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The Nation's Pulse
Old Is the New New
What’s happened to American cultural vitality?
The past has after all this time finally moved ahead of the present.
Nielsen’s Soundscan reports that albums classified as “catalogue,” indicating a release date at least 18 months ago, outsold “recent” albums for the first half of 2012. Back catalog moved 76.6 million units to 73.9 million recent units sold. This marks the first time in Nielsen Soundscan’s 21-year history that the past has outperformed the present.
Is not this a metaphor for a better-days-behind-us nation?
Since the Billboard 200 ceased excluding older releases from its rankings in late 2009, the chart has provided a more comprehensive measure of sales. The current Billboard 200 features greatest hits collections by Queen #59, Guns N Roses #65, Journey # 113, Credence Clearwater Revival #120, and Notorious BIG #121, among others, that the chart’s old rules would have excluded. Proper albums strangely reappearing on the bestseller list include The Zac Brown Band’s “The Foundation” (2008 release) #19, Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” (released 1973) #63, The Beastie Boys’ “Licensed to Ill” (1986 release) #130, and Katie Perry’s “One of the Boys” (2008 release) #133.
How did old become the new new?
Technology hampers album sales not only by making free what once cost $10, but by the à la carte nature of downloading that elevates the single at the expense of the album, as well. Listeners have gone back-to-the-future by effectively embracing the .45 over the LP, albeit in a digital rather than vinyl form. The album becoming a thing of the past makes it a more popular medium for listeners who possess more of a past.
Promotional mechanisms for new music have dried up. Rolling Stone has become a celebrity magazine. MTV doesn’t stand for “Music Television” anymore. And corporate consolidation has ensured that radio stations dedicated to playing cutting-edge music get cut from the dial.
The biggest change fostering the retro cult is that so much new music just isn’t very good. Record companies market over-processed music designed to fit in rather than stand out. Auto-Tune, drum machines, synthesizers, and boardroom songwriting-by-committee so thoroughly dehumanize the product that the artists come out sounding devoid of soul. Businessmen don’t seem to understand that in art, safe isn’t.
When musicians dare deviate from the formula — the talented fatso Adele and tiny Fairfax Recordings’ Gotye come to mind — they confound the recording industry with their success. The former’s “21” has outsold the combined remainder of 2012’s top-five albums and the latter’s sonically understated “Somebody That I Used to Know” has earned more downloads than any other song thus far this year.
Pop singers are supposed to look like supermodels and pop songs aren’t supposed to feature xylophones. The very different Adele and Gotye achieved similar success because they succeeded in conveying a human feeling to the human listeners sick of machine soullessness. They connected.
The retro phenomenon isn’t limited to music. Nielson’s top-ten television programs include the revival of Hawaii Five-O, the 44-years-young 60 Minutes, and the 24th installment of the Bachelor/Bachelorette series. The top movie at the box office this week features the adventures of a caped crusader introduced in 1939. In the fashion world, the success of Mad Men has inspired a throwback Betty Draper look.
Culture implies growth, vitality. Teaming off the corpse of cultures long past suggests parasitic rot.
And if decay is where our creative community is at it is largely because our creative community resides in America, a nation living on the fumes of past glories as it puts its future further into debt. Borrowing, bailouts, and handouts indicate that people don’t want to put in the work. Art imitates life.
Creativity requires creation. Too many artists today take instead of make. So more and more consumers shut their eyes and ears to current and rediscover an old program on Hulu, flip a classic into the DVD player, and download yesteryear on iTunes. Technology isn’t the wave of the future but the undertow that drags us back into our past.
Dining on stale bread and generic mush isn’t a healthy diet. American moviegoers, television junkies, and music lovers consume what eats away at their humanity. Bad art is bad for you.
Is it any wonder that the public prefers the actual past to the borrowed present?
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn is the author of Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America. He blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (48) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 7.27.12 @ 6:56AM
Since when has "the past" been 2008?
