If apathy is mass culture, then how’s pop culture representing it?
The sign of the times. That’s a phrase which gets bandied about a lot. Mostly used by old people who are disapproving of the current times. Well, actually, not just old people but just about anyone who doesn’t think too highly about the current state of affairs in the world.
But then, there is another segment of the population- that may coincide with the aforementioned group of people- who also use this phrase from time to time. But they apply this phrase to not just to the general social-political scenario of the world, but to the pop culture that it produces.
The idea that the culture of a society is reflected in what’s broadly termed as “culture” is nothing new. I remember hearing such things from my parents a lot back when I was a child and we got cable TV for the first time in my village.
Seeing the women “with indecent clothes” on MTV, they would say “it’s the signs of these degenerate times” and so on and so forth.
But as to how much validity the idea that cultural products like films and music represent the signs of the time, I am not so sure. I mean that the popular narrative isn’t necessarily reflective of the overall cultural landscape of the country or state that produces the narrative.
More often than not, it just reflects the socio-political interests of a powerful minority that controls the narrative instrument- be it religious establishments or oligarchs or whatever.
I was sifting through music of the contemporary era- by which I mean the post 2010, in an effort to understand the ‘sign of the times.’
However, the only thing I could understand from listening to all the music was that musicians seem to have a lot of influences at their disposal — for much of the music they create, even the best songs, sound derivative or stylistically similar to other types of music.
The level of universal access to music this suggests is not unusual. What with internet being the place where a lot of us seem to spend a lot of time on.
But the sounds the contemporary musicians produce cannot be said to be reflective of contemporary culture of any country.
At least, I don’t think so. For the times that we live through seem rather unique- one that’s defined by human apathy which has already resulted in the rise of right-wing populism in politics and widespread devastation of the environment.
There doesn’t seem to be a palpable grappling of such themes on a wide level in our mainstream music. And whenever there appears to be, it sounds performative than heart-felt.
My conclusion is surely is not based on a comprehensive survey of contemporary music.
But I did more than dip my toes into the waters of modern music, and the temperature I felt was far removed from the general temperature around me, one that should be measured in the number of degrees by which we are mentally removed from each other’s plight.
