Me personally, I think that Drake-Kendrick fued was very close if not the closet because it got everyone from Gen X, the Millenials and Gen Z engaged and interested.
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You’ve never heard of Drake or Kendrick Lamar? I don’t listen to their music much, both they’re both extremely famous. Kendrick just did the Super Bowl halftime show!
It’s quite normal that one wouldn’t know celebrities from other countries.
I for one know them by name now that you mentioned them, but didn’t recognise them or can’t name a single song from either. I know that superbowl is an annual(?) sports event.
God’s Plan, One Dance, Toosie Slide, In My Feelings (this one in particular), Headlines. Even if you personally don’t know the names, I guarantee you’ve heard at least one of those because of how popular they were. He’s not Michael Jackson, but he had a big impact on the 2010s.
The question is "do you include tragedies and political/technological crises in monoculture?" Because the 2020s have had a ton of those events that affect either every inhabited continent or at the very least entire large countries:
COVID-19
George Floyd/BLM
January 6th
Ukraine and Gaza wars
Vaccines/antivaxxer sentiment
AI, robotics, drones
Worsening effects of climate change
Supply chain crises, tariffs, inflation
Return of Trump
No Kings and ICE protests
Once you take out all the stuff like that, it becomes hard to say that algorithmic social media that "killed monoculture" when you factor in how much of people's attention span and wallets are consumed by upheaval. Movies, music, games, etc. can't really thrive when the general public in most countries is broke, and doubly so if they're already divided along ideological lines. (Note how the Snow White movie this year was overshadowed by controversy as the female leads were both outspoken advocates...for opposite sides of the Zionism issue). In theory, algorithmic social media could've propelled a lot of things to go viral, but a lot of what went viral was so divisive ("Let's Go Brandon", Luigi, TikTok ban) that it didn't even really feel like culture or entertainment.
That's my point. The 2020s have a lot of "monoculture" events, but they mostly aren't enjoyable. There isn't an equivalent of Endgame or Game of Thrones or GTA5 yet.
This is an absolutely moronic response that misses the entire point. “Monoculture” does not mean “everyone thinks the same and marches in step with one another.”
The term “monoculture” refers to a pre-2010s time when media was less fragmented, and the country experienced/was fluent in the same cultural touchstones. It meant everyone was familiar with the popular TV, music, movies of the time.
Whereas now, culture is far more splintered and very few entities have universal recognition.
“Monoculture” doesn’t mean everyone shares the same opinions, nor does it entail hostility to diversity.
No I know what you think you mean. It's just a fantasy. It didn't exist. Your idea that the average person was focused on popculture and not their own community is flawed. You're talking about a more analog time
One can be focused on their local community and simultaneously be aware of what’s happening in culture and society at large. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
Don't need to be but its something humans tend to prefer. Monoculture is something that significantly helps
keeps a civilization cohesive, happy, wanting to work together and sacrifice for something bigger. MAGA has kind of found this with Trump & their movement.
It helps to relate to each other and people like relating to their neighbor. Its a reason the topic keeps coming up. Shunning it isn't the right way to address it.
No it keeps coming up because conservatives try to force conformity via the term assimilation and when I brought up that the US has never ever had a monoculture, not even since the founding, a new narrative needed to be created by the right to push the idea that we are divided because we've lost a monoculture that never existed.
TV and pop music isn't a monoculture. It's what was on TV and on the radio. That's it. Culture always varied by region. Even since the founding. What you see on TV and hear on the radio from the old days is the surface level media creation. Not the actual experiment people lived.
We are divided not because we lack a monoculture we never had. We are divided because MAGA pushes division as a problem. They have the problem, not everyone else
Interesting take. Its political but also cultural. But sometimes I wonder if maybe im too old too know what the monoculture is. Like maybe its something on tik tok or a new DIY fashion trend only online people would be on. Maybe its more like a duoculture nowadays guys on legacy media and new media.
You must not follow up on American culture closely. Which is fine. He was the performance for the most watched 10 minutes in u.s TV history...this year(only slightly behind Micheal Jackson)
134 million Americans watching on TV alone. Not even including social media. And his song charted longer than any hip hop song is history. My mom is near her 60's but even saw him a lot on facebook and youtube shorts. It was something that was all over the national news channels for a couple weeks too
COVID and back then it was not called monoculture.
