Homogeneity

Recently on my Facebook page I've done a couple of things with Youtube videos.  First, I did the #1 song from the week of my birth.  Then, I did commercials from each year of my life.  It was sort of weird to see the videos of the years before I could actually remember, then it turned to nostalgia for those I could recall.  But as the years advanced, I noticed one thing for both types of videos.  I won't say the older videos were better, even though I think they were, because that would be a judgement call.  I will say that there was far less diversity of videos.

I was born in 1966.  The video variety seems fine up until about the mid to late eighties, then there was a slight decline in variety.  Post 1995, there was a slope of decline so steep an Olympic skier would have found difficult to make it down.  It isn't just the ads & music that started going conformist either, check out the social movements & political agendas.  It seems that everyday brings more & more of a push for conformity in every aspect of our lives.  From what you believe in spiritually, to what music you listen & how you feel about social issues.  

Conglomerate America is largely to blame.  There used to be 100's, if not 1,00'0's, of independent radio stations.  Try finding them today.  If you have more than one locally owned & operated station of any kind, you're doing good.  The same for TV stations.  Your local news may come from your city, but there's a large possibility the people writing the stories & pulling there strings are part of a much large media empire.

This amassing of things applies to all aspects of media & most of corporate America.  Play follow the money sometimes & you'll be surprised.  Disney owns things you'd never think of, like Marvel Comics.  Then there is AOL-Time-Warner who owns DC comics.  I used to work for a software company that was affiliated loosely with Barnes & Noble.  This was in the 90's so forgive my memory if I screw up some names.  The company owned Babbages, NeoStar,  B.Daltons & some other mall stores.  All these things could be followed up the ladder to Viacom.

Over time many of the mall stores failed & folded.  That was alright for two reasons.

1. They were awful stores.
2. They were nothing more than tax write-offs for the conglomerate.

Some of the things still exist Barnes & Noble, Scribners & Babbage's evolved into GameStop.  

Each time a large business entity buys out another business it does so to bring the new entry into the fold of it's own system of conformity.  This provides them with less competition & a more streamlined approach to mediocre business practices.

People have to start realizing that homogeneity isn't the same is being perfect.  Diversity provides for options, differences of opinions & resilience. Homogeneity allows for stability & cohesion.  True, too much diversity can lead to a very chaotic situation.  But, too much homogeneity leads to stagnation.  It's like getting a satellite TV subscription & having 700+ channels.  It's like OMG where the hell do I start?  What do I watch?   In other words too much diversity.  So you make lists.  You bring some order to the plethora of channels by making lists for yourself.  List for movies, sports & often watched shows.  You edit the list to include what you want & exclude what you don't.

The key point there was that you got to edit your own list.  What if the list had already been edited?  What if out those 700+ stations only 30 different companies owned 99% of them?  What if after examination you really had only 20 stations worth of shows because these companies had mainstreamed & optimized their channels to appeal directly to lowest common denominator of the largest demographic group?  Then what?  What if you think you have 20+ radio stations on the air in you local area only to find that there all owned by three companies sharing the same playlists?

Variety hasn't left the building.  The company hogs have just made it difficult to find.  Open your eyes & look around its still there. Go to Youtube & you'll find some amazing talents.  Support the Indies no what whether they're game programmers, authors, musicians, filmmakers, software engineers, fashion designers or whatever else you can find.  It's your $ make sure you get what you want for it.  Do you want the same old, same old crap that everyone else is buying?  Or do you want  to wait & use your $ to support an artist you really like.  

If you like what's out there & you're happy as is, do nothing.   If you aren't, start looking for things that will make you happy.  Things that you will actually enjoy.  Remember, you're the consumer & you don't have to buy anything at all if you don't want to. You really do hold the power in this matter.