By Spencer Ferron-Tripp
Popular culture is getting old.
Television reruns, movie re-makes and “ageless” wonders such as the Rolling Stones suggest a startling trend to revisit what was once popular. In fact, the popular culture of today is in many ways yesterday’s culture.
Western society is busy re-inventing, not creating.
Consider the new Robin Williams film Flubber, which is actually advertised as a remake. The trailer stops short of saying “the story hasn’t changed, only the cast,” but it does reveal the film’s inspiration, The Absent Minded Professor.
It’s a sad statement on popular culture that the selling point of a film is the very fact it’s a remake. Movie-goers, however, don’t seem to care.
I blame nostalgia. For one reason or another, people seem content looking to the past instead of the future. How else can we explain the Eagles’ phenomenal success on their recent reunion tour?
It’s a phenomenon that continues to grow. The influx of movie remakes and sequels, from the upcoming Superman movie to the next James Bond film, spell a continued obsession with yesteryear’s popular culture.
Have you looked at the Canadian music charts lately? At press time, the Rolling Stones had the number one rock album in the nation.
But you don’t have to be an aging rock star to be old. Today’s artists are masters at making the antiquated appear new. Recording artists like DJ Shadow sample old songs — literally copying a sound — and reformat them into a “new” product.
And in today’s popular culture, that’s considered a tribute. Problem is, when will the tributes end and the new music begin.
And does anyone care? The popularity of ’80s Night at the Cave on Bank Street effectively forced ownership to add a second night recently. The audience, you might say, was heard begging for retrospective nights.
The formula can be extended to fashion, where retro clothes have made everything from our parents’ closets cool again. Used clothing shops aren’t booming because people are looking for value, but because they’re the best place to buy old clothes.
If popular culture is “now,” then what does this obsession with everything old tell us about ourselves? The answer: we’re collectively dumb enough to buy the same thing twice.
It’s the stuff modern popular culture is made of. It’s the emperor’s new clothes.