Let's start with this article that examines the logos of tech companies and luxury brands and points out that they are evolving to a certain dull minimalist text form. Then there's this article that points out how cars have evolved to a central ur-design in the same manner. David Perell, a writer I follow, takes the analysis a step further in twitter and summarized here. You can see this in cities too; whether it's Ann Arbor or Savannah or presumably pretty much anywhere in the world: there is a core historic area -- the campus and downtown in Ann Arbor, the historic district in Savannah -- but any area developed after, say, 1980, with be strip malls with franchised stores, office parks, or planned housing developments. From what I read, that is the case all over the developed world.
Most people decry this. Many come to the conclusion that it's a natural result from various homogenizing trends. For instance, everyone wants their logo easily readable on a phone screen now, so that leads to variations on simple, sans serif text. For autos, safety regulations have placed a high cost on creative shapes and contours. In cities, the same forces that influence Ann Arbor or Savannah also influence Turin or Kobe so it makes sense they would converge.
As far as fashion and hairstyles and pop culture and even manners and decor, well it's all shared now right? There is no opportunity for a pocket of non-conformity to evolve to stand in conflict with the majority because the minute it starts, it's everywhere all at once. Subcultures are exposed instantaneously, evaluated and judged in the crucible of social media, and either move mainstream or die before they become major enough to offer an optional vision.
Food and music are doing a bit better. There are still major devotees to pure genre in those categories, although both have legitimized fusion in just about every form. China Poblano in Vegas is an example. The Grateful Crow, just down the road from me, specializes in Sushi and Burgers (but not sushi-burgers). Or check out Ted Gioia's list of best albums of 2020. The one line description of almost all of them indicates some sort of style fusion.
A cynic would say that this is all happening because it benefits our corporate overlords (it probably does). A universalist might suggest that it's because, on average, people are the same all over and value the same things (likely true also, see The Median Voter Theorem). An old fogey would say these kids have no imagination; they're too conformist. As a certified Old Fogey I have a certain sympathy for this, but it's not really as cranky an opinion as it sounds. I have highlighted before how the decade by decade changes in culture pretty much stopped in the 90s. It's been said (correctly) that apart from the absence of cell phones, you could walk around in the 90s and not realize you'd slipped back 30 years. Combine that with the trend towards valuing your group identity as the primary source of self-definition, and you end up with a formula for conformity -- where creativity is costly and even risky.
I don't like it, but then, the world is not here for me to like. My guess is that the monoculture is here to stay and creativity, especially aesthetic creativity, will be the exception rather than the rule for many years to come.
Addendum: a lovely related rant on ugliness.
