Is "Retromania" destroying culture?

[V.C. Brunswick]

Since almost everything is cyclical, it fills me with dread to contemplate what aspects of our present culture will inspire a nostalgia wave in the future.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

One very recent example of this was the "nostalgia wave" of the 1970s that gave us Grease and Happy Days. Compared to that, one thing can be said for the current trend: at least we aren't romantically idealizing it!

Factually, the term retro could even apply to going far back into history and thus to prove that retro is and will always have an attraction, look at the movies being made that are hits! Gladiator, the movie 300, to name just two. People view those movies to see what it was like back then and to follow the story line of what took place.

What takes place today at times, seems sort of sad. Dull. There is a real luster to much of what has happened in the "retro", and is not glossed over by dull sitcoms and Howard Stern types that exist today!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Since almost everything is cyclical, it fills me with dread to contemplate what aspects of our present culture will inspire a nostalgia wave in the future.

I will come back from the dead and haunt this earth like crazy, if fifty to a hundred years, the "hip" thing to do is to wear yer pants half down to yer ankles!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I will come back from the dead and haunt this earth like crazy, if fifty to a hundred years, the "hip" thing to do is to wear yer pants half down to yer ankles!

Even worse, they won't be wearing pants at all. And they'll call it "vintage inspired." :yuck:

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Some big claims, but I thought it was interesting to read nonetheless:

http://www.salon.com/books/history/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/08/05/retromania_simon_reynolds_interview

It is interesting to see the points of views.. Not to be too off base, but I should write a book on eating hot sauce and beans and claim it will be the demise of a Porter House Steak Dinner and the places that would serve such a tasty meal!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Even worse, they won't be wearing pants at all. And they'll call it "vintage inspired." :yuck:

They'd call it, "wearing tails...naturally"!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Since almost everything is cyclical, it fills me with dread to contemplate what aspects of our present culture will inspire a nostalgia wave in the future.

You make me think of something that will in time more than not become factual, and in part we here on the Lounge may have more input then we can imagine. Here is the example of my thoughts....we wear Fedora hats, and vintage clothing...there are younger people that "LOVE" the look and pick it up when then can afford to...and guess what, the retro look is here to stay again! I think in reality, that is the likely outcome.

 

[Gene]

The movie that predicted this 30 years ago was "Blade Runner." It showed a junk culture where every time period was mixed together to create some insane hodgepodge. Even languages got mixed together and became "gutter languages." Now only 8 more years for that movie to actually happen...

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Culture always looks to the past for things of interest. Yes, there is the space-age interest that has been popular for the last half-century or more, but nostalgia has always been around.

I'm with you!

Will nostalgia destroy pop culture?

Gee, I hope so.

My dad talks about this all the time. He always says, too, that when he was growing up in Milwaukee in the 1960's, it wasn't so much like this until the riots in 1968. He said the people in his neighborhood still lived a very typical 50's postwar lifestyle.

And people like him will continue enshrining the myth of the '60s to future generations. That's why I call it "The Era That Won't Go Away." And without getting political it seems to me that a certain segment of the Baby Boomer generation themselves never really left 1968.

This was very well put!

If the changes were anything but cosmetic, I'd agree. Culture is still on the same trajectory it's always been. Same meal as ever - now with a garnish of parsley. No practical difference (who eats the parsley anyway?) but somehow, when there's a sprig of parsley on the plate, everything just seems better.

My dad was a greaser in the 1970's. It was a huge deal, living in Milwaukee when Happy Days, set in Milwaukee was the biggest thing on TV. There were droves of greasers at John Marshall High and they used to beat the snot out of the Hippies lol (wonder where I get it from??) I've seen many pictures of my dad in a leather jacket, slicked back hair, etc. It's funny to see, actually.

One very recent example of this was the "nostalgia wave" of the 1970s that gave us Grease and Happy Days. Compared to that, one thing can be said for the current trend: at least we aren't romantically idealizing it!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

The movie that predicted this 30 years ago was "Blade Runner." It showed a junk culture where every time period was mixed together to create some insane hodgepodge. Even languages got mixed together and became "gutter languages." Now only 8 more years for that movie to actually happen...

