04-12-2014, 12:01 AM
One of the things that interest me is the way that pop culture reflects the mental state of a society as a whole. That's not to say that there is (or ever has been) one single homogeneous culture. Even during the days of 3 networks, the few big movie studios and top 40 radio there have always been subcultures. But that being said, smoothed out, simplified and taken as a whole, pop culture provides us with a rough mirror of society.
An easy example comes to mind: the 70s. The 70s began with America mired in Vietnam. The counter culture that had started with the Beatniks/Keruoac generation and which continued into the hippie protest movements of the late 60s- with their optimism and potential feeling of change- had given away to the reality of the world. Many of them had gotten out of school and had entered the real world. It was disheartnening. The economy sucked with runaway inflation and the gas crisis. The trust in the presidency that had eroded under Johnson was further dealt a severe blow with Nixon's Watergate scandal. Tensions with the Soviets continued to be high.
Pop culture reflected that. Cinema feature a number of dystopian or disaster movies like the Poseiden Adventure. Or they featured gritty anti-heroes played by Clint Eastwood or Al Pacino. Sitcoms like Good Times and others portrayed blue-collar struggling families trying to make it despite social and economic ills. At the same time, when presented with movies that hearkened back to an earlier or more innocent time, like Star Wars or American Graffiti, they were embraced as a very much appreciated breath of fresh air. (That whole American Graffiti thing led to the reemergence of late 50s/early 60's culture that became popular in the late 70s and early 80s with things like Grease, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley or Sha-na-na.) Music trended in a number of directions too. The thoughtful, earnest singer songwriter tradition like Springsteen, the birth and growth of metal acts like Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin, arena rock, the anger of punk, or the pure forget-about-life-and-just-enjoy hedonism of disco. The pop culture (over time) reflected the entire multifaceted mindset that evolved thru the 70s. The same thing can be done with the 80s or 90s or 2000s- the culture can been viewed thru the lens of music and entertainment- the ways people fed their minds or hearts, what appealed and so forth.
So I wonder about the 2040s. Of course, the channels are more varied. The means by which people consume media has fragmented into numerous venues even now. But even with all that, there should be some larger trends either in the 2040s or leading up to it that will be reflected.
Two events I see as being huge are the ascendency of the CCD and the increasing loss of prominence of the US. As both began in the 2020s, they have been going for a while (and began only a few years from today). So I see that CCD artists and movies would be reflecting the optimism and sense of justified restored power that is going on (look how proud Putin makes Russians today after decades of marginalization). It might be similar to the jingoistic unapologetic un-self-deprecating sincerity of the 80s. Think Top Gun or Red Dawn or Rambo or other Reagan era blockbusters or sitcoms. When Reagan beat Mondale in 84 by like 95% Mondale's VP pick questioned why so many, in the midst of economic anemia and Reaganomics, had voted for him, people responded "He makes us proud." The situation seems parallel to CCD growth and so their pop culture would reflect those same trends.
By contrast, the US, once occupying the position of leader of the free world, sole superpower after 91, and economic powerhouse, has now lost much over the decades. I see a couple of trends, mimicking the 70s. On the one hand reflection of the sense of loss and lack of hope- the dystopian movies or anti-heroes, the portrayals of struggling families, the rebellious, disillusioned or angry music, the hedonistic forget-about-life avenues.
At the same time, the past might be looked back on and romanticized, in particular when the US was at its unchallenged peak- the 90s, when it stood uncontested as THE superpower, when it led the world with the newest and most powerful innovations like the internet, when the country (and to the America-centric, the world) enjoyed a decade of peace and lack of any real wars or threats, when there was a great budget surplus and the stock market boomed with the tech bubble, a decade that ended on 9-11- that would be the time most recent to look back with fondness and perhaps recreate.
It's a romanticized simplistic view of the last. But that's ok. Its how we digest the past in manageable and comprehensible chunks. And I am not commenting on causes of that time period (what political policies contributed to them). I am just imagining the way people might look back on it (and might even nostalgically long for as they did in the 70s with the 50s or even in the late 90s with the brief resurgence of 40s big band culture that lasted about a minute.)
Of course with the internet and porous nature of the CCD borders it is probable that even they would have those American subcultures of the 90s or other decades. (At the 94 MTV VMAs the Finnish group the Leningrad Cowboys presented themselves as Soviet Era military embracing 60s southern culture. And Japan has the same thing with their Yanqii subculture) So that kind of thing could be occuring in the CCD
Anyway those are my over-generalizations and ideas for what pop culture might look like. Course its late and Ive been sipping rum for thr last hour, so, you know...