10 years ago it was the election
15 years ago it was the recession
5 years FROM NOW it will probably be another recession (we seem to get at least one every decade) this is when young people experiencing their first setback will start saying how they missed the 20's and how the 20's was better than the 2030s.
that was the year Trump started his political following and some of the debates started in 2015. SNL was already making fun of him politically by Fall 2015 as well.
hate. Hate is the monoculture right now. Every community rallies behind 'who can we hate' and 'how hard'. left hate- fascists. right hate- everything but guns and trump. Pro Ai hate, antis. antiAi hate, ai. hate hate hate hate hate. hate immigrants. hate ceos hate politics. hate hotdogs with ketchup. hate hotdogs without performative nonsense. hate new films. hate old films. hate hate hate hate hate is the monoculture right now.
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Monoculture is bigger than ever. Everything is monoculture now, you can't even see it.
Back in the day we had Pittsburgh club bands like the Jaggerz, Boston club bands like Aerosmith, LA based bands like Motley Crue/Guns N Roses, Chicago bands like Chicago/Styx.
Nowadays, it's just all big mega touring acts with just a lead singer and a backing band that don't ever get the identity and vibe of the cities.
We never see bands with their LA sleaz, or Boston swagger, etc. You don't even have thriving band scenes in a lot of these places anymore.
All you've got left is Nashville country, a monoculture thing really.
In that case, I wholeheartedly apologize if I offended you in any manner. I simply presumed that every American knew what the Eras Tour was - it was rather hard to miss the massive publicity surrounding it, given that was probably one of the biggest cultural events of the last 5 years, save possibly Barbenheimer.
I was only made aware of the Lamar-Drake feud because of a YouTube channel detailing the latter's (now-dismissed) lawsuit over "Not Like Us."
That’s basically why there really isn’t monoculture. I was engrossed in Drake/Kendrick but had no idea what was going on with Taylor. On the other hand, I watched Barbie in theaters but not Oppenheimer.
I think it’s that too. Sports seems to have filled the void left when religion fell out of vogue. Of course , sports were popular before but people take things like a beee commercial or the halftime show way way too serious
OP's opinion is very circle dependent, As elder Gen Z I didn't even know who Kendrick Lamar was, neither did any of my friends prior to the Super Bowl last year.
Same thing with the Super Bowl halftime show guy for this year, I actually originally thought it was the Cash Me Outside girl...Bad Bhabie
Yep. Whatever that feud is is a very specific thing (I haven't heard of either of those men), for a very specific country, for a very specific subgroup of a very specific generation.
That's this forum in general. More people are gonna talk about the monoculture of the u.s than of North Korea.
Drake is basically every year in the top 3 most streamed artists in the world. Right now he is only behind swift. He is even ahead of bad bunny who dominates basically every Spanish speaking country
This may be a hot take on this sub, but the Drake vs. Kendrick feud was not as popular or mainstream as people make it out to be. And the song "Not Like Us" won't be considered a defining 2020s song by the end of the decade.
Industry baby? It was a fun song but didn't define anything...except maybe queer representation in the music video. Not like us not only preformed better commercially, but had moments that spanned a year that had even non rap fans talking and changed quite a bit within the rap world among its 3 biggest stars, the impact likely isn't even finished yet.
I'd measure this by any song that every generation would know if they heard it at a wedding. Which I suppose isn't many hip hip songs, but I'd say that Not Like Us is an example of a very popular song that is massive in some circles but little-known in others (thus, not monocultural).
Regarding the Billboard charts, that's been broken for the last few years. "Lose Control" by Teddy Swims has been in the Top 10 for 79 weeks.
that's because a tonne of people paid for expensive 3D tickets to see it in the cinema, not because more people have seen it than have seen Terminator 2 or Lion King or whatever
The monoculture isn’t dead. Practically all mainstream popular music today belongs to a tiny number of styles, and film, TV, etc. has just as much stylistic “sameness” as it did in the past. The “death” of the monoculture is a utopian myth created by people who don’t understand the impact of the Internet on the entertainment industry. That industry is run by large corporations that have enormous control over the public’s tastes. Independent, web-based creators often (but not always) cannot reach a mainstream audience without these corporations’ help, and big entertainment companies will not support people who deviate from the aesthetic standards that their industry manufactures and enforces. The result of this is a monoculture that is much weaker than it once was, but still very much present. The music monoculture has not shrunken at all, likely because the high cost of touring keeps artists dependent on record labels. For this reason, I’d consider the entire music industry the “closest thing… to monoculture” we’ve had recently. I really wish people would leave behind this “dead monoculture” nonsense and adopt a more nuanced view of pop culture.
