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If you had to pinpoint one event that ultimately led to the stagnation of American pop culture, then I believe it'd be the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. That legislation basically deregulated the media in the United States, which is one of the main reasons why it's become the oligopoly that it is today. As various media companies have grown larger, they've exerted progressively more influence on the creative process, which is why much of pop culture seems to be so neatly packaged these days. It's almost as if the marketing has become more important than the product itself.
In my opinion, pop culture started to lose my interest by the end of the 1990's, and hasn't been very compelling to me since. I listen mostly to rock music on the radio, which somehow has been relegated to the fringe of the musical mainstream regardless of the specific subgenre. I don't watch much TV aside from sporting events or The Weather Channel. The only TV show I make time for is The Celebrity Apprentice. The only time I'm compelled to go to the movies anymore is whenever there's a movie that was filmed in Pittsburgh. (That's been happening more often in the last couple of years.) My general disinterest in pop culture is one of the main reasons why my primary form of entertainment has become internet message boards like this one.
Agree completely
Here in San Diego a lot of classic rock and alternative stations were closed up in the early 2000's. Replaced by pop/rap combo "music". It's crazy, 10 stations playing the same exact songs
I'm not sure if we should be grateful that technology allows us to listen/watch/experience global music, movies, tv shows now. Or technology led to less main stream viewers and this allowed corporations to water down the substance.
I'd be lying if this ''stagnation'' isn't a big reason why I'm planning on moving to Europe. I feel like American culture is the same stuff being regurgitated. I'm in my late 20's and I can't imagine doing this for another 30 years. I need new cultures & historical perspective to rekindle my interest and nicely packaged aspects of the globe isn't gonna cut it. I started watching Global soccer in the past few years because American sports are boring. NFL seems to be the only sport that keeps evolving. NBA & MLB, same teams with the same story lines, it never changes.
The individual over society aspect also irks me. So many people suffer from crooked neck: 24/7 stuck in their smart phone. So ''connected to the world'' that they aren't living life. I deleted facebook for almost a year and opened it back up recently for my 3-month trip to Europe. It still is a great way to kep in contact with family. But I made sure to delete (no joke) 95% of the people on my ''friends'' list. Basically a bunch of people from high school, randoms and in general anyone I don't still communicate with on a semi-regular basis. It was just more noise in my life. People posting images of everything they ate or thought that day? WTF.
I think that culture changes continually in small bits continuously. Then, at unpredictable times, culture takes a leap or two before it settles down to small bits again.
But the changes are not all equal in importance or durability, and many of them are circular.
Men's fashion is a good example. A well tailored man's suit doesn't look much different than it did 100 years ago. An element here or there gets exaggerated for a time, then goes back to how it looked earlier, and men's suits become flashier or more conservative, depending on the times, but every radical change from tradition, from the nehru jacket to the zoot suit, has ultimately failed to last.
And even the current standard, which is at least 100 years old, is only a mild modification of the older standard. The basic designs just keep going around in small circles, because men like the elemental designs. They have proven to be very durable world round.
Women's fashion, on the other hand, goes through many more and more rapid changes. And there is a much wider variety of basic designs. Some of the basics endure, while others do not. Unlike men, who, by and large, don't have much interest in fashion after they grow up, women always have an interest. I think the difference has biological origins.
Whatever the cause is, women still tend to have favorite basic designs they prefer over and over. Those basics may change every 4 months in minor ways, but always retain their basic character and popularity.
The big changes are things like the smart phones. No one ever knows what new concept will be a big one. The smart phones came around at the same time the 2-wheeled electric scooter did, and the scooter looked like a huge change in getting around in urbanity, but was a flop. People still preferred walking to scooting for lots of good practical reasons.
We always take a lot of stuff for granted, and it often takes time before we recognize how big some things change our culture.
Men's fashion is a good example. A well tailored man's suit doesn't look much different than it did 100 years ago. An element here or there gets exaggerated for a time, then goes back to how it looked earlier, and men's suits become flashier or more conservative, depending on the times, but every radical change from tradition, from the nehru jacket to the zoot suit, has ultimately failed to last.
And even the current standard, which is at least 100 years old, is only a mild modification of the older standard. The basic designs just keep going around in small circles, because men like the elemental designs. They have proven to be very durable world round.
Women's fashion, on the other hand, goes through many more and more rapid changes. And there is a much wider variety of basic designs. Some of the basics endure, while others do not. Unlike men, who, by and large, don't have much interest in fashion after they grow up, women always have an interest. I think the difference has biological origins.
This is something I've noticed too, just look at the rapid changes in women's fashion from 1900 to 1940 compared to men's fashion of that same period. I think I have made a thread similar to this one about that same Vanity Fair piece, I would say that there have been more micro trends emerging the whole of pop culture has been changing less in these past 20 years compared to the prior 20 year interval.
Basic women's hairstyles have remained static for the past 15 years, lots of young african american youth STILL sag their pants like it's 1996. In the '00s it seemed trends were either an extension of the '90s(hip-hop fashion, alternative rock/post-grunge, euro-trance, ect) or a unoriginal mish mash of styles from the '60s through '80s(hipster subculture). There was a distinctive period in hip-hop over the past 15 years, I call it the dirty south era, it seemed to stretch from about '99 to '07 roughly, from Cash Money/Timbaland to Lil Jon crunk to Soulja Bio/snap rap.
