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The Missing Piece in Conversations about “Cultural Decline”

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Critics in the 21st century embraced mass culture in a belief that it would liberate audiences — but it's directly responsible for triggering the feelings of stagnation I enjoy Spencer Kornhaber’s music journalism, so I was excited to read his Atlantic feature “Is This the Worst-Ever Era of American Pop Culture?” It's a solid introduction to the debate featuring Ted Gioia, Dean Kissick, Jaime Brooks, Kieran Press-Reynolds, and Simon Reynolds (who was arguably the first to theorize cultural stagnation in his important 2011 book Retromania). Much like Katherine Dee’s “No, Culture is Not Stuck” piece from 2024, Kornhaber attempts to find the silver lining in an era dominated by sequels, song “interpolations,” and too-big-to-fail billionaire pop-stars. As I wrote about Dee’s piece last October, I am sympathetic to these optimistic takes. I, too, want to believe that it’s not the children but me who is so out of touch. I agree with all of the analysis about culture industry trends that thwa

Critics in the 21st century embraced mass culture in a belief that it would liberate audiences — but it's directly responsible for triggering the feelings of stagnation I enjoy Spencer Kornhaber’s music journalism, so I was excited to read his Atlantic feature “Is This the Worst-Ever Era of American Pop Culture?” It's a solid introduction to the debate featuring Ted Gioia, Dean Kissick, Jaime Brooks, Kieran Press-Reynolds, and Simon Reynolds (who was arguably the first to theorize cultural stagnation in his important 2011 book Retromania). Much like Katherine Dee’s “No, Culture is Not Stuck” p

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