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Something that's been talked about every so often is that there aren't representative (generational) pop icons for the past few generations (probably from millenials onwards).

One theory from Japan, that I still remember and think is most likely, is that the democratization of entertainment since the 80s and especially from the 90s onwards with the invention of the internet has eliminated the very concept of pop culture.

Back in ye olde days a person's choices for entertainment were fairly limited, basically a small regional selection. People in the same locale ended up consuming the same entertainment and thus gravitated towards forming similar tastes and directing their fervor on that small selection of entertainment.

Entire generations identify with icons of their time like Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman, Elvis Presley, and so on. Entire generations sang "the song of their people" so to speak.

Today, though? Everyone can access any entertainment they want from anytime anywhere. The entertainment consumed by one person is very likely completely different from that consumed by a person right next to him; entertainment has been democratized. There is no longer a "song of our people" because everyone has a "song of me", there are no longer generational icons because everyone has their own icon.

The intense political push from the Left to make any form of social cohesion and loyalty undesirable also hasn't helped. The dismantling and removal of tradition, religion, and nationalism/patriotism from society means there can't be a "song of the people" from outside of entertainment either.

So no, I don't think you're disconnected with today's culture. Rather, today's culture doesn't value social cohesion and unity as much as it does freedom and power. Everyone has their own icon and song, everyone is their own generation.

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KittenInABox 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> The intense political push from the Left to make any form of social cohesion and loyalty undesirable also hasn't helped. The dismantling and removal of tradition, religion, and nationalism/patriotism from society means there can't be a "song of the people" from outside of entertainment either.

Funny, because I don't think there is a "song of the people" on the right at all, while every leftist I know are all in on Charlie XCX and Brat Summer.

	▲	lazyeye 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Lol

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johnnyanmac 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Maybe Gen Z, but I'd say Millenials definitely had their generational Pop icons. Those icons simply did not live a good life once they left the spotlight. Like, most people I know don't really want to talk about Brittney Spears nor Micheal Jackson, even if they loved their music.

But I agree with your core point. There is no "Spongebob" of animation for Gen Z (except for... Spongebob. Maybe). There's no Friends, nor Breaking Bad of the 2010's/2020's. There's barely any individual movies that break the cultural zeitgeist period.

>The intense political push from the Left to make any form of social cohesion and loyalty undesirable also hasn't helped. The dismantling and removal of tradition, religion, and nationalism/patriotism from society means there can't be a "song of the people" from outside of entertainment either.

we can have social cohesion without resorting to nationalism nor religion. It's just that when you give people infinite choice, we diverge at best to the pareto principle. But 20% of society not being in the know is still a lot of society you fail to connect with.

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Dalewyn 3 days ago | parent [-]

I'm a millenial myself (36 years old next year... I'm getting too old for this), and while I can think of some "popular" names of my generation like Linkin Park, Dragonforce, Emma Watson, Brittney Spears as you mentioned, Mario, Pokemon, World of Warcraft, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, The Simpsons, Futurama, and so on, none of them can compare to ye olde icons of ye olde generations like Star Trek and the people I mentioned before.

Celebrities and pop culture sensations of olden times defined entire eras that we can still clearly identify to this day, but that just doesn't happen anymore because large numbers of people aren't forced to coalesce around a small handful of works and figures.

>we can have social cohesion without resorting to nationalism nor religion.

Can we? The way I see it, in removing and villifying tradition, religion, and nationalism/patriotism they were simply replaced by inferior substitutes and surrogates. The chief examples being "science" ("Trust the Science.") and politics (Obama, Trump, Farage, et al.) as the receptacles of peoples' desires to be fervent about something.

	▲	johnnyanmac 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		>none of them can compare to ye olde icons of ye olde generations like Star Trek and the people I mentioned before. Well a lot of that comes with time. None of the people nor ips you describe are more than 30 years old. Star Trek is over 50 years old. We don't know which are gonna last 20-30 more years. Pokemon is going strong, but HP has been dipping for a while, and The Simpsons is well past its prime. I think it's also simply because we are more globalized. Is Pokemon and Harry potter bigger than Star Trek ever was? Absolutely. But it's also easier than ever to globally broadcast anything anywhere, especially when offering localization for more access. I don't see this as a bad thing. >Can we? The way I see it, in removing and villifying tradition, religion, and nationalism/patriotism they were simply replaced by inferior substitutes and surrogates. Sure. The world is larger and brands bigger than ever. But when things globalize, that creates a need for smaller, more local community values. Bringing back third places would help more than trying to make the next Star Trek. Now, will people be receptive to such activity? I don't know. It's not up to me to figure out what people like or want. But those places being defunct answers the question for us without even trying. And I wager there's more than enough community to create out of those that do.