‘Goth' Bless the Heartland Dreamers
Artists can draw inspiration from anywhere or anything: a colorful sunset, a loving couple snuggled on a park bench, a basket of fruit. In 1930, one artist, driving through a small Iowa town in April, was inspired by something unusual.
Driving past a white-framed clapboard house, he saw a medieval-arched window on the second story. The house's architectural style was known as Carpenter Gothic, or Rural Gothic. Mesmerized by what he considered 'a structural absurdity' on such a simple structure, the young artist that he decided it would make a wonderful backdrop for an American heartland scene he imagined. One might say Grant Wood was 'drawn' to the house and what it represented in his artist's imagination.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
WorldPride comes to the nation's capital
WorldPride comes to the nation's capital Good morning!🙋🏼♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert. I can't stop watching the "Wicked: For Good" trailer ✨ Get ready for Thursday with the news: At WorldPride, queer community vows to be heard 'The WorldPride stage is in front of the Capitol building at a time when they are trying to silence us, put us back in the closet, make us feel ashamed, take away so many of our freedoms, pull back DEI. And we are like: 'Oh no no no! We are going to the nation's capital; we are going to be louder than ever. You can't take this away from us. We are going to be ourselves.'' ~ Brooke Eden, a country singer/songwriter who will be performing in Washington, D.C., at WorldPride − a global festival that promotes LGBTQ+ visibility and awareness − at a historic juncture: When the queer community's rights are increasingly in hostile crosshairs. Trump launches Senate lobbying blitz for his tax bill President Donald Trump's second-term legislative agenda is on the line as the Senate gears up for a four-week sprint, during which they will seek to pass something that can also get through the House's narrow margins and onto the president's desk for signature into law. It won't be easy. As in the House, the Senate has fiscal conservatives who are concerned that the bill will add to the federal deficit and moderates who have problems with the potential impact on Medicaid health coverage. Deficit blues : Several senators have said they're worried about the massive price tag of the legislation. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill would add more than $3 trillion to the federal debt over the next 10 years, adding to the country's already massive $36.2 trillion debt. : Several senators have said they're worried about the massive price tag of the legislation. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill would add more than $3 trillion to the federal debt over the next 10 years, adding to the country's already massive $36.2 trillion debt. Musk is fanning the flames . The Tesla CEO argues the legislation's price tag undermines the work that he did leading the Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting project. . The Tesla CEO argues the legislation's price tag undermines the work that he did leading the Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting project. Meanwhile, American health care is on the line: New analysis shows about 11 million Americans would lose health insurance coverage under Trump's bill, and experts say the uninsured might delay care and accrue more medical debt. More news to know now What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here. Families scramble to find loved ones – and answers – after massive ICE raid in Florida Family members and friends of the more than 100 construction workers detained in what was deemed Florida's largest immigration raid this year say they are having trouble locating their loved ones. Some of the laborers were sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Baker County, while some went to Miami's Krome Detention Center. Others were quickly flown to El Paso, Texas, and were still there awaiting removal as of June 3. And some are already in Mexico, just five days after being detained and bused away from their job site in Tallahassee. But others are still silent, and their friends and family are worried and waiting for a call. Trump bans Harvard from admitting new international students In an executive order issued Wednesday, President Trump declared that Harvard University's admission of international students represents a threat to the United States. In his new order, Trump listed a litany of grievances against the university, which he accuses of failing to protect Jewish students from pro-Palestinian protesters. He also noted that Harvard has long used race as a factor in admissions, which led the Supreme Court in 2023 to strike down race-based admissions policies nationwide. Trump's order applies to new students who would be arriving to study at Harvard, and asks Secretary of State Marco Rubio to consider whether to also revoke the visas of current international students Today's talkers Meet the million-dollar creators of the Bop house They fly on private jets to the Super Bowl, own Porsches and Lamborghinis and rack up $4,000 dinner bills on a night out. It's all in a month's work at the Bop House, a content creator mansion where eight Gen Z OnlyFans creators produce content for their combined following of nearly 90 million users across social media platforms. But teenagers, particularly young girls, who see TikToks showcasing the content creators' opulent lifestyle, may get the impression that being an OnlyFans star is aspirational. While creators in the Bop House spoke openly with USA TODAY about their hardships growing up — and say they're not trying to be anyone's role model. Photo of the day: Checked! The Edmonton Oilers started the 2025 Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday the same way they started their last run to a championship - by winning Game 1 in overtime. Check out the best moments of the final so far.
