WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MASS CULTURE?

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RANDALL DENLEY, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN - What happened to mass culture? It
seems to have died without anyone even noticing. You will no doubt
remember when there were songs, television shows, movies and books that
most everyone had heard of. These shared cultural reference points
helped us communicate by doing things like citing an incident from
Seinfeld to illustrate a point. Or Shakespeare, if you are more
cultured. . . .

Let's start with the lack of talent. The top selling album in the U.S.
last year was Josh Groban's Christmas CD. No. 2 was the soundtrack from
High School Musical 2, followed by the Eagles album that was released
through Wal-Mart. Rock poseur Chris Daughtry and Hannah Montana star
Miley Cyrus were close behind. Only Groban's album exceeded three
million in sales. . .

The music industry has become obsessed with people stealing their
products electronically, but the real problem is a lack of compelling
talent. We lack major figures such as Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and
the Beatles. Each redefined pop music and drew vast audiences that
crossed generations. Literally no one is doing that now. Few new singers
today even have a hope of cracking music's second tier.

Television was the other medium that touched everyone, but that has
changed. The curious thing about the recently resolved writers' strike
is how little people talked about it. The sporadic availability of our
favorite television didn't seem to bother people. . . .

In the most recent BBM Nielsen ratings, the top regular show in Canada
was American Idol, with 2.8 million viewers. The only other show to
break the two-million mark was House. It happens to be a personal
favourite, but when I mention the show to other people, most have no
idea what I'm talking about. . .

Books and movies aren't having much success in finding mass audiences,
either. What few blockbuster movies there have been in recent years, the
ones it seems everyone has seen, are filmed versions of the Harry Potter
books or the Lord of the Rings. Sales of books are so embarrassingly
small that the publishing industry rarely ever talks about them. A book
that sells 5,000 copies is considered a bestseller in Canada. At that
kind of number, there is a pretty fine line between a bestseller and a
secret. . .

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=
0c32ecb8-abbc-41ac-b95b-dda6920d0d01&p=1


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