Ian muses about the last Gen X fad, mid-90s retro swing. It lasted a bit later in the Maritimes with the Johnny Favorite Swing Orchestra being nominated for the 1999 Best Group in the ECMA's and a Juno in 2000 - they collapsed soon thereafter and Johnny found out soon that his self as solo was not after all that favoured.
It is somewhat odd that post-9/11-ness (whatever that is), the history starting on the internet around 2000 and the bubble for one that is iPod have converged to make faddism entirely cease. The pop culture of this decade frankly eludes me...and so is perhaps best illustrated by the line-up Live 8. A tepid rut. Defined by butt-naked jean waist-lines that would have lasted no more than a single year in a properly fad-respecting decade and lingering martini bars that have never been replaced.
What to do? Ian seems to say that Burning Man will save us but the counter-culture needs to leap into the mainstream every 12 months, spinning a tale of what might be which is novel, brought but then discarded for the next fashion. Don't we need, rather, a series of burning men, arriving unexpectedly, annually recharging us all with more than nostalgia, with something the nerds and stiffs do not get? I know when that stopped but I don't know why it has not started up again.
Comments
Hans - June 16, 2005 10:18 am
Al said: "Don't we need, rather, a series of burning men, arriving unexpectedly, annually recharging us all with more than nostalgia, with something the nerds and stiffs do not get? I know when that stopped but I don't know why it has not started up again."
I do often wonder if there are any more fads and not just for the genXers. So when did it stop, Al? Was the swing thing the last fad? Or merely the last fad for genXers?
I think fads are declining due to the tribalism/fragmentation of society. Everything is "scene"-based nowadays and people try to be part of a certain "scene" as a means of self-identity. Its hard for fads to cut across several scenes and its hard to avoid scene-based identities even if one does not self-identify with a scene. E.g. if you wear a plaid shirt, you must listen to alt.country music.
I too wonder why we have this kind of tribalism nowadays.
Alan - June 16, 2005 10:37 am
It seemed to end with 9/11 and I do not know why. The fragmentation argument - IMHO and something that I rarely fall back on - should be a basis for more fads rahter than less as the general community learns more and more about the sub-cultures. So I think I am saying that real tribalism has also fallen away and that additionally we are no longer being swept up with anything generally as that engine of these new ideas has stalled. Blogs give the illusion of tribalism. They cannot replace, for example, the vitality of the gay scene of the late 60s and 70s which set so much of the fashion style which followed.
'nee - June 16, 2005 1:15 pm
Hell; handbasket. 'Nuff said.