Fear not, the long tail is alive and well. It's just not where the author is looking for it. This has to do with the flippening that has taken place in recent history and has not been widely acknowledged.
For decades practically everything counter culture came from the left, while the right represented the establishment. So much so that we came to believe that the left was by it's very nature counter-cultural, and the right was by it's very nature pro-establishment.
But something funny happened along the way. The left become dominant in virtually every cultural power center in America: the media, music, film and TV, the tech giants, publishing, etc. The problem is neither the left nor the right have genuinely digested this change. You see high-powered attorney's and corporate execs driving their 6-figure Telsa SUV's with "Resist" stickers on the back, as if they were some sort of scrappy underdog sticking it to "the man".
There is a vibrant counter culture in America right now, it's just mostly on the cultural and political right. Think of the "intellectual dark web", or the fact that small indie right-wing publishers have popped up and conservatives are trying to create an alternative to big tech with things like Gab, Parler, and Truth Social. A lot these things have, or will, fail, but some will not. A lot of these things are also downright awful and generally offensive, but they are counter-cultural and designed to appeal to the long part of the tail.
There are even whole series of children's books designed for conservatives. If a children's book about Amy Coney Barret isn't the definition of a long-tail product, then I don't know what is.
The author's mistake is that he doesn't realize that he and people like him, are the establishment so they don't see a lot of the stuff in the long tail, simply because it's not meant for them and others living in the short tail of things. There's nothing wrong with being part of the establishment, it's just never been considered very cool, so everyone wants to think they're counter cultural.
For decades practically everything counter culture came from the left, while the right represented the establishment. So much so that we came to believe that the left was by it's very nature counter-cultural, and the right was by it's very nature pro-establishment.
But something funny happened along the way. The left become dominant in virtually every cultural power center in America: the media, music, film and TV, the tech giants, publishing, etc. The problem is neither the left nor the right have genuinely digested this change. You see high-powered attorney's and corporate execs driving their 6-figure Telsa SUV's with "Resist" stickers on the back, as if they were some sort of scrappy underdog sticking it to "the man".
There is a vibrant counter culture in America right now, it's just mostly on the cultural and political right. Think of the "intellectual dark web", or the fact that small indie right-wing publishers have popped up and conservatives are trying to create an alternative to big tech with things like Gab, Parler, and Truth Social. A lot these things have, or will, fail, but some will not. A lot of these things are also downright awful and generally offensive, but they are counter-cultural and designed to appeal to the long part of the tail.
There are even whole series of children's books designed for conservatives. If a children's book about Amy Coney Barret isn't the definition of a long-tail product, then I don't know what is.
The author's mistake is that he doesn't realize that he and people like him, are the establishment so they don't see a lot of the stuff in the long tail, simply because it's not meant for them and others living in the short tail of things. There's nothing wrong with being part of the establishment, it's just never been considered very cool, so everyone wants to think they're counter cultural.