Culture

Most of our culture is pretty bad right now. Modern culture, that is. You can take garbage, spray it with perfume, dress it up real pretty, and talk about it a lot, but its still garbage. And I get it, I really do. First, just in terms of originality, there isn't much left. As a species, we've more or less done it all. In music, every emotion has been evoked, from melancholy in a Chopin piece to excitement in a Beatles tune.

Look at the top 10 artists on iTunes right now, or the top-selling artists of the past couple years. There really isn't much going on. In recent memory, who have been the real stars of pop? Justin Bieber. Katy Perry. Various singers of repetitive, catchy jams. Catchy, but empty. Yeah, I know that there have been some solid, famous rappers in the past couple decades. Kanye, Eminem, Tupac, and Notorious BIG come to mind. Let's get real though. Can they compare to the literally dozens of hits of the '60's, '50's and earlier? They are outliers, surprisingly good artists in an irrelevant music era. What about Franz Liszt, Beethoven, and Mozart? Versus now, with our Adele, our Glee, and our dubstep.

Don't get me wrong, dubstep is addicting, what with all of that bass and excitement. But what's the message? Literally nothing, seeing as there are often few words. What happened to the social impact of music on society?

I feel you buddy.

Not much left to do in traditional art, either. We've already had a stage when we basically said, "Screw it, I'm throwing paint on a canvas." And that was Jackson Pollock, 60 years ago. There is something to be said for the arrival of digital art and its exciting new possibilities, but I'm skeptical as to whether it will ever be able to capture the emotions of a painting like those of Da Vinci, or Van Gogh, or Picasso.

Photography still has some fight left in it. And that's because of its relevance in current events. Whenever history happens, photographers are there. Think of the defining pictures of the decades. A naked girl running and crying in Vietnam. A man jumping out of the World Trade Center on 9/11. A couple kissing during the Vancouver riots.

What about books? I think the jury's still out on that one. On one hand, e-books. It makes logistic and spacial sense to have a Kindle or Nook with 100 books on it, rather than a crowded bookshelf that takes up space in your already-crowded living room. And now its basically painless to download/torrent a book online.

It doesn't make sense then how books are still doing well. Look at the explosion of Harry Potter books in the past decade. The Hunger Games are wildly successful and there's a movie coming out soon. And it pains me to say it, but Twilight too. Books are looking alright. Maybe it's just young adult fiction. No doubt the days of revolutionary books like The Art of War, The Tale of Two Cities, and Moby Dick are over. But for books, I remain cautiously optimistic. 

Television and film are doing better than ever. To their credit, movies are just as good they've always been. And even better because of special effects and technology in general. TV is in the same boat. My current favorite shows are Archer, The Walking Dead, and House of Lies.

Sterling Archer...I don't know what to say.

Previous favorite shows include 24, LOST, and Scrubs. Like photography, I think TV and flim have the benefit of being highly correlated with what's happening in the now. The same can be said of music, art, and books. However, TV and movies dominate our culture because nothing is as attention-grabbing to humans as visuals of our reality.

Finally, politics. In my view, politics are just as much a part of and a reflection of culture as music or cinema. I'm not going to beat around the bush. Our politics suck. Yes, there are some good people trying to do good things. And yes, I think a lot of them happen to be Democrats. But it's not just the 'Publicans who are in the wrong. Both sides seem to believe that if someone holds a different view than you, they are inherently BAD. I mean holy hell in a handmaiden's handbasket. We have some nasty politicians. No longer can intellectual and ideological disagreements exist without personal attacks. If you don't agree with me about the death penalty, you are WRONG. Morally. Now that's a scary place to live in. And remember that we, the American people, elected this bunch. As I said, they are a reflection of us.

I always feel like I need to write a powerful paragraph that sums up the ideas of the previous paragraphs and brings them together in a meaningful, unifying idea. But I don't want to. So ponder what I said, and definitely comment with your thoughts.