The opinions stated in this article are solely those of the author and not the Davis Journal 

The viral pandemic has crushed the entertainment world.  Concerts are almost non-existent, movie theaters are either closed or stringently limiting theater seating, and most bookstores are taking a beating.  Netflix subscriptions, new films on-demand, and online book sales cannot erase the downturn.

Yet entertainment has been changing for some 40 years when a significant number of Americans would stand around the water cooler or the high school locker and discuss “last night’s” big deal.  Today, the entertainment market is fragmented.  There is not a single book that everyone is talking about; there is no “must see” television show or film; there is no music CD or streaming song for which millions of Americans await breathlessly.

A recent Time magazine essay brought up the changing landscape, noting that CNN once devoted entire segments to the much-discussed issue of whether Ben Affleck should marry Jennifer Lopez.  This escapism is now minimized.  The essay points out it may “have been the last time wide swaths of Americans shared a communal language, chugging from the same water cooler.”

There are occasional “hits” like last year’s obsession with the “Tiger King” documentary, but even then, the majority of Americans associated the Tiger King with Frosted Flakes, not an eerie film.  This year’s most talked-about Netflix show is probably “The Queen’s Gambit,” a mesmerizing series but one to which the vast majority of Americans will respond with a yawn: “I’ve heard about it, but I’m not interested in a woman chess player’s life.”

Hollywood’s A-listers are no longer the key to a viewing success.  Back 70 years ago moviegoers would be enthralled by the opening of a new Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, or even an Elvis Presley film. Today there is not pent-up desire to see the first-night showing of a Tom Hanks or Meryl Streep movie.

The music industry is especially cut into small demographic strips.  If the average 40-year old scans the Billboard “Top 10” songs, he or she will be puzzled by nearly all of the “hot” artists, and country music’s “top star” flips as often as pancakes at a Waffle House.  Instead “niche” artists like Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbel were filling the seats at pre-COVID music venues without significant airplay on most popular radio stations.