TRENDS THAT WON'T GO AWAY
When we first see it, we assume it will be a passing fancy. Once you’re around a while, you begin to realize things tend to come and go as a new generation comes of age. But there are some things we THOUGHT were passing fads that have stuck with us decade after decade.
Some things, it seems, will NEVER go away.
I remember in the late 80s, predicting rap music was a passing fad. Rap music actually became a genre of its own, evolving to keep up with the times.
How many of you remember when reality TV began to take over TV as we knew it? One minute we were all tuning in for the latest game show the entire COUNTRY was watching…
The next moment we saw Darva Conger marry a millionaire on national TV, backing out of it a few days later. Then, without warning, the TV landscape EXPLODED with reality shows. Survivor, Big Brother, Fear Factor… Soon every cable network began producing reality shows.
An entire NETWORK was created to replay all of the reality shows out there. Soon we were bombarded with reality shows and wondering what happened to actors reading lines from a script. Was Ed Harris’s character in The Truman Show prophetic when he said, back in 1998, “We’ve become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions?” Was reality TV the new frontier?
No, we all said. It’s just a passing phase. Reality TV will last about a decade, then turn over in favor of “the next big thing.” Survivor premiered in 2000. Nine years ago. If reality TV is only to last a decade, it’d better die soon.
Reality TV isn’t going anywhere, folks. Not with the shows being so cheap to produce. Even I, who claim to never watch reality TV, will watch with half an eye as my boyfriend tunes into Mythbusters. And I usually watch with fascination at the pitches on Pitchmen (R.I.P. Billy Mays). Reality TV or documentary? Sometimes there’s a fine line…
Clothing trends definitely come and go but one trend I thought would be gone long ago was this one:
An urban legend circulated that this trend started in prisons as a way for one prisoner to let other prisoners know he was homosexual. Interesting, but not true. Snopes it. While it did get its start in the prison system, it had nothing to do with signaling homosexuality. Prisoners aren’t allowed to wear belts, combined with the fact that prison garb is often issued a couple of sizes too large. It’s a prison thing. Somehow that doesn’t make me feel better about it.
One trend that DID go away was that of teenage girls wearing low-rise jeans with high-rise thongs. That trend was replaced with the new trend of girls going sans underwear. (That’s gotta be uncomfortable in jeans!) I’m not sure what the trend is now, but I haven’t seen a “whale tail” in a while.
Okay, now it’s your turn. Name something YOU thought was a trend that appears to be here to stay?