Really thought-provoking read, I would also add The Last Dinner Party onto the list of influential musicians to be brought to the masses this year (especially after clicking onto your link for the 2019 charts, yikes): when I listened to their album it was like I was taken back in time to hearing Lungs by Florence & the Machine in 2009 for the first time as an awkward teenager and their music made me feel like I’d been emotionally punched in the chest rather than just thinking ‘yeah, I like this’. We all want to stop scrolling, get outside and have a little bit of fun which is why these artists are having their moment, I hope this continues as I’m sick of pop culture being dictated by 10 second trend cycles!
Icons were born thanks to longer attention spans and a more concentrated/gatekept media. Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson. It would be much more difficult for today's society to generate their equivalent. Taylor Swift is the closest we have but a) she's an exception and b) she's not really as big.
Today most people's attention is divided between countless accounts/channels, we are shallowly stimulated with a fierce frequency but the focus never sets on anything...Kpop idols are a dime-a-dozen. Yes, there are a few big names but, even them, burn (perhaps) brighter but ultimately faster.
Subcultures have never been so visibile but, again, they are visible for seemingly 5 minutes, in a very superficial way (reduced to a micro-aesthetic), and then they disappear.
And yet, which could be the real shift, some people are starting to resist this hyperstimulation, the FOMO. I don't think mass is the answer, the answer is maybe focusing on a a few small communities (a subculture even, or a passion) and devote a larger part of your time to that, rejecting doomscrolling and FOMO.
Really thought-provoking read, I would also add The Last Dinner Party onto the list of influential musicians to be brought to the masses this year (especially after clicking onto your link for the 2019 charts, yikes): when I listened to their album it was like I was taken back in time to hearing Lungs by Florence & the Machine in 2009 for the first time as an awkward teenager and their music made me feel like I’d been emotionally punched in the chest rather than just thinking ‘yeah, I like this’. We all want to stop scrolling, get outside and have a little bit of fun which is why these artists are having their moment, I hope this continues as I’m sick of pop culture being dictated by 10 second trend cycles!
Icons were born thanks to longer attention spans and a more concentrated/gatekept media. Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson. It would be much more difficult for today's society to generate their equivalent. Taylor Swift is the closest we have but a) she's an exception and b) she's not really as big.
Today most people's attention is divided between countless accounts/channels, we are shallowly stimulated with a fierce frequency but the focus never sets on anything...Kpop idols are a dime-a-dozen. Yes, there are a few big names but, even them, burn (perhaps) brighter but ultimately faster.
Subcultures have never been so visibile but, again, they are visible for seemingly 5 minutes, in a very superficial way (reduced to a micro-aesthetic), and then they disappear.
And yet, which could be the real shift, some people are starting to resist this hyperstimulation, the FOMO. I don't think mass is the answer, the answer is maybe focusing on a a few small communities (a subculture even, or a passion) and devote a larger part of your time to that, rejecting doomscrolling and FOMO.
Love this!