Thirty years ago, in 1995, Britain had its last true pop monoculture. Everyone knew the songs. The charts still mattered. Top of the Pops was still national theatre. Since then, digital infrastructure has splintered shared experience into personalised playlists and algorithmic echo chambers. That phenomenon (seemingly just about music) signalled a much deeper shift: from public experience to private curation, from pop culture to isolated consumption.
Would love to hear thoughts from this community on the cultural costs of atomisation, and what we lost when culture stops being collective.