I agree with everything you said bar the monoculture being weaker than before. I'd argue it's the strongest it's ever been, it's just much easier to escape from than before also if you're inclined. Lot's of people just aren't inclined.
I’m so happy to finally see someone who agrees with me! I’m a songwriter, and I often worry about the marketability of my songs because they don’t sound like the stuff that charts. It’s easy for people online to say that the monoculture is dead, because there’s not much of a monoculture on the Internet anymore. People like me who work in more traditional forms of entertainment have to deal with the same restrictions creatives always have, however.
I think the death of the monoculture is more about exposure to media m than media itself. Fifteen years ago, most people still learned new music from the radio and experienced most television as live broadcasts, meaning that people were generally exposed to a fairly limited number of options. Even the Internet back then largely recommended the same content to everyone. Today, algorithms are very personalized, and as such it’s much easier to miss a popular song or show than it used to be.
I have no doubts that it was huge, but that doesn't mean "monocultural" necessarily. If I asked my parents or grandparents about it, they likely are unfamiliar with it. Whereas they'd all be aware of, say, the Harry Potter films or Jurassic Park.
Taylor Swift in general is monoculture for sure but in an odd way, her music itself might not be? How much of the general population would even recognize Fortnight if you played it for them?
46 million TV viewers in the U.S for the final season is monoculture as fuck lol. It doesn't get bigger than that in terms of TV shows, minus the Superbowl.
I don’t think many people are going around and claiming that soccer is a monoculture in the United States, though. It could probably be considered that in some countries, which is more than one can say about Game of Thrones anywhere.
The things 3 generations of my family all know about: Jelly Roll, COVID, ChatGPT, Eras tour, fascism in the US, Israel/Palestine, Drake V Kendrick, the gabby petito case, Jan 6th, TikTok, climate change, Sabrina Carpenter, Charlie Kirk and TPUSA, microplastics, etc.
The idea of “monoculture” is solipsistic narcissism I’ve heard of all of most of those things but only have meaningful knowledge of a few of them, and no nothing about several of them.
Anyone else feel like this monoculture narrative is false? I can see a full fragmentation coming, but there are still so many events that we collectively remember and attribute to these years.
KPDH has no staying power with adults? Set aside literally all parents, adults younger than 40 or anyone who's dating, I think most other adults at least has heard of it by now.
I'd argue Taylor swift and Kpop demon hunters are too polarizing to be monocultural, but they have had massive staying power within pretty large groups of people
I’d say the concept of turning on a beloved or tolerated celebrity is the closest thing we’ve had to a monoculture. Previously celebrities and highly visible people were kind of excused but now it seems that (right or wrong) people are lashing back at people they used to celebrate. For example, Drake, Diddy, Coldplay.
It’s not monoculture, though! COVID did different things to different people. The specific pandemic is a historical event, with thousands of knock-on cultural effects.
Arguably it's the most monocultural event in world history to date in that prior disasters and recessions were either slower-moving or only affected certain countries at a time. Here, you had the first great respiratory pandemic of the jet age, which affected every continent in some way at the same time. The 2020s have been stacked with truly global monoculture events. It just so happens that they're all either tragedies (Covid), extremely divisive political topics (Trump, the spread of Trumpism abroad on social media, vaccines), or otherwise crises that aren't fun to talk about (AI, climate change).
One of the top monoculture phenomenons that frequently isn't put in the conversation, that I think deserves to be #1, if not too 3, is tiktok/content creation. I haven't thought about covid itself until now. But, yeah, content creation, I mean seniors to kids, rich to impoverished, police officers to criminals and so on are all creating content, gaining audiences and making money.
Yes, but TikTok is a platform, not an actual cultural phenomenon. Relatively little from individual TikTok users has really crossed over into normie mass culture. It's not that different from how "seniors to kids, rich to impoverished, police officers to criminals and so on" were previously using Twitter or YouTube or Instagram.
Id say all the big social medias needs to be listed as cultural phenomenons. Its where millions of people are congregating. Vine should be listed as a cultural phenomenon of the 2010s.. decades down the line, millenials will look back and remember Vine, the content, where they were when "why you always lying" released and their reenactments. Same goes for youtube and such. I think tiktok is the same and is dominating heavily in the 2020s. And tiktok produced several viral moments and trends, jet2holiday being one.
COVID influenced a lot of monoculture. “Everyone” baked bread, watched Tiger King, clapping for healthcare workers etc. I would even add Barbenheimer as an extension of this because it was the first big movie duo release post-COVID.
