I read the other day what I had felt at the gut level: since 2004, the music industry has drastically reduced its use of chords (There is actually a study on this). The reason is every producer and most artistes are chasing trends, and are too afraid to move away from the ‘formula’ that works. This is why music itself has deteriorated. Take Hindi film music for example. Nothing against Arijit Singh, he is a great artiste, and a favourite of mine, but does he have to sing every song in every film? In its heyday, this music industry had variety. In the 2000s, we had KK, Sonu Nigam, Jagjit Singh, and even Himesh Reshammiya. Today, even a singer like Mohit Chauhan is mostly cast aside in the quest for reel engagement.
Is it good to jump on to trends
From a psychological viewpoint, there are several explanations to the persistence of ‘trends’. The simplest one is that it is ‘easy’. The recipe is there (usually presented by the marketing team). The audience likes them because it is easier to process and adopt without a lot of effort put into critical thinking. The people producing it like it because it allows ‘organisational efficiency’.
Take football, for instance. Every team is trying to play the same way. There is little uniqueness and even less excitement. If two teams have a blue jersey and we watch a game through a wide-angle camera, most people would find it impossible to identify them from the style of play.
The authenticity of doing something because it matters to one is increasingly being shed in favour of a repeatable template. I shall give you another example. At a corporate organisation, there was a push for greater inclusivity and employee well-being, picking up on the current trends. The HR department kept adding policies that were never implemented and the sales team kept hiring diverse models in ads. The leadership team consistently ignored employee concerns, making the whole exercise seem performative.
It is ironic to have an app that interrupts you being in the moment to elicit a posed selfie that represents you being in the moment Shutterstock
I can give you another example. An app called BeReaL. The app sends you a random notification at some point during the day. You have to take a selfie and a picture at that moment and send it to your group. The point of this (as I am told) is to be ‘real in the moment’. It is a trend that university students jumped on, with others following soon after. I smile at the irony of an app that interrupts you being in the moment to elicit a posed selfie that represents you being in the moment. Trends don’t always make sense, but they seem like they do.
High conformity, low community
Conformity refers to the ingrained need to fit in and act aligned with the masses. Simply put, society is designed to discourage us from doing things that stand out at the extremes. But in the increased pace of modern life, we are conforming without much thought. Conversations have become echo chambers. Words sound familiar but the meaning (if there is any) is diluted. We speak the same language, but barely understand each other.
A few weeks ago, I was at a serious meeting convened by an organisation to solve its performance problems. Several important people were attending the meeting. Everyone discussed “plans”, “synergies”, “leveraging performance” and ”focussing on controllables”. But we finished the meeting with zero actual objectives. There was no connection of substance nor any attempt to speak the truth.
People escalate matters on social media without understanding it or even having a true opinion on it Shutterstock
While understanding starts with the linguistic alignment of using the same language, it demands the association of sentiment. For example, the ‘North-South’ language divide in our country started a few decades ago with linguistic misalignment of two separate language families. But now it is an exercise in conflict due to other reasons. Several people escalate it without understanding it or even having a true opinion on it. This is proved by the plethora of reels and posts that hunt for likes and engagement every time this issue flares up.
Trends play out the same way in sport. There is now an explosion of ‘positivity principle’, where being positive is prized over all else. Being positive is important. But not at the cost of being honestly self-reflective. In sport, if a team is blindly positive, they are likely to get exposed, because they never worked on their weaknesses. Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal a few years ago, Manchester City now, and even the England men’s cricket team are examples of this. Trends are good to keep up with other teams. But we must not be fluent in trends and illiterate in intention.
Dr Sahen Gupta is a Kolkata-born, India- and UK-based psychologist who divides his time between mental health support and high-performance coaching. As the founder of Discovery Sport & Performance Lab, he works not only with Olympians and other top-level sportspersons, but also with CEOs and other professionals striving for excellence. Dr Gupta’s mission is to simplify complexities of the mind into actionable and simple ‘doables’ that allow individuals to be mentally fit.