If you want to talk to an authority on American subcultures, you should talk to Dr. Bruce Conforth. The man has a PhD in Folklore, Ethnomusicology, and American Studies. He was the founding curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He was born in 1950, grew up in New York City and has been playing in bands for years and years and years. He is currently teaching a class at the University of Michigan called, “Post WWII American Subcultural Groups: Beats, Hippies and Punks.” It’s quite popular with students. Sometimes too popular.

We originally contacted Dr. Conforth for our roundup of expert opinions on what will come after the hipster in American subcultural history but were so fascinated with what he had to say that we called him up to talk more about common misconceptions of past subcultures, the politics of new aesthetics, and what the youth of today are missing out on.

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With Lana Del Rey’s meteoric, blog hype-fueled rise and rapid, SNL-catalyzed descent, the mere existence of MTV’s I Just Want My Pants Back and the trendy intellectual publication n+1 already taking a wishful backward glance at the subculture, hipsterdom appears to be on the wane. Have we reached a tipping point? If so, what’s next for American youth-based movements? While aware that the ability to predict the future is a rare trait, we asked several intrepid thinkers, writers, and academic types to hazard a guess. Specifically, we asked: 1. Keeping in mind the crude progression of subcultures from Beatnik to Hippie to Punk to Grunge to Hipster, what kind of prominent group will emerge next? 2. Or is the Hipster some form of the last widespread, cohesive subculture in this post-war lineage, since the Internet and other changes to American life are making this a nation of fragmented cultural tribes? Here’s what they said…

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It’s another day, and yet another Now That’s What I Call Music! compilation album is available for consumption. Not to make anyone feel old or anything, but we’re at volume #41! (In the UK, where the series began in 1983, they’re at #80). Artists featured this time around include LMFAO, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and, for those who prefer to rock, Nickelback.

If the past is any indicator of the future, this album is bound to be a hit. In a recent press release, the Now! team states that “every album in the numeric US series has reached Billboard’s Top 10, and 15 Now! releases have reached #1, second only to The Beatles in chart history.” Indeed, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, every Now! album has achieved either Gold or Platinum status, with only a few exceptions. In 2006, Slate music critic, Jody Rosen, wondered if Now! could save the music business, calling the franchise “one of the great success stories in the record business over the last decade.”

So, in our age of digital downloading and cloud computing, of Pandora and Sirius and Spotify and even YouTube, how are these records comprised of jams found everywhere still so successful?

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What, exactly, is outsider art? The label evokes a jumble of adjectives, from amateur to self-taught, shoddy to innovative, mad to genius, naive to prophetic. With this question in mind, we attended the 20th annual Outsider Art Fair in New York City over the weekend. Browsing through the over 30 booths, we asked curators, scholars, and the artists themselves what the term “outsider art” means to them, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of having one’s work labeled as such. As expected, the answers varied. View what those in the field had to say, along with some of the Fair’s highlights, after the jump.

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Right now, the Kardashians are probably the most well-known American family living in defiance of Plato’s maxim, “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” To the voluptuous Kim and company, more is more. The very name of their reality TV show — one of their many reality TV shows — Keeping Up with the Kardashians, is a blatant celebration of accruing status, money, and power without much of a point besides staying ahead of one’s neighbors. And, perhaps, the Hiltons.

Some people are angry about this. They don’t want these valueless values to spread throughout society. They abhor the idea that Kim Kardashian — someone who got famous for essentially making a sex tape with the brother of an R&B singer, remained famous simply for being famous, and is still famous for divorcing her professional basketball-playing husband after 72 days of turbulent marriage — is one of the more prominent characters in America’s media landscape.

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Yesterday, thousands of people fed-up with government budget cuts, swelling unemployment rates, tax breaks for the rich, and generally all things miserable about this country right now marched from New York City’s Zuccotti Park to Foley Square and back again. According to one report, nearly 30 people were arrested in this otherwise peaceful Occupy Wall Street demonstration, which lasted from around 3pm until nightfall. Amongst the students, protestors, union members, community organizers and thrill-seekers present, there was a mixture of messages yearning to be heard. In case you couldn’t make it to the rally, here’s a snippet of what you missed. One notable sign not shown below that perhaps best captured the spirit of the afternoon: “Let’s be better to each other.”

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The Glass Menagerie, A Streecar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — all plays that wouldn’t have existed if Tennessee Williams hadn’t existed first. The American playwright did more to transform 20th-century theater than anyone else, and to celebrate the 71 years of his life we bring you 71 facts about the man whose birthday falls on March 26. After the jump, learn about a schizophrenic sister, a distant father, and a lonely son who felt compelled to write.

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Welcome to Conversation Pieces, where Flavorpill curates five articles from the past week that you should read. Some are long, others are short. Some are from major publications, others aren’t. The only thing all these articles have in common is that they’re interesting. This week we examine cures for writer’s block, what being a Luddite originally meant, robots that think they’re human, the virtues of solitude, and more. After the jump, find something exciting to discuss this weekend in the home, at the bar, or on the street.

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Billy Corgan may be known by modern-day tweens as a borderline weirdo who dates the likes of Jessica Simpson, maintains an inter-spiritual website, and does stuff on Twitter (but, hey, what sentient being doesn’t do that, from a tween’s point of view?), yet back in the ’90s, Corgan was renowned for making great music as the lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins — a band that is currently in the process of releasing an 11-EP magnum opus called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. Today is Corgan’s 44th birthday, and to both celebrate and educate we bring you 44 facts about his life.

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Welcome to Conversation Pieces, where Flavorpill curates five articles from the past week that you should read. Some are long, others are short. Some are from major publications, others aren’t. The only thing all these articles have in common is that they’re interesting. This week we examine The Strokes after 10 years, Dan Savage as America’s moralist, the science behind awful dancing, why rape is a sensitive issue and should remain that way, and more. After the jump, find something exciting to discuss this weekend in the home, at the bar, or on the street.

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