Algorithms Erase Midcentury Culture

The article argues that award‑winning mid‑20th‑century American artists and works—novelists like Cheever, Updike, Bellow, and operas such as Barber/Menotti’s Vanessa—have largely vanished from sales charts and premier stages. It suggests recommendation engines and institutional programming choices favor recent, binge‑friendly content, burying the 1940s–60s canon from public view. — If algorithmic curation and elite venue choices can erase a generation’s canon, debates over platform power, education, and cultural policy must address preservation and discoverability, not just production.