We Feared Monoculture and Now we Have No Culture

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What is culture? Culture is the shared values that bind us together. It is primarily the art the we experience.

In a world where everything is functional, there are too many influencers, and an excess amount of culture. Rather than leading to a cultural renaissance, it has led us to having nearly no culture at all.

Monoculture

Some of us are old enough to remember when experts in culture feared monoculture because of television and other forms of mass media. Back in those heady days in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, much of culture was controlled by a handful of record producers, book publishers, studio executives, and television programming executives. Because most people had access to the same stuff and through the same channels, American culture often had a certain consistency to it that is virtually unknown to us today. When popular TV shows were on the air, everyone watched them, at the time they were on, and then talked about them the next day. Casual conversation could be filled with what happened “last night” on Dallas, Dynasty, Seinfeld, Friends, Roseanne, or other popular shows watched by most people. Music was no better. Groups of people listened to certain genres, but if you were into pop, there was a slate of artists that most people listened to and talked about with their friends. The same story was true for movies. It was often quite likely that everyone in your friend group had gone and see that summer’s big release or the big holiday movie.

Because of this homogenization, it seemed like anything that didn’t have the backing of major record labels, movie studios, or TV networks was destined to be a small, niche, local phenomena. For creators, breaking out of the small local niche market and into wide appeal was very difficult and usually required buy-in from a company in the form of a contract or investment from outside people (especially in film). Books were a little different. Vanity presses had existed for decades, but distribution was often available outside of the Big 5 publishing houses or at least a medium sized press who had those business relationships. Back then, getting an agent and pursuing traditional publishing was really the only option for many writers. Musicians, filmmakers, and actors fared no better. It was entirely sink or swim: make it in the big cultural system or risk being small time until you burned out and eventually did something else.

Homogenization allowed for genuine superstars like Michael Jackson, The Beatles, The Supremes, The Temptations, and others to become iconic, so that almost everyone was at least aware of them. Many an actor’s career was built on starring in a large movie with a splashing marketing budget. Hollywood stars of old were famous everywhere because most people were at least aware of someone like Greta Garbo, Bette Davis, or Olivia de Havilland. Even more modern stars like Meryl Streep, Meg Ryan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, and others benefitted from this system. Comedians could build an entire career merely appearing on The Tonight Show one time. The book industry had its own big name darlings with big marketing budgets and who sold millions of books just because their book was the book to buy.

Popular Media

For younger readers, it is hard to imagine going to a bookstore just to buy the most popular book that everyone is talking about much less that authors could put out two books a year and sky rocket to the top of the bestsellers list. Record stores would stock a variety of music, but there were always those artists that were front and center. Their albums flew off the shelves as soon as it was released. Radio stations controlled who was popular and artists ranking on Billboard or Nielsen could make or break an entire album cycle.

You could point to a few forms of media and easily demonstrate American culture at the time. We marked our lives by the movies, music, and TV shows that we experienced and often, we experienced them as a group and occasionally as a society.

Then the internet came along and democratized everything.

Suddenly, creators were set free from the previous system of homogenization. YouTube supplanted radio as the primary music discovery pathway. Justin Bieber, despite his present stardom began as a bright, youthful boy on YouTube singing cute songs. Culture went from homogenization to bifurcation to Balkanization and with it, we lost a sense of community.

We created a cultural environment where people could quickly and easily find content around their personal interests and this made cultural deeply personal rather than universal. Where once we feared bland monoculture that was run by corporations we now have no real culture at all. I think this is at the root of our present problems. Americans aren’t talking to each other anymore because we increasingly have less and less in common with each other. This isn’t just about politics either. It is hard to talk about a TV show at work (when we still went to work) when everyone is watching something different. The same thing goes with YouTube channels. There are a few creators who are popular enough to have a broad base of support, but even YouTube has been around long enough to generate differences in communities based on interests.

Lost Art

Perhaps we are getting into a period where the only valuable culture is the kind of culture that generates money. We don’t have the time or resources for art and culture that isn’t directly making someone money. I fear that COVID-19 has only accelerated this decline. COVID-19 has driven people from the arts in droves. Arts education in schools is practically nonexistent in many districts. Financial support for many artists is in decline.

There are many who don’t necessarily see this as a bad thing. I see it as a major decline in our culture. Culture isn’t just Netflix and other streaming services. Culture is a mural on the side of a building. Culture is also a good art market. It’s theater, dance, festivals, movies, and all the things that make life worth living. Culture is how we express our view of the world. It’s how we define our experiences in our lives. When we drive out professionals who can spend their lives working on art we lose something.

We live in a functional society

We don’t have everyday art and the common pleasures of experiencing vibrant culture around us in the world. We are often deprived of the chance to exist with great works of theater, art, dance, and writing. The opportunity to have novel experiences. We are locked into a world where everything is functional. Everything must have a purpose, including us. One of the privileges of being human is the ability to do more than just survive and reproduce and yet, that’s all modern society requires of us.

So much of our modern society is practical and pragmatic. Personally, I blame technology. Most of what we look at in the world is decided by a group of non-artistic, white men in California. Tech has made the minimalist look popular. Logos have come flat and uninspiring. Art has gone digital and not experienced in person but on screens instead. Our modern gadgets are not beautiful, they are functional. Modern cars are not beautiful and neither is fashion. Everything is functional and useful, but it is not artistic. We don’t even have common experiences around art or design. Everything is individual and everything is unique. Everything functions, but it does not add to the beauty of our lives.

A Boring Dystopia

Back in the day, it did not seem like we were facing a boring dystopia, but it has come true all the same. The cultural vibrancy that existed has now nearly gone. Culture has become Balkanized, individualized, and ultimately, that’s not culture. It’s wonderful for personal experiences but not really culture. Culture is shared experience and right now, we aren’t experiencing very much together.