This article initially focuses on a fairly narrow issue ― the elimination of musical guests on Conan O'Brien's show and by extension the lessening importance of musical guests in general ― but goes to some interesting places with it.
Things are far too staid in late night, musically and otherwise — which is the opposite of how it should be, and yet reflective of how culture generally feels right now. We live in a time where there are more media outlets serving a wider range of people than ever in the history of human civilization. And yet, those outlets feel more homogenized, sanitized, centralized, and corporatized than ever. Whether the driver is ratings, web traffic, or algorithms, the pull of culture now is always toward the familiar, fatuous middle of franchise reboots, comic book adaptations, and pop music “perfection.” This inevitably influences how we see that world — the middle assumes outsized importance, and the margins are further, well, marginalized.In a sense this is a trend that's been going on for some time. There doesn't seem to have been a major new subculture created since the 1980's, for instance. But the current atmosphere tends to exacerbate the problem. A combination of massive wealth inequality and sometimes violent nationalist movements rising all over the place can make music and other cultural expressions seem like a lower priority, and certainly doesn't foster trust. The question is when and where this course will reverse.
2 comments:
'The music performances from late night TV that stick out the most in my mind from the past several years were by acts that did not belong on network TV. Odd Future’s menacing turn on Fallon’s Late Night in 2011; Deerhunter breaking the fourth wall on the same show in 2013; the snotty Chicago garage band Orwells writhing on The Late Show‘s floor in 2014 — all of them straddle the line of good and bad, success and failure, professionalism and chaos. This is the opposite of the celebrity-obsessed cuteness of Carpool Karaoke. They feel alive in a way so many of these shows don’t now...'
while these performances may 'feel alive', having just watched all 3, i gotta admit, they all seem to me to be every bit as contrived, if only in a different way, as any other traditional musical performance. afa 'straddle the line' goes? c'mon, it's shtick. i see nothing fresh or revelatory whatsoever going on here. just somewhat obvious/simplistic attempts on the parts of these bands to somehow differentiate themselves from the pack. but, hey, if that's really all it takes to 'feels alive' at this point, yeah, i'd say we definitely do have a problem :) ...
it's been so very long since we've watched television that neither of us was aware that conan o'brien still had a show, so this article was pretty difficult for us to relate to, period. has 'culture' become more commodified/pasteurized? i'd say yeah, of course it has. just like education, & health care, & just about anything else one could name, also has. afa this course we're on reversing? sadly, i'm seeing it either hitting a brick, or going over a cliff, before i see it ever reversing...
Some of this is subjective, but I don't think you're wrong that what we're talking about is something contrived and has been for a long time. It's just a matter of what goes into the contrivance. The audience seems less likely to get any kind of curve balls thrown at them, even by the standards of 10-20 years ago. Which could mean, among other things, that they don't want surprises. Who knows? There's a generation or two that doesn't have much experience with the unexpected being a good thing.
Not having cable I mostly know about O'Brien still having a show by reputation. He's distinctive enough to have kept a few fans, though. My exasperation for "kids today" is at least partially held in check by the knowledge/memory that I didn't relate to most kids when I was one either. While cultural reference points change, maybe people themselves don't.
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