She loves The Beatles and LFO.
The internet smeared culture all over the surface of life like wet paint.
The "generation gap" is dead and buried.
That's completely gone, now, and I just don't think we're going to see these dramatic decade-tagged cultural shifts any more.
Now in terms of movies, what you're saying is a little more true, but a lot of movies were aired on network TV, so eventually you would see a lot of the big ones. HBO was around in the 1970s as well, so there was an opportunity to see lots of movies that way as well.
xkcd's thesis seems to be premised on the idea that there are no catchy, and widely accepted, names for this decade and the previous one.
I've considered the same question and decided that music, fashion and other cultural touchstones are becoming less distinct from decade to decade than they were going back to the last century.
However, I've also considered that it may be the case that I'm simply less aware of the details of pop culture than I was 20+ years ago. I can hear a piece of music from 1965 to about 1980 that I'm not familiar with and pin it down to within a year or two just by its sound. Maybe it's possible to do that with music from the last 20 years, but I certainly can't do it.
> I can hear a piece of music from 1965 to about 1980 that I'm not familiar with and pin it down to within a year or two just by its sound. Maybe it's possible to do that with music from the last 20 years, but I certainly can't do it.
I also think some of what you're describing re musical trends is related to the above: Artists have a million outlets and tens of millions of tracks at their disposal to be influenced by, so the idea that there's a "sound of the year" as promoted by major labels and radio stations is just... gone. It's not like Justin Bieber songs are playing everywhere. He's a huge celebrity musician and I still would have to go out of my way to hear one of his songs. They just don't permeate my media sphere. Again, compared to the 90s when a hit song would be unavoidable.
Anyway: I don't think it's the sole cause. I think labelling decades was also simply a branding and marketing trend that has fallen out of vogue, maybe due in part to the simple problem of what to call the "aughties."
It's an interesting topic! I love the media environment today. God. When I was first tinkering with music in the 90s I would've killed for access to things like Spotify and SoundCloud. So amazing.
But I do agree that the internet has effectively quite reduced, if not eliminated, the "generation gap" my parents and my peers grew up with in the 60's to the 80's...
maybe for pop culture tastes (though I'm not so sure about that, access doesn't necessarily mean interest). there are huge social, political, and moral values differences between generations though.