Oh you are right about that movie, Harrison Ford in his younger days!

Yes, I am not sure the "junk culture" will be as it was in the movie,..but who knows? A lot of bad and sad things as it is right now!

 

[Nathan Dodge]

As someone already emntioned, nostalgia has always been with us. In just recent decades, I was surprised to learn that during the early 1970s there was a significant fashion trend to dress and wear makeup like the 1920s and 1930s made popular by the Biba boutique. Director John Waters in one of the Busby Berkeley documentaries said everyone he knew during the 1960s was obsessed with the 1930s. The Bonnie and Clyde movie led to a craze swept the country,(even though faye Dunaway's anachronistic bouffant was distracting.) There was also the 1950s craze that began in the 1970s with American Graffiti and continued through most of the 1980s.

 

[Lady Day]

I think you could argue that even with nostalgia trends of the past, a very strong vein of contemporary popular culture has always been prevalent. Now, we are so engrained in borrowing a majority from times gone by, that the present popular culture (like it or no) has really atrophied. Popular culture seems to have topped in the late 80s early 90s. From there, it was a majority retread of times gone by so much so that I feel that's all we are now. Popular culture now is a dominance or recycling past eras, not just highlighting them.

Its lazy.
LD

 

[1961MJS]

... Its lazy.
LD

I think Lady Day hit it ON THE HEAD. In a way, people are regressing back to the cave man era. They don't wear animal skins, they wear t-shirts and sweat pants because they can "scavenge" them at Walmart. Since they didn't kill the animal to eat it, they do the next most lazy thing and eat at McDonald's. No thought or effort into their dress. No effort, skill or planning in their food. In the depression, you grew vegetables, raised a cow for milk (even in town), butchered your own hog, and canned so you'd have food over the winter. You purchased lasting clothing, and repaired it. Don't see any of that much today.

Later, by the way, I'm guilty too.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As someone already emntioned, nostalgia has always been with us. In just recent decades, I was surprised to learn that during the early 1970s there was a significant fashion trend to dress and wear makeup like the 1920s and 1930s made popular by the Biba boutique. Director John Waters in one of the Busby Berkeley documentaries said everyone he knew during the 1960s was obsessed with the 1930s. The Bonnie and Clyde movie led to a craze swept the country,(even though faye Dunaway's anachronistic bouffant was distracting.) There was also the 1950s craze that began in the 1970s with American Graffiti and continued through most of the 1980s.

I have very strong memories of the '30s fad of the early '70s. Liberty magazine was revived around 1971, reprinting articles from the Era, and I was probably their youngest reader. And there was a show called "Happy Days" on CBS that had nothing whatsoever to do with Richie and Fonzie -- it was a variety hour featuring surviving '30s personalities and various pastiche sketches based on thirties pop culture. I might be the only person who remembers watching it, but it existed.

To go back even further, there was a significant "Gay 90's" fad in the mid-thirties, triggered by the repeal of Prohibition and nostalgia for the golden days of the old-time beer garden, which led, among other things, to Mae West's period-oriented movies and songs like "Man On The Flying Trapeze" and "Those Were Wonderful Days." And during the fifties those stuffy middle-aged Americans everyone loves to disparage looked back fondly on their zany raccoon-coat-and-ukulele shiek-n-flapper days in the twenties. "Singin In The Rain" remains as a tangible reminder of that fad.

 

[Edward]

The movie that predicted this 30 years ago was "Blade Runner." It showed a junk culture where every time period was mixed together to create some insane hodgepodge. Even languages got mixed together and became "gutter languages." Now only 8 more years for that movie to actually happen...

That's just pretty much what has been happening throughout human history. [huh]

There's always plenty of new stuff around, albeit underground. Music in particular.... people get lazy, or just have less time to seek out the good stuff as they get older, leading them to assume that there's less good stuff out there. Combine that with a rose-tinted view of 'back in the day', and you get the "modern life is rubbish" complaint.

