Today’s prompt is brought to you by the Oxford English Dictionary, and the word lamestream. Lamestream means ‘having mainstream appeal or popularity in a way that is characterized as blandly conventional, uninteresting, or uncool.’

The concept is derogatory, and arrogant, because these things are subjective. Do I personally care for much of modern pop music? No. Do I find it to be samey and bland? Yep. Am I the arbitrator of what could and should be considered samey and bland? No. Whilst this may seem like the case to me, there will be plenty of people who thoroughly enjoy modern pop (indeed, how else would it have mainstream appeal?), and the producers of it will hardly care if some people think their work is repetitive.

That said, do I personally wish there was more variety within certain fields? Yes. Whilst I enjoy superhero movies, I can’t help but believe the studios have played it pretty safe with them of late. Aforementioned pop music could do with more risks. The likes of the Call of Duty games have long-stuck to a certain formula, as have football games, and whilst there are only so many ways to reinvent them, I feel they could do with a fresh energy. Updated graphics are one thing, but these games are all the same.

Within all of this comes another problem. It could be said that everything has been done before. How much room is there to make a movie that’s truly imaginative? What’s the next big idea to spice things up? It’s very easy to be an armchair critic, snobbish about it all, but what does that actually achieve? A tremendous degree of effort – a lot more than most people can appreciate – goes into making music, films, TV shows, games, and books. Maybe the snobbery could be do being absent.