Sunday, February 17, 2008

reviving the 80s


Everything old is new again.


I was commenting to my Expository Writing class on the interesting turn that entertainment frequently takes - namely when the television and film industry creates remakes of old favorites.


So, I couldn't help myself; I had to watch the new Knight Rider on NBC.


It's the familiar set of archetypes: good versus evil, man versus technology, boy meets girl, boy supplants father, boy gets an amazing set of wheels . . .


It's fun to see the 1980s come back to life. Our music is being recut. Our shows are being revisioned. Our fashions and hairdos are starting to resurge (though God forbid, I will NEVER feather my hair - never, never, never). All of this is because those of us in our thirties are financially solid at this point; we are spending, and the industry markets to us - all the while betting on our nostalgia.


I would be interested to see how less-than-25-year-olds respond to this phenomenon, when in ten or fifteen years, their music, TV, and movies get recreated and repackaged.


As Quietdrive, I mean Cyndi Lauper, said: "if you're lost, you can look, and you will find me - time after time . . ."

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