The decline of the art generation gap

http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/generation_gap/

by occam • 17 years ago

1 1 17 years ago

msie• 17 years ago

In the midst of reading this article I had the feeling I was reading something from a conservative blog:

In the arts, perhaps the most important change since the 1960s is the decline in what had then been the greatest engine of artistic change: the generation gap.

Generational conflict over aesthetic styles is most common in a relatively ethnically homogenous society, such as 19th Century Paris, rather than in a multicultural city, such as Ottoman Istanbul.

And this:

Although increasing ethnic diversity is widely assumed to make the arts more “vibrant,” the triumph of the ideology of multiculturalism appears to have instead helped cause pop music to stagnate stylistically.

There’s a fundamental connection between the growth of ethnic pride and the decline of generational rebellion, because to rebel against your forefathers is to rebel against your race.

I find it funny that an article bemoaning the declining rate of cultural change would be published on a conservative website. But it weirdly makes sense because it is blaming the phenomenon on multiculturalism which, I guess, is some ideology backed by the "other side" (liberals).

There’s a fundamental connection between the growth of ethnic pride and the decline of generational rebellion, because to rebel against your forefathers is to rebel against your race. Thus, for a group of young black musicians to issue a manifesto pointing out that 30 years of rap is plenty would be racial treason. Although long exhausted musically, hip-hop has become so emotionally entwined with African-American identity that we’re all stuck with it.

The author thinks race is an issue but this happens with country music and pop music too. The music industry is very conservative about funding musical acts that buck the current trend or a tried-and-true formula. You can see this in the tv and movie industry as well. It's not about race it's about money. The industry gives us what it thinks we want and we accept it because it's easier to access over more diverse fare (the industry has a superb marketing and distribution system). There's a vicious cycle at work that enforces the status-quo.

The decline of the art generation gap

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