You’re asking for bands or artists that were relevant for more than 10 years, prior to 2010?
Elvis Presley
Aerosmith
Led Zeppelin
The Beach Boys
U2
Madonna
Elton John
Michael Jackson
Willie Nelson
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Mariah Carey
Pearl Jam
Dr. Dre
Jefferson Starship/Airplane/Starship
Billy Joel
Prince
I mean, the list goes on and on.
Here is the top 100 from 1985, let’s see who I can pick out that was well known in 1975. Doing this on the fly so feel free to correct me if I’m overstating someone’s prominence in 1975. It’s more than I thought.
Not to speak for Alessan, but I took his comment to be directed at himself rather than at you. (i.e. could someone explain to me, a male of the species, what the difference is between the different types if pants.)
Quite a bit:
Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1985 - Wikipedia
I see Hall and Oates, Phil Collins, REO Speedwagon, Starship (a continuation of Jefferson Starship and Airplane), Kool & the Gang, Glenn Frey (as part of the Eagles), Stevie Wonder, Billie Ocean, Chicago, The Pointer Sisters, Commodores, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross…
and that’s just in the Top 50.
That’s exactly what I meant, and I apologize if I was misunderstood.
Actually, I apologize for the phrase, period. It makes certain unworthy assumptions.
Abadás, yes, that’s exactly what I used to wear when I did yoga. That or Thai fisherman’s pants.
I love wearing tights, but mine are not good for any exercise beyond a lively saltarello.
No problem, and possibly I need to turn down my offense sensor.
I do not think that popular culture has stopped or slowed down, except due to Covid. I think younger people are still very different interested in having their own music, style and slang and are pretty much welcome to it.
I would not be able to recognize most new groups. The music seems to me okay, but most of it is not innovative enough that I would seek it out (although I might still buy an occasional CD - revealing my age - if I hear three songs I like by the same group which I deem good; Billie Eilish was one who qualified since it seemed very different). I liked Gangam Style - but not so much I wanted to hear more stuff like it. Drake is fine; old school so much better.
Fashion was something dictated by wealthy companies and quickly copied. These cycles came more and more frequently and apparently ran through most of their ideas and old stuff back in style. Now people wear whatever they like, which I have always done anyway. Goatees, yoga pants, athleisure and a degree of muscularity have been sort of in fashion for a longer time. The more recent full body tattoo trend is not to my taste, but you do you.
Television has exploded into bubbles. I always disliked reality shows - and still do. But lots of people say this is the best ever time for innovative shows. I am not the best judge of this.
I’ve noticed a fashion thing that seems to be genuinely new: I’ve noticed a lot of young women with a ring through their septum, usually silver with some kind of decoration. Like this one.
Not new in the sense of “didn’t exist”, but new in the sense that when Doc steps out of the DeLorean and sees a bunch of girls with this hideous fashion, he can have a pretty good idea of what year it is (unless this is a fashion that will remain popular for decades to come, but I’m personally willing to bet against that).
As you may have guessed, to me they look godawful, and make me lament how a pretty girl could spoil her appearance like that. But…I am a middle-aged man, and that’s how I’m supposed to feel about the fashion of the yoof.
Heck, the younger dopers are probably rolling their eyes right now, in disbelief that I didn’t know that “8adman Jones” or whoever, famously wore one on his “licking raccoons” tiktok challenge and they have been *the* thing ever since.
This is the way of things.
I just want to point out that in my original post, I wasn’t saying that NO pop culture changes had happened, but rather that the rate of change has been so slow that identifying specific generational changes has been extremely difficult. I mean, what would define the 90s vs the early 2000s? Or the 2000s vs the 2010s? Or 2020s vs the 2010s?
That’s my point- whatever it is, it’s not nearly as distinct as what divided the 1950s from the 1960s, and the 1960s from the 1970s and in turn, the 1970s from the 1980s. And that strikes me as stagnation… even from without as an old fart (I’m almost 49), I can’t tell the difference between the decades very clearly. I mean, I can tell 2021 from 1998, but telling 1998 from 2004 for example, is a lot less distinct.