My past remains the 1950s, and when I think of "classic" music I think of the music of the 1940s, not 2008. (I have a nice collection of 1950s 45 rpm records that includes a lot of early Elvis, Perry Como (!) and Pat Boone; it was sent to me by a slightly older cousin at some time in the late 1950s). As for the attempts to bring back the television programs and movies of the 1960s and early 1970s, in most cases this has failed. The movies made of The Beverly Hillbillies, The Lone Ranger and Lost in Space were abysmal failures, because they attempted to make serious movies out of things we liked because they were chintzy and bore no resemblance whatever to "reality" -- save that the characters in these silly situations were people like us. That's why I quit watching Doctor Who at the Sixth Doctor. I liked the old show with it's budget of $5.99, its zip front space suits, the shadows of microphones in the background, and the model space ships on strings travelling past a matte painting of space.
We have always had this with us and we used to call it "nostalgia" -- the longing for a world that never existed the way we think we remember it. If we got a chance to return to those days, we would find we really didn't like them that much.
Brookschwarzenegro | 7.27.12 @ 9:28AM
Rightist culture is hoisted on its own... well, you know.
You practically worship the past (i.e the '80s) but you are surprised America lives in the past?
You want everything commercialized, but you don't like it when music becomes over-processed, synthesizer and drum machine laden?
lsudolemite| 7.27.12 @ 9:53AM
And leftists are perpetually in thrall to a mid-19th century governing philosophy that has failed, and continues to fail, spectacularly around the world on an epic scale.
Brookschwarzenegro | 7.27.12 @ 10:08AM
But you love the 19th century; Reagan was a 19th century liberal.
C'mon, admit it, you guys live in the distant past- all the way back to 1776.
KennesawJack| 7.27.12 @ 10:32AM
Yes. We do. At the end of the day, the notion of the primacy of the individual over the collectivist State set forth by the Founders in 1776, will be re-established in this country and those who opted to support the tyranny of the State will go the way of all tyrants. You know, the Tree of Liberty being fed and all the rest of that drivel from 1776. It will be fun to watch.
Brookschwarzenegro | 7.27.12 @ 10:42AM
No, you are bluffing: you want the state to aid your kin, not someone else's.
The jig is up.
KennesawJack| 7.27.12 @ 10:52AM
You're whistling past the graveyard here, chump. No bluff at all. It's that old "Sic semper tyrannus" sort of thing. Never seems to go out of vogue.
Al Adab| 7.27.12 @ 11:54AM
I thought we all agreed that those guys in about 1776 to 1789 had some good ideas about how people could govern themselves. Has that consensus been replaced and with what?
KennesawJack| 7.27.12 @ 12:23PM
Al, apparently folks like Brookschwarzenegro (which, by the way, is a redundancy) seem to think it has been replaced with the glories of socialism imposed by a self-appointed (or is it "annointed"?) oligarchy. Go figure.
Al Adab| 7.27.12 @ 1:09PM
Yes, and the answer to "what happened to vitality?" is Political correctness. The centralized state stiffles ingenuity.
Brookschwarzenegro | 7.28.12 @ 10:33PM
"(which, by the way, is a redundancy)"
Schwartz means black specifically: some blacks are not black- they are lighter skinned. But here is the main issue, which Al Adab got to,
"I thought we all agreed that those guys in about 1776 to 1789 had some good ideas about how people could govern themselves. Has that consensus been replaced and with what?"
Yes, it has been replaced with compassionate conservatism, for one thing. But you take it from there.
paintbrush| 7.28.12 @ 9:45AM
Of course there is a retro phenomenon, liberal trendsetters in Hollywood, who constantly push the limits of egotism and degeneracy have become nothing more than a play thing in the hands of mass media, TV, the music industry, in which they continue to glamorize drug addicts, liberal Democrats, and mentally challenged people. The Political effort to take advantage of this cultural trend is hardly a coincidence.
PCC| 7.27.12 @ 7:31AM
Maybe it means the only people with money are over 40 years old.
