A slight hijack, because I was thinking about posting a similar thread.
Do people in their teens and 20s today see music, movies and television shows from the 1950s as really old-fashioned, a bit dated, or still somewhat culturally relevant? Early 1980s-era MTV is nearly as old to Millennials and the younger Generation Y crowd as this is to older Generation Xers who were teens in the 1980s.
When I was a teenager in the 1980s, the popular culture of the 1950s – music, television shows, movies, design and so on – seemed quite old fashioned. As someone else mentioned, I get the feeling that there’s a bigger cultural leap between the 1950s and 1980s than between the 1980s and 2010s.
I was pretty amazed when I did that comparison a couple years ago. Now, I like some music from 1928, but it has much less relevance to the music of 1969 than 1969 does to today, and I think that even those a bit older or younger than myself also feel that way.
We have reached the point where music will never degrade.
Barring an asteroid hit, it’s entirely possible that you’ll be able to hear Blue Suede Shoes and it’ll sound better than it did when it was first recorded.
My kids will have immediate access to their parents music library. 58 Gb. with music from 2010 all the way back to 1962. There’s no major format changes left, there’s no media wear, and a Hallmark Gift Card can now record mp3’s straight to flash.
I cannot wrap my mind around how big the Music ecosystem is now. And all of it is nearly universally available to whomever cares to look.
My kids know the Beatles, Depeche Mode, and Lady Gaga. Tiesto, Michael Jackson, and Bowie. There’s a good chance THEIR kids will have a small chunk of their library that came from their grand parents.
You want to feel old? My kid’s friend said the other day “that thing is so old…it must be from the 19-somethings!” And I realized that to my child (now 5), anything pre 2000 feels ancient.
I also think that many adults today are more in touch with current culture than our parents were. Technology keeps us more abreast of trending issues and it’s harder for kids to have their ‘underground’ that parents aren’t aware of.
The day I brought my kids home from the hospital, I looked around my house and realized that according to them, it was all ‘old crap’. And it made me feel sad. But not for very long, I had diapers to change.
I think that time flows in a logarithmic fashion-not linearly at all. That is why there seems to be so little different between the 1990’s and today.
Trends also repeat themselves…at intervals of 80-100 years. Right now, its about 1931 (the second great depression). After we’re clear of this, it’l be the 1940’s…and then , the fabulous fifty’s!
I’m still miffed that I missed the “roaring twenties”.
No longer in my 30s, but I can relate. Born in 1965. Watched, along with the rest of the nation, as Neil Armstrong earned a blowjob for his elderly neighbor*. Vietnam was happening every night on the news, not in some musty history book like WWII or Korea. 15 years ago, I was graduating from law school. Doesn’t really seem all that long ago, but the internet was not yet a big deal…
*probably an urban legend, think Snopes may have debunked it, but I like the story anyway, and sorta hope it is true…and that the neighbor got his hummer.
I’m 64. For me, there haven’t been any real changes in American society since the 60s, when ***everything ***changed. For me, the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s all seem fairly recent, but the 50s (when I was a kid) seem like ancient history.
My favorite example of it. Back to the future. The movie came out in 1985, and was set in 1955. Man those 30 years seemed like a whole different world, I couldn’t imagine things could have been like that waaaaaaaay back then. Of course it is now 25 years since the move came out. But those 25 years seem like nothing.
1955-1985 was in a different epoch. 1985-2010 was a few changes, but really not that long.
Now that you mention it, yes, the 80s and especially the 90s really don’t seem that long ago, even though 1) they’re getting to be two and three decades ago and 2) I was born in the early 80s and was a child/young teenager during the 90s.
I’ll constantly be reminding myself that various embarrassing incidents that happened during that time are, say, fifteen years ago.
I think it has a lot to do with the transition from color to black and white. I too grew up in the 80s, and I remember watching the Dick Van Dyke Show when I was a kid and thinking it was ancient.
But Cheers, which premiered in 1982 is now the same age as Dick Van Dyke was in 1989. Yet, though I wouldn’t say it feels fresh, it doesn’t feel that old either.
Seeing things in black in white you just get the sense that are indeed of a different era.
There’s also the fact that up until the late 1960s movies and TV shows had to abide by strict decency codes, so anything made prior to that feels dated just by virtue of not having the sex, violence and cursing that you expect to see today. And because of that, characters had different relationship dynamics, storylines tended to have a more black and white (no pun intended) approach in presenting the good and bad guys, violence tended to be muted. There are exceptions of course, but there were certain lines that weren’t crossed.
TV shows, especially, had a more wholesome quality and up until All in the Family didn’t really tackle social issues or incorporate the type of sex jokes that are so common in today’s sitcoms.
Yeah, it’s hard to believe that the world of Back to the Future II is almost upon us. I can’t wait til we have our hoverboards and flying cars. Just five more years.
That said, there are definitely still things that do emphasize the amount of time that’s passed, such as the end of Communism, the astonishing progress of LGBT rights, or the fact that Madonna was once considered controversial.
Going with TV or movies, sometimes I’ll watch something from the 80’s and think that if you added a computer or cell phone and just made some minor tweaks to get rid of any dated references, very little would have to be done to make it look like it was filmed today.
I never thought about it, but I do remember watching lots of black and white 60’s reruns as a kid. That probably helped shape my perception of the 60’s being waaaayyy back then.
Even shows in color from the era, though, seem hopelesslly out-of-date. Compare Dragnet to later cop/detective shows.
1960s: Dragnet
1970s: S.W.A.T. (cheesy intro, but GREAT theme song)
1980s: Hill Street Blues
1990s: NYPD Blue
2000s: Law and Order
Dragnet and the slew of 1970s Quinn Martin cop shows seem campy and dated, but Hill Street Blues seems quite fresh and contemporary, save for the vehicles, hairstyles and lack of tech. Here’s another classic HSB clip.
Oh look! Lets charge through a doctor’s office and seize his files!
Oh wait, there’s “Black Guy” on the table. It’s ok to take pictures, it’s funny! “Black Guy” is uncomfortable! But it’s ok because it’s “Black Woman” taking the pictures! Ha Hah!
Take that, “Indian Doctor”! Take that, “Black Guy” on the examination table! But it’s ok because it’s “Black Woman” taking the pictures!