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Id say when Barbie and Top Gun Maverick came out. Everyone was talking about those
Politics. Pretty much the only one. Everyone can agree on the two sides hate each other.
I have absolutely no idea who either of those people are. 🤣
You’ve never heard of Drake or Kendrick Lamar? I don’t listen to their music much, both they’re both extremely famous. Kendrick just did the Super Bowl halftime show!
It’s quite normal that one wouldn’t know celebrities from other countries.
I for one know them by name now that you mentioned them, but didn’t recognise them or can’t name a single song from either. I know that superbowl is an annual(?) sports event.
The idea of “monoculture” is solipsistic narcissism.
Okay but so is your post tbh
Bit harsh
It sounds more like a yearning for community.
COVID.
that's it.
I think only young people isn't a monoculture. Ask anyone over 6 who drake is and they won't know, and they definitely didnt know about this feud.
I think COVID was the last time we had a "monoculture".
Ah yes, I forgot only newborns to age 5 listen to Drake.
Drake was immensely popular during the 2010s.
i meant to say 60 lol.
it's not really a monoculture if people only heard of him and didn't hear a single song by him.
God’s Plan, One Dance, Toosie Slide, In My Feelings (this one in particular), Headlines. Even if you personally don’t know the names, I guarantee you’ve heard at least one of those because of how popular they were. He’s not Michael Jackson, but he had a big impact on the 2010s.
The question is "do you include tragedies and political/technological crises in monoculture?" Because the 2020s have had a ton of those events that affect either every inhabited continent or at the very least entire large countries:
Once you take out all the stuff like that, it becomes hard to say that algorithmic social media that "killed monoculture" when you factor in how much of people's attention span and wallets are consumed by upheaval. Movies, music, games, etc. can't really thrive when the general public in most countries is broke, and doubly so if they're already divided along ideological lines. (Note how the Snow White movie this year was overshadowed by controversy as the female leads were both outspoken advocates...for opposite sides of the Zionism issue). In theory, algorithmic social media could've propelled a lot of things to go viral, but a lot of what went viral was so divisive ("Let's Go Brandon", Luigi, TikTok ban) that it didn't even really feel like culture or entertainment.
Most of what you said are political, historical, or environmental.
That's my point. The 2020s have a lot of "monoculture" events, but they mostly aren't enjoyable. There isn't an equivalent of Endgame or Game of Thrones or GTA5 yet.
The entire zeitgeist
Of what though
The Harlem Shake
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
I have bad news friend. The Harlem Shake is twelve years old. Time has gotten away from you
6-7, Skibidi Toilet, Taylor Swift, Fortnite.
If this is the monoculture I’m killing myself tomorrow.
Full disclosure: I work at a school
Stop.
The closest thing you've had was MAGA. That's what monoculture looks like.
Embrace freedom and diversity in the US. You don't need to all be the same.
This is an absolutely moronic response that misses the entire point. “Monoculture” does not mean “everyone thinks the same and marches in step with one another.”
The term “monoculture” refers to a pre-2010s time when media was less fragmented, and the country experienced/was fluent in the same cultural touchstones. It meant everyone was familiar with the popular TV, music, movies of the time.
Whereas now, culture is far more splintered and very few entities have universal recognition.
“Monoculture” doesn’t mean everyone shares the same opinions, nor does it entail hostility to diversity.
No I know what you think you mean. It's just a fantasy. It didn't exist. Your idea that the average person was focused on popculture and not their own community is flawed. You're talking about a more analog time
One can be focused on their local community and simultaneously be aware of what’s happening in culture and society at large. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
What's happening on TV is not what's happening out in society at large. It's tv.
You’re either being deliberately obtuse and willfully misconstruing my point, or you’re a complete idiot. Genuinely can’t tell at this point.
Don't need to be but its something humans tend to prefer. Monoculture is something that significantly helps keeps a civilization cohesive, happy, wanting to work together and sacrifice for something bigger. MAGA has kind of found this with Trump & their movement.
It helps to relate to each other and people like relating to their neighbor. Its a reason the topic keeps coming up. Shunning it isn't the right way to address it.
No it keeps coming up because conservatives try to force conformity via the term assimilation and when I brought up that the US has never ever had a monoculture, not even since the founding, a new narrative needed to be created by the right to push the idea that we are divided because we've lost a monoculture that never existed.
TV and pop music isn't a monoculture. It's what was on TV and on the radio. That's it. Culture always varied by region. Even since the founding. What you see on TV and hear on the radio from the old days is the surface level media creation. Not the actual experiment people lived.
