Maybe the biggest fad of all time: Blue Jeans.
These days?: Young girls wearing tight tops with their belly showing.
(Who’s a dirty old man? 
)
Back around '77 to '79 almost every song played on the radio was disco.
Pogs was pretty big back when I was a wee lad. I really liked playing that game in the garage of my friends house’s.
That’s the only one real fad I’ve had the “pleasure” of watching spread from almost its beginning and then bigger and bigger and state to state.
Don’t forget those big money game shows like “Who Wants To Be …”
I absolutely hated the CB radio fad; I used to manufacture quartz crystal units for the damn things. Most of the people who bought into that fad were absolutely brainless.
I think the biggest fad I’ve seen personally was the Davy Crockett madness.
Well, Magic is primarily a game, not just trading cards. If it’s still a fad after eleven years I don’t know.
Fisting was a fad? Oh yes, now I remember - swept the playgrounds of the nation like wildfire during the mid 70’s: before you knew it groups of boys were spending their entire lunchtimes fisting each other in the playground, and all their money on Robert Mapplethorpe lunchboxes. Then it all seemed to vanish - ah, fickle youth.
Well, if we’re talking about huge fads, ones that cross gender lines, generational lines, or both, I can leave out Hypercolor, plastic jewelry and parachute pants.
—I saw the rise and the fall of Beanie Babies. I was working in retail at the time, and at one point, we were stamping people’s hands to insure one BB to a customer. “Tulip Mania!” I said to my co-worker. About a year and a half later, we were selling them for one cent with purchase. “Tulip Mania!”
(I love stuffed animals, but never really fell prey to the BB fad. Just a stegosaurus and a snake. Others were just what the name implies: bean bags. I prefer animals with hefty stuffing.)
—Hard Rock Cafe shirts. In 1987, I went to a summer program (journalism) at Indiana University. When we were all together in the auditorium, I’d say three out of every five kids was wearing a HRC shirt.
—Designer jeans (1978-81, roughly).
—Feathered hair. I belive I was the only girl in my sixth grade class who did not have it. With the result that I don’t have to cringe when I see photos of myself from that time.
—Trading cards (Star Wars and Close Encounters) in Wonder Bread.
I’d draw the distinction (and I did) between The Beatles, who are not a fad; and Beatlemania, which was.
The whole hippie movement.
I’m glad to hear the low-carb fad is ending – as a bodybuilder who’s eaten that way for almost twenty years, I’m sick of having people inform me that I’m following a fad. (Back then, we called it “steak and salad”).
I’m 20 and from the UK:
Yoyos were popular when I was growing up, as were pogs. I’m not sure whether this counts, but there was about 6 months where everyone greeted each other with “Waaaaazzzzuuupppppp?”.
Yep. It’s only been 150 years now. It should be dying out soon.
How long can something keep going and still be a fad? Magic the Gathering, after over 10 years, is still the top-selling collectible card game. I play, and I sell the cards in my bookstore. There are Magic players from 10 years old up to their late 40’s. In my store, Magic outsells Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Neopets, and Cyberpunk combined.
If Magic is a fad, then Monopoly must qualify, too. Isn’t it still the best-selling board game of all time?
It’s still popular. It’s one of the big three components of hip-hop, the other two being graffiti and rap music. I get this from my son; I’m too old to care.
These are some fashion fads that stick out from my eighties heyday…Acid Washed Jeans, Jean Jackets, Mulletts and its hybrid the rat tail, neon dayglo shorts and t-shirts.
One that is current and lesser noticed because of its ubiquity are the “book bags” that the youth seem to carry everywhere. In my day, book bags were basically duffel bags and just held books, now it seems like everyone has a knapsack with their whole life plus the kitchen sink in it.
In the same vein, a recent fad that seems to be tapering off to some degree is the fanny pack phenomenon.
A few that I recall…
Rubik’s Cube. Estimates vary wildly, but apparently something like 230 million have been sold.
Punk rock, especially here in Britain. There’s no way to over-exaggerate the effect it had, or how widespread its influence was and continues to be (which was bad news for me because I liked all the stuff that punk kicked into the sidelines).
The dot.com boom and bust years. I had a ringside seat, working in the 'net industry at the time, and it was bizarre. Venture capitalists couldn’t wait to throw money at anyone with half a website idea, and more than 99% of them lost their money.
Digital watches, the first type where you pressed a button to get an illuminated LED display, were a massive fad when they first appeared. One particular christmas it seemed like half the population had received one as a gift. I don’t remember precisely which christmas, but I’d guess something like 1976.
[QUOTE=ccwaterback]
Maybe the biggest fad of all time: Blue Jeans.
That was the first thing I thought of. I wasn’t going to follow that fad and wear those things!
Riiiiiight.