WRITING AND REPORT TO YOU ON THE CURRENT TRENDS IN TRENDSITORIALS.
posted by ardgedee at 10:26 AM on March 25, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by ardgedee at 10:26 AM on March 25, 2016 [5 favorites]
Won't anybody think of the opportunity cost? When I see inane articles like this I think about all the important stories not be reported.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 10:39 AM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by LastOfHisKind at 10:39 AM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
The great fiction of journalism is that we can become an expert, or expert enough to write a column, in a very short while just by doing a little background reading and interviewing a few people.
And it's a fiction only to other members of "the village." The rest of us now have ready access to actual experts. (Whether we seek them out is, unfortunately, on us.)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:51 AM on March 25, 2016
And it's a fiction only to other members of "the village." The rest of us now have ready access to actual experts. (Whether we seek them out is, unfortunately, on us.)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:51 AM on March 25, 2016
Okay, I admit I also kind of love the NYT trend pieces. Was surprised the monocle piece wasn't mentioned in the article, but glad to see it was brought up pretty quickly in this thread.
Also, hand on heart, I will give my life to defend the thong piece. Granny panties for the fuckin win.
posted by triggerfinger at 11:02 AM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
Also, hand on heart, I will give my life to defend the thong piece. Granny panties for the fuckin win.
posted by triggerfinger at 11:02 AM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
Slate published a contrarian Hot Take that defends a NYT Trend Piece about Millennials.
Could there possibly be a more perfect encapsulation of journalism in 2016?
posted by schmod at 11:05 AM on March 25, 2016 [11 favorites]
Could there possibly be a more perfect encapsulation of journalism in 2016?
posted by schmod at 11:05 AM on March 25, 2016 [11 favorites]
I thought the article was funny.
There have always been trend pieces. People have always taken them lightly, rolled their eyes and realized they’re not written for the cutting edge. You don’t need to report trend makers to themselves, what’s the point of that? They just supposed to be fun. There’s nothing different or new about trend pieces, but there’s a different reaction.
The reactions mentioned in the article are interesting. I find it fascinating that so little "trending" actually happens any more, so little changes in arts and fashions, and this seems to point out that many have an aversion to even talking about the idea these days.
In the past people would have laughed because the trend pieces missed the point, but didn’t expect mass culture reporting to keep up with cool. Or want them to. That was sort of the point.
Now it seem people are mad because the reporting is not accurate. That their cool is not being documented correctly. That they’re not talking about the right things.
I was also surprised to see an article about "the new victorians" from 2007 mentioned in there, that’s kind of how I think of the last decade or more.
posted by bongo_x at 11:07 AM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
There have always been trend pieces. People have always taken them lightly, rolled their eyes and realized they’re not written for the cutting edge. You don’t need to report trend makers to themselves, what’s the point of that? They just supposed to be fun. There’s nothing different or new about trend pieces, but there’s a different reaction.
The reactions mentioned in the article are interesting. I find it fascinating that so little "trending" actually happens any more, so little changes in arts and fashions, and this seems to point out that many have an aversion to even talking about the idea these days.
In the past people would have laughed because the trend pieces missed the point, but didn’t expect mass culture reporting to keep up with cool. Or want them to. That was sort of the point.
Now it seem people are mad because the reporting is not accurate. That their cool is not being documented correctly. That they’re not talking about the right things.
I was also surprised to see an article about "the new victorians" from 2007 mentioned in there, that’s kind of how I think of the last decade or more.
posted by bongo_x at 11:07 AM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
This is my favorite kind of opinion piece, where I disagree with the conclusion and many of the supporting arguments but enjoyed reading it and fully support the REAL conclusion ("everyone lighten up").
posted by babelfish at 11:08 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by babelfish at 11:08 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
Recklessly promoting bias is not something that people should "lighten up" about.
posted by schmod at 11:14 AM on March 25, 2016
posted by schmod at 11:14 AM on March 25, 2016
This is genuinely amazing even for a #slatepitch. It's like Neyfakh literally doesn't even know what the truth is, or denies that there is a truth; he apparently in earnest doesn't know the difference between journalism and entertainment (though perhaps this, too, is a put-on just like the pieces he endorses?). Culture warriors, you say you want a true radical relativist to decry? Forget Continental philosophy, here's your man.
posted by RogerB at 11:45 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by RogerB at 11:45 AM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
Counterpoint:
“For me, the most important thing is expressing myself,” said Jewel Packard, 24, during an interview conducted via reaction GIFs in the communication app Slack. “Sometimes that means tattoos, and sometimes that means podcasts.”posted by Rustic Etruscan at 11:46 AM on March 25, 2016 [19 favorites]
Packard, who co-works at a bespoke underwear startup, and whose hobbies include 7 a.m. dance parties and sexting, said that she values her ability to express herself almost as much as she values her parents’ Netflix account.
“When it comes down to it, life is really all about finding a hashtag for yourself and sending hilarious emoji on Venmo,” Packard said, and then, after a moment of reflection, added: “Lena Dunham.”