We are divided not because we lack a monoculture we never had. We are divided because MAGA pushes division as a problem. They have the problem, not everyone else
Interesting take. Its political but also cultural. But sometimes I wonder if maybe im too old too know what the monoculture is. Like maybe its something on tik tok or a new DIY fashion trend only online people would be on. Maybe its more like a duoculture nowadays guys on legacy media and new media.
That drake and Kendrick beef was very USA and Canada centric ! Maybe Uk too
Nah, I saw some videos of people listening to Not Like Us in India and the OP of that post spoke about how it became a big topic over there.
Considering I follow up culture and I don’t know who that is on the left the answer is no
You must not follow up on American culture closely. Which is fine. He was the performance for the most watched 10 minutes in u.s TV history...this year(only slightly behind Micheal Jackson)
134 million Americans watching on TV alone. Not even including social media. And his song charted longer than any hip hop song is history. My mom is near her 60's but even saw him a lot on facebook and youtube shorts. It was something that was all over the national news channels for a couple weeks too
You don't follow anything if you missed the drake and Kendrick beef
you miss the whole Taylor Swift thing?
COVID, obviously
COVID and back then it was not called monoculture.
10 years ago it was the election
15 years ago it was the recession
5 years FROM NOW it will probably be another recession (we seem to get at least one every decade) this is when young people experiencing their first setback will start saying how they missed the 20's and how the 20's was better than the 2030s.
What major election happened in 2015? That and the recession both seem like they would not be universal
that was the year Trump started his political following and some of the debates started in 2015. SNL was already making fun of him politically by Fall 2015 as well.
Actually it was short lived but what about brat summer?
I have no idea what that is.
Will Smith slap
The minecraft movie
really ?
hate. Hate is the monoculture right now. Every community rallies behind 'who can we hate' and 'how hard'. left hate- fascists. right hate- everything but guns and trump. Pro Ai hate, antis. antiAi hate, ai. hate hate hate hate hate. hate immigrants. hate ceos hate politics. hate hotdogs with ketchup. hate hotdogs without performative nonsense. hate new films. hate old films. hate hate hate hate hate is the monoculture right now.
not me !
Not you though, of course. You obviously sit above all this nasty meanness on a glimmering white steed of righteousness
The new Trainspotting movie is really starting on a downer
Choose love
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[deleted]
nah
Barbenheimer and The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights"
Anything involving Donald Trump.
Elden Ring was peak too
True, even my 40 year old coworker was talking about it and we bonded over it lol (im 24)
I don’t even know what that is.
You live under a rock
Greatest action RPG of the decade
Drinking during lockdown?
We don't really have one, culture was segmented due to social media in the mid-late 2010s, there is no such thing as a monoculture anymore.
Monoculture is bigger than ever. Everything is monoculture now, you can't even see it.
Back in the day we had Pittsburgh club bands like the Jaggerz, Boston club bands like Aerosmith, LA based bands like Motley Crue/Guns N Roses, Chicago bands like Chicago/Styx.
Nowadays, it's just all big mega touring acts with just a lead singer and a backing band that don't ever get the identity and vibe of the cities.
We never see bands with their LA sleaz, or Boston swagger, etc. You don't even have thriving band scenes in a lot of these places anymore.
All you've got left is Nashville country, a monoculture thing really.
Barbenheimer and the Eras Tour. End of list.
Only women and gay men cared about the Eras tour though 😂😂
In your head
Most people who didn’t listen to Taylor swift didn’t give a shit
Out of those three things, the only one I’ve engaged with is watching the movie Oppenheimer many months after it had been released.
What is the Eras tour ?
Are you... not from the United States? Or is this question a poorly thought out joke?
The Eras Tour was a massive tour by singer Taylor Swift - she visited 5 continents. Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_Eras_Tour
lol moronic us defaultism
I’m a 29 year old black male living in Atlanta. I don’t know anything about Taylor Swift besides the fact that she’s engaged to Travis Kelce.
I see.
In that case, I wholeheartedly apologize if I offended you in any manner. I simply presumed that every American knew what the Eras Tour was - it was rather hard to miss the massive publicity surrounding it, given that was probably one of the biggest cultural events of the last 5 years, save possibly Barbenheimer.
I was only made aware of the Lamar-Drake feud because of a YouTube channel detailing the latter's (now-dismissed) lawsuit over "Not Like Us."
