Increasingly, our present seems too long for the past. I’m not talking about the burden of history, or anything heavy like that. It’s just — okay, so I was at Target the other day, and they had vintage-style Woodstock T-shirts on sale. Maybe I’m the only one who finds this weird. I don’t think this is what the hippies had in mind. It felt like a last straw. We are clearly the generation of the throwback.
The trend is everywhere. Over the summer, Teen Nick made a splash when it began re-airing some of its most popular 90’s shows like Doug and All That. What’s striking about it: these formerly children’s programs are not being marketed to children. Airing late-night, midnight-to-2 a.m., The ‘90s Are All That is simply a nostalgia machine. And also a ratings success. I was born in 1990, and I admit that I too tuned in to see what I watched as a youngling (and came to the conclusion that these weird Nickelodeon shows explain a lot about myself). But at the same time, I discovered Simon Reynold’s Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past. Using music as an example, the book makes the case that younger generations are feeling prematurely nostalgic: that digital “over-documentation” has led to a “retromania.” I’m inclined to agree.
However, I’d add that this phenomena is not just premature nostalgia. It’s a longing for the past. Something about the past just feels more authentic. But what is it? And how did we get here?
After all, a trip to the cinema will confirm that Hollywood is relying more on sequels and remakes than ever before (another Planet of the Apes? Is this necessary?). Even professional sports have gotten into the nostalgia business. Some teams, like NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers or San Diego Chargers, occasionally pay homage to the past by wearing designs inspired by older uniforms. In the Bucs’ case, their bright-orange “creamsicle” uniforms were the butt of jokes in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. However, with “retromania” underway, they suddenly look “classic,” an adjective never used to describe them when the Bucs wore them full-time. Other teams, like the NBA’s Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors have reverted their full-time uniforms to ones based on classic designs.
Music’s “retromania” may be the easiest example, and I’m also guilty of indulging in it. I can’t stand much on new rock or Top 40 radio — give me The Beatles or The Who. But the music industry’s nostalgia machine is a direct product of the digital revolution.
The digital age may have held its biggest consequences for the music industry, affecting everything from its business model to how we listen to music. For instance, I don’t think it’s fair to say that vinyl record enthusiasts are simply nostalgia-heads. Sure, they carry that aspect, but vinyl records actually sound better. Records are able to hold much more sonic information than, say, an MP3. If you want to know what I’m talking about, go to a recording studio and ask an audio engineer what he or she thinks about MP3s. Their quality is, in objective terms, quite pitiful. Yet we’ve gotten used to them.
Major labels are still scrambling long after digital music made physical copies obsolete. Essentially, labels (and some musicians) are clinging to their records by persecuting those that copy the music. Some are well-intentioned, but it’s absurd to think that any number of lawsuits will return value to their product.
It seems that all artistic industries are being influenced by the same conservative impulse.
So what does this mean for new artists? This isn’t the time for knee-jerk manifestos, but I think artists need to make a choice: go down with the traditional industries or help create a new one. Change will take many different artists of many different ideas, each chipping away at artistic industries that are eroding anyway.
Hence the title of my column: Culture Guerilla.
Mikey Angelo Rumore can be reached at michealangelorumore@gmail.com.
This disgusts me. People like you who talk $#*! about the people who love the past should just go to hell when they die. This is our country. We can do whatever the hell we want!