Petronius| 7.27.12 @ 9:09AM
We have been accused of demanding only what we know by the chatterers on both left coasts for ages on top of their "other" complaints about the pedestrian bland orthodox tastes of us "rubes" here in flyoverland. But the audience does not manufacture their aural excrement and cinesewage. Devotees of iTunes and idiot lantern crave mere amusement over enlightenment because the latter requires effort even though attention over taxes them from the start. Entertainment is grounded in familiarity and proven predisposition. Content is never about what people want, but what they don't; being fooled or emotionally upset. The "easy chair" is for the mind more than the body. Stimulation, motivation, and other abnormal effects of cognitive thought are not welcome. And if this does not depress people enough, they can always drink heavily, while the more affluent can go see revivals of old Broadway musicals after fine dining. Producers know if their offerings do not end well, it's best not to start.
Brookschwarzenegro | 7.27.12 @ 9:35AM
"the pedestrian bland orthodox tastes of us "rubes" here in flyoverland."
I live in flyover country too, and Hollywood makes violent movies for us rubes; it makes movies such as Dumb and Dumber for us Dumb*sses who want a dumb movie about 'tards who travel to Aspen to chase gangster money.
Us rubes like to watch gangster movies, don't we? Rubes like Joe Pesci talking tough-- Robert Di Niro is admired in flyover country (the two go together like spagetti and tomato sauce).
Rubes may not like obscenity, but they sure like violence; they LOVE Clint Eastwood sayin':
"make my day, Punk!" And killin' the bastid.
Don't say rubes don't like Hollywood.
Rubes
Petronius| 7.27.12 @ 4:39PM
B
I know where there's a 3 Stooges DVD with your name on it at a flea market in K.C.
TLP| 7.27.12 @ 9:20AM
What happened to American Cultural Vitality?
Where ya wanna start?
The Immigration Act of 1965, or the 1986 Amnesty that Reagan agreed to, to his Eternal Shame?
How about Jimma Carter's Marianus Boat Lift, or the big Haitian influx on The Rapist's watch?
Now, we have a guy who was OBVIOUSLY, not born here, who Refuses to Enforce our Immigration Laws, wants them to Vote, and is Running Commercials, IN MEXICO, instructing ILLEGALS on how to get OUR Food Stamps.
And, yeah, I said OBVIOUSLY NOT BORN HERE.
That's what his Author Bio says, on one of his Sack a Sh*t Books. That's what his Aunt Patootie said. She said that she was there, IN KENYA, when The Beast was born.
That's why he has a CONNECTICUT Social Security Number, instead of a Hawaiian one.
That's why he won't release ANYTHING with his Place of Birth on it.
Not his Passport. Not his Medical Records. (And, NO, he never released them. He put out a SUMMARY. That's a HUGE difference)
He won't release any of his College paperwork.
Why not?
He won't release his Fullbright Scholorship Papers, because Fullbright has two different Scholarships. One for AMERICANS, and one for FOREIGNERS.
And, of course, there's the little detail concerning the OVER A MIILION $ he's spent, ensuring that these papers NEVER see the Light of Day.
And, why won't The LA TIMES release the Video of Khalid Rashidi's Going Away Party?
What is he Hiding, you Purp Types out there?
What's he Hiding, RCV? You're so smart.
WHAT IS HE HIDING?
Oldlaw| 7.27.12 @ 12:53PM
I have acquired a strong distaste for President Obama. I think many of his staff and cabinet officers should be tried and imprisoned.
Having said that, I would like to point out that Congress has interpreted in its statutes "native born" about 13 times. My granddaughter was born in Poland. She is eligible to become President of the US, because one of her parents is an American.
The current President's mother is an American and that is all that is required.
My granddaughter will make an excellent President. : )
Best,
Oldlaw
TLP| 7.27.12 @ 5:09PM
He was ADOPTED by his Muslim Stepfather in Indonesia.
Does that make him a Citizen of Indonesia?
And, while you're at it.
Why don't you explain to me why ANYBODY would seal these particular papers, in a Vault, on a Volcanic Island, in the Middle of the Pacific Ocean, and spend MILLIONS, keeping them locked away?
