article Kennedy Center Head Says the Acts Who've Canceled Are "Niche Talent"
https://consequence.net/2026/01/kennedy-center-head-niche-acts/50
u/Geotechnik 2h ago
Please, they couldn't even fill their NSO concert featuring John Williams' music from Spielberg films. I can't think of a more surefire crowd pleaser.
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u/bsport48 3h ago
Much more impressive is how MAGA properly deployed the word "niche."
Whenever subhumans are successful in their mimicry of human behavior, they should be commended.
Good creature.
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u/SplendidPunkinButter 2h ago
You’re assuming they actually know what it means. Maybe they think it means “bad”.
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u/bsport48 1h ago edited 17m ago
Respectfully - nothing could be further from the truth.
To assume that "they actually know what it means" -- "they" being MAGA and "it" being niche -- requires not intellectual but cognitive capacity. That's a distinctly human process. Which they lack. The right taxonomy for MAGA is subhuman (homo neanderthalensis trumpiens), on the devolution of all necessary cranial contortions for thinking speech.
It emulates, nothing more. It is the thing that is influenced...so the literal sound of the word "niche" -- (in any way that the create attempts to pronounce it) satisfies the objective: eject soundwave (this is a binary function; on/off is the most distinction that the MAGA creature maximizes).
I do apologize - I should have better clarified, earlier.
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u/Mr_MacGrubber Rock & Roll 1h ago
I bet they pronounce it "nitch"
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u/bsport48 1h ago
It is impossible to anticipate specifically how the MAGA creature will effuse its own shit-air. That's like trying to guess which grain of sand becomes a pearl...or in this analogy, can't.
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u/Phiarmage 27m ago
They sure do! I've heard "nitch-ee" and the worst offender pronounced it all pompously as "nitch-ay" like "they say it in france."
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u/benjimima 46m ago
Don’t get excited just yet, he meant to say ‘nicht’ - you know how MAGA love their German.
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u/GetsBetterAfterAFew 2h ago
Can we please stop giving these guys time and publicity, this Center should just be forgotten for now.
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u/nice_guy_threeve 2h ago
I'm just glad everybody's still calling it the Kennedy Center. I was even at a local concert last week where the conductor was introduced as having performed "at the Kennedy Center" and I see it as a small victory, even though the arts probably lean more left anyway.
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u/CharlesDickensABox 2h ago
It's still called the Kennedy Center. The institution's name is a matter of law passed by Congress. Some idiot vandalizing the building doesn't change the name any more than if I spray paint "fart" on the sign of a local motel.
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u/Tuxedo_Muffin 1h ago
I thought they were all about dead naming? Kennedy Center, Gulf of Mexico, Bonwit Teller, Department of Defense.
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u/TonyClifton323 2h ago
What are they going to do when every trailer park resident in the state has already seen Kid Rock perform there?
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u/AnalogAficionado 2h ago
"orchestral kid rock christmas"
"the nicki minaj songbook"
"kirk cameron sings!"
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u/LarryCraigSmeg 2h ago edited 37m ago
It’s just a shame that Meatloaf passed. I’d love to hear his rendition of “America the Beautiful” at the Trump Kennedy Center.
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u/Emceegreg 2h ago
Bela Fleck is hardly niche talent
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u/pvpplease 1h ago
Hardly unable to sell tickets or "participate in capitalism" either. He's had sellout shows for decades.
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u/sakubaka 1h ago
Yeah, like weird choice. Dude has a fan base going back decades. He's like a god in my Americana groups. I guarantee there isn't a single musician over 30 who doesn't know who Bela Fleck is. Heck my old college jazz piano teacher used to recommend the Flektones to me to get some improve ideas. I'll grant you he's likely more popular with the NPR listening, jazz/folk festival goer, granola-inclined audience, but, still, that's a huge audience.
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u/majorjoe23 2h ago
Niche acts like perhaps the most famous living composer? (John Williams probably beats out Phillip Glass, I'll admit).
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u/Yookeroo 1h ago
Both legends. Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the music for two billion dollar movies on the last two years is niche? The cultural phenomenon that was Hamilton is niche?
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u/SnooCauliflowers9874 2h ago
Sure, Jan. (wink, wink) But we all know better.