There’s a huge difference, it’s just hard for anyone who isn’t a fashion guru to articulate. (I’m not claiming to be a fashion guru, but I know I can not wear my old clothes in the back of my closet from 10-15 yrs ago and be considered stylish today.)
Between 2000 - 2010 the styles that were popular included the Justin Bieber swoop hairstyle that was huge for girls and guys. No one wears their hair like that anymore. Extremely low rise jeans/pants were in as were Juicy Couture velour track suits and Victoria Secret velour track pants with the word, “PINK,” on them. No wears those anymore. The makeup, the hairstyles, and the jewelry were different…same for 2010-2020. Skinny, low-rise jeans came and went. (Low rise jeans from the 2000 - 2010 were flared and were often worn with a large, low-hanging belt.) Leggings were hugely popular for a while between 2010 - 2020, now you have to wear joggers (which are different than track pants.) Ripped jeans were in, but the rip pattern is different now than it was in the 90’s or the 2010’s. Now ripped jeans look like this and this…no one had ripped jeans like that in the 90’s or even 10 yrs ago.
But as mentioned upthread, not being able to see the changes =/= stagnation.
Because, with regards to clothing for example, there have been many fashion concepts but they have all been niche and persist, in parallel, as long as there is some segment of society that still likes them.
The result is a patchwork of colors that from a distance looks gray, and it will always look that way from now on.
I still maintain that music is in a special kind of hell though.
I think the point our side is making is that if you took a picture at a mall or other public gathering 1998 vs. 1988…night and day. Rinse and repeat for each ten year period prior.
From 1998 to 2021, you might be able to pick out, yeah that girl has a different hairstyle; there is a person smoking in the background; someone is wearing “yoga pants” and someone tells me that is different from leggings. But there is not a starkness of difference from then until now when every ten years prior there was.
Exactly. It’s easy to look at a picture of someone from prior decades (before the late 1990s) and say what decade they were part of. Same thing more or less if you listened to the popular radio.
Even cars worked that way, although specific models were more definitive to themselves than to an era.
I understand and agree that there have been changes and they’ve been subtle, but what I’m saying is that the pace of change has slowed to the point where you couldn’t take a short video of something in 2005 and be able to easily tell that it was 2005 instead of 2015 or 2000, except possibly the presence of smartphones. There were changes sure, but they were subtle and small, unlike those of decades past. The difference between 1975 and 1985 were big, as were 1985 and 1995. Or 1965 and 1975.
I think @Mijin is on to something- maybe there’s enough variation that it all looks gray because stuff doesn’t go away like it used to.
Except now, unlike 1998, most of the crowd would be holding smartphones in front of them!!!
Law and Order.
Perfect example. Watch this from 1990 to 2021.
The actors might age.
Maybe you see some things like they go from landline phones, to flip phones, to smart phones. But I don’t see anything significantly different culturally between the 1990s episodes and todays.
Compare that with Miami Vice, Barney Miller, Adam-12, Dragnet.
Was there a stark difference between 1950 to 1998? There will be different hair and different clothes, but by what else do you measure a difference?
I think this is a valid observation. I remember seeing a photo of a big crowd at a concert or the olympics or something that was “crowd 10 years ago vs crowd today” and the difference was a sea of smartphones held in the air. Smartphones have been a thing only since the first iPhone, and that was 14 years ago, now they’re everywhere, and every gathering has people with their phone out.
It depends on who’s looking at the pictures.
It’s pretty amazing how quickly smartphones proliferated. I got the second model of iPhone on launch weekend and it was still a curiosity. Two years later, most people I knew had one. Now you almost have to have one to do certain things. For example, hard concert tickets are nearly a thing of the past. In a lot of cases, you can’t even print tickets anymore; you have to show them on your personal device. I am not sure what provisions they make for someone without a smartphone.