Are We Just Recycling Old Stories, Ideas, and Styles?

"It's a weird time for culture. There is more of it than ever before, it's more accessible than ever before, but so little of it feels original. New movies are based on old stories, new songs are recycling old hooks, and fashion trends are cycling so fast that everything's in. Has our culture grown stagnant? The author and culture critic W. David Marx thinks so."

"His new book, Blank Space, argues that there is a "blank space" in the 21st century where cultural innovation should be. In this episode, David explains to Willa how culture change worked in the 20th century, what changed after the turn of the millennium, and what we might do about it. This episode was produced by Max Freedman. Decoder Ring is also produced by Willa Paskin, Katie Shepherd, and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director."

Cultural production in the 21st century is extraordinarily abundant and accessible, yet much of it lacks perceived originality. Many films retell familiar stories, songs reuse established hooks, and fashion cycles so rapidly that novel expressions vanish into trends. A conceptual 'blank space' appears where new cultural innovation once emerged. Cultural dynamics that produced change in the 20th century have shifted since the turn of the millennium, altering incentives, distribution, and experimentation. Recognizing the mechanisms behind stagnation opens possibilities for intervention: rethinking economic models, platform incentives, intellectual property norms, and cultural institutions to recreate conditions that foster genuine innovation.

Read at Slate Magazine