Nowadays, when we switch on the TV or the radio, the music we hear all sounds the same. This is because most of the music put forth by the major record labels is designed to make maximum profit at minimal cost. They do this by signing acts that follow a pre-set formula that has generated massive sales in the past by appealing to the lowest common denominator (LCD) of public taste. This, friends, is what is referred to as pop music.
Another example of musical false culture is what gets played over the PA systems in many business establishments. At first, someone came up with muzak, a re-working of rock tunes into instrumental pieces using classical instruments. This resulted in something less energetic than rock music and less interesting than classical and quickly became the butt of many people's jokes for being, well, boring.
Years later, muzak began to be replaced by satellite radio feeds. These generally consist of several channels, each consisting of a repeating loop of songs. Most businesses that utilize such systems tend to play the pop station or the "classic rock" station in order to appear "with-it" and to generally distance themselves from the stigma that has grown around muzak. The problem with the pop station, as I've already mentioned, is that it plays nothing but music mass-produced to appeal to the LCD. As for the "classic rock" station, most of what that plays are old mediocre pop tunes that have been recycled for another round of profit-reaping. Really, nothing too classic about it.
False culture in architecture comes about when many buildings pop up that look the same. Just like with pop music, these buildings are mass-produced to fit the taste of the LCD and turn a maximum profit at minimum cost. This phenomenon occurs mainly in the suburban sprawl that surrounds our major cities these days. Typical of false architecture in the suburbs are the neighborhoods with all the houses that look the same and the strip malls, all of which appear to have been designed by the same unimaginative clod.
Fortunately, most of the worst excesses of false architecture occur abroad, mainly in totalitarian regimes where the only creative architecture is built on a larger-than-life scale in order to glorify the regime. Everything else smacks of dreary sameness. Everything is built on orders from above and the blueprints incorporate no individual or grassroots creativity. For example, here are two images of Pyongyang, North Korea, the capital of the world's final remaining Stalinist state:
Notice how the above high-rises all look the same, as if they were all stamped out by the same machine on the same setting. Not only is this lacking in any individuality or creativity, but it's a dreary eyesore. However, all is not dreary in Pyongyang. The city boasts many massive monuments, all of which were commissioned by the late Great Leader and his son, the Dear Leader, to glorify themselves. The meglomaniacal scale can be seen below:
