3 ms·
> I ask: are we stuck as a monoculture, not making new, interesting things, but simply replicating older ones? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. It's
by afavour 3y ago
> I ask: are we stuck as a monoculture, not making new, interesting things, but simply replicating older ones?
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. It's such an interesting side effect of the streaming era that some of the biggest TV hits with teenagers are Friends and The Office. Not to knock either show but I'm fascinated by what it means for culture.
- spacebanana7 3y agoContent creators now need to compete with the best that's ever been created, not just the best that happens to be broadcast at the same time. This will increase the inequality amongst general purpose evergreen content, the winners will be bigger than ever before and continue to be watched for decades - but getting into that winning bracket will be hard. Conversely it's easier than ever to get views on perishable content, that which has short relevancy to current affairs or rests on a particular cultural trend. Live streaming too, by it's nature resembles the rivalry dynamics of broadcast television.
- CamperBob2 3y agoGood point, and it mirrors what happened with popular music. Growing up in the 80s, I was almost completely unaware of music from the 50s, and didn't care for what little I'd heard. But plenty of younger people today listen to even-older music from the 60s through the 90s without batting an eye. We'll see the same thing happen with movies before long. A cynic might say that, for various reasons, the best ones have already been made.