Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Savage Clone
I don't know that it is reversible at this stage. The notion of a "shared culture" seems to be almost obsolete now. I don't know that this is lamentable even; with access to more choices, more people will find greater satisfaction in alignment with their own tastes (and be able to develop those tastes in the long term) than they might have found had they only been able to access what the mass culture feeds them.
|
that's the thing man. mass culture did not feed anyone elvis. they did not feed anyone the beatles. they did not feed anyone michael jackson. these artists preceded the hype and blew up FORCING the mass media to notice them, for example, michael jackson being one of the first black acts to get into heavy rotation on MTV strictly BECAUSE the man was selling records hand over fist to anyone with a fucking ear! They HAD to follow dig? In a very real sense, elvis, and the n the beatles,a dn then michael jackson forced mass media and culture to expand to fit THEM, not the other way around.
Hip hop has not had someone come close yet. I am guessing it will never happen. they tried to hype eminem as some sort of crossover guy, but there is such a divide.
to me, the fragmentation of music and music fans into so many subgenres is really jus t a triumph of the CLIQUE. Insular fans stop suporting an act once it gets biger than their town or their state. It in my opinion, is much more detrimental to have music fans be so fragmented.
I did not live through them but I always yearned for the days when radio was programmed by the DJ and when you could hear a popular music station and tune in a rock song, a soul song, a country song, a jazz song, anda folk song all back to back, with no real divisions made . (because as we all know, divisions in music are really permeable and for all intents and purposes can be treated as non-existant.)
Nothing lasts forever.