In the realm of music, I think the mainstream has stayed roughly the same size but the rest of music has exploded in size and variety via Spotify/Bandcamp/Soundcloud/YouTube.
Instead of zines there's a million or so blogs and forums and newsletters.
Podcasts are an entirely new realm and only a tiny sliver of it cracks the mainstream.
The number of outlets for "TV shows" has exploded, so there's plenty that comes and goes without any significant mainstream exposure.
Much of the above is created on an enthusiasts budget for a tiny audience.
And I'd argue a lot of the above are exempt from "cancel culture" if only because most people don't know they exist.
While that's true, I tend to imagine it like a horde of mosquitoes, a bit like Paul Graham's idea[1], but applicable to social trends. I wrote a whole essay on trend movement that leads me to believe the pendulum is close to swinging.[2]
That has always been the case, and it used to be far worse when the entire media landscape was controlled by a couple dozen conglomerates. Being underground/subversive means you don't make a lot of money. If you want to make money do what everyone else does... sell out.
But hasn't it always been like that? Radical social/political views and any fringe stuff around sex and drugs has never had mainstream support or backing from big companies, basically by definition. And a lot of times it is straight up illegal. It has only ever survived by staying under the radar. And when it pops above the radar we get purity movements like the War on Drugs and the Parents Music Resource Center.
I think a lot of conservatives are mad about "cancel culture" because now they're being targeted by purity movements instead of the punks and freaks and hippies and queers. I say tough shit. Overall, the realm of acceptable discourse has expanded considerably and is arguably larger today than ever before. If they think their particular viewpoints are being unfairly suppressed, then do what everyone else did and go underground and do the work of bringing your views to the mainstream.
The first draft of an actual underground which can't just be shutdown by attacking a server is https://getaether.net/ having build up on the lessons of freenet and bittorrent.
It isn't the be all and end all, but it's a huge step forward.
Instead of zines there's a million or so blogs and forums and newsletters.
Podcasts are an entirely new realm and only a tiny sliver of it cracks the mainstream.
The number of outlets for "TV shows" has exploded, so there's plenty that comes and goes without any significant mainstream exposure.
Much of the above is created on an enthusiasts budget for a tiny audience.
And I'd argue a lot of the above are exempt from "cancel culture" if only because most people don't know they exist.