Every time I listen to music in my dad’s car, he always nags me, insisting that “the 80s were the greatest era for music.” After any song I play, He shakes his head at me and says “This is a total rip-off of 80s songs. You wouldn’t know good music if it bit you in the butt!”
If there’s one thing I’ve taken away from that repetitive conversation with my dad, it’s that eras of culture do tend to recycle and make a comeback every 20 years. In the words of Neda Ulaby of NPR, these cycles can be labeled as “nostalgic loops.”
It’s said that not only fashion, but music, style, and popular trends of an era take 20 years of solitude to finally regain its relevance back in modern day culture. So in the 70’s, 50’s influence from content like Grease the musical and nostalgic TV shows swept the stage. In the 2010’s, 90’s fashion flourished with hair barrettes and flared jeans, creating that iconic Y2K style.
However, the 2020s have taken a more rapid fire and confusing approach to this concept of cultural recycling. Our society has collectively ditched the 20 year process, perhaps attributed to our no attention span, iPad-baby tendencies.
Take for example this year’s Coachella. Creators like Beca Oliveria and Darianka garnered massive support for their on-point recreations of 2016 Coachella looks. Wearing flower crowns with flowy silhouettes, TikTok heavily favored and praised these creators over other influencers who opted for a more “modern” approach. Kendall Jenner’s iconic audio, “this was Coachella 2016,” also saw a boost in audio uses. There’s been a surge of negative comments towards many influencers for a lack of creativity and nostalgia. Quite ironic if I may add since recycling old trends aren’t exactly seen as “creative” and “new.”
Speaking of a lack in creativity, the USC Mind Ice Bucket Challenge is a revamped ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that went viral back in 2014. What’s even crazier is that this new generation doesn’t know about the OG challenge. Talk about rubbing salt on the wound!
Even trends we thought were dead for good have crawled back out of the grave. Talk about the Zombie-fication of the low-rise, pink twill Hollister short–it’s back and scarier than ever. Wanna hear something even more terrifying? I saw an ad for Toms. My heart skipped a beat!
I will say, however, that Lorde’s resurgence in popularity is a recycled trend I can get behind. All over the internet, users are raving about her fashion and upcoming album drop. As a Lorde fan, I can see why she’s been able to stay relevant all these years, even without consistent music updates. Her image and discography evoke a sense of nostalgia that we felt only in the good days of 2013-2017.
Why have all these trends been exploding as of late? What’s the reason behind our generation’s fast-paced recycling? To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. There’s a multitude of factors that I believe play a role in this phenomenon, starting with the idea that that our generation is simply prone to a fast-paced environment. We’re used to the hustle of school, work, news, and now, media. It’s also our yearning for simpler times. Every generation experiences this, but I guess we’re just experiencing it tenfold.
Personally, I think we all need to slow down. There’s too much stuff happening way too fast. If we continue this constant cycle of fast-paced cultural recycling, we’ll run out of all the fun trends we look forward to. Let’s aim to stay creative so that in a couple of years, we can bring back the dab and wearing long-sleeve shirts under our short-sleeve shirts.