Ablessing and a curse of music, fashion and culture is that there’s very little that hasn’t been done yet. I like that because it’s dependable. You can always have a general expectation of what’s going to happen next. That’s also frustrating for artists and creators who strive for originality, which is apparently a concept not grasped by all, based on what’s been playing on the radio these last few years.
I love shopping with my mom because as we pass every rack of clothes, she points at each garment and says, “I wore that 20 years ago. I had that exact top when I was in high school. Did they invent a time machine and steal that from my closet?”
Like clockwork, every decade is resurrected and repurposed. Suddenly, all the girls wear cat-eye eyeliner and all the guys have on short-sleeve button downs. Hopefully if you participate in these phenomena, you are at least aware that our generation is not their first time around. Every era gets an opportunity to be reprised and glamourized.
A few years ago, the ’70s made their comeback: there was a brief but noticeable spike in vegetarianism, tie-dye was back in style and Cher even made an appearance at the 2010 VMAs — in her iconic leather and fishnet ensemble — much to everyone’s horror.
More recently, the ’80s had their moment: Instagram, clearly inspired by Polaroid cameras, was born, loud leggings became omnipresent and Queen went on a reunion tour with Adam Lambert as their substitute front man.
We didn’t really give the ’90s time to die before we brought that decade back; with artists including No Doubt, New Kids on the Block and TLC maintaining semi-active careers throughout the ’00s and ’10s. Nevertheless, the ’90s are here with a vengeance now: “Girl Meets World” hit the silver screen this summer, Surge is being sold on Amazon and we came so close to getting a sequel to “Mrs. Doubtfire” (RIP, Robin).
I love a good throwback as much as anyone, but the planner in me is anxious about the future. All of our styles, trends, even pop culture as a whole for the last 10 years has been one massive tribute to the generations that preceded us, which is fine, but what are kids going to imitate in 15 years when they bring the ’10s back?
If I come back to Harding for Homecoming in a couple decades and kids are browsing Yik Yak on their vintage iPhone 6s and riding around campus on their penny boards, I’ll trip every one of them without a second thought.
It’s great that we celebrate what we love about the past. They say that if we don’t study history, we’re doomed to repeat it. I agree that we should study history — why even listen to “Britney Jean” (2013) if you didn’t listen to “Britney!” (2001) — but doomed is a strong word, and recycling trends turned out to be not such a bad thing.
I’m not worried about the future either. If people want to bring the undercut back in a few years, the joke is on them because that doesn’t even look cool now.
