South Park touched upon this with their 'member berries skit, but from a personal experience, I watched Rogue One, and all the way through I was continuously thinking ‘Why can’t we do something new’ or better yet, why can’t pop culture start taking real risks?
This era we live in seems to be all about managing risk, and this is most evident generally in film and music.
For the next 30 years am I going to witness just soft reboots, homages and references and re-workings of 80’s Music?
Well, yeah, you pretty much explained it:more funds are being allocated to fewer, more expensive projects. So why not stick to what’s proven.
Moreover, the internet was a major game changer. Creative types now have an outlet free of executive meddling and focus testing and design committees. The only downside being project funding, but that was answered with popular crowd sourcing venues.
When did Pop Culture ever took risks?
I remember when things weren’t so nostalgic. Sigh–I miss those days.
Nostalgia sure isn’t what it used to be.
I like that there’s a lot of really old music that never got widely heard, so it’s new to me. You’re not obliged to listen to or watch something just because it’s new.
Its like the majority of the last 16 years of culture has been having the last 50 years of Pop culture reflected back at us.
It’s pretty easy to find tons of new things if you put even the slightest amount of effort into it.
It’s Gen-X’s world now. Since they grew up in the 80s, the 80s it shall be. We boomers had the 50s, 60s, and 70s nostalgia (everything from Happy Days to classic rock radio), and now it’s the next generation’s turn.
What makes me roll my eyes though is gummy vitamins (ignoring whether they work or not), but because Gen-X grew up on gummy candy, and they now need bone support, why not have nostalgic medicine for old people?
I was going to ask, how is this any different from the other waves of nostalgia we had through the years?
There’s a general trend that the more expensive ticket prices are, the more conservative the art. Audiences don’t want risky things; at the prices they pay, they’ll only go for a sure thing? It hit Broadway shows in the 1960s, and the process has continued. (Oddly, adjusting for inflation doesn’t matter: it’s the absolute price.)
If you’re spending $15 for a movie ticket, you want a sure thing. So studios provide sure things.
In addition, action films are big outside the US and those markets are worth pandering to.
This is the first wave of nostalgia that humanity has ever gone through. No, really. It’s just that the wave has lasted hundreds of thousands of years at least so far.
When they start doing as well as the reboots, etc. Which new unique Sci-Fi properties in the last couple years have done as well as Star Wars, Star Trek, superhero movies and teen lit adaptations during that time?
Exactly my point, but to paraphase Lucas, when Star Wars came out, there was nothing like it beforehand. Same with Trek.
Yes, nostalgia is fine, but not when it’s the main cultural force in a society.
I don’t know box office numbers off the top of my head, but Gravity and The Martian were both pretty good, and the first of those was completely new, and the second based off of a novel that was completely new.
Of course, nostalgia tends to ignore the garbage and concentrate on the gems. That’s why you “use up” a year of nostalgia in less than a years time. I predict that the day will come when people will be nostalgic for last week.