The rise of the pop oligarchy
experimentalhistory.substack.com
Until the year 2000, about 25% of top-grossing films were “prequels, sequels, spin-offs, remakes, reboots or cinematic universe expansions”, says Adam Mastroianni. Since 2010, it’s been more than 50% every year. In recent years, it’s been close to 100%. The top20 films captured about 40% of all revenue since the 1980s; from 2015 they have been “gobbling up” even more.
Various explanations for this have been advanced, but all miss that this isn’t just happening in film. In “every corner of pop culture” – TV, music, books, video games – a “smaller and smaller cartel of superstars is claiming a larger and larger share of the market”. Since about 2000, about a third of the 30 most-viewed TV shows in the US are either spin-offs or multiple broadcasts of the same show. Music too has become an oligopoly, with fewer and fewer artists making the top 100 chart. Even in publishing, the bestseller lists are dominated by authors who have previously been bestsellers or who are already famous.
Do some digging
What explains this? The answer on the supply-side comes down to invasion, consolidation and innovation. Invasion: the digital revolution has made it easier than ever to create and publish content, forcing the media giants to focus on big spectaculars that the amateurs can’t manage. Consolidation: “big things like to eat small things” and over time become bigger and bigger. Film studios, music labels, TV stations and publishers have all consolidated. Innovation: the producers of cultural forms have become very adept at what they have to do to capture eyeballs. Nobody thinks
The Da Vinci Code is high literature, but it’s a page-turner that’s hard to put down, and lots of people picked it up. Film producers know that we fall in love with fictional worlds and want to spend more time there.
But that raises another question: why do we consumers put up with it? The answer here is proliferation. As the amount of stuff competing for our attention expands, we rely on familiar cues that point us to the things we’ll probably like.
Humanity uploads 500 hours of video to YouTube every minute. “So uh, yeah, the Tom Hanks movie sounds good.”
This more limited diet is not good for our souls, but fortunately more nutritious fare is available. Lots of decent stuff is produced every year – you just have to put some time into “foraging and digging”, and be able to choose what you give your attention to. This is vital. “Humankind does not live on bread alone, nor can our spirits long survive on a diet of reruns.”