Speaking of SNL, actor Bowen Yang is a friend of my son-in-law, who also is in comedy, and in fact, attended my D’s wedding. Bowen majored in Chemistry at NYU. But after he graduated, he got involved in comedy in NYC. Not all who make it in the arts majored in it in college. Some did it as an extracurricular, or got involved in it after they graduated.
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My sibling would agree with you too. Any music post-Beatles sucks. 
No problem if you didn’t like Hamilton. But following up on your earlier post about there not being originality and creativity in contemporary arts, did you not find the work original or creative at all (even if you didn’t like the piece itself)?
Speaking for myself, I find Lin-Manuel Miranda to be extremely creative and innovative, and bordering on being a genius (he did win a MacArthur Fellowship). I think his success speaks for itself, including many top awards and a Pulitzer Prize. He has mentored and befriended my kid and I am grateful for that.
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I think LMM is a genius too. There will always be some who don’t like his work but it speaks much more to me (middle aged person with no musical ear) than almost any musical. I don’t like a lot of Broadway musical scores FWIW. His really sticks in my head.
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Hence why SNL is going downhill on skis….
Looking at the backgrounds of the most recently hired writers current season, the conclusion more appeared to be, SNL tends to hire writers who have lots of experience writing popular comedy, often a decade or more experience after college. This could be experience writing own jokes as a standup comic or sketch comic actor/actress, or this could be experience writing on a comedy-themed TV show like The Tonight Show. None of the new hires I saw attended Harvard, so I presume none wrote for the Lampoon.
LOL Well, given my age, I don’t follow all the latest pop stars and don’t really like the Grammys because I am unfamiliar with a lot of the artists. However, I would not broadly state that contemporary artists are not original or creative! There are many singer-songwriters (including my own kid, LOL) whose music I really like, but certain styles today are not as much my thing, but that is not the same as “no originality or creativity.”
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I think if you ask 1,000 people the question if there’s a “cultural recession” right now, you may get a 1,000 different opinions. 
And I’m sure it’ll vary by geographic region too.
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Fashion merchandising is an interesting one. I know a few fashion people (not high fashion) who do well enough to live in and around NYC with families. NYC was probably the schmatta capital of the US, so likely this is representative for most.
Again, I don’t know any FGLI people, many FIT grads (FIT very cheap for NYers). This is an interesting point a couple of them made - it benefited them to go to a low cost state school to “mature” a bit before they started at FIT. Once they were at FIT, they were full on city people, living by themselves in studios, getting PT jobs to handle the bills. They did not feel ready or maybe FIT wasn’t even on the radar at 17/18.
The current “fashion” group of teens I know are SO good at thrifting, re-selling, what have you. I don’t even know that they think about being a buyer for a large company. I sense a few will be entrepreneurs of some kind.
Disagree. But the fact that LMM won the Pulitzer and the MacArthur further erodes my respect for these institutions (not that I had a lot in the first place).
I actually enjoy today’s music, whether EDM, rap, trap, hip hop, etc. I enjoy many offerings on the various streaming services, like a Ted Lasso, for example. Both my spouse and my oldest are in the process of reading several books right now, which they enjoy reading. There are some really great new restaurants opening in our area, so if you’re a foodie in our locale, it’s fantastic.
But you can’t persuade people, who aren’t enjoying the arts, etc. to enjoy them, whether or not they run in the “art/music/literary/cultural circles.” There have always been critics, those that cannot create, someone like me!
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I find The Weeknd - Wikipedia mesmerizing. Give it a shot.
Also like Tones and I.
In addition to Beatles, EJ, B Joel, Meatloaf, Depeche Mode et al. And I like Wham/George a lot more than I did back in the day.
The soul stuff has good traction too.
My son was hired as a writer for Weekend Update on SNL three years ago. He was a member of the Lampoon, and a History major. He graduated five years ago.
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I would totally encourage one of my children who is extremely verbal and musical to write comedy in college and do stand up. Good at math too, so can always keep that up.
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That’s great for your son, but that’s not the norm, and I expect there were a lot of factors in the hiring decision besides just him choosing to write comedy at the Lampoon during college. Anecdotal experiences of one person often don’t reflect experiences of typical grads.
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What would be interesting how many of the “Ivy pipeline” to creative jobs are FGLI? The FGLI talent (and they are many) seem to skip college altogether. Michael Che, etc.
One famous counter example is John Legend and I think he had a stint at consulting too.
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I think there used to be more “Ivy pipeline” to creative jobs than there are now. There are many more ways to get exposure now than there used to be. Many of the cast members at SNL at this time came from Youtube, tiktok, etc. I think the writers are more Ivy pipeline than the on air talent. A group such as the Lampoon provides connections to the alum at SNL. It gives an aspirant a foot in the door.
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I know several in the theater world who are making it who never went to college.
I’ll admit, I value and prefer for my own children to get a college education of any sort.
But there are many pathways to being a professional in the arts.
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And for every musician or artist who successfully networks into their own success, there are a hundred more who try and fail despite their immense talent. Unless, of course, the arts world really is Lake Wobegon, where everyone can succeed and buy a condo in Manhattan if they put in the effort to create a network (hint: it’s not, and I know way more artists
who ended up enrolling in coding boot camps).
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That’s what I’ve noticed too.