This week on The Deep Dive: The case against genres, streaming and a lesson in fixing what wasn’t broken, don’t even act like you’re above indulging in 2014 internet lore because you miss it and I know it, the bizarre equivalent of playing bagpipes over a banjo over opera singing over a baroque-era harpsichord to represent a modern-day trip to Paris, and Disney’s Star Wars hotel was worse (and better) than you think. Also, you might have noticed that last week’s recommendation, “Patriarchy According to The Barbie Movie” by Pop Culture Detective, was briefly taken down for copyright, but it’s back up now!

Please consider donating to help Fadi AbuTaqiya’s family evacuate from Gaza and have a chance at building a new life for themselves in Egypt. Fadi has three school-aged brothers and another brother who needs urgent medical care. In Fadi’s words, your contribution – no matter how small – can have a big impact.

MUSIC

Genre is Dying (and that's a good thing) by Polyphonic (15:20)

Once a limiting yet useful categorization of music that many people would base their entire identities around, genre today is starting to feel more irrelevant than ever. In a time when playlists and overall vibes are king, will genres ever be needed again? Why has it been such a long time since we’ve last identified a truly new genre? In this video, Polyphonic explores the history of genres in music – why they came up in the first place, how they were arbitrarily identified, and where exactly we can draw the lines between pop, rock, jazz, and so many others. Is there a better (and, frankly, more interesting) way to identify music? And despite their usefulness, should we be happy to see genres go?

TECHNOLOGY

the downfall of streaming by Mina Le (41:49)

Streaming may have solved some problems in the short term, but in the nearly two decades since Netflix introduced the concept, setting off a domino effect of studios following suit, the cracks have long since started to show. And there are a lot of them. In this video, Mina Le uses the Watcher fiasco as an example of just how broken a system streaming has come to be, from a decline in the quality of movies and TV, to no longer owning physical copies of our favorite media and putting their very existence at risk, to creating a sense of subscription fatigue so severe, consumers are asking themselves whether they should have just stuck to cable. Not to mention the countless media, whether it’s considered important or unimportant, that could simply vanish at the whims of corporations. Sure, the good stuff is worth preserving, but shouldn’t we keep the bad stuff around too?

A Sneak Peek at The Rabbit Hole:

May 3, 2024: The Try Guys Try Something New

I’ve been watching The Try Guys for a long time. First as a 2010s BuzzFeed reader, then as a supporter of their spin-off channel, then as a nosy post-Ned-gate viewer after a couple of years of not keeping up with their content, and now as a curious observer of what comes next.

For a while after Ned-pocalypse, the now-trio did a lot of the same stunts they had for years up to that point: Keith ate his way through entire menus, Eugene ranked things, Zach vlogged and did whatever else he does, and every so often we were blessed with a Try Guys “Without a Recipe” cooking show featuring the presence of an obviously edited-out Ned – they made the right move by leaning into the bit.

Over time, we saw less of Eugene and more of the Try Guys B-cast (a.k.a. their employees). They half-announced that they would venture into new categories of content that they’d always wanted to try before going back to trying, eating, ranking, and vlogging. Eventually, they announced that this time, they were actually going to expand outside of their tried-and-true…trying.