2025 is to 2000 as 1996 was to Stairway to Heaven

25 years ago, Coldplay's Yellow, Eminem's Real Slim Shady, and Britney Spears's Oops, I Did It Again were released.

25 years before 1996, Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, John Denver's Take Me Home Country Roads, Bill Withers's Ain't No Sunshine were released.

The rate of cultural change has slowed significantly. It seemed like a multi-generation difference between the 70s and the 90s. I would have been 12 in 1996, and there was a distinct shift between the early 90s, the 80s, the late 70s, and the early 70s. That seems like four different eras, each with their own fashion, trends, sounds, technology, and perspectives. 1996 was surge, Nintendo 64, and Dave Matthews Band. 1971 was L.A. Woman, the crackle of vinyl, and rotary phones.

The 2000s to today? Feels like it's all the same. Clothing, hair style, music...it's all very similar over the last 25 years. Of course there are some changes and differences, but let's put it this way: Lady Gaga's Poker Face came out 17 years ago. 17 years before Britney Spears's "Oops" came out was before Madonna had released her first song. I don't feel like pop music today is that much different today than it was in 2008. It's not even that different between today and 1999. But it's certainly majorly different than the early 80s/mid 70s.

I think the reason for the odd shifts in time perspectives is the relative speeds in which culture and technology has progressed. 1971 and 1996 certainly had a difference in technological advancements but it was more so society and culture that was moving at warp speed. Between 2000 and 2025, technology advanced at an exponential rate but society and culture seemed to stabilize.

Also, old material is still alive with streaming and YouTube. In the 70s, you had to "discover" those old bands either through your community or something like the radio. Then you had to actively pursue those individual bands through purchasing CDs, hoping to catch a VH1 special or something. Now, you have every band's entire discography at the click of a button at any time. Algorithms throw it all at you at once too.

But I'm not sure that explains why. It could be a how it feels different but not really why culture has slowed down so significantly.

(Note - this isn't about music as much as it is about culture and the flattening of cultural progression and the perspective of time)