Ok, the proverbial radio star, this time around. When the once iconic MTV first launch, the first video the network aired was the Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star.

And it did. That was then and this is now, and as we often warn, no one stays on top forever. Now we’re witnessing the demise of cable in favor of streaming services et al, and where is this leading?

“There was a time, not long ago, when Americans — regardless of region, class, or politics — shared a common cultural foundation,” said The American Spectator in this must-read: Gen Z Isn’t Just Online — They’re Living in Parallel Realities. “From the Saturday morning cartoons children watched to the nightly news programs adults relied on, mainstream culture was both a mirror and a glue: it reflected our values while keeping us tethered to the same national experience. That era is over.

“We have entered the Age of Alternative Culture…defined by fragmentation, algorithmic echo chambers, and cultural isolation masquerading as global connection,” and true that! “…The culprit is not a single villain but a confluence of forces, chief among them the rise of the Internet and the omnipresence of algorithmically curated content. Social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram don’t just reflect our preferences; they shape them… Every scroll reinforces what the algorithm thinks you want, narrowing your worldview under the guise of preference.”

Enter the echo chamber and how did we get here, or what we might call on the precipice of being ‘culturally bankrupt?’ Same way a billionaire goes broke: a few dollars at a time, then all at once.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

So said the poet Robert Frost and is it that we’re in the midst of another cultural shift similar to the one heralded in by the so-called MTV generation?  According to the Wall Street Journal, “YouTube became the most-watched video provider on televisions in the U.S. earlier this year, and its lead has only grown, according to Nielsen data. People now watch YouTube on TV sets more than on their phones or any other device—an average of more than one billion hours each day. That is more viewing than Disney gets from its broadcast network, dozen-plus cable channels and three streaming services combined (How YouTube Won the Battle for TV Viewers).”

“Increasingly, (younger views) are…watching the type of shows that used to be found exclusively on broadcast or cable channels: sketch comedy, documentaries, animation and talk shows. The latter is disappearing from traditional networks, as evidenced by CBS’s decision to cancel its Stephen Colbert late-night show.”

In other words, tech has changed things, and while the YouTube algorithm is still alive and well – by the company’s own admission – “A coming YouTube feature, called “shows,” can automatically queue the next episode on a channel, rather than serving whatever the recommendation algorithm thinks you’ll like best from billions of options. That will let YouTube viewers watch full “seasons” for the first time and pick up where they left off, as they are used to doing on Netflix.”

The more things change…

“I’m amazed and enormously pleased that creators — who just a few years, ago had never made a video — are on tiny budgets producing content more interesting and more visually stunning than many BBC productions,” said one reader in the comments and not mentioned in the article and which may well account for the rise in YouTube’s popularity: authenticity, a factor to which attention must especially be paid in this age of where GenerativeAIs are perceived as being a panacea. We have no doubt that generativeAIs are being used as tools by a number of these creators, but they’re also hiring humans – hundreds of them. One YouTube show, “Good Mythical Morning” which is akin to an “old-fashioned network talk show,” according to the Journal, “started nearly 20 years ago with the two friends working alone in North Carolina (and) has grown into a channel with 19.3 million subscribers. While L.A. is bleeding jobs in traditional film and TV production, (the founders now) employ some 100 people in a complex just outside the city that houses stages, a writers’ room, a prop-making office and interns.”

Note to self, founders, and as the Journal pointed out, “as prices rose for Netflix and Disney+, YouTube has remained free. In the process, it became a media juggernaut. MoffettNathanson analysts estimate YouTube’s revenue last year was $54.2 billion, which would make it No. 2 among entertainment companies, behind only Disney.”

So, did video kill the radio star, or did the landscape simply shift as it did again with the advent of such outlets as Spotify, Apple Music, SiriusXM, YouTube Music et al. For classical music lovers, there’s even Idagio. Gotta love online: something for everyone.

As to GenZ living in parallel realities, “where do we go from here?” the Spectator asked. “Perhaps the answer lies in rediscovering real-world communities, intergenerational dialogue, civic engagement, and shared traditions…to build a new common culture…Because if we don’t, we risk becoming a nation of strangers, living side by side but speaking in tongues, each convinced the other is living in a different world.”

Given traditional Hollywood’s growing embrace of AI and online creators’ gravitating to authenticity, it may not be game over yet and at this juncture, perhaps the question we should be asking is, is streaming killing the Hollywood star? GenZ got shafted on many levels and once this rebel generation finds its footing, stand back. The landscape is definitely shifting and absolutely worth watching. Will we find a common ground? Only time will tell, and a few things are for certain: as the Buggles sang, “we can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far;” as they say in Hollywood, that’s entertainment and as we always say, onward and forward.