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Since When Has American Culture Become So Mediocre and Pathetic? What happened to ABBA, Bowie, The Beatles, PSY, BTS, and other great American bands?
- Thread starter strange headache
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Blond
Banned
Bowie is EnglishTrue, but it had to rhyme with Zappa
Should have mentioned Bowie, Freddie, BB King, Joplin, Hooker, Waters, Hendrix, Lynyrd Skynyrd and all that other good stuff.
Although I'd say your disco culture made them great and known to the world.
You’re mad at Disney for trying to make money back on a 7 billion dollar investment? It was clear from the outset those movies needed to happen for financial purposes. That being said, I’m not even into Star Wars and Last Jedi is my favorite one because I liked how self contained and focused it was on Rei and Kylo so I’m not one to speak to about SW
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bitbydeath
Member
Trends have a habit of lasting 10 years and this wokeism only just got started. Hopefully 2030 will be more welcoming for everyone.
strange headache
Banned
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
I'm using voice text. It didn't pick up the "don't" part of that sentence and I didn't catch it.
So try again.
strange headache
Banned
The mere fact that the classics are still such a cultural cornerstone that make the sequels pale in comparison are evidence enough. Hollywood is living in the past, remaking movies that once inspired audiences worldwide only to come up with a worse reimagination in the end. Cash-grabs are a sign of cultural significance being replaced by greedy corporatism. Fanbases worldwide are turning on American entertainment products and once beloved IPs.
The toxic divide created by your entertainment should be testament enough. Unfortunately you chose to turn a blind eye to it.
Maybe put some frikkin' effort into your comments instead of shitting up this thread with your lazy replies.
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Artoris
Gold Member
Coca-Cola, wonderbra
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Oh get the hell out of here. I gave you a detailed response to what you said and explained how you were wrong. Instead of addressing my points you decided to pounce on a single sentence and smugly declared victory, but I'm the lazy one? Yeah okay lol
You don't like the way things have gone. I get that. You have made it abundantly clear, but you are just yelling at clouds at this point.
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Alebrije
Member
Mickey Mous
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EverythingsOverrated
Member
I blame media consolidation.
The overwhelming majority of media in the states (and abroad) is controlled by a small handful of companies. Just look at all the shit Disney owns.
Pretty much everything is looked through the most corporate vanilla lens by executives in order to make everything lowest common denominator.
The overwhelming majority of media in the states (and abroad) is controlled by a small handful of companies. Just look at all the shit Disney owns.
Pretty much everything is looked through the most corporate vanilla lens by executives in order to make everything lowest common denominator.
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Damn good song.
strange headache
Banned
So far you've attacked
CAB_Life
, shown nothing but condescending snark towards my OP and categorically refused to address any of the arguments I've made in regards to your comments. Disney churning out cash-grabs is the very definition of the damaging corporatism that is hollowing out your cultural exports. Modern output not even remotely reaching the same heights as the classics is only indicative of the cultural decline.I'm sure as sh*t not getting out of my own frikkin' thread!
Great showing as usual
Nobody_Important
, I really didn't expect any better. 
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michaelius
Banned
It's like all big empires of the past - at some point people stop being hungry for more and concentrate on hedonistic pursuit of pleasure for themselves only. Then new super power rises.
It will likely be one of India or China or both that will rule XXI century
It will likely be one of India or China or both that will rule XXI century
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Yeah keep throwing insults. That definitely doesn't prove my point about the yelling at clouds.So far you've attacked
I'm sure as sh*t not getting out of my own frikkin' thread!
Great showing as usual
To address your point though a company trying to make money off a property they own is not new and is certainly not tied to any recent cultural shift. Companies have been making shameless capitalist cash grabs for decades and decades. This is not new to Disney and is not new to the society that social media has built. Also who says that none of the movies that have seen release since social media became a thing won't be considered a classic someday by someone? Just because you don't like it? That's not how it works. Not every movie is a remake and not every movie is hated by everyone. There have been successes and there have been failures. Same goes for music, books, and any other kind of media that is a slave to the fads and attitudes of it's time.
