In Defense of the Think Piece

Are they really bothering you that much?

Every year there’s a new editorial product that we become obsessed with. Five years ago it was short-form gossip. Then it was lists. Then slideshows. Then photo essays. Then photo essays made with .gifs. Then #longreads.

For the time being, it’s think pieces. Think pieces are clever riffs on newsy subjects, not too long, not too short, a mixture of analysis and hard fact. Ultimately, they aim to support a writer’s hypothesis, whatever whimsical idea they have.

The problem with any editorial product nowadays is that once it catches on, it’s easily duplicated. In the attention economy, it gets ridden until the wheels fall off, and then dies a slow death. People eventually tune this stuff out, and everyone moves on with trying to figure out what the next cool thing will be.

It feels like that’s what has happened with think pieces over the past year. In my last job, I hired writers to write think pieces (“Rappers and Gun Violence: Exploring Hip-Hop’s Love of Firearms”), and penned a few myself (“Why Kanye West Was Justified for Ranting About Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z and Corporate Sponsors), but that was 2013, and at the time the editorial space, at least in the music world, didn’t seem so cluttered.

Now, everywhere you look, writers are attempting to take deep dives and make larger points. The Atlantic recently put a well-researched think piece—Ta-Nehisi Coates’ magnificent essay “The Case for Reparations” — on its cover. A think piece like that— a real essay, on a very real subject— merits that kind of attention, that kind of space.

But do we really need a thousand words on everything Kanye West does? Probably not. It’s okay if someone writes that article, though. If I had to choose to live in a world where I could read a thousand words on every subject imaginable, or a world where I could only read a thousand words on a very finite set of things, I would obviously choose the former. People should be sitting down to think analytically about stuff, no matter how ridiculous it is.

If you want to write a 7,000 word essay on what Taylor Swift wore at the Grammys, you should go for it. Who is to say what subjects merit deeper analysis and what subjects don’t. Everything is worth thinking critically about, at least momentarily.

Finding someone who wants to read your think piece, now that’s a different subject. There’s only one way to find out though. Get writing!

Paul Cantor is a writer, editor and music producer based in New York. Formerly an editor at AOL Music, his writing has appeared at Rolling Stone, MTV News, VICE and Billboard, among others outlets. Throughout his 10-year career he’s written/produced records for dozens of artists and provided creative services to brands like Disney, the CW Network, Verizon, Converse and HBO. His commentary has been tapped by the likes of CNN and Al Jazeera, and a selection of his recent work can be found HERE.

Subscribe to my Newsletter Here.