> memes are the only culture we're producing right now
We live in an age where you can access any genre of music, any artwork, any TV shows and any movies from any culture on planet Earth with the click of button. We live in an age where people with obscure artistic talents can find online communities and actually make a living. People who are hobbyists can create high quality podcasts and youtube videos and have a global audience of millions, without any need for a middle man.
If you truly believe that memes are the only form of culture being produced right now, you live under a rock.
You can access it as a consumer, but you cannot use it in the continuation of culture. I have lost count of the number of times I have watched entertainers on YouTube briefly panic when themselves or a guest starts singing (badly) a few bars of a song or humming a culturally-important melody. The fear is usually based on past experience with YouTube's ContentID system detecting the "song" and sending all revenue from that video to someone else.
People can create wonderful content on youtube, but they shouldn't have to live in fear of losing all profit and even their entire channel over 5 seconds of bad folk singing.
The media produced there comes of the same forms/motivations telling the same stories again and again.
1) Profit-driven
2) Gov't-funded (state welfare art to reinforce state propaganda tropes)
3) Promotion of a social cause everyone already knows about or already half-heartedly believes in
Everything produced of the above 3 forms will be forgotten within 20-50 years and adds nothing to the discussion and advancement of art, culture, or philosophy.
We live in an age where you can access any genre of music, any artwork, any TV shows and any movies from any culture on planet Earth with the click of button. We live in an age where people with obscure artistic talents can find online communities and actually make a living. People who are hobbyists can create high quality podcasts and youtube videos and have a global audience of millions, without any need for a middle man.
If you truly believe that memes are the only form of culture being produced right now, you live under a rock.