Looking back from a future era, it is often easy to see those moments of inflection when popular culture evolved. These were the moments where an event occurred that ushered in a new sensibility.
A few such events that come to mind are the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927 or Citizen Kane in 1941 or Heartbreak Hotel in 1956 or Psycho in 1960 or Star Wars in 1977 or Rapper’s Delight in 1979 or Doom in 1993. I am sure you can add to this list.
I just watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It does so many innovative things with narrative, and rethinks how to visually tell a story in so many fundamental ways, that at some point I stopped trying to keep track and just leaned back to enjoy the ride.
Of course we can’t really know for sure what will happen in the future. But I suspect that there is a good chance this film will be seen as one of those inflection points in popular culture.