

The decline of the art generation gap  - occam
http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/generation_gap/

======
msie
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.