Time Magazine
an hour ago
- Time Magazine
The History of Music Copyright—Before (Taylor's Version)
Taylor Swift wrote a letter to her fans announcing that she had finally secured ownership of the original master recordings for her entire catalog. It's the culmination of her efforts to gain full control of the copyright in her work. Rights to her catalog—including hugely successful albums like Fearless, Red, and 1989 —were purchased by a music industry mogul without her consent in June 2019. Although her legal team was unable to stop the sale, Swift won the high ground in the court of public opinion by arguing that such an action was morally wrong. In the process, she has achieved something unique in the history of American popular music. The pop star's efforts to control her master recordings has been an element of her ongoing advocacy for artist rights. The intricacies of publishing, licensing, and rights ownership in the modern music industry are quite complex. Though copyright may be law in one sense, public perception and popular opinion effect how the law is enforced in practice. The history of American popular music shows that the degree of agency an unsigned artist has to negotiate terms with industry representation can be profoundly affected by their class, race, and gender. Very few artists will ever reach the level of popularity and profitability that Swift enjoys, but by raising public discourse about music copyright she has helped to reinvigorate conversations about the value of music. Copyright protection for 'Authors and Inventors' is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, which highlights the importance the framers placed upon encouraging creativity and innovation. Congress passed the first copyright act in 1790 protecting any 'map, chart, book, or books,' which allowed authors the sole right to profit from the sale of their work for a limited time after which it would enter the public domain. Congress expanded copyright in 1802 to account for new advances in print technology and visual mediums. Interestingly, sheet music, which had existed for centuries, was not added to the list of protectable mediums until 1831. In truth, there was relatively little music generating revenue for copyright to protect in early America. That began to change when a 20-year-old Stephen Foster composed 'Oh! Susanna' in the late 1840s. The song was an unprecedented hit, selling well over 100,000 copies in multiple editions. Foster failed to properly register and protect his interests and made next to nothing off the song. Despite enjoying numerous fair and favorable contracts throughout his career. Foster never learned how to capitalize financially on the public success of his songs and he died penniless in 1864. The popularity of Foster's songs demonstrated that there was money to be made in American music, and publishing houses observed how songwriters could be easily taken advantage of in the process. Beginning with Tin Pan Alley at the turn of the 20th century, the music industry professionalized rapidly. Composers and songwriters, despite creating the product that generated income, became increasingly separated from the business of music. Record label executives, music publishers, lawyers, agents, and other professionals handled the paperwork and managed the money. While some songwriters like Irving Berlin also learned the business side of music, such cases were the exception, not the rule. Consider the career of Berlin's contemporary Woody Guthrie. Guthrie did not have access to the kinds of industry support more mainstream artists had, but he did have access to his local library. In 1937, he researched the copyright registration process on his own, sent in the required documentation along with a one-dollar fee to register 'California!,' and even asked the Copyright Office to send guidance about registration best practices. The Copyright Office responded promptly with an official registration certificate for 'California!,' several blank application cards, and instructions for how to optimize future registrations. This process was time consuming, however. Guthrie's transient lifestyle and prolific output meant that much of his catalog was not registered or managed properly. The copyright claim in Guthrie's most famous song, ' This Land is Your Land,' has been contested by artists and content creators looking to use the song in new ways. Rather than to maximize profitability, Guthrie's heirs have used copyright primarily to keep the song from being appropriated by commercial and political interests that are in direct opposition to his worldview. The key ethical question of copyright, like so many areas of the law, is not just about what rights are granted. It is about how the power granted by those rights gets wielded in practice. Over the course of the 20th century, many popular musicians like Chuck Berry and John Fogerty signed away their rights early in their careers, missing the full financial rewards when they later made it big. For many, accepting unfavorable terms had been their only option to break into the industry. Fogerty was famously sued by his former label and bandmates for sounding too much like himself when he went solo in 1972. Fogerty recently announced that, at the age of 