That’s basically why there really isn’t monoculture. I was engrossed in Drake/Kendrick but had no idea what was going on with Taylor. On the other hand, I watched Barbie in theaters but not Oppenheimer.
I don’t think it was a poorly thought out joke lol he was referring to the Timberlake joke, you just didn’t get it
Top Gun Maverick
brat summer.
Taylor swift
If I know about it, it's monoculture, and I agree the Drake situation is part of it. There is a reason I don't participate in it
No one has mentioned the Super Bowl? Is there anything that even comes close to 100M+ Americans paying attention to it?
Famously no other country exists
Oh I forgot this is a sub about sweedish monoculture
I think it’s that too. Sports seems to have filled the void left when religion fell out of vogue. Of course , sports were popular before but people take things like a beee commercial or the halftime show way way too serious
The real football World Cup gets about 3 BILLION viewers around the world
I didn't get engaged at all, I do not care for hip hop
And drake is still in the closet
this is so funny because i literally don’t know anything about the drake vs kendrick feud
neither could my mom or dad which is my test of how impactful something is
i think the drake vs kendrick feud is a good example of monoculture not being a thing. to you it was monoculture but was it really?
to me i never knew anything about it. the super bowl was the only time i had any exposure to it. and even then i really didn’t care
Yup—other than “hey drake” from the Super Bowl, it had no impact on me. I have not a clue what the beef is over even.
OP's opinion is very circle dependent, As elder Gen Z I didn't even know who Kendrick Lamar was, neither did any of my friends prior to the Super Bowl last year.
Same thing with the Super Bowl halftime show guy for this year, I actually originally thought it was the Cash Me Outside girl...Bad Bhabie
Yep. Whatever that feud is is a very specific thing (I haven't heard of either of those men), for a very specific country, for a very specific subgroup of a very specific generation.
that’s because you have no friends
That's this forum in general. More people are gonna talk about the monoculture of the u.s than of North Korea.
Drake is basically every year in the top 3 most streamed artists in the world. Right now he is only behind swift. He is even ahead of bad bunny who dominates basically every Spanish speaking country
This may be a hot take on this sub, but the Drake vs. Kendrick feud was not as popular or mainstream as people make it out to be. And the song "Not Like Us" won't be considered a defining 2020s song by the end of the decade.
Longest running hip hop song in billboard 100 in history
Broke all types of streaming records for hip hop songs
Was the closing song for the most watched superbowl performance history
Been overplayed more than any hip hop song in memory.
Was the culmination for the biggest beef since pac vs biggie. An unforgettable moment in hip hop history. The engagement was absolutely insane.
What other hip hop song would take it's place?
I mean yeah, if you only care about country music and don't listen to hip hop at all it won't but that goes without saying lol.
Lil Nas X
Industry baby? It was a fun song but didn't define anything...except maybe queer representation in the music video. Not like us not only preformed better commercially, but had moments that spanned a year that had even non rap fans talking and changed quite a bit within the rap world among its 3 biggest stars, the impact likely isn't even finished yet.
I'd measure this by any song that every generation would know if they heard it at a wedding. Which I suppose isn't many hip hip songs, but I'd say that Not Like Us is an example of a very popular song that is massive in some circles but little-known in others (thus, not monocultural).
Regarding the Billboard charts, that's been broken for the last few years. "Lose Control" by Teddy Swims has been in the Top 10 for 79 weeks.
This.
I was totally dialled into the beef as a hip-hop fan. I remember trying to bring it up at work, and people had absolutely no idea about it.
Not sure we ever had a monoculture, but if we did, the Kendrick/Drake battle is not an example of it.
We absolutely had monoculture, if you brought up Avatar references in 2010 absolutely everyone --even your great grandma-- would get them
I watched Avatar back then but don’t know anyone else who did.
Literally the highest grossing movie of all time
that's because a tonne of people paid for expensive 3D tickets to see it in the cinema, not because more people have seen it than have seen Terminator 2 or Lion King or whatever
Would not have expected that.
Heck, there seem to be no shortage of people who think of Avatar: The Last Airbender before they think of the unrelated movie Avatar.
k?
No? I wouldn't be able to tell you anything about Avatar, and my parents wouldn't be able to either.
Monoculture is more than "something I liked, and so assume everyone else did too".
Monoculture was more like Michael Jackson. When there were so few mediums to receive media.
