Pets, songs and babies top YouTube videos in 2011 or how I found out the world was in the state of dissociation

Societies which are poverty stricken and crime ridden prefer lighthearted entertainment, while comfortable societies get into dark, angst-filled movies, books, etc.

Look at India with its Bollywood musicals, compared to the great northern European filmmakers.

Mexico with its frothy, airheaded telenovelas vs 1950s America with our moody Twilight Zone.

Currently the US is in both a financial depression and the dissolution of traditional family structure. Thus people entertain themselves with sentimental amusements.