80, he will be recording a (John's Version) album of his Greatest Hits, in a nod to Swift's success with the strategy. Before Swift's triumph, Prince is probably the artist who most skillfully used cultural influence to leverage their rights. When his label claimed a trademark in the rights to his name and all music marketed under it, he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol until his contract with them expired in 2000. Similarly, much of Swift's success has come from relying more on public relations than litigation to assert her ownership. Inspired by a viral social media post from Kelly Clarkson, Swift began the process of rerecording her early work in November 2020. But that strategy only worked because she was also able to motivate her fans to choose (Taylor's Version) albums on streaming platforms and even to repurchase her rerecorded work on CD, cassette, and vinyl. Including bonus material and other incentives was certainly part of the strategy, but the level of fan involvement in policing the (Taylor's Version) transition has reached levels that are difficult to explain by marketing tactics alone. Swift's efforts to take legal control of her songwriting catalog have significantly raised the level of discourse about copyright law in popular culture. They have also provided a high-profile challenge to the trope of the struggling artist that has creative abilities but lacks savvy business skills. Swift's management of her career has been touted as a model to reduce the structural inefficiencies in music licensing and broadcasting, to promote equity sharing with record labels, and to give artists in general more control over their creative work. After her rerecording venture was so successful, some major labels have sought to add language to future contracts preventing that outcome. But to do so, they will have to navigate the fact that artists are more aware of the value that they bring in the post-(Taylor's Version) Era. Jason Lee Guthrie is an Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Clayton State University in Morrow, GA. His research explores the intersections of creativity and economics, with a focus on copyright in the creative industries.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Country singers and parade celebrate Army – and (unofficially) Trump's birthday
Country singers and parade celebrate Army – and (unofficially) Trump's birthday A massive military parade on the streets of Washington will showcase troops, tanks, weapons, aircraft – and music performers including country singer Scotty Hasting, a former Army infantryman who was wounded in Afghanistan. Country singer Noah Hicks of Nashville and DJ Nyla Symone, one of New York's youngest DJs, will perform at the U.S. Army's Grand Military Parade in Washington. The parade is a celebration of the Army's 250th year, scheduled for June 14 – which is also President Donald Trump's 79th birthday. A concert will feature "5-7 musical acts" with country music performers, not yet identified, according to Axios. Trump is scheduled to speak at the event, which is expected to draw at least 200,000 people. You can register for free tickets to the parade, but they're limited. The two-hour event, a military spectacle and unofficial birthday party, takes place on Constitution Avenue near the National Mall and starts at 6:30 p.m. ET. Events include Army parachuters jumping from aircraft, landing and giving Trump an American flag for his birthday, Pentagon officials said, according to Axios. Trump expressed a desire for a large military parade during his first administration. That did not happen, but the president is playing a major role in the Army celebration, which now includes the parade, Reuters reported. Where will the parade start and end? Unable to view our graphics? Click here to see them. The celebration day begins with a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in the morning. Events include "historical U.S. Army personnel reenactors, period-accurate equipment, vehicles, impressive flyovers, and military bands," according to America 250, the organizer. What's in the Army parade? For the celebration, the U.S. Army is bringing in: 7,500 troops 28 M1 Abrams tanks 28 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles 4 Paladin self-propelled howitzer cannons 50 Apache, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters The vehicles will be transported by train, and the helicopters will be flown in. Vintage warplanes, including a World War II-era B-17 bomber and a P-51 Mustang fighter, are set to fly over the National Mall. The parade will cross in front of Trump's viewing stand on Constitution Avenue south of the White House at about 6 p.m. Trump is expected to preside over the enlistment and reenlistment of soldiers at the end of the parade. The event will end with fireworks at dusk. How much will the parade cost? The latest price tag for the parade is $30 million, a figure that could rise as high as $45 million. Though the Army is expected to pay for any damage from tanks rolling through the streets of the capital, it's "not expecting damage" to the roads, officials said. CONTRIBUTING Cybele Mayes-Osterman, Tom Vanden Brook SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; America 250
