Retro revivals genuinely diversify present-day cultural understanding

Evidence

While there are complaints that retro distracts us from inventing the future, the fifties, teds, folk, psychedelic, punk, and eighties revivals have succeeded in diversifying culture. These movements enabled us to inhabit past sensibilities, which transformed many transient relics into valuable artifacts for sincere enjoyment. “Only when a psychedelic revival occurred in pop culture during the late Eighties,” writes music critic Ian MacDonald, “did The Beatles’ records start to make emotional sense to their young descendants.” Despite the irony and cynicism at the heart of retro, our revisiting of past styles allows a greater diversity of human understanding and experiences in the present. If the past is a foreign country, retro has been a useful passport. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 680

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Older conventions get chosen because they lower social risk — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 646; Retro revivals produce weak derivatives consumers bypass for originals. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 780; Culture, unlike science, can always revisit superseded conventions for value — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 685 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Cultural analysis must trace routes of transformation rather than roots of continuity #complicates (0.78)
• Trend forecasters can deliberately seed aesthetic revivals that retroactively define eras #expands (0.75)