Rory Appleton joins IndyStar as pop culture and entertainment reporter
3 min read
Legend has it I made my feelings on popular culture known from an early age.
Like so many other mediocre stories, it begins in the ’80s, when my pregnant mother attended a Guns N’ Roses concert. Roughly 35 seconds into the first verse from Lafayette’s own Axl Rose, I kicked so hard and so rapidly she had to leave the arena and sit outside.
My mom says any recording of Led Zeppelin elicited the same response. I can confirm it still does, particularly Led Zeppelin IV — the superior Zeppelin album.
A lifelong love of music, movies and all things popular culture led me to beg my way into the beginning of an unexpected career in newspapers as an unpaid weekly columnist writing about video games for my hometown paper, The Fresno Bee, nearly a decade ago.
A few time zones and 1,000 or so newspaper bylines later, I’m thrilled to return to the pop culture and entertainment sphere in my new home at IndyStar.
I hope to learn and grow with this community as I work to inform on the latest concerts, conventions and other must-see pop culture events as we all emerge from an unprecedented and largely isolated reality. Let’s get back to banging, bowing or otherwise moving our heads in some collective fashion, as safely as possible and as often as we can.
I’m also looking to tell the stories of Hoosiers making a splash in the entertainment world, giving back to the Indiana that raised them or, as is often the case, both.
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But most importantly, I want you to tell me what’s important for me to share with our neighbors. And I want to know about it all – not just the big concerts, but the unknown locals shooting their shot in tabletop gaming or a media form an aging millennial like myself may not have even heard of.
At a time with more news and less journalists than perhaps ever before, IndyStar has made popular culture in and about Indiana a priority, giving me license to share its snapshots as often as I can.
It’s a big ask, so the least I can do is let you know a little bit more about who is making it.
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I eventually rose – or fell, depending on who you ask – to The Bee’s full-time political beat, all the while continuing to cover concerts, fringe festivals and whatever nerd culture I could as a matter of personal importance.
While working at the newspaper, I completed a degree in print journalism from California State University, Fresno.
I am a child of the media. My parents first met at a company softball game arranged between two rival rock radio stations. They remain in the media biz, as does my wife. I pray our son, currently a preschooler in Hamilton Southeastern Schools, has the good sense to break the chain.
More recently, I spent the last few years covering politics at The Las Vegas Review-Journal, where I reported on the 2020 election as dozens of presidential hopefuls swarmed the early voting swing state.
It may seem like an abrupt shift, but politicians and entertainers have more and more in common these days. They both, for example, sometimes make you wait long periods in front of an empty stage while a PA system hums through a playlist that invariably includes “Small Town,” “Born in the U.S.A.” and “I Won’t Back Down.”
In just a short period, my family has felt embraced by Indiana. I hope in time to serve her people in the way many journalists before me have: Through timely, accurate and important news coverage anchored by an attentive ear to the world and people around me.
I would welcome any feedback on how to do that. Or restaurant recommendations. But mostly feedback.
Rory Appleton is the pop culture reporter at IndyStar. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @RoryDoesPhonics.
https://www.indystar.com/story/entertainment/2021/10/13/indystar-entertainment-reporter-rory-appleton-pop-culture-news/6090856001/
