Cultural Stagnation
Disclaimer One: I've lived in Japan for 14 years. So, even though I'm observing the whole thing online and from a distance, I'm not always totally up to date on some cultural trends in the West.
Disclaimer Two: I am now 52 years old. So, even though I'm observing the whole thing online and from a distance, I'm not always totally up to date on some cultural trends in the West.
Despite the two disclaimers above, however, I've noticed something happening (or rather, not happening) in the West that has concerned me. As the title suggests, it is a certain cultural stagnation.
Let me explain.
For most of the 20th century, cultural trends regularly changed and evolved to the point that you could instantly tell what decade they belonged to. This is especially visible in fashion, mainstream music, and cinema.
Fashion is one of the most striking examples of this, probably because it is the most visual and widespread.
Show someone an outfit from any time in the past 200 years, and they will more or less be able to tell you what decade it is from.
Cinema is a relatively new technology, and it's easy to tell a movie's decade of origin based on technical and artistic factors.
The same goes for music. Each decade since the end of World War II has had a unique "sound" that is immediately recognizable.
While fashion, cinema, and music are the three domains where this concept is the easiest to perceive, they're definitely not the only ones.
However, something happened at the turn of the century.
Though each decade had its instantly recognizable fashion, cinema, music, and more for many years, that ended about 25 years ago.
Compare a picture from 20 years ago with one from last year. You'll notice that people mostly look and dress the same way. They'll probably have similar haircuts, too.
Can you instantly tell if a movie is 20 years old or was recently released, if you're not familiar with it? It's not impossible, but it's quite difficult.
What is the main musical genre of the 2020s and what is its signature sound? How does it differ from that of the 2010s? And the 2000s? It's roughly the same for all three decades. Some sort of mix of hip-hop, R&B, and pop, I guess. Not a very memorable mix, though. Has a new genre of music even emerged in the 21st century? All of the genres we hear in mainstream music today were born in the 20th century.
Compare that to the plethora of new genres that emerged between the early 1960s and late 1990s.
Returning to the topic of movies, not only have they all looked and felt the same for the past couple of decades, but what are the big, culturally impactful movies of the past 20 years? The last one I can think of is The Matrix.
Marvel movies and the superhero genre only have an impact because of their sheer number. Individually, they don't have much artistic or cultural value. A few years after seeing them, I have a harder and harder time telling them apart and remembering details from each one.
Not only have there been no culturally impactful movies in the past 20 years, but worse, movies from the '80s, and to a lesser extent, the '90s, are still the predominant culturally important movies of the 21st century.
Hollywood recognizes this and, instead of trying to create the next milestone movie, is mostly trying to profit from those old movies with various sequels and reboots, most of which are forgettable. I'm thinking of Star Wars, Alien, Ghostbusters, and more.
Interestingly, it seems that TV series have replaced movies in terms of creativity and cultural impact in the 21st century. However, this trend may be short-lived. Streaming platforms are replacing TV channels as the main producers of TV series, and, in many ways, they’re worse than movie studios. While they allow more creativity and originality, they cancel any show that isn't immediately profitable or too expensive to produce, even if it's successful. Consequently, new shows rarely have time to make an impact on culture. Not to mention, streaming and binge-watching mean whatever impact a show has will be limited in time.
Why is that? Why is culture stagnant in the 21st century?
Have people become less creative?
Of course not.
So why is it happening?
It's only speculation on my part, but I'm afraid society as a whole has become less creative and less open to new cultural items.
I think the geopolitical and economic upheavals of the 1990s were the indirect cause. Neo-liberalism took over the world’s economy and culture after the Cold War ended.
The consequences are well known: out-of-control capitalism, globalization, and the displacement of most means of industrial production away from the locations of consumption.
These changes greatly affected "mass produced" art, including music and movies.