The monoculture isn’t dead. Practically all mainstream popular music today belongs to a tiny number of styles, and film, TV, etc. has just as much stylistic “sameness” as it did in the past. The “death” of the monoculture is a utopian myth created by people who don’t understand the impact of the Internet on the entertainment industry. That industry is run by large corporations that have enormous control over the public’s tastes. Independent, web-based creators often (but not always) cannot reach a mainstream audience without these corporations’ help, and big entertainment companies will not support people who deviate from the aesthetic standards that their industry manufactures and enforces. The result of this is a monoculture that is much weaker than it once was, but still very much present. The music monoculture has not shrunken at all, likely because the high cost of touring keeps artists dependent on record labels. For this reason, I’d consider the entire music industry the “closest thing… to monoculture” we’ve had recently. I really wish people would leave behind this “dead monoculture” nonsense and adopt a more nuanced view of pop culture.
I agree with everything you said bar the monoculture being weaker than before. I'd argue it's the strongest it's ever been, it's just much easier to escape from than before also if you're inclined. Lot's of people just aren't inclined.
I’m so happy to finally see someone who agrees with me! I’m a songwriter, and I often worry about the marketability of my songs because they don’t sound like the stuff that charts. It’s easy for people online to say that the monoculture is dead, because there’s not much of a monoculture on the Internet anymore. People like me who work in more traditional forms of entertainment have to deal with the same restrictions creatives always have, however.
I think the death of the monoculture is more about exposure to media m than media itself. Fifteen years ago, most people still learned new music from the radio and experienced most television as live broadcasts, meaning that people were generally exposed to a fairly limited number of options. Even the Internet back then largely recommended the same content to everyone. Today, algorithms are very personalized, and as such it’s much easier to miss a popular song or show than it used to be.
Spider-Man NWH
What is NWH? And Spider-Man is definitely NOT a universal interest among the younger generations.
Monoculture doesn't mean universal interest. Nothing would apply to that other than water and air lol.
Monoculture is just something that most would consider mainstream, it dominates the market that it's in.
Not everyone will play Grand Theft Auto 6, most people won't actually. but it absolutely will be apart of the monoculture.
Many people weren't interested in Michael Jackson or Marvel or McDonald's or iPhones...but cmon.
I assume they mean "Spider Man: No Way Home". Which I don't believe is a monocultural event.
3rd highest grossing movie in u.s history. It absolutely was. It was the last truly huge MCU film and was absolutely everywhere.
I have no doubts that it was huge, but that doesn't mean "monocultural" necessarily. If I asked my parents or grandparents about it, they likely are unfamiliar with it. Whereas they'd all be aware of, say, the Harry Potter films or Jurassic Park.
Barbenheimer
The Astronomer CEO and head of HR affair at the Coldplay concert.
Barbenheimer? That, or Spider-Man or the Eras Tour.
Out of those four things, the only thing I’ve engaged with is watching the movie Oppenheimer, many months after it had been released.
Taylor Swift in general is monoculture for sure but in an odd way, her music itself might not be? How much of the general population would even recognize Fortnight if you played it for them?
My kid plays Fortnight, so Im pretty sure Id recognize it
Squid Game probably
Game of Thrones.
I don't know if Drake vs Kendrick was that universal.
It absolutely wasn’t. Most people didn’t care, especially Gen X and older.
OG Game of Thrones last aired in 2019.
I didn’t even know their name before I heard one was a pedophile
Game of Thrones’ last episode broadcast in 2019, so doesn’t qualify regardless.
I never heard of Drake vs Kendrick, and have not ever knowingly listened to their music.
Game of Thrones wasn’t universal, either. Neither of these two examples were.
46 million TV viewers in the U.S for the final season is monoculture as fuck lol. It doesn't get bigger than that in terms of TV shows, minus the Superbowl.
I have a hard time believing that many people were subscribed to HBO, then or now.
Significantly more people are subscribed to HBO Max now.
Unless you're saying they're lying to their investors and shareholders, about their earnings, and third party sources are also lying for some reason.
I guess maybe they get all their money from the saudis for some reason and it's all a conspiracy.
I honestly don’t care. It’s not something I consume.
I don't consume soccer but I don't go around saying many don't watch it because I don't ...
I don’t think many people are going around and claiming that soccer is a monoculture in the United States, though. It could probably be considered that in some countries, which is more than one can say about Game of Thrones anywhere.
Most people claim the NFL is a monoculture in the u.s
GoT has higher ratings than any NFL playoff game minus the Superbowl
If GoT wasn't apart of the monoculture, then no show has been in the U.S. Not since like the 50's at least.
