The Lizard
Didn't eat Billy
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2000
- Messages
- 15,632
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 31
Yes, this is my real 10,000th post this time, after making the mistake of not realizing that I had lost 18 posts from my count during the forum upgrade. So woot, hooray for me, and all that tripe. If you'd like to review my premature celebration of this milestone, go here.
Since I was given a second chance of sorts, I thought I'd follow the example of other forums such as Rottentomatoes where milestone threads actually have independent subjects to them and some pretense of relevance. Since I'm looking back on almost 6 years and 10,000+ posts at SHH, nostalgia seems to be an approproate subject.
As a thirtysomething Gen-Xer, I'm seeing more and more blatant attempts to get my money coming in the form of apealing to my sense of nostalgia. During the 1980s-'90s, when all media seemed to be pushing Baby Boomer-oriented nostalgia in our faces, I grew quite annoyed with this and swore that I would not fall into the same trap when I grew older.
So now I hear music from my high school days on every other TV commercial, and see every cartoon and sitcom I grew up with being released in special DVD sets. What am I to do?
I've consciously decided to take a cold hard look at what my generation's pop-culture media actually had some quality and artistry to it, as opposed to what I merely have fond memories of because of youthful nostalgic memories.
First off... I will not be buying any DVD sets of the TV shows Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, or the Godzilla Hanna-Barbera cartoon, because quite frankly....they sucked.
This isn't to say that my enjoyment of them wasn't legitimate, or that watching the odd episode here and there thanks to Netflix or YouTube isn't still fun for me. It's just that I don't see the need to own 100 episodes of He-Man battling Skeletor without a single sword fight or thrown punch. I was OK with that as a kid, but now I demand more from my SF/fantasy entertainment.
Second, I refuse to buy any product simply because the commercial features a song from The Cure or The Smiths that I loved 15 years ago and might still love now. I realize that most of my "alternative" music tastes from my college years can now be heard over the speakers at Whole Foods Grocery -- and I'm OK with that. I just refuse to march lock-step into mass nostalgia-driven trends like the Boomers have for the last 30 years of their lives. In fact, my first instinct when I see a blatantly Gen-X themed commercial is to snort with disgust and swear never to buy that product....
BUT am I being "generationally predictable" by doing that too?
Anyway, thanks to the internet, everyone can wallow in nostalgia these days, and order toys from the bygone days of 1998 on eBay, and torrent those long-lost episodes of Birds of Prey from their early 21st century youth.
Maybe the whole point of nostalgia is now lost thanks to this -- after all, can you really be nostalgic about something you've never had to give up or forget about in the first place?
Since I was given a second chance of sorts, I thought I'd follow the example of other forums such as Rottentomatoes where milestone threads actually have independent subjects to them and some pretense of relevance. Since I'm looking back on almost 6 years and 10,000+ posts at SHH, nostalgia seems to be an approproate subject.
As a thirtysomething Gen-Xer, I'm seeing more and more blatant attempts to get my money coming in the form of apealing to my sense of nostalgia. During the 1980s-'90s, when all media seemed to be pushing Baby Boomer-oriented nostalgia in our faces, I grew quite annoyed with this and swore that I would not fall into the same trap when I grew older.
So now I hear music from my high school days on every other TV commercial, and see every cartoon and sitcom I grew up with being released in special DVD sets. What am I to do?
I've consciously decided to take a cold hard look at what my generation's pop-culture media actually had some quality and artistry to it, as opposed to what I merely have fond memories of because of youthful nostalgic memories.
First off... I will not be buying any DVD sets of the TV shows Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, or the Godzilla Hanna-Barbera cartoon, because quite frankly....they sucked.
This isn't to say that my enjoyment of them wasn't legitimate, or that watching the odd episode here and there thanks to Netflix or YouTube isn't still fun for me. It's just that I don't see the need to own 100 episodes of He-Man battling Skeletor without a single sword fight or thrown punch. I was OK with that as a kid, but now I demand more from my SF/fantasy entertainment.
Second, I refuse to buy any product simply because the commercial features a song from The Cure or The Smiths that I loved 15 years ago and might still love now. I realize that most of my "alternative" music tastes from my college years can now be heard over the speakers at Whole Foods Grocery -- and I'm OK with that. I just refuse to march lock-step into mass nostalgia-driven trends like the Boomers have for the last 30 years of their lives. In fact, my first instinct when I see a blatantly Gen-X themed commercial is to snort with disgust and swear never to buy that product....
BUT am I being "generationally predictable" by doing that too?
Anyway, thanks to the internet, everyone can wallow in nostalgia these days, and order toys from the bygone days of 1998 on eBay, and torrent those long-lost episodes of Birds of Prey from their early 21st century youth.
Maybe the whole point of nostalgia is now lost thanks to this -- after all, can you really be nostalgic about something you've never had to give up or forget about in the first place?
