We used to have music subcultures all over the place, growing up "underground," getting "discovered." I haven't seen much of that in the last 20 years. It's like there is no underground now, nowhere for weird and cool ideas to grow up before they're shown to the world.
Each decade in the 20th century had a distinct "sound." For the last 20ish years, we've basically been listening to the same music, just mixed and matched a little. Our biggest change is the prominence of ambient "background music," which isn't as fun as, say, the rise of gangster rap or grunge to me.
It feels like books aren't changing that much lately either, except I guess how morality is now the most important part of many of them. A friend told me that "morality" is the new "cool." Maybe she's right.