I'll wait.
TLP| 7.28.12 @ 2:56PM
I'm still waiting
TLP| 7.28.12 @ 5:41PM
I'm still waiting.
fulldroolcup| 7.28.12 @ 10:08PM
Adoption by a foreigner does not result in losing your American citizenship. It's well-established law.
Look: I agree the Preezy is a radical creep. But the attempts to say he's not "natural born" are just plain stupid. As Oldlaw says, "natural born" has been defined very broadly in a number of statutes. You could go and look them up!
MikeBee| 7.29.12 @ 6:21PM
The issue is not, was he born in the U.S. The issue is, who is his father? He looks a LOT more like the communist F. Davis, than like Obama Sr. Davis possessed photos of Obama's mother naked. Who, really, was his father?
Oldlaw| 8.1.12 @ 10:51PM
TLP,
Sorry for the delayed response.
I recently moved to Windows 7 and couldn't find my work. Then when I tried to post it here, it was too long by a factor of four. So I have arranged for it to appear on a website as a semi-private offering and you may see it here for a limited time:
http://www.voegelinview.com/na.....obama.html
Best wishes,
Oldlaw
THKrupp| 7.27.12 @ 9:27AM
Ive noticed this trend as well. When I was in high school everyone tended to listen to the same music. Usually music that was new or latest. I find that young people now cherry pick the best songs from whatever they like no matter what the age of the song. Theres also a lot of people that simply dont listen to what the corporate music business people are pushing. They are finding new music on the internet that isnt available on the radio or corporate backed. I find this trend refreshing. A good song or movie is simply good wether it was made in the 1950s,80s or 2012. People like what they like. The internet has democratized culture. If you have anything available that you want why would you stick with only what some board of directors wants you to see and hear?
doramin| 7.27.12 @ 11:23AM
I think you hit it on the nose there. YouTube and iTunes allow the kiddies to explore genres and artists across the spectrum and across the decades and pick what they like. No longer are tastes dictated by top40 or whatever is in the CD shops.
To give Rolling Stone its due I did come across an interesting article about what the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were listening to. Basically, it stated that there won't be a soundtrack to our current wars like there was for Vietnam because tastes are no longer dictated by the playlist of Armed Forces Radio. Everyone downloads their own playlist.
THKrupp| 7.27.12 @ 11:55AM
Exactly, I dont know if there is a mainstream culture anymore. Music genres are becoming very fragmented and specialized. For instance there is a genre called gangstergrass. Its bluegrass music combined with rap. Its very good. Im sure though that there is only a small section of people that will enjoy it so it will never be played on the radio or make some top 40 list. Culture is becoming more individualized. As they say..to each his own.
Petronius| 7.27.12 @ 5:13PM
I'd like to hear Jerry Douglas cover Lightning Hopkins. Or would Leo Kotke with a banter be closer to the mark? Bluegrass is real music. Rap is recitative set to a single stunted repetitive cadence which is totally numbing when those godawful bass transients are added to the mix. I cannot contemplate such a meld when what emanates from a Dobro in Kentucky is never in sync when that instrument is bottlenecked in Mississippi much less Manhattan along with a banjo and fiddle. But I will inquire of higher authority at our folk club.
Matthew Quigley| 7.27.12 @ 9:43AM
Let's look at it this way: Current fashion is for idiots (how much class is there in your pants hanging off your butt, or in looking like you never learned how to shower or to use a razor?), contemporary music is awful (rock and roll died when Aerosmith cut a piece with a rap outfit...and it was all downhill ever since), there hasn't been a GOOD movie made since the 1980's (hence all the re-makes, re-boots and sequels to movies which never should have been made to begin with--"Twilight," anyone?). We have a president who channels Hugo Chavez, television shows of unprecedented vacuity (the typical reality shows which infest every channel from broadcast to History make "Gilligan's Island" and "My Mother the Car" seem like grandly intellectual dramas written by Ibsen or Chekhov!), so why should we NOT look to the past for inspiration? Reagan was a truly great president, not a legend in his own mind, as is hussein...prior to the advent of hippies, people actually knew how to dress and bathe...and Pink Floyd, Warren Zevon and Led Zepplin actually made MUSIC! What the hell is there to actually LIKE about the second decade of the Twenty-first Century? Nothing that I can see! So I'll stick with my "Boss of the Plains" Stetson, my Don Edwards and Tex Ritter music, and watching DVD's of television past...at least that grants me some reprieve from rap, reality shows on TV and hussein in my face all the time.
