Is It Just Me?
Maybe it's just me, but it feels like the pop culture is collapsing in on itself. There are structures and forms of it continuing, but it feels like it's melting down.
Books and publishing in general -- I've written enough about that, but it seems like it's tanking, or at least losing its way, And it's likely to magnify when the Baby Boomer Behemoths of writing all die off -- look at the richest writers and see a sea of Boomers -- and tell me that there'll ever be writers this successful ever again. I don't see it happening.
Music, especially rock music -- do kids still form bands? Can they afford to? Even the big name rock bands are touring smaller venues, are seeing album-oriented rock go by the wayside compared to past years. I see some bands touring and I think "NFW would they have hit a venue that small in the past." Lots of nostalgia tours hustling while bands still can. Again, what happens when the Boomers all die out -- will Rock die out with them?
Newspapers and magazines -- dying out in droves, and/or hollowing out to fractions of their former selves, and/or attempting to live through digital portals, and even then, perching perilously on subscription-based systems and finding audience dwindling.
Movies -- I think the pandemic plus pricing has basically knocked movies off the cultural pedestal. Still there in some fashion, but acres of rehashes, remakes, retreads -- since Wall Street conquered Hollywood, any real risk-taking in movies went out the window, and they're chasing sure things with a desperate ardor. The big stars are getting old to the point where digital de-aging is less viable, and the stories are thinly written, even among the big hits. I don't think movies will ever bounce back from the pandemic.
Television -- seems like one of the few beneficiaries of the pandemic in many respects, but still captive to fickle audiences and the whims of increasingly concentrated media ownership. Similar risk with movies in that junk shows get thrown to eager audiences, although maybe a little more room for some decent shows here and there. However, are audiences still tuning in, or are studios competing more forcefully for fewer watchers? Narrowcasting seems more common than broadcasting -- trying to reach a niche audience as a refuge, like a feckin' foxhole.
Like I said, maybe it's just me, but I pride myself on being a Zeitgeist guy, and what I'm feeling is a general vibe of rampant cultural malaise -- maybe it's the continuing rise of fascism (and the failure to hold fascists to account for, you know, coups'n'stuff) -- maybe it's the general impoverishment of 99% of the populace adversely impacting people's entertainment indulgences (relative to the top 1% thriving beyond their wildest dreams as the rest of us live hand-to-mouth) -- but I'm also thinking, despite how annoying they can be, I don't see the pop culture as we know it surviving the end of the Boomers. Xers like me will remember it, but we're middle-aged, now, and nobody listens to or particularly acknowledges us, anyway.
What comes next? I'm not seeing it. I see a bunch of ephemeral distractions, niche personalities, and the general lack of a broader pop cultural tapestry -- more like a bunch of pop cultural placemats on a capitalist cafeteria table we're all supposed to eat at.
Social media? It's battery acid, not the building blocks of a meaningful pop culture. Woefully inadequate to the task at hand, and only magnifying people's misery and malaise (let's be honest; that's what it is).
It feels like we're on cruise control toward actual dystopia. In may ways, it feels like it's already here, and will only intensify. We're adrift in a leaky ship, bound for rocky shoals, and I don't think we're going to be bailing ourselves out, versus stridently arguing with one another over whether we're even in trouble or not.
But I sure think we are. I think we're roundly f*cked, and not in a good way.
Books and publishing in general -- I've written enough about that, but it seems like it's tanking, or at least losing its way, And it's likely to magnify when the Baby Boomer Behemoths of writing all die off -- look at the richest writers and see a sea of Boomers -- and tell me that there'll ever be writers this successful ever again. I don't see it happening.
Music, especially rock music -- do kids still form bands? Can they afford to? Even the big name rock bands are touring smaller venues, are seeing album-oriented rock go by the wayside compared to past years. I see some bands touring and I think "NFW would they have hit a venue that small in the past." Lots of nostalgia tours hustling while bands still can. Again, what happens when the Boomers all die out -- will Rock die out with them?
Newspapers and magazines -- dying out in droves, and/or hollowing out to fractions of their former selves, and/or attempting to live through digital portals, and even then, perching perilously on subscription-based systems and finding audience dwindling.
Movies -- I think the pandemic plus pricing has basically knocked movies off the cultural pedestal. Still there in some fashion, but acres of rehashes, remakes, retreads -- since Wall Street conquered Hollywood, any real risk-taking in movies went out the window, and they're chasing sure things with a desperate ardor. The big stars are getting old to the point where digital de-aging is less viable, and the stories are thinly written, even among the big hits. I don't think movies will ever bounce back from the pandemic.
Television -- seems like one of the few beneficiaries of the pandemic in many respects, but still captive to fickle audiences and the whims of increasingly concentrated media ownership. Similar risk with movies in that junk shows get thrown to eager audiences, although maybe a little more room for some decent shows here and there. However, are audiences still tuning in, or are studios competing more forcefully for fewer watchers? Narrowcasting seems more common than broadcasting -- trying to reach a niche audience as a refuge, like a feckin' foxhole.
Like I said, maybe it's just me, but I pride myself on being a Zeitgeist guy, and what I'm feeling is a general vibe of rampant cultural malaise -- maybe it's the continuing rise of fascism (and the failure to hold fascists to account for, you know, coups'n'stuff) -- maybe it's the general impoverishment of 99% of the populace adversely impacting people's entertainment indulgences (relative to the top 1% thriving beyond their wildest dreams as the rest of us live hand-to-mouth) -- but I'm also thinking, despite how annoying they can be, I don't see the pop culture as we know it surviving the end of the Boomers. Xers like me will remember it, but we're middle-aged, now, and nobody listens to or particularly acknowledges us, anyway.
What comes next? I'm not seeing it. I see a bunch of ephemeral distractions, niche personalities, and the general lack of a broader pop cultural tapestry -- more like a bunch of pop cultural placemats on a capitalist cafeteria table we're all supposed to eat at.
Social media? It's battery acid, not the building blocks of a meaningful pop culture. Woefully inadequate to the task at hand, and only magnifying people's misery and malaise (let's be honest; that's what it is).
It feels like we're on cruise control toward actual dystopia. In may ways, it feels like it's already here, and will only intensify. We're adrift in a leaky ship, bound for rocky shoals, and I don't think we're going to be bailing ourselves out, versus stridently arguing with one another over whether we're even in trouble or not.
But I sure think we are. I think we're roundly f*cked, and not in a good way.
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