How Did Culture Change American Culture

Bag of popcorn? Check! The Mindy Project (my favorite TV show at the moment) streaming on Hulu? Check! Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook all being intermittently checked on my phone? Check! I’m ready for a few hours of what I like to call “downtime.” This notion has without a doubt changed many times throughout American history and culture. It’s even changed in my lifetime with new technologies (I used to spend all my free time in grade school reading mystery novels). Cultures and people are constantly changing with what they want from their media. They want it to be new, yet not too new in fear it won’t catch on. They want it to be high tech, but not impossible to figure it out. They want to be able to show it off, but don’t want to
I, personally, hate going to the movies. The prices are always more expensive every time I go. When I was in middle school I could go for around 8$, and now it’s more in the 15-20 dollar range. All to sit in a theater for 2ish hours and stare silently at a screen, something I could easily (and would prefer to) do at home. The only time I have gone to movies in the past few years are with family and friends, as a group activity. The cultural idea of seeing a movie is so culturally ingrained that people actually will spend 20$ on a movie ticket . Movie theaters are probably one of the few remaining “push” innovations, along with magazines and newspapers. You have to show up at a certain time, to a certain selection of movies, and pay by the movie. Movies are highly advertised (although I am told that LA had way more movie advertising than other US cities, which I had never really noticed since I’ve lived here my whole life) and an extremely money-based business. The movies produced by big names and companies are so different from independently made movies, especially in artisitc value. The movie industry is so highly commercialized that maybe we balance it out by seeing the films in something as old-fashioned as a theater. Seeing the movie in a theater also allows you to be one of the first to watch it (except for
While still allowing people to search for certain artists, Spotify makes playlists that you can listen to to find new music. Also, users that sign up for the premium feature can make and share their own playlists. This also shifts advertising and financing. The radio relies on commercials and is therefore completely overrun with them. iTunes changed that by allowing people to buy the music directly. The problem that Spotify solved was that you didn’t have to buy an album just to hear it. Music can be unpredictable, and people are hesitant to spend money on something they haven’t ever heard before. Spotify charges a small monthly fee to get rid of “ads” (they are self promotion of Spotify premium) and to be able to “save” music to app, so you don’t need wifi or data to play it later on, comparable to an iTunes