Browsing: mainstream

For the best experience, open https://m.thewire.in on your mobile browser. AdvertisementAdvertisement In today’s climes of rampant Islamophobia in India and across the world, the books by Sufi Studio can be read as transgressive. For Vakil, this is something that has always operated at the back of his mind.

There was a time when admitting you watched the most popular show on television or knew the words to a chart-topping pop song felt like a form of personal failing. For years, a specific brand of cultural snobbery convinced us that true taste required constantly turning up our noses at anything embraced by the masses.

This story was originally published on Social Media Today. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free dailySocial Media Today newsletter.

What defines mainstream culture in an era where everyone’s feed looks completely different? According to YouTube’s latest Culture & Trends Report, In Search of Mainstream, our cultural landscape is more fragmented than ever, but the mainstream hasn’t disappeared—its meaning has just shifted.

Remember those VH1 shows I Love the ’80s and I Love the ’90s, where talking heads would opine about defining pop culture moments like Pac-Man, General Hospital’s wedding of Luke and Laura, or the OJ Simpson car chase? There was no shortage of easily recognizable subjects to explore.