Already affected by technological changes, the music industry became focused on making money at the expense of everything else. Of course, making money has always been its main focus, but it used to do so by setting trends, signing and promoting new musicians who redefined music and culture. The Led Zeppelins, Queens, U2s, Princes, and Nirvanas of the 21st century exist, but they probably play in small venues or are solely online. You'll probably never hear of them. They'll never make it big.
Fun fact: During my college years, my friends considered me the "music expert" of our group. How did that happen? It definitely wasn't from my family. Sometimes, it came from friends of friends who were experts in a very specific musical niche that they introduced to me. I would then introduce that niche to my other friends. Most of the time, though, I educated myself musically simply by listening to the radio and watching TV. I guess I was just good at separating the wheat from the chaff.
Can you imagine developing a musical culture through TV and radio today? Me neither.
You can on the internet, of course, but my point is that good, new, original, and creative music was easily accessible to anyone thanks to mainstream media. Not anymore.
For at least 20 years, mainstream media has force-fed everyone the same ultra-formatted, auto-tuned, "fast-listening" music designed for easy consumption. This music leaves no cultural impact because it's not manufactured for that purpose.
The same goes for cinema. Films are becoming increasingly expensive to produce, and mainstream studios are not interested in discovering the next Spielberg or Scorsese. They want movies that are predictable, easily consumed, and quickly profitable.
I mean, Spielberg makes those kinds of movies. But I guess he has a vision and a mind of his own. Studios don't want that anymore. They want directors who are merely "manufacturers" of movies, not artists.
To be clear: I'm not saying good music and movies don't exist anymore. I'm saying that mainstream music and movies aren't the places to find them.
It's not even really about quality, which is a subjective thing to begin with. It's about uniqueness, originality, and, more importantly, making an impact on its time.
I'm not sure if disco music or the many slasher movies of my youth were that good, but they are cultural markers of the '70s and '80s, respectively.
Fashion is trickier to analyze, in no small part because I'm less proficient in the field. However, I buy clothes and like observing how people dress. So there's that.
The evolution of trends in clothing has also been minimal. Each "new" style of the past 20 years is a revival of a style from the '80s or '90s.
I also see the mark of neo-liberalism and unfettered capitalism in the advent of fast fashion. Paradoxically, mass production of cheap, low-quality, short-lasting clothes does not encourage creativity.
Do the internet and the slow disappearance of mono-culture play a role in these phenomena? Probably. Very probably.
However, despite devoting several paragraphs to them, I am less interested in the reasons for these cultural stagnations than in their possible consequences.
So, what are these possible consequences?
Honestly, I don't know. I can't see the future any better than you can.
Fashion has always existed and always will, but it may go through some unpleasant phases in the future.
Music will always exist, but what about mass-produced music? How sustainable is an industry that produces nothing but unoriginal, "safe" products? What impact does this have on the cultural knowledge of the population?
The lack of artistic education is part of a larger problem affecting all education. I may talk about that another day.
What about movies? Unlike music and fashion, you can't just make movies at home that have a chance of reaching a large audience. Sure, you can reach a large audience on the web. Tell me about the last movie you saw on YouTube or a similar platform that really impacted a generation. Honestly, I'm not optimistic about the future of cinema. Will it still exist in the 22nd century, even if Western civilization doesn't collapse? I doubt it.
Yes, I used the "C word." Until now, I've only mentioned the possible impacts on the industries themselves. But what about the impact on civilization itself? What happens when a civilization no longer produces culturally significant art?
In my opinion, nothing good.
Even less so when you consider this cultural stagnation within the larger context of the major changes and struggles our civilizations are currently facing.
In other words, I’m not saying that cultural stagnation is a factor contributing to a possible collapse of civilization. However, I am saying that cultural stagnation is a symptom of how sick our civilizations have become and a sign that the collapse has already started.
But that's a topic for a future post.
All in all, what do you think? Do you agree with me? Or do you think I’m totally out of touch with 21st-century Western culture? (See the two disclaimers at the beginning of the text.) Tell me.
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