Cultural change =/= Cultural failure
Just because you don't like the way things have gone does not mean everyone does. There has been a variety of problems like I already said that have come about because of the changes that social media has brought on. But like I also said there have been just as many positives. Maybe even more. Time and change are not a one way street of pure positive progress. It's a give and take. We lose one thing, but we gain another. One fad leads into the next. What's popular today may not be popular next year. Music might get worse before you enjoy it again. That doesn't mean a whole culture is dead. It means that it's changed and if you don't like the way it looks that's fine. But it doesn't mean it's failed or died.
The world is worse in many ways that it was decades ago and in other ways it's infinitely better. It just depends on your own personal opinion and viewpoint. Neither of which are fact.
epicnemesis
Member
Early ‘10s is the correct answer. In 08 the message was hope and unity, in 2012 it was divide and conquer.
O-N-E
Member
Great is relative to the times.
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
strange headache
Banned
What frikkin' insults?
Well duh! Point is, your culture isn't changing for the better and it's pretty obvious in you cultural output.
Eh, times were though but that didn't prevent you from producing some of the most inspiring artists. Nowadays, it's mostly mumble rap and Cardi B.
There's certainly an argument to be made that American culture isn't the juggernaut it used to be and largely fails to inspire people worldwide.
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Hari Seldon
Member
I don't know, I'm both in agreement and disagreement with the OP. Basically everything corporate produced right now is garbage due to consolidation and lack of risk taking. But indie music is fire right now, plenty of youtube shows are fantastic, and on the television front things are the best they have ever been because of the Great Streaming Wars. The only thing that is extremely suffering is big budget films and genre literature because there is no real way to bypass the corporate control.
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
You have called me lazy and told me to put effort into my posts despite me having done exactly that. Then proceeded to try to talk down to me when you said you didn't expect any better. Which is kind of funny to be honest because you have once again ignored most of my post despite me explicitly responding to your examples.
You just seem to be more interested in talking at people about this instead of talking with people about this.
HellforLeather
Member
I mean, I agree with OP to a certain extent but having a European call Americans "pussified"...
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Low IQ topic. There's an incredible amount of media and entertainment generated in the US. What you fail to understand is that the rest of the world has nearly caught up to American media standards so you're wondering what's going on but blaming the US and its citizens for it. America is still top dog and will continue to innovate. Yes China is nipping at the heels but that's fine. You sound like you are a middle aged man from Eastern Europe. Yeah things have changed, norms change constantly. You just fail to understand that the rest of the world is just starting to catch up.
Prison Mike
Banned
strange headache
Banned
Those are not insults, just the truth.
Also, it should be pretty obvious that I'm not a big fan of modern American culture. For obvious reasons. Deal with it!
Not American, but modern American culture in comparison to what you guys put out in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
I need to find me someone that loves me as much as Strange loves American Culture. 
strange headache
Banned
I need to find me someone that loves me as much as Strange loves American Culture.
I very apparently appreciate it much more than you ever did, you lazy troll.
DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
Ummm... Hard disagree... I'll come back to this later...
Turnt
Member
Damn those Belgians.
synchronicity
Member
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Dude I have explained why I think each of your examples are wrong and then you just ignored them and moved passed them like I never spoke.
- You brought up Star Wars and I explained why you were wrong about that. You ignored the whole post and focused on a single sentence instead.
- Then you brought up Manga in that same post and I explained how appreciation of other cultures is not proof of weakness in your own culture. I even threw out a counter example regarding the popularity of Mexican food. You completely ignored that as well.
- Then you accused me of being in lazy despite you being the one that was intentionally avoiding entire sections of my posts.
- Then I threw out a much longer explanation of how cultural change is not the same as cultural failure. That it all comes down to opinion and perspective. You once AGAIN ignore pretty the entire post and focused on a single sentence.
- And now you accused me of not loving American culture despite the fact I have spent several posts of fairly decent length defending it and the changes it has experienced.