 

[JimWagner]

Somehow I don't think that "culture" consists of sitting in front of the tv watching VH1 in any of its varieties.

In music, I'm not sure at all that there's any widespread interest in the 60's. But there is targeted programming for those interested in any particular genre. With so many sources, cable, XM/Sirius, etc. there is a lot more varied programming available today. When you had only a few over the air tv channels and radio stations there just wasn't enough programming bandwidth to allow that. You can even find polka channels if that's what you want.

Being able to watch and re-watch movies of your choice really only became widely possible when VCRs came out.

It's inevitable that some younger people also like some of the "older" stuff because it's new to them and available like never before.

If there's any problem it's entertainment overload. There's more available to watch and listen to than at any point in human history. If it's new to you, then it's new. And it's competing with the actual new for money and bandwidth. The bean counters are always looking for ways to turn a buck with little or no investment. It costs less to reissue entertainment than to pay new entertainers. Reality tv costs less than original programming.

If you really want to see what drives the entertainment industry look no further than the dollar.

At the same time, technology makes self publishing possible like never before and artists who never stood a commercial chance 30 years ago can reach audiences today. Creativity is still alive folks. Just look for it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

One thing that's causing a lot of concern in the vintage-movie-enthusiasts world is that the increasing push toward online streaming means that fewer and fewer films will be released in "removable media" format. Couple this with increasingly advanced Digital RIghts Management technology to foil bootleggers and media thieves, and there are rather dire predictions that within a very short time the "Golden Age of Accessibility" for vintage entertainment will be over -- and we'll be back to watching what they want us to watch and nothing else. The Man always wins in the end.

Unless, of course, you're still using a VCR. And have TCM.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

I have very strong memories of the '30s fad of the early '70s. Liberty magazine was revived around 1971, reprinting articles from the Era, and I was probably their youngest reader. And there was a show called "Happy Days" on CBS that had nothing whatsoever to do with Richie and Fonzie -- it was a variety hour featuring surviving '30s personalities and various pastiche sketches based on thirties pop culture. I might be the only person who remembers watching it, but it existed.

I think that many Fedora Loungers have often already gone through periods of intense interest in previous eras of pop culture before the mainstream "discovers" them. The denizens of the FL have already moved on to different, "new-to-them" periods and will have moved on once again long before the mainstream has latched onto it. An example of this is my own interest in the "Mad Men" '60s ended nearly twenty years ago but now it's all the rage in so many ways. Most of us have been interested in various eras and it won't stop because current trends have "caught up" with us.

So I'll meet you all in La Belle Époque ...that is, if everyone's not already finished with it.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I have, and I do lol I have satellite radio through my television and you can find about anything you want. If I'm feeling lazy and don't want to change records on the turntable, I just put on 'Country Gold' or one of the other stations I like on there.

You can even find polka channels if that's what you want.

I think this is very true, and you also settle into a style as you mature, I believe. When I was about 11, I was all about the 50's greaser thing, then as I got into my teens, I wore a lot of fedoras and slacks, then when I got my license, at 16, I got into the rockabilly/rat-rod culture. Now, I'm grown-up and have settled into this sort of 'Mid-Century Middle-America' lifestyle, I guess you could call it.

I think that many Fedora Loungers have often already gone through periods of intense interest in previous eras of pop culture before the mainstream "discovers" them. The denizens of the FL have already moved on to different, "new-to-them" periods and will have moved on once again long before the mainstream has latched onto it. An example of this is my own interest in the "Mad Men" '60s ended nearly twenty years ago but now it's all the rage in so many ways. Most of us have been interested in various eras and it won't stop because current trends have "caught up" with us.

So I'll meet you all in La Belle Époque ...that is, if everyone's not already finished with it.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Will nostalgia destroy pop culture?

The problem is that pop culture is destroying nostalgia by usurping it and slapping on a price tag. The Renaissance looked to the classical past for its 'superior' values, knowledge, and esthetics. 2011 century America looks to 1960-'85 and recycles its music, fashion, films, etc. ... not because of its 'superiority', but for its cut-rate salability.