The things 3 generations of my family all know about: Jelly Roll, COVID, ChatGPT, Eras tour, fascism in the US, Israel/Palestine, Drake V Kendrick, the gabby petito case, Jan 6th, TikTok, climate change, Sabrina Carpenter, Charlie Kirk and TPUSA, microplastics, etc.
The idea of “monoculture” is solipsistic narcissism I’ve heard of all of most of those things but only have meaningful knowledge of a few of them, and no nothing about several of them.
Sorry you commented this on a different post. What does solipsistic narcissism mean?
You're clearly a solipsistic narcissist.
Haha
I’m sure enough people will watch the new stranger things to make it feel mono for a minute 😂
Reaggaeton and latinoamerican music
Was bigger in the late 2000s, so I’d consider it a trickling from that time.
The fact that every comment is saying different things proves that there’s not really a monoculture.
Leongatha mushroom murders
I would argue that a controversy can become monocultural if it is big enough. Right now (in the US at least) it’s Bad Bunny’s halftime show.
Anyone else feel like this monoculture narrative is false? I can see a full fragmentation coming, but there are still so many events that we collectively remember and attribute to these years.
I’m going to guess that you were born post 2005?
Taylor Swift and Donald Trump have universal interest in them, but divided. Drake jokes are pretty much loved across the divide.
Not counting COVID: The Eras Tour and maybe the Barbie movie.
The Demon Hunters movie this year is everywhere with young people, but I don’t think it has enough staying power with adults to be considered here.
KPDH has no staying power with adults? Set aside literally all parents, adults younger than 40 or anyone who's dating, I think most other adults at least has heard of it by now.
No, it played once, even the kids are no longer into it
Yo, I said ENOUGH staying power, not NO staying power.
If you don’t have kids or are over a certain age, odds are you have no idea what this movie is. That’s my point.
I'd argue Taylor swift and Kpop demon hunters are too polarizing to be monocultural, but they have had massive staying power within pretty large groups of people
As an adult, me and my fellow local adults LOVE this movie… and so do our 7 year olds… everyone in between.. and the grandparents too.
I’d say the concept of turning on a beloved or tolerated celebrity is the closest thing we’ve had to a monoculture. Previously celebrities and highly visible people were kind of excused but now it seems that (right or wrong) people are lashing back at people they used to celebrate. For example, Drake, Diddy, Coldplay.
What happened to Coldplay?
COVID was the ultimate monoculture event.
It’s not monoculture, though! COVID did different things to different people. The specific pandemic is a historical event, with thousands of knock-on cultural effects.
“CORONAVIRUS” -Cardi B (and everyone else)
Tiger King, Animal Crossing, and flattening the curve
Zoom calls.
Arguably it's the most monocultural event in world history to date in that prior disasters and recessions were either slower-moving or only affected certain countries at a time. Here, you had the first great respiratory pandemic of the jet age, which affected every continent in some way at the same time. The 2020s have been stacked with truly global monoculture events. It just so happens that they're all either tragedies (Covid), extremely divisive political topics (Trump, the spread of Trumpism abroad on social media, vaccines), or otherwise crises that aren't fun to talk about (AI, climate change).
One of the top monoculture phenomenons that frequently isn't put in the conversation, that I think deserves to be #1, if not too 3, is tiktok/content creation. I haven't thought about covid itself until now. But, yeah, content creation, I mean seniors to kids, rich to impoverished, police officers to criminals and so on are all creating content, gaining audiences and making money.
Yes, but TikTok is a platform, not an actual cultural phenomenon. Relatively little from individual TikTok users has really crossed over into normie mass culture. It's not that different from how "seniors to kids, rich to impoverished, police officers to criminals and so on" were previously using Twitter or YouTube or Instagram.
Id say all the big social medias needs to be listed as cultural phenomenons. Its where millions of people are congregating. Vine should be listed as a cultural phenomenon of the 2010s.. decades down the line, millenials will look back and remember Vine, the content, where they were when "why you always lying" released and their reenactments. Same goes for youtube and such. I think tiktok is the same and is dominating heavily in the 2020s. And tiktok produced several viral moments and trends, jet2holiday being one.
Gangnam style
That came out 13 years ago
COVID influenced a lot of monoculture. “Everyone” baked bread, watched Tiger King, clapping for healthcare workers etc. I would even add Barbenheimer as an extension of this because it was the first big movie duo release post-COVID.
Barbenheimer was a stupid marketing campaign. PR bots on reddit and twitter posted about it.
There’s a decent argument about almost all media based monoculture being a marketing campaign.
The Eras Tour