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Musings Report 2023-38 9-16-23 Cultural Stagnation and the Stagnation of Nostalgia
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Cultural Stagnation and the Stagnation of Nostalgia
During a few minutes of cable TV channel-surfing (in which the ads are far more interesting than the content), I came across a Ford truck ad and was struck that the soundtrack was a rock song from 1970, Up Around the Bend by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Although there is nothing particularly noteworthy about the mining of rock music classics for adverts, the fact that a major corporation is using a 53-year old song to sell trucks in 2023 is astounding once we ask: did TV ads in 1970 use songs from 1917 to sell products? The answer is a definitive "no"--the idea of using a song from 50 years ago was beyond absurd.
For those of you who were not yet born in 1970, it was the height of a tumultuous global cultural revolution. China's devastating Cultural Revolution had begun in 1966, the May 1968 uprisings had set off reverberations that can still be felt today, the Vietnam War was raging, and the counterculture was ascendent across music, film, fashion, food, politics and society.
It might be argued that Ford is targeting the truck ads at aging Baby Boomers, but the demographics of pickup truck sales is not limited to geezers: owning a new truck is a young man's goal, too, not just an old guy's. No, the soundtrack has to appeal to a much wider audience than Boomers in their 70s or 80s.
There's an irony in using a song that is basically a counterculture call to abandon the "sinking ship" of the status quo of buying $55,000 pickup trucks with credit.
That songs from two generations ago are still being played, purchased and used in adverts suggests a cultural stasis or stagnation, or perhaps the Stagnation of Nostalgia: we're not nostalgic for these songs, as they've they never left the stage.
Consider Billboard’s U.S. Money Makers: The Top Paid Musicians of 2020, a year with little touring so music sales made up the bulk of revenues. Top money makers included current acts such as Taylor Swift (#1) and Drake (#6), but it's dominated by old acts: Celine Dion (#3), Eagles (#4), Queen (#7), the Beatles (#8)--you get the idea.
The 2021 list of top music industry earners includes The Rolling Stones (a.k.a. The Strolling Bones), and if the list includes aging rockers and hip-hop stars cashing in by selling their catalogs, it's dominated by Springsteen, Jay-Z, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lindsay Buckingham (of Fleetwood Mac), Motley Crue and Paul Simon, with Taylor Swift at #10..
If we look at popular movies, we're struck by the same stasis / stagnation: Batman (1989) spawned not just a "tentpole" franchise (that supports the studios with reliable revenues from sequels, prequels, spinoffs, etc.) but the innumerable other Superhero / heroine franchises that now dominate Hollywood.
Superman had his own TV series in the 1960s, and the campy Batman TV series was a major cultural hit in the 1960s. So the current dependence on comic book superheroes also traces back over 50 years to the 1960s.
But taking 1989's Batman as the starting point, here we are, still tapping franchises that are 34 years old. Was Hollywood in 1989 dominated by franchises launched 34 years earlier in 1955?
Or consider Star Wars (1977): 46 years later, the franchise is still pumping out spinoffs. How many Hollywood franchises operating in 1977 were launched 46 years earlier in 1931?
In 1970, music from 1917 might as well have been from 1817. In 1989, films from 1955 might as well have been from 1915. In 1977, films from 1931 were not pumping out sequels, prequels and spinoffs.
Broadening our view, we find the same cultural stagnation in politics and society. The red-button issues and cultural divides haven't changed much from 1972 or 1980, and neither has the political landscape: The same tired parties are in charge.
In this stagnating stasis, progress is elder hip-hop star Snoop Dogg (on stage for 31 years) appearing in a Corona beer ad, and various other adverts feature other aging hip-hop stars.
The world feels in desperate need of a refreshing of inspiration and values that transform society and the political realm.
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From Left Field
NOTE TO NEW READERS: This list is not comprised of articles I agree with or that I judge to be correct or of the highest quality. It is representative of the content I find interesting as reflections of the current zeitgeist. The list is intended to be perused with an open, critical, occasionally amused mind.
Many links are behind paywalls. Most paywalled sites allow a few free articles per month if you register. It's the New Normal.
Why go to college when you could be a plumber?
‘What the hell have we done?’ The people buying homes sight unseen.
There’s a car-sized hole in recent e-bike safety concerns.
Confessions of a McKinsey Whistleblower: Inside the soul-crushing, morally bankrupt, top-secret world of our most powerful consulting firm.
MIT Predicted in 1972 That Society Will Collapse This Century. New Research Shows We’re on Schedule.
Economic Collapse is Basic Math and it's Very Clear How Things Play Out: Danielle Park (45 min)
This Gen Z TikToker quit her office job and proclaimed she's happier struggling to pay bills than being a ‘corporate drone’ — this is why
Gen X mother goes viral for attack on ‘tired’ American Dream: “the world has ******* changed”
Cap Weight vs Equal Weight Divergence, Sending Sell Signal Warning Signal?
Does Wile E Coyote explain US voters’ gloom amid buoyant economy?
Diogenes: The Crazy Greek Philosopher Plato Called ‘Socrates Gone Mad’
4 Reasons Why Parent-Child Reconciliation Is So Hard
"If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up." Hunter S. Thompson
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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