Bebe
Full Member
I'll give two thoughts on the "why?" question.Maybe, maybe not. But the main thing here is, with all the music available to us, it's still being absolutely dominated by a small collection of artists to a degree that it hasn't done before. And again, we're just talking about music here, but this is across all of pop culture. Which leads to the question: why?
Not sure I got a good answer, really.
The first is that I think human psychology is at least somewhat predictable, especially if we're talking about large groups or mass markets. I think the entertainment industry has become better at predicting what will appeal to mass audiences, and thus been able to streamline their offering. Like a macro version of a car manufacturer that sells 40 models realizing that they only need to sell 8. The process of what becomes popular is less organic/emergent today than it was previously, because our ability to predict what humans will find appealing has increased.
The second is that this sort of consolidation seems to happen with almost everything in nature. I don't have much more explanation for this thought. When I read the OP, I was immediately reminded of small rock clusters in space eventually combining into planets. I'm not sure whether this is relevant or whether I smoke too much weed.