US Culture Stagnates, New Report Warns
WASHINGTON (WHN) – A sweeping new report released Tuesday by the Institute for Cultural Analytics (ICA) warns that American culture has entered a period of significant stagnation, marked by declining originality in music, film, and other creative fields over the past four decades.
The findings are stark. The “Cultural Vitality Index,” a 300-page analysis, points to a measurable decrease in the introduction of new artistic forms and a corresponding increase in the recycling of existing intellectual property, a trend the authors label “cultural retrenchment.”
In the music industry, researchers analyzed Billboard Hot 100 chart data from 1980 to the present. The report found a 42% decrease in the diversity of chord progressions and a 31% decline in the variety of instrumentation used in top-charting songs. The ICA’s analysis suggests a move toward “sonic homogeneity,” which the report attributes partly to algorithmic playlisting on streaming services.
“We are seeing a significant narrowing of the creative aperture,” stated Dr. Aris Thorne, the report’s lead author, in a briefing. “The data points not to a lack of talent, but to systemic economic and technological pressures that favor repetition over risk.”
The U.S. film industry shows a similar pattern. By 2023, sequels, remakes, and franchise films accounted for 81% of the top 50 box office grossing films domestically. This is a dramatic increase from 1990, when original screenplays represented 64% of the top 50 earners, according to data cited in the report from industry tracker CinemaMetrics.
Hollywood is not alone. The report also examined the publishing world. The number of debut novelists signed by the five largest U.S. publishing houses has decreased by 27% since 2010, per statistics from the Publishers Association of America referenced in the ICA document. Established authors now command a larger share of new book releases than at any point in the last 30 years.
Even language itself is evolving more slowly. The ICA, in partnership with lexicographers, analyzed a massive corpus of digitized books and media. The rate of new word adoption into common American English has slowed by 15% compared to the 1950-1980 period, the report claims.
The Institute for Cultural Analytics does not assign a single cause. Instead, its report identifies a “constellation of factors.” These include media market consolidation, the financialization of creative industries demanding predictable returns, and the influence of social media trends on artistic production.
Dr. Thorne called the trend “a feedback loop where past success becomes the primary template for future creation.”
The ICA is a non-partisan research organization based in Washington. The “Cultural Vitality Index” is its first major public report and was funded by a coalition of academic and philanthropic grants. The institute stated it plans to release a follow-up study focusing on regional cultural output in the next fiscal year.
