They say that what goes around, comes around. Trends, fashions, fads. Everything is cyclical and, whether a few years or a few decades, everything reappears for a new generation with a new modern twist.
Now, normally I find myself logging onto blogging as a result of some form of inspiration that has triggered my thoughts from a random observation, conversation or event. This week, conversely, my thoughts have provoked contemplation, if not concern, following one said random conversation with a fresh faced teen, who chatted to me about her weekend plans to curl up with her boyfriend to watch some old movies and escape the cold....
The concept of her plans, I whole-heartedly agreed with. I couldn't better depict the perfect lazy weekend, with the heat of a log fire and an old movie…you know the ones – Casablanca, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, It’s a Wonderful Life. Or, moving to technicolor modern classics with the genius of Scarface, The Godfather trilogy, all of Rocky (maybe with the exception of V).
Unless, that is, you are under the age of 21.
Old movies, according to Miss Teen, referred to the cinematic masterpieces like Matilda, Speed, and anything Hugh Grant circa Four Weddings and Funeral. I didn’t dare remind her that colour TV did not always come in 3-D and via download but, as I stopped to think of my own rainy day DVD (and, for that matter, VHS) favourites, I wondered ....had time passed me by so quickly that iconic had unwittingly transitioned to archaic, or when exactly did classic suddenly mature to Jurassic?
I remember back to the days when my mum would inform me that the cool new clothes I shopped for were just like the ones she wore in her day, and how I cringed that she suggested her style was just ‘coming back around’. And my dad feeling disturbed that my pop star idols had ruined the ‘original’ version of tune that everyone was singing to and playing in their car.
Even the word vinyl feels vintage these days, ironically saved only by the fact that retro is actually the new cool. But, as Generation MP3 gradually devolutionises the humble CD to extinction and 3D movie screenings in cyberspace threaten the closure of the multiplex, I wonder ...is the modern age really growing up too quickly, or have I assumed the role of my parents of the ‘second time around’?
For those of us who grew up 'analogue' and have just more recently made the 'switch' and joined the cloud ...is it simply the case that we are spending too much time looking back, being cool with the retro, that we cannot actually move forwards…?
‘Til next time, Pandora
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