THKrupp| 7.27.12 @ 12:07PM
The fashion you describe pretty much limited to hip hop fans. Thats not really a very good description of what all people wear. Here is a link to wikipedia compilation of the fashion trends for the decade of the 2000's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000–2009_in_fashion
As you can see theres a lot of different trends and only one portion is the hiphop subculture.
Petronius| 7.27.12 @ 5:23PM
We did have brief respites from the assaults of the Vulgarians with Shakespeare in Love and The King's Speech. I sympathize. Your post is redolent of the words of the late Orson Wells recording of The Begatting of the President after JFK's death. The most pointed body blow on that record was when he spoke of LBJ's taste, "where once we had Pablo Cassals, thou hast brought in Martha Raye."
The fact that we are now ruled by "the hippites, the yippites, and the sons of Eugene, (McCarthy)", says it all.
PolishKnight| 7.27.12 @ 10:10AM
When I go overseas, I often hear 80's music blaring over the radio of a local bus that appears to have been made in that decade. I hate to call 80's music "easy listening", but the music and style are simultaneously fun and relaxing. The same can be said for the 50's. At the time, I remember frustrated leftists comparing the Reagan era to the 1950's.
What the left "created" in culture was similar to what's been made in music: bland and unmemoriable. While leftists praise Clinton for the economy he enjoyed at the time, they have no idea of what he actually did. Nobody could make that mistake with Reagan. You could agree or disagree with Reagan, but you knew what he did.
So where am I going with this? The 1950's and early 60's (the conservative portion of which represented on madmen) represents a secret longing by the leftists who watch and write the show for the culture they helped destroy. Women back then dressed in a feminine manner that differentiated themselves, and were pleasing, to men and each other while still retaining dignity. Political correctness has stifled expression. Even as they attempt to show the evil 1950's (and early 60's) as repressive, the opposite comes out. People made funny jokes, got drunk in the office (not common back then, just on Madison Avenue!) but in many ways, it was a more free time.
Occam's Tool| 7.29.12 @ 12:04AM
Adele has a good voice, and a very pretty face. Gotye's song annoys.
I really like "Titanium." Sends chills.
All this being said, most of today's hits are machine pop crap. People download stuff that has lasting potential: among pop songs, Sturgeon's Law is cranked even higher: 99% of everything is crap. Therefore, things that have been hits for 30 to 40 years is downloaded preferentially.
Occam's Tool| 7.29.12 @ 12:08AM
I'm sorry: that should be "are downloaded..." damn.
Adele has a beautiful face and a full bosom. She looks like a fertility goddess.
Derek Leaberry| 7.27.12 @ 11:05AM
The American people are degraded and bask in immorality. The cultural collapse reflects that.
Ronsch| 7.27.12 @ 12:12PM
As an honest to G-D DJ, I can tell you on my show I very rarely, if ever, play the corporate canned music, or even new music. Rock and Roll as depicted nowdays is bland, boring, and just is no fun...Everyone has to preach some kind of message (usually of the left-wing type - I mean, really, she "kissed a girl and she liked it?" WTF?) Yes, I realize there was a lot of preachy music during the Vietnam Era too, but on a whole, I like "loud guitars, fast cars, wild wild livin" in my rock show.
tarby07| 7.28.12 @ 3:32PM
Sons Of Bill: check them out
Marie| 7.27.12 @ 12:19PM
I have noticed that current television shows are sticking in all kinds of progressive "talking points" in their dialogue these days. It's very sly. Shows like the Law and Order series, Rizzoli and Isles.
