Has Our Culture Hit A Dead End?

[BoomMF 1399]

Hmmm....

 

 

[mulletpelini 5216]

fuck, we're getting Goodfellas II aren't we.

[Neonmoon 38130]

Same as it ever was 

[TexLonghorn 5671]

It's easy to make anything current look bad by comparing it only to the most fondly remembered and most time-enduring entertainment entries of the past.  Why should we be comparing modern dance music to the best songs of the Beatles?  Why not to the deep and meaningful soul-searching lyrics provided by the 1910 Fruitgum Company's 'Simon Says'?  #4 in 1967:

And don't forget - not even everything the Beatles touched was golden.  I submit 'Revolution 9'.  How does this match up to the tiny clip of Snoop Dogg talking?  At least Snoop didn't drag on for over 8 minutes...:

And then movies!  So terrible nowadays!  Jurassic World was so much worse than the masterpiece Jurassic Park!!  Though here is part of Roger Ebert's review of Jurassic Park at the time of its release, which he called a "standard monster movie":

Quote

 

The plot to steal the embryos is handled on the level of a TV sitcom. The Knight character, an overwritten and overplayed blubbering fool, drives his Jeep madly through the storm and thrashes about in the forest. If this subplot had been handled cleverly - with skill and subtlety, as in a caper movie - it might have added to the film's effect. Instead, it's as if one of the Three Stooges wandered into the story.

The subsequent events - after the creatures get loose - follow an absolutely standard outline, similar in bits and pieces to all the earlier films in this genre, from "The Lost World" and "King Kong" right up to the upcoming "Carnosaur." 

 

Every era has good entertainment additions and crap ones.  This guy takes an easy way out and compares the worst current stuff to the best past stuff.  

[BoomMF 1399]

Relatedly, I thought this was a well done video on the progressive homogenization of a life long favorite genre, country music. RIP.

And a chronicling of the demise of my other love, rock:

Movies haven't fared much better. The videos on what has happened to Star Wars, for instance, aren't as illuminating as they are saddening, and they are pretty illuminating.

[DoobieWah 1455]

Yep, nothing left for you now but to sit on your porch and yell at kids to get off your lawn. 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

All culture is always "at a dead end" because for it to be recognized as culture it must already have seeped its way into mainstream awareness, where it more or less calcifies.

Country music and sonnets are equal art forms. The only reason sonnets get more cultural plaudits is that enough time has passed that the truly awful ones have been completely forgotten.

It is true that every now and then something "new" balloons in popularity seemingly overnight, but for the most part, revolutionaries are always there, in the margins somewhere, unseen until their new ideas find a broader market because of some accident of chance.

[Surly Bevo 25141]

Is our culture at a dead end...highly unlikely.

Does our culture currently suck pretty hard....highly likely.

[mr.goodkat 464]

1 hour ago, DoobieWah said:

Yep, nothing left for you now but to sit on your porch and yell at kids to get off your lawn. 

thats just  not the same any more 

[The University 851]

fuck, those eyes are freaking me out. couldn't last past 20 secs.

 

but, yeah, culture is always dying...and evolving. musicians have always stolen from the past. his "woke" message has also been repacked over and over throughout the years. congrats on your discovery?

[fellside 1114]

I can see it with movies because of the effect home streaming has on film production.  But a lot of these franchise movies are doing horribly (xmen, MIB, etc) so there's Hope for more original material.

Pop music was really, really bad in the late 90s and early 00s and one could argue it's better now.

TV is without question better and more original than it was 20 years ago. There's just no mono-culture because of all the options and people not watcing things at the same time.

And there will always be more great new books than anyone can ever read.

Of all the things to worry about right now, this isn't it.

[Lat22 4015]

https://abc13.com/society/9-year-old-austin-drag-queen-spreading-message-of-love/5356269/?pd00=50517178-e646-4d69-b7d3-0928e06e8258&pd01=e1c52a80-96b4-4931-8f05-9a11a098b72e&pd02=pl-search&pd99=df2ef73c-7d6d-49e6-b082-03228ff3d181

[BoomMF 1399]

Just drove by that drive-in theater outside of Tomball and the marquee was Toy Story 4, Secret Life of Pets 2, Men In Black: International, and Aladdin. (Secret Life of Pets, as the only IP originating in this century, is carrying the originality torch, such that it is.) I'm pretty sure Lion King and the next Spider-Man are waiting in the queue.