It’s pretty much there in the title, but if you want some ideas to think about, sure:
Rock and Roll
Jazz
Anime
Motion Pictures
Pop Music
Comics
Chuck Klosterman noted that as time moves past the present, and our art forms mutate away from what we prefer today, the number of pieces (and people) which will be remembered by the common person will be reduced to one to five, unless they can survive by association with another culturally strong artifact (like a lot of '50s music still thrive every year with Christmas).
This, he remarks in But What If We Were Wrong (and this is not the 1st CS thread on this book, btw), is something that will eventually happen to rock and roll, movies, and other art forms we know in detail today, and Klosterman tries to determine who might best be remembered as the “archetype” rock and roll song… and came up with either “Don’t Stop Believing” or something by Bob Dylan.
It’s not an easy thing to look into the future so you may peer back at the past.
So… who, or what, will be remembered/known by that bored college kid in 2319 and their societies? Feel free to add to my list of art forms above, and, as usual in questions like this, there are no wrong answers.
I have a feeling our era (20th/21st centuries) is going to be mostly viewed as the dawn of a handful of art forms - film/television, computer-related stuff like video games, animation, radio and the like, at least insofar as they differ from live theater.
That’s the long-term artistic legacy of our era- stuff like painting and drawing has been around tens of thousands of years, theater, music and writing have been around for thousands as well, but film/television/video has been around since the early 20th century, and anything web-related since the late 20th century.
So likely what we’ll see is a handful of works that are representative of the ‘early days’ of those things- maybe showing their evolution? Like having an exhibit showing Pong, then Pac-Man, then Call of Duty or something like that.
Regarding music, kids [or their avatar-droid-replicants] will have to sit through historical documentaries tracking the ancient world. When they get to the second half of the 20th century, they’ll at least get colour and sound footage, but probably no more than 90 seconds with one accompanying bit of contemporary music.
Its a tough call to work out what will be filtered out as the single primary factoid that people in centuries to come will need to know about that. With some distance already I think the most significant event will be one of:
Vietnam War - lots of iconic still and moving images, probably Jimi Hendrix ‘All along the Watch Tower’.
First moon landing - Bowie ‘Space oddity’ or Armstrong’s ‘One small step’ voice-grab.
Peak oil and petrol consumption, with montage of car factories, traffic jams, gas guzzlers - Gary Numan ‘Cars’
they’ll be huge discussion about the significance of the different styles. How it came into being as an art form, and how it must have been of almost religious significance to the early 21st century humans, as it was “installed” everywhere. Why, in some areas, every home bore such artwork.
It’s similar to the question on what to put on the Voyager Golden Record that showcases the sounds (and images) of earth. If it’s good enough for aliens, it should be good enough for students 300 years from now.
There’s some Bach and Beethoven, and various non-Western music (of which I’m not qualified to comment).
We might not consider these all to be “modern”, but future generations probably would.
Frankly I was surprised to see nothing after 1958 (no Beatles, for example), but these were chosen in 1977. For example, I wish they had included “A Day in the Life” on the record.
I doubt it… graffiti has been around for thousands of years. Maybe not in lurid, full-color, spray-painted form, but definitely in the scratched/carved in form.
I kind of doubt that a lot of current-day graffiti will last 300 years- likely they’ll show contemporary photos or videos of graffiti, and maybe show something along the lines of the painted chunks of the Berlin Wall as actual physical evidence.
I kind of want to revise my statement above about video/computer/radio and the ‘early days’.
Our era (20th/21st centuries) will be seen as the early days of mass-market communication, and with that came new styles (film/TV, computer stuff), and an explosion of new styles in existing media - think jazz, blues, rock, rap, Big Band, etc… all of which achieved a lot of their popularity after the development of the phonograph and the subsequent distribution of pre-recorded music in the 20th century.
As such, I think students of that era will hear/see a few representative artists of each style- someone like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong for Jazz, BB King and Lead Belly for Blues, the Beatles and maybe Journey for Rock, Public Enemy and <someone> for Rap, etc…
In other words, I think our era will be notable more for its timing and role in the early days of mass market media than for the works of the actual musicians.
Most of the art from 300 years ago disappeared for reasons that won’t really apply to our culture 300 years from now. We’re better at archiving stuff than previous generations. Banksy and Keith Haring will last into the next millennium. So will Thomas Kincade. Digitally, anyway.
Yeah, but will anyone care? Does anyone give a damn about Antoine Watteau anymore (a painter of some repute in 1719)? Or Pieter Scheemaeckers (a sculptor of note active in 1719)? Their works are still around and we have photos of them, but I’d wager that outside of hardcore art history circles and people who google “Art from 1719”.
The 1719 people who we do remember in the arts are the composers- Handel, Bach and Vivaldi are the biggest three, and they were involved in the development/refinement of something new- the tonal system.
I’m guessing that the ones who will be notable 300 years from now are artists involved in something similar- probably filmmakers/showrunners and possibly a handful of actors as well.
Three hundred years ago is still considered modern era, but three hundred years from now we’ll be considered ancient? WTF is going to happen in the near future?
I consider the dramatic changes to occur in society which caused the people of 2319 to consider 2019 “ancient” is a topic better suited for another thread.
