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Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

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Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#21
post #14

They briefly mention literature and I think that provides a good counterexample. Books are highly individual, and always have been long before streaming existing. Yet, there still manage to be runaway hits that everyone reads and talks about. The same could be true of streaming shows. Stranger Things managed it in the streaming era.

While it's a good idea, at least for now I think the technological differences disrupt the parallels. For books, the only capital/tech barrier to entry is the singular entity of the book itself. The object of the book carries a complete copy of all the requisite information and a human interface for it with no further infrastructure requirements at all. It can additionally be read, than shared, sold, etc., with a life time of decades or more.

But at least for now, streaming shows are inherently silo'd. You must have a subscription at some particular service, and there aren't any real "meta-service" bundles either which makes it fragmented even compared to something like cable. They're ephemeral, harder to trade around, etc. It's a significant amount of friction vs a book isn't it? If there is buzz and word of mouth about a book, anybody can simply go and get a copy for the one-time outlay of that copy, or borrow one from a friend/family, or for that matter go to the library (we have an entire public service dedicated to free availability!). But if someone tells me about a great show they watched on a service I don't subscribe too, well, it's probably not going to be enough to get me to sign on. I'm feeling pretty sub'd out. Maybe I'll go check a torrent site or something, but maybe not. I can't just tune in on that channel and check it out, or duck into a book store and read the first chapter then grab it or not.

Books (and other low capex media in other countries for that matter) do show that huge culture-wide hits can emerge organically from enormous diversity and niche. But I wonder if the higher the technological barrier to entry the harder that is. It might be hard for it to happen without more cooperation between services, meta-services, a reemergence of some utterly dominating service/monopoly, or a legal imperative for interoperability or cross licensing after a delay.

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#22

I hope it does not. Imagine how isolating it might feel to be the one person who does not like watching Game of Thrones.

Imagine how alienating it must be to have no common cultural touchstones to share with other people. We're already there when it comes to music. We have a lot of virtuoso musicianship today. You want top-tier jazz? You can find it. Bossa Nova? Yep. Orchestral arrangements? Those too. Blues and old-school rock? Still being made. But we no longer have music as a common cultural touchstone: everything's been atomized to…

People no longer use music to connect to each other. It's more about individual hedonic enjoyment.

The metal subculture is alive and well and just as much a community as it was 20 years ago. Or maybe that’s just here in Wales where we don’t believe in progress for its own sake. That’s for London folk.

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced that we need huge proprietary time-wasters to have conversations with each other. There are circumstances in life when long TV shows may be fun and entertaining, but watching them shouldn't be expected. With my family, and random people met in places, I talk about real life that we have in common or wider societal trends. This can be instructive (about what people think) even if very light. I rememb…

Common cultural touch stones are more thigs like the St James Bible" the Classics etc. In the Uk it might be Last night of the Proms, Dr Who , Queens Speech, Test Cricket on the Radio, world service weather reports etc

You don't need 'common cultural touch stones' when you have shared real life experiences.

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how alienating it must be to have no common cultural touchstones to share with other people. We're already there when it comes to music. We have a lot of virtuoso musicianship today. You want top-tier jazz? You can find it. Bossa Nova? Yep. Orchestral arrangements? Those too. Blues and old-school rock? Still being made. But we no longer have music as a common cultural touchstone: everything's been atomized to…

People no longer use music to connect to each other. It's more about individual hedonic enjoyment. The metal subculture is alive and well and just as much a community as it was 20 years ago. Or maybe that’s just here in Wales where we don’t believe in progress for its own sake. That’s for London folk.

That's a community built for the purpose of appreciating that specific kind of music. That's fine, but I'm talking about being able to talk about music with random people I've met for non-music purposes. It's no longer possible to do so.

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Common cultural touch stones are more thigs like the St James Bible" the Classics etc. In the Uk it might be Last night of the Proms, Dr Who , Queens Speech, Test Cricket on the Radio, world service weather reports etc

You don't need 'common cultural touch stones' when you have shared real life experiences.

When you take away all other shared experience, what remains is politics, the nuts and bolts of running a society. We've seen a surge in political extremism lately; one thing that drives political extremism in general is the inability to share non-political experiences with one's political opponents.

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#29

This is about 15 years too late. We haven't been monocultural for a long time... hence the frequent grasp to reboot things for when we were more monocultural.

Yeah, it was even on the wane as early as the 70s. Not sure why this article acts like it’s a new thing. “Monoculture” has been dead and buried for a long time, and that’s not a bad thing. The solution to unity isn’t “a return to monoculture”—it’s determining the right composition and interfacing between pluralities.

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#30

I hope it does not. Imagine how isolating it might feel to be the one person who does not like watching Game of Thrones.

Imagine how alienating it must be to have no common cultural touchstones to share with other people. We're already there when it comes to music. We have a lot of virtuoso musicianship today. You want top-tier jazz? You can find it. Bossa Nova? Yep. Orchestral arrangements? Those too. Blues and old-school rock? Still being made. But we no longer have music as a common cultural touchstone: everything's been atomized to…

People who put time into things recognize others who do the same. Music curation democratization through spotify etc. just means that you can get good results without putting in the time digging.

If you want to connect with others based on your own curations, you need to show of your process, show that you put time into things.

A comparable complexity of digging and recording your own tapes back in the day would translate to running your own music channel or site, and connecting directly with underground artists on sites like Soundcloud or Bandcamp. If you want to do this you have to put in your time, like back in the day. Democratization through digitalization just shifts things to a different level.

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