Everything old is new again, as the saying goes. Nothing from the past truly stays in the past, because it manages to resurface through the rise and fall of fads and trends. It’s refreshing in a way; this tendency of ours to emulate the past ensures that we won’t forget history and tradition. But does it also ensure that we’re beginning to lack in originality?

It’s no secret that the entertainment industry loves to remake old ideas and projects. Remake, revamp, reboot, revive -- no matter what you call it, it remains clear that we seem to prefer looking back over looking forward.

Perhaps the single worst source of this lack of originality is modern cinema. In 2011 alone, 27 sequels were released in theaters. The vast majority of them received poor or negative reviews from moviegoers and critics alike. A list compiled by IMDb in 2013 estimated that 111 remakes or reboots have been planned for release between 2014 and 2020 (and that’s not even accounting for sequels). Naturally, that list has grown between then and now. It will probably also grow between the time I write this and the time that this is published.

Movies aren’t the only offenders when it comes to failing to generate new ideas. The music industry is also chock-full of covers and remixes. Even when certain songs are not directly or explicitly correlated with one another, there is a clear lack of diversity in their content and composition. You might have seen this video that went viral on YouTube a few years ago, showing that many chart-topping hits released over the past few decades have used the same four chords. And there’s plenty more where that came from, because there’s a video for every musical genre that shows the similar themes that run throughout these songs. The general consensus seems to be that all country, rap, metal and electronic music is repetitive and unimaginative.

However, there is an important distinction to make here. Many of these songs that are attacked for lack of originality are mainstream, chart-topping hits that receive a disproportionate amount of airplay compared to the actual size of the industry and its output. It would be foolish to say that all songs sound, without exception, identical to one another. Considering how often radio stations tend to overplay popular tracks, we aren’t truly exposed to the vast majority of music that is actually in circulation. There are countless songs, artists and even genres whose existence we are unaware of. Fortunately, with the recent advent of streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora and Tidal, we have the opportunity to discover new artists who might have remained unknown if we relied solely on the radio and mainstream media. Even SoundCloud has expanded our access to different artists, playlists and podcasts. Although I would argue that it seems to consist mostly of remixes that could have been made, for all we know, by some guy in a bucket hat working out of his garage. And you’re either lying or extremely knowledgeable in EDM if you can tell the difference between any of Kygo’s songs within the first 20 seconds.

So what does all of this mean? And why does it matter?

It matters because our entertainment industry has become a machine, a factory that churns out hits and blockbusters that are completely formulaic, generic and predictable -- yet they still manage to gain some success with viewers and listeners. Take, for instance, Tyler Perry’s “Madea” franchise. There are eight movies starring his trademark character, with a ninth slated to come out later this year. And they’ve all received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. So why does Perry continue to direct these films?

Simple: they sell.

Sure, they may follow the worn-out formula for a cliché comedy, but it’s a formula that’s been tried and proven to work. Why would anyone in the entertainment industry risk taking a different artistic direction if they know that sticking to this equation is more profitable?

But perhaps there’s another source for this lack of originality -- are we just running out of ideas?

Let me backtrack for a moment, because it’s preposterous to assert that we have reached some sort of originality singularity. Ideas come from experience and history, and as we continue to progress through the 21st century we will, naturally, be experiencing countless new things. And as we move forward, we will have more to look back and reflect on. But the rate of the entertainment industry is moving much faster than the natural rate of time. New ideas will certainly surface as current events unfold, new technologies develop, and so on. But the world can’t keep up with our voracious appetite for more movies, more music, more books, more everything. Until we as consumers and the industry as entertainers learn to put quality over quantity, things will probably continue in this fashion.

And my sincerest apologies to Kygo -- your songs may sound nearly the same, but I still listen to all of them. Go figure.