You seemingly want to discuss this and even throw out examples to try and back up your stance. Bad examples in my opinion, but you are still trying to defend your stance. I respect that even of I don't agree with you. But then you completely ignored me when I addressed them and then even told me I should put in effort despite you being the one that is ignoring the fact that I showed you how your examples were bad ones. Instead you just came back with new examples and new angles instead of defending the ones you had already brought up.
So from where I am sitting the one trolling here is you. But I guess that shows just how important perspective is right?
I hate when people use that meme without understanding it. The point of that meme is that the old guy is mad at something that 1- can't change no matter how mad he gets and 2- couldn't possibly justify the guy's anger, since it doesn't do anything at all.
Neither of those elements are present when somebody criticizes the quality of cultural or artistic endeavours at a given time.
Also, just like it is true that there are always people who criticize whatever is being produced at any given time, it is also true that there are periods of peaks and decadence in terms of artistic production. For instance, even people who still love French literature and still read what is being produced today would admit there isn't a single writer today who is on the level of, say, Voltaire or Victor Hugo. The world that produced those kinds of writers is simply gone. Maybe AI will pick up the slack...
PrimetimeKnight
Member
I am thinking we are more in stage 7, since dependence creation really seems to be what the government currently is pushing for with all these stimulus payments, unemployment bonuses, gov't "assistance", etc. Neither stage is something to be proud of though, if anything it's worse than you said because we are further from the good stuff.
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Of course there hasn't been anyone like that. Those are historical talents. The kind of people that history only produces in extremely rare quantities at irregular intervals. To try and use the lack of such a talent in a specific media in a short span of time as proof of some kind of overall cultural decline is ridiculous in my opinion.
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synchronicity
Member
Yeah, I could see that. We're certainly trending towards painful death/renewal, and we won't see the bright side of things in our lifetime. Just have to hang in there as best we can.
AJUMP23
Member
They got their break on Eurovision though.
strange headache
Banned
Stop it with the strawmen. I'm not "angry" just disappointed and sad to see a once great culture in such shambles.
Also, nobody wants American Culture to "go back the way it was". Culture changes, but it needs to innovate for the better.
What you have now is mostly cultural stagnation.
The whole point is that America produced so many more cultural icons and artistic trends from the 50s to the 90s than it is now. There's a reason for that, no matter how much you want to deny it.
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
You guys need to get some sunshine. The world is not ending anytime soon. It's been worse before this and will continue to get better.
synchronicity
Member
I'm content, generally speaking. But that doesn't mean I don't see the patterns that unfold around me. There is definitely a precedent and cycle to the rise and fall of societies that has played out many times. Life being "comfortable" presently is not necessarily a good indicator of where things are trending imho. There is no perpetual growth. It's always cyclical.
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
In your opinion* you mean. You keep leaving that part out on purpose I think. There are plenty of cultural icons around the world. There may be less or more than what was produced in the decades you mentioned. That depends on the decade and the timing, but they do exist. They may just not be icons of a culture that you enjoy or recognize. So to YOU they are not icons. Just like some of the people you have in mind from the decades you mentioned were probably not considered icons by some people in their time.
Once again I am going to hit the horse. It is all about perspective and timing. It depends on who you are and where you are. It is not some black and white issue like you keep insisting that it is.
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PrimetimeKnight
Member
Yet you continue to argue against it even though it is all a matter of opinion, just accept this is his opinion and let it go. Yet you can't do this and continue to try to prove your opinion is right, it's trolling that is masquerading as discussion at this point.
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Welcome to internet forums. If everyone just accepted everyone's opinion and just moved on without debating or discussing it then every thread would be a 10 posts or less.
There is nothing wrong with people that have two opposing opinions debating back and forth. Calling that trolling is ridiculous.
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Glockmarksmen
Neo Member
Lmao I knew this thread was dusty when OP mentioned autotune music. Like yeah look at latin american charts and modern Kpop music and tell me american music isn’t influential this generation. That “autotune” music you love to shit on influences artists from Brazil to fucking Russia to Japan. This whole thread is just an old man yelling at clouds thread.
PrimetimeKnight
Member
It's beyond debating though and you continue to, as you so eloquently put it, "hit the horse". That horse is beaten to a pulp and in the glue factory at this point.
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