Libertyinfinite| 7.27.12 @ 1:01PM
It is because we are actually increasing in marxist control over our lives. The medias are tightening the screws down on us, & there is simply no room for music. So we go back to when we were more free, & listen to the music from then. We underestimate the power of marxist media control over us to our own demise. We don't even understand what a self governing nations medias aught to be, they aught to be watching our governments & keeping us informed. As their hold gets tighter, will will slowly choke to death. But at least we still have Metallica.
topcat52| 7.27.12 @ 1:25PM
I would just comment that singers never had to look like models, unless you think that Aretha Franklin and Joe Cocker would make a beautiful couple on the red carpet. Mama Cass and Meatloaf, anyone?
Drunken Sailor| 7.27.12 @ 4:24PM
That was then. Do you think any of them would have made it now? Can you name a successful current singer that doesn't try to look like a model? Hell even the heavy metal guys are doing it.
Petronius| 7.27.12 @ 5:27PM
Ted Nugent and Lady Gaga? Don't go there.
Bob Grant| 7.27.12 @ 11:00PM
In another era, Gaga's only chance at "stardom" would be working at a second-rate strip club. Washed up at thirty.
Today, she's the "Queen of Pop"....only in a Declining America could this happen.
We've gone from Ella Fitzgerald, Patsy Cline, Karen Carpenter, Ann Wilson, etc to .....this!!!
Petronius| 7.27.12 @ 5:31PM
Rene' Flemming and Justin...aaauuugh!
Bob Grant| 7.27.12 @ 10:34PM
There is a longing for entertainment from previous generations not just because the quality was superior but the political messaging, if any, was more subtle respectful of the audience.
I simply cannot pay attention to much of current pop culture because of the intrusive messaging, not just in shows, movies, and music, but in commercials.
Wherever you turn, you are bombarded with some agenda-driven message of some sort.
Current Comedy is the worst. Not only is much of it mean spirited, devoid of wit, full of not-so-original "irony" and sarcasm, it's just plain vulgar.
Whatever happened to simple observational humor, the kind Jerry Seinfeld, Jake Johannson, Steven Wright, Ellen De Generes, etc, used to perform? The subtle humor of the comedy legends? The TRULY edgy - and original - comedians from the past (Bruce, Pryor, Carlin, Hicks)?...and no, there is nothing original or genius about Dane Cook, Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, or Louis CK. Only anger.
Yea, I'm perfectly happy immersing myself in entertainment of the past, from a better time. Call me what you will.
Occam's Tool| 7.29.12 @ 12:07AM
That's why I like Stephen Wright.
But mostly, for humor, I listen to audiobooks of PG Wodehouse. Comparing Plum to these clowns is like watching Marciano in his prime tear into a 10th grader.
tarby07| 7.28.12 @ 3:22PM
Music- Sons Of Bill. New and good. Wholesome, American Rock 'N Roll!! Refreshing
ReaganConservative| 7.31.12 @ 2:24AM
I grew up the 1960's and 70's, and I wouldn't give 2 cents for the garbage they call Pop Rock & R&B Music, TV series, and Movies today..
Because they are just greedy non-creative phony producers, directors, and executive idiots who have no concept of what is good, and what is trash.
So what do they do, they rip off the great music, TV shows, and movies of yesterday, without understanding what and why they were so great to begin with.
When the Beatles and every other great music group and or artist make their great music, they used to make it with their own instruments, and voices.. Guitars, drums, brass and woodwind instruments, etc, and their raw singing and song writing talents is what they used. Not every artificial synthesizer available.. Tools are there to help that process, not be that process.. The same goes for TV shows and movies.
Thank Goodness for my experience and memories of knowing what I know what is truly great, was and still is truly great entertainment. The garbage that started in 1990 and til present day, is just that, garbage.
With this current generation of people who just don't get it, I truly feel sorry for them.