Mainstream music ain’t what it used to be. Here’s why.
[This was my weekly column for GlobalNews.ca. – AC]
Norma Desmond hit on something in the 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard. A silent film stars whose career had been decimated by talking pictures, she refused to change with the times. “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small,” she said.
Fast-forward to today and that quote could be applied to the concept of mainstream music. We still have stars, but the mainstream got small.
Let’s start by defining “mainstream.” These are the ideas, trends, attitudes and activities considered normal, known far and wide, and something in which virtually everyone partakes on some level. Put another way, if the average person knows about something in society, culture or politics, it is part of the mainstream and binds everyone together with common knowledge and attitudes.
Before 2000, mainstream attitude dominated everything. Everyone got their news and culture from television, newspapers, the radio and magazines. We all went to the same movies, watched the same must-see network TV shows, talked about the latest series on the big cable channels and read the same books. When it came to music, we had our preferences, but because there was so much less music out there than there is today, we were able to have at least some awareness of most of the music out there at any given time, even songs and artists we didn’t like.
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