When I was in high school, there were about five genres of music people might be into: pop, rock, country, rap, and “alternative”. A few people owned that Bob Marley greatest hits album. That was about it. And even that was about three more genres than when my parents were in high school.
Now musical tastes have gotten so fragmented there’s no way to keep up with these things. Mass culture just doesn’t exist any more.
(As someone who listens to more Brazilian R&B from the 70’s than any other kind of music, I’m doing my part.)
Overall, this is probably a good thing. We’re all little snowflakes, and everyone gets to pick out the exact genre of music to fit exactly who they are.
Or are we becoming more atomized culturally because we have so many more options? If there were four genres of music to listen to, would we pick whichever of those four we liked the best and be just as happy? I don’t know.
What I do know is that this article was a pretty interesting take on this.