Hip-hop was the dominant mainstream style during this period, especially centering around the mid '00s but during that same period a lot of mainstream rock was pretty much stagnate, either based on revival(The White Stripes, The Killers, ect) or continuation of grunge or pop punk. Does any body know what the main interior design style was for the '00s(and the '90s), maybe it was minimalist? Like the '70s graphic and interior designs are extremely distinctive and easy to recognize(even if tacky and dated) but after the early '90s(which was really just a '80s hangover) I can't discern a '90s or '00s graphic design style.
I still don't know what all the 2010s will bring, so far(in a long time) there has been a fairly distinctive dance style become popular(dubstep) that does feel new but it might still be the rare exception that proves the rule.
In a weird way my description of the '00s is similar to how many people think of the '70s, most of the '70s either saw a continuation of the late '60s styles and ideas or was conscious revivals of the '20s through the '50s and the late 19th century, even punk was just a back to basics movement. Only new wave/post-punk at the very end of that decade seems to completely sever ties with the '60s and those styles are largely recognized as '80s anyways. The late '90s/'00s seem to have that same thing going that the late '60s/'70s had.
In a weird way my description of the '00s is similar to how many people think of the '70s, most of the '70s either saw a continuation of the late '60s styles and ideas or was conscious revivals of the '20s through the '50s and the late 19th century, even punk was just a back to basics movement. Only new wave/post-punk at the very end of that decade seems to completely sever ties with the '60s and those styles are largely recognized as '80s anyways. The late '90s/'00s seem to have that same thing going that the late '60s/'70s had.
That's a good point and something I've been thinking for awhile now, other than disco there wasn't anything that was all that big pop culture wise. Hippies, bell bottoms, Afros, more laid back stoner type society all started in the 60's so a lot of what people think of when they think of that decade is just holdovers from the 60's. If disco never happened there would be no real distinction from the 70's and the mid to late 60's.
In fact I'd say there's probably a bigger difference between the late 90's/early 2000's and now than there was between the mid/late 60's and the 70's. Watch an episode of the Brady Bunch or The Partridge Family fro 1974 and tell me you notice any difference between the way the characters dress on them compared to the way people dressed on The Monkees from 1966. Whereas I can see a difference even if not huge from an episode of Friends from 2003 or 2004 and a show from today.
Last edited by Roger Sterling; 05-06-2013 at 12:25 AM..
That's a good point and something I've been thinking for awhile now, other than disco there wasn't anything that was all that big pop culture wise. Hippies, bell bottoms, Afros, more laid back stoner type society all started in the 60's so a lot of what people think of when they think of that decade is just holdovers from the 60's. If disco never happened there would be no real distinction from the 70's and the mid to late 60's.
In fact I'd say there's probably a bigger difference between the late 90's/early 2000's and now than there was between the mid/late 60's and the 70's. Watch an episode of the Brady Bunch or The Partridge Family fro 1974 and tell me you notice any difference between the way the characters dress on them compared to the way people dressed on The Monkees from 1966. Whereas I can see a difference even if not huge from an episode of Friends from 2003 or 2004 and a show from today.
When I was describing the '60s continuation into the '70s I was thinking of disco too, all it really is is just uptempo R&B, the production is an hybrid of soul, funk, salsa, and pop rock so it is somewhat unique. It was when disco started adopting electronic sounds is when it pointed towards what the '80s had in store, a lot of the synth pop bands were trying to create a sort of punk-disco hybrid, Duran Duran has described their music is a mix between Chic and The Sex Pistols.
I was looking at a high school yearbook from 1975 and most of the guys would fit right in with a Monkees show circa '66/'67, from their hairstyle to their paisley, flower and psychedelic patterned shirts so yeah.
I think the explosion of EDM in the US, women's clothing and the infiltration of indie/hipster fashion into hip-hop culture has changed the most since '03 but overall it is a lot harder to tell a difference between '03 and '13 compared to say '63 and '73.
I think the move from rather conservative fashion and culture during the late '60s made the '63 vs '73 difference so huge, there has been no comparable cultural change like that since, I tend to think these times of huge cultural change and then long troughs are cyclical so sometime in the future(say around 2045) we could experience another period of cultural upheaval.
I say that because the turn of the century period(roughly 1890 through 1920) was a period of huge cultural changes comparable to the '60s, progressive reform, first wave feminism and women's suffrage, child labor laws, environmentalism, prohibition, ect. In the world of art there was cubism, the dada movement, art nouveau and art deco later. I mean look at the difference in fashion(especially women's fashion) between 1900 and 1925, it is truly staggering, never mind the huge technological changes, no wonder historians call it the progressive era. After this period there was fashion changes like shoulder pads, longer hair and dresses on women but nothing comparable to what happened during the progressive era until the 1960s arrived.
80/90's artists still looked up to people like elvis, beatles, marvin gaye, smokey robinson, roger and zapp, georgle clinton, jaco pastorius, bootsy collins, as inspiration. They were the 'kids' of the 80's and 90's using legends of the 50s/60s/70's as inspiration.
Todays kids, are looking at the 80's/90's artists as inspiration!!! They were still supposed to be looking at the elvis, beatles, bootsys, etc...
They got that wrong.
Basially, the teachers taught the students, but then the next era looked at the students thinking those were the 'legends' instead of still looking at the actual legends.
Those old legends, of the pre-MTV/internet years are still the standard, but they're not being followed.
But isn't the whole point of the student-teacher relationship for the the student to one day become the teacher?
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