The real trend illustrated by this piece is that it's now, for the first time ever in human history, so unusual as to be newsworthy that people in their early thirties are running companies.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:12 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Sys Rq at 12:12 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
Stuff White People Don't Like
posted by thelonius at 12:18 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 12:18 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
It's all fun and games until the NYT trend pieces relate tales of "weapons of mass destruction".
posted by telstar at 12:19 PM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by telstar at 12:19 PM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Don't like don't read..or: don't like don't even buy
posted by Postroad at 12:52 PM on March 25, 2016
posted by Postroad at 12:52 PM on March 25, 2016
One of my recent reads was Erik Larson's Dead Wake which devoted a large chunk of a chapter to the reporters who hung out on the Lusitania during the half-day boarding to describe what the notable rich people were wearing to Europe that spring, and hopefully get some amusing quotes about the German Embassy's published threat. Of course everyone believed the Germans didn't have the teeth to take down the fastest ship in the Atlantic, so that part of the story was played for laughs when it ran the next day.
Egocentric frivolity has always been a function of New York media.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 1:29 PM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
Egocentric frivolity has always been a function of New York media.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 1:29 PM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
Wait, you forgot the most emailed New York Times article ever.
posted by How the runs scored at 1:38 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by How the runs scored at 1:38 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
How the runs scored: "Wait, you forgot the most emailed New York Times article ever."
Previously. This is great, even if its age is beginning to show through here and there -- I don't remember the last time I heard about Bo Obama. Totally worth it though for "who has accompanied her daughter on long trips to Uganda, Bangladesh and the Mississippi Delta."
posted by crazy with stars at 2:04 PM on March 25, 2016
Previously. This is great, even if its age is beginning to show through here and there -- I don't remember the last time I heard about Bo Obama. Totally worth it though for "who has accompanied her daughter on long trips to Uganda, Bangladesh and the Mississippi Delta."
posted by crazy with stars at 2:04 PM on March 25, 2016
I love the Most Emailed New York Times Article Ever. It is my favorite, ever. Plus, it got me into reading Jose Saramago.
posted by latkes at 2:52 PM on March 25, 2016
posted by latkes at 2:52 PM on March 25, 2016
Anna’s parents, Leslie Wilhelm, an editor of style and fashion books, and Walter Gilliam, a partner at a boutique investment firm, love that they can see their daughter often. (Williams, Anna’s last name, is a portmanteau of her parents’ surnames.)
yep, still funny
posted by theodolite at 3:23 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
yep, still funny
posted by theodolite at 3:23 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
Wait is he accusing us of trend-piece-shaming?
posted by atoxyl at 4:46 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by atoxyl at 4:46 PM on March 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
"There's so much ink spilled about millenials, but no one has ever thought to write about their important precursor - Willenials."
Ha! I've been leading a charge on Facebook for the last few months to call "Millenials" "Willenials." Glad to see it's taken hold.
And as for the FPP's subject:
How does a Style reporter count? One, two, trend.
posted by klangklangston at 5:24 PM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
Ha! I've been leading a charge on Facebook for the last few months to call "Millenials" "Willenials." Glad to see it's taken hold.
And as for the FPP's subject:
How does a Style reporter count? One, two, trend.
posted by klangklangston at 5:24 PM on March 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
I'll never forget when the NYTs discovered Steampunk.
posted by acrasis at 5:50 PM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by acrasis at 5:50 PM on March 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
If you're going to go to bat for the role of trend pieces in a healthy journalistic environment don't you have to admit that part of the traditional role of trend pieces is to be mocked by the hipper part of the audience?
posted by atoxyl at 9:40 PM on March 25, 2016
posted by atoxyl at 9:40 PM on March 25, 2016
Extree! Extree! Rich white people are rich, and white!
posted by non canadian guy at 10:30 PM on March 25, 2016
posted by non canadian guy at 10:30 PM on March 25, 2016
Oh my, that Man Date article from 2005. So much cringing!
Loved her book about fortune cookies and Chinese restaurants though.
posted by oceanjesse at 7:01 AM on March 26, 2016
Loved her book about fortune cookies and Chinese restaurants though.
posted by oceanjesse at 7:01 AM on March 26, 2016
I'll never forget when the NYTs discovered Steampunk.
Dude, Steampunk is for lamestains and frados. The dishes and juicers are all about Seapunk these days.
posted by panama joe at 10:30 AM on March 26, 2016
Dude, Steampunk is for lamestains and frados. The dishes and juicers are all about Seapunk these days.
posted by panama joe at 10:30 AM on March 26, 2016
"If you're going to go to bat for the role of trend pieces in a healthy journalistic environment don't you have to admit that part of the traditional role of trend pieces is to be mocked by the hipper part of the audience?"
"By God, these millennial metrosexual man-dates are the best reporting we've done since hippies smoking banana peels and ravers' rectal ice cubes!"
posted by klangklangston at 2:05 PM on March 26, 2016
"By God, these millennial metrosexual man-dates are the best reporting we've done since hippies smoking banana peels and ravers' rectal ice cubes!"
posted by klangklangston at 2:05 PM on March 26, 2016
"Dude, Steampunk is for lamestains and frados. The dishes and juicers are all about Seapunk these days."
go back to 2011 grandpa
vaporwave revival
posted by klangklangston at 2:07 PM on March 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
go back to 2011 grandpa
vaporwave revival
posted by klangklangston at 2:07 PM on March 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
Do you even slimewave, bro?
posted by panama joe at 11:19 PM on March 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by panama joe at 11:19 PM on March 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Oh, slimewave is a porn.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 3:10 PM on March 27, 2016
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 3:10 PM on March 27, 2016
Oh man, it's so rare that I learn about a new porn subgenre. I had never heard of slimewave. Humans are weird.
posted by klangklangston at 1:45 PM on March 28, 2016
posted by klangklangston at 1:45 PM on March 28, 2016
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