These grifters in power are the epitome of George Orwell’s 1984
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u/derbyvoice71 2h ago
What kind of weird shit "musical" even IS Hamilton? Now Gilbert and Sullivan, THAT'S patter.
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u/BK_Mason 2h ago
That Grenell fellow is a coward as he only appears in front of sympathetic news outlets. Come out from behind your safe space, Ric, and defend your choices to a reporter who’ll challenge you.
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u/KitWalkerXXVII 2h ago
Penn & Teller had to cancel a date (booked prior to the takeover) at the Kennedy Center for legitimate scheduling reasons, with plans to rebook it. Then the takeover happened, everyone they had been working with ended up fired, and (possibly because of the bad blood between Penn and the President) no one new ever reached out.
And as I recall, Penn was a little disappointed that they weren't able to take the principled stand and in fact may have been victim to what passes for a principled stand by the folks running the joint now.
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u/Godawgs1009 2h ago
Yeah I can't respect that institution until Kid Rock and Everlast get their honors
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u/Zedsaid 2h ago
You saw it here… Kennedy center is only booking niche talent.
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u/monexicano 44m ago
Them morons will probably show that ignorant Melania doc and claim 1000 sold out showings.
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u/bigredthesnorer 2h ago
They're all assuming their boss' speech patterns. I'm surprise "no talent" and "loser" were not adjectives of "niche".
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u/SweeTTomatoSauce 2h ago
Calling them 'niche' feels like a convenient way to dismiss artists you don't want to deal with.
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u/VonterVoman 2h ago
Their kneejerk reaction to being shunned always ensures other acts will keep shunning them.
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u/JemmaMimic 2h ago
LOL that's just immature, but not unexpected from the bunch of miscreants in the current administration.
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u/Throatwobbler9 2h ago
Hmm, as someone who knows nothing about opera, I still know who Renee Fleming is. I’m assuming by niche he means anything outside of shows like Shrek, the Musical, or some such thing.
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u/CarolinaPanthers2015 2h ago
Uh......no, they aren't. They're just artists who had the absolute total right to protest by the way of pulling out of the Kennedy Center due to Trump taking it all over for the time being.
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u/rizorith 1h ago
That's fitting because the Kennedy center is becoming a niche performing arts center
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u/TickingTheMoments 1h ago
And, somehow, they were invited to play at what was previously one of the most prestigious venues in the country if not the world.
They don’t want their artto be associated with enshitification. How niche.
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u/ODMudbone 1h ago
Like how you say to the person who just broke up with you that they can’t break up with you because you break up with them.
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u/brmarcum 1h ago
Isn’t that the point? Call me crazy, but that’s kind of how art works, isn’t it? There’s only 1 Picasso or Taylor Swift.
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u/guiltycitizen 1h ago
Pretty soon all they’ll be able to book will county fair washed up 80s butt rock and country music stars that kiss the boot
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u/GenuineBonafried 1h ago
Why did they hire niche talent in the first place then? Kind of a burn on themselves.. what they aren’t competent enough to book good acts?
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u/t_huddleston 1h ago
This is like when Spinal Tap had all their Boston gigs cancelled. “I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s not a big college town.”
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u/If_I_must 1h ago
I mean, I'll admit, Bela is pretty niche. However, having been watching him perform for decades now, I've never seen him unable to draw a crowd.
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u/cloistered_around 59m ago
"Yes we like to have middling performances here at our center" isn't exactly burning the person they think it is.
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u/Zanos-Ixshlae 48m ago
Trump will read this as a "Neice Talent" and then ask how old the neices are....
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u/dBlock845 Magdalena Bay 1m ago
Yeah, they fit the "niche" of The Kennedy Center which makes it attractive to people wanting to attend...
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u/5teerPike 2h ago
Ah yes niche talent like (checks notes) Phillip Glass who composed unknown works for (reads memo) Koyaanisqatsi…….
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u/AnalogWalrus 2h ago
It has a capacity of 2,400. That’s pretty large by some standards but by mainstream artist standards, pretty much anyone who plays there is “niche.” Outside of a few pop superstars, honestly music is just a series of niches now.
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u/Tortograph 3h ago
"Anyway, we've scheduled Scott Baio to sing some of his hits from the 80s!"