If you had told someone in 1995 that in thirty years, people would be arguing about the moral alignment of a "sad purple space dad" (Thanos), analyzing the economic policies of a fictional continent (Westeros), or learning to make "pasta salad" from a TikTok audio clip—they would have laughed.
Today, it is entirely normal for a literature professor to analyze the narrative structure of Succession with the same seriousness as King Lear . It is acceptable to argue that the cinematography in Top Gun: Maverick is as innovative as anything in a French art house film. Conversely, the most elitist forms of media have adopted pop tactics. The Louvre Museum went viral on TikTok. The Metropolitan Opera streams "Live in HD" to multiplexes.