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The Economist digs deep into ongoing changes in the global pop culture landscape, which I've been watching for years. It describes how pop culture consumption is no longer restricted by geographical boundaries. As local economies grow, cultural industries are better able to support artists, while the rise of digital platforms like Netflix or Spotify helps audiences access cultural products from virtually anywhere.
Something the article doesn't mention, and which I think is equally important, is the role of diasporic communities in promoting trends originating in non-western countries—I really saw this play out with the rise of Afrobeats outside of the African continent, which correlates with a wave of first-generation (or second-generation, depending how you count) kids coming of age in the countries where their parents immigrated.
I grew up in France surrounded by American culture, as there was little else to consume. It was very much a top-down thing, with executives sitting in offices in Paris dictating whatever was shown on television or played on the radio. I was lucky enough to travel abroad at a young age, and therefore was exposed to different cultural products early on. As a result, I became critical of our dependency on a single source of culture when so many good TV shows, films and music were being produced elsewhere.
Throughout the 2010s I curated over 20 playlists based on the idea that music consumption should be dictated by taste rather than geography. I saw my role as an intermediary between foreign music and western audiences. I wanted to change people's idea of 'world music' (a label that has done tremendous damage to music artists worldwide) and have them realize they can connect with music and music artists everywhere.
I stopped a couple of years ago upon realizing that this role was no longer needed—people now have direct access to global culture, as is reflected by the declining share of American and European content consumption on digital platforms. Mega pop stars like Burna Boy, Bad Bunny and Anitta can now become massively successful in North America without having to formally "cross over" or bend their work to cater to western ears.
What I'm noticing now is that platforms and algorithms haven't quite caught up to this reality yet. Spotify's music recommendations are still based on a narrow idea of what "similar" artists I may be interested in, which most of the time is based on geography.
TikTok's algorithm seems to be based mostly on geographic location too, which is a bit more surprising. While the most viral videos on the app seem to be coming from everywhere in the world, the algorithm seems intent on pushing content mostly based on my location (I've been using a VPN to cheat it but it's not helping much.)
Clearly, the engineers who are responsible for building those algorithms, and the executives above them, still don't understand that taste transcends borders. Even Netflix didn't expect the French series "Call My Agent" to be successful on a global scale. The industry now seems to be banking on spinoffs, revivals and adaptations over producing original ideas.
I suspect this has to do with how platforms think of 'segmentation'—how they divide target audiences among groups with similar characteristics so that they can promote products using group-specific tactics. Historically, marketers have segmented consumer groups along rigid demographic traits such as age, gender and location. More recently, additional methods like psychographics (studying consumers based on psychological traits like behaviours, values and lifestyle) have helped build a more nuanced understanding of how consumers relate to brands and products. But clearly, we're still years away from seeing digital platforms come up with recommendation systems that truly reflect those nuances.
In order to succeed on the long term, global media companies need to let go of their assumptions about what they think of as cultural barriers, what needs to be 'adapted' to local markets, and what qualifies as good content. Just like French kids watching American TV in the 90s, today's consumers may be craving for something completely different than what platforms have in mind.
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