It used to be music was something people had in common. Everyone listened to the Beatles, or Led Zeppelin in the 70s, there just weren’t many alternatives. Then came: Punk, New Wave, Prog, Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Industrial, etc., and now it’s so segmented.
The world is bigger and smaller at the same time.
I remember as a kid in the 60’s I knew “every” car on the American road. There are just too many now.
Everything is segmented, yet homogenized at the same time. Television brought the country together to the point that you can be plunked down in the middle of downtown anywhere and it all looks the same. Drive 20 miles on surface streets in Orange county CA and it’s like you are on a treadmill: you seem to keep passing the same businesses every few blocks.
But choice has also caused us to segment like crazy. Some watch TV, some sports, some play Wii, some xBox, some none. And it used to be some liked Chinese. Now, some like Thai, some Mandarin, some Schezuan, etc...
Too much to say. I could turn this cultural review into a book....
“It used to be music was something people had in common. Everyone listened to the Beatles, or Led Zeppelin in the 70s”
Not everyone.
While not everyone (even of the same side of the "generation gap") liked the same artists, there USED to be stations that played ALL of the contemporary hits of the day (and programs like Ed Sullivan's that booked the contemporary hit artists of the day, regardless of Ed's support for their music).
There is no more "something for everyone".
But radio already started to fragment sharply at the introduction of rock and roll into the music charts. There is the famous clip of the DJ smashing a stack of 78s making a pledge to never again play rock music on his station. He claims in the clip that the top charts used to be a good indicator of music but "no more". There have been several such schisms.
Even "classic rock" (the album oriented rock AOR format) stations of old "broke" with adding any more artists (and eventually even adding new recordings by the canon artists) when MTV ushered in a lot of new wave, new romantic, etc. bands into the charts. I recall one such station playing the Go Go's on their station (Our Lipped Are Sealed?) on a smash or trash segment and asking if listeners thought they wanted things like this added to the rotation.