(Edited cuz typing on a phone when drinking tends to lead to errors in spelling and clarity.)
(edited again to throw in some links)
Edited by Connor Kent, Apr 13 2014, 10:35 AM.
An easy example comes to mind: the 70s. The 70s began with America mired in Vietnam. The counter culture that had started with the Beatniks/Keruoac generation and which continued into the hippie protest movements of the late 60s- with their optimism and potential feeling of change- had given away to the reality of the world. Many of them had gotten out of school and had entered the real world. It was disheartnening. The economy sucked with runaway inflation and the gas crisis. The trust in the presidency that had eroded under Johnson was further dealt a severe blow with Nixon's Watergate scandal. Tensions with the Soviets continued to be high.
Pop culture reflected that. Cinema feature a number of dystopian or disaster movies like the Poseiden Adventure. Or they featured gritty anti-heroes played by Clint Eastwood or Al Pacino. Sitcoms like Good Times and others portrayed blue-collar struggling families trying to make it despite social and economic ills. At the same time, when presented with movies that hearkened back to an earlier or more innocent time, like Star Wars or American Graffiti, they were embraced as a very much appreciated breath of fresh air. (That whole American Graffiti thing led to the reemergence of late 50s/early 60's culture that became popular in the late 70s and early 80s with things like Grease, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley or Sha-na-na.) Music trended in a number of directions too. The thoughtful, earnest singer songwriter tradition like Springsteen, the birth and growth of metal acts like Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin, arena rock, the anger of punk, or the pure forget-about-life-and-just-enjoy hedonism of disco. The pop culture (over time) reflected the entire multifaceted mindset that evolved thru the 70s. The same thing can be done with the 80s or 90s or 2000s- the culture can been viewed thru the lens of music and entertainment- the ways people fed their minds or hearts, what appealed and so forth.
So I wonder about the 2040s. Of course, the channels are more varied. The means by which people consume media has fragmented into numerous venues even now. But even with all that, there should be some larger trends either in the 2040s or leading up to it that will be reflected.
Two events I see as being huge are the ascendency of the CCD and the increasing loss of prominence of the US. As both began in the 2020s, they have been going for a while (and began only a few years from today). So I see that CCD artists and movies would be reflecting the optimism and sense of justified restored power that is going on (look how proud Putin makes Russians today after decades of marginalization). It might be similar to the jingoistic unapologetic un-self-deprecating sincerity of the 80s. Think Top Gun or Red Dawn or Rambo or other Reagan era blockbusters or sitcoms. When Reagan beat Mondale in 84 by like 95% Mondale's VP pick questioned why so many, in the midst of economic anemia and Reaganomics, had voted for him, people responded "He makes us proud." The situation seems parallel to CCD growth and so their pop culture would reflect those same trends.
By contrast, the US, once occupying the position of leader of the free world, sole superpower after 91, and economic powerhouse, has now lost much over the decades. I see a couple of trends, mimicking the 70s. On the one hand reflection of the sense of loss and lack of hope- the dystopian movies or anti-heroes, the portrayals of struggling families, the rebellious, disillusioned or angry music, the hedonistic forget-about-life avenues.
At the same time, the past might be looked back on and romanticized, in particular when the US was at its unchallenged peak- the 90s, when it stood uncontested as THE superpower, when it led the world with the newest and most powerful innovations like the internet, when the country (and to the America-centric, the world) enjoyed a decade of peace and lack of any real wars or threats, when there was a great budget surplus and the stock market boomed with the tech bubble, a decade that ended on 9-11- that would be the time most recent to look back with fondness and perhaps recreate.
It's a romanticized simplistic view of the last. But that's ok. Its how we digest the past in manageable and comprehensible chunks. And I am not commenting on causes of that time period (what political policies contributed to them). I am just imagining the way people might look back on it (and might even nostalgically long for as they did in the 70s with the 50s or even in the late 90s with the brief resurgence of 40s big band culture that lasted about a minute.)
Of course with the internet and porous nature of the CCD borders it is probable that even they would have those American subcultures of the 90s or other decades. (At the 94 MTV VMAs the Finnish group the Leningrad Cowboys presented themselves as Soviet Era military embracing 60s southern culture. And Japan has the same thing with their Yanqii subculture) So that kind of thing could be occuring in the CCD
Anyway those are my over-generalizations and ideas for what pop culture might look like. Course its late and Ive been sipping rum for thr last hour, so, you know...
(Edited cuz typing on a phone when drinking tends to lead to errors in spelling and clarity.)
(edited again to throw in some links)
Edited by Connor Kent, Apr 13 2014, 10:35 AM.