By: Maddy Scavnicky
Everyone consumes media of some sort. Some more often than others, but just about all eight billion of us on this planet consume multiple forms of media during our lifetimes. This is a newer phenomenon due to the growing global accessibility of books, music, televisions, cell phones, advertisements, etc., there has been in the 21st century. So how does this ever-expanding access to entertainment impact the industries that produce it… and vice versa?
For one, social media access has risen amongst every age group since its advent in the late 90s-early 2000s. A plethora of different platforms that are used across the world has allowed everyone from pre-teens to grandparents to connect from thousands of miles away. The use of social media for the spread of music and entertainment has been gaining more and more noticeability by the general public due to TikTok, which is a main form of how people find new music to listen to and movies to watch. This is because it is so easy for a sound or movie clip to go viral (and get accessed by all 160+ countries and 1 billion users that TikTok is available to) that it is all anyone talks about until the next one. Whether this is a positive or negative thing – everyone has their own opinions – it is undeniable that this rapid change has had an impact on how these industries produce and market their media. Pop culture has shifted from containing the general, long-term popularity of certain media, to everybody with a social media platform consuming new popular content that dies out a week later becoming the new norm.
Let me finally get to the general question I have been hinting at. Exactly how has globalization affected the media and what’s popular? Some examples that I can think of quickly are the extreme popularity of East Asian media such as Anime, K-pop and K-dramas, and Chinese video games and beauty trends. Along with this, we have seen the rise of other global trends such as Afrobeat and Latin music, American streetwear, and more, in every corner of the Internet. If you think about it, have you ever seen such a variety of nationalities and age groups come together due to a shared interest without the influence of social media? How would someone who is not a part of or has never been to the certain culture/country that invented their interest have even discovered one of the things I mentioned without social media? And if the answer to that is through the radio, seeing something advertised in person/on Netflix (if you want to consider Netflix a non-social media platform), or hearing about it from someone else, these are all not without the influence of social media.
If you are still struggling to see the impact of social media’s globalization of entertainment and pop culture, take a look at TikTok’s effect on record labels, a concept that has existed since Columbia Record’s founding 135 years ago. It should surprise you that an app released just 7 years ago has changed the way record labels operate on almost every level, especially with music marketing and production. This alone signifies a change in the entertainment industry as a result of social media. Or consider how Parasite (2019) was the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars in the year of 2020.
I could continue to go on and on about how record labels have been impacted by TikTok, how international music genres, film, and television have spread around the world, and how fashion and beauty trends have become so ingrained into people’s lifestyles that they do not even realize they come from a different culture, but I think you understand my point. Continue to indulge and expand your knowledge of international entertainment, media, and art, because doing so is essential to the future of how the world interacts with each other and is changing by the minute.