Retromania; Pop Culture's Addiction to its own Past [Notes]

REYNOLDS, Simon, 2011, Retromania; Pop Culture's Addiction to its own Past, London, Faber and Faber

All quotes are from the aforementioned source, unless other wise stated.

'the avant-garde is now the arriére-garde'

'not only has their never before been a society so obsessed with its immediate past, but there has never before been a society that is able to access this immediate past so easily and copiously'

The increasing meticulous documentation of events through online platforms make digital 'time travel' a likely tool of the near future, there are examples of this already happening such as the ability to view old caches of websites using the Internet Archive or the Google Earth feature that allows users to view historical versions of the street view. I would suggest systems could be put in place to allow future users to experience past 'digital events' in real time… for example if they wish to browse the internet as though it were 2012 and watch social media react to the Olympics.

'Nostalgia as both word and concept was invented in the seventeenth century by physician Johannes Hofer to describe a condition afflicting Swiss mercenaries on long tours of military duty. Nostalgia was literally homesickness, a debilitating melancholy, anorexia, even suicide.'

Nostalgia is associated with both conservatism and radicalism.

Restorative nostalgia involves a displeasure with the new and unfamiliar, with a wish to restore things to an older form (ranging from protest to actual violent action). The sentiment is generally brewed in a crowd or community.

Reflective nostalgia is more personal, and is often expressed through art, music or other creative enterprises. Reflective nostalgia understands that the past cannot be regained, and is content with misty-eyed remembrances. 

'The last few years of the 2000s witnessed a spasm of hipster-hate, with a spate of magazine critiques of hipsterdom as pseudo-bohemia. These articles were then followed by meta-critques examining the phenomenon of hipster-phobia itself, invariably pointing out that nobody would ever voluntarily describe themselves as a hipster, and that hipster-haters themselves usually fit the profile of the hipster very closely.'

.Reynolds compares nostalgia to 'Chris Farley syndrome', referring to a sketch in which Farley conducts an embarrassing interview with Paul McCartney asking questions such as 'D'ya remember Beatlemania? Because that was awesome.'

.Reynolds makes draws a comparison to the 'I Love the [Decade]' TV programs, which involve commentators, guests etc 'parroting' the actual content mindlessly.

.Reynolds also makes the conclusion that the chaotic community of Youtube is similar.

Distance and delay have eroded… users may instantly access a huge variety of movies, songs and other media.

.High-street stores are pressured to sell old stock at lower prices, to make room for new items

- online alternatives have no such pressure and can sell older products at a consistent price indefinitely. 

.(conversely, in a digital realm there are no 'rare items' that attain a greater value over time)

'Attention deficit is the name of this condition, but like so many dysfunctions under late capitalism, the source of the disorder is not internal to the sufferer, not his or her fault; it's caused by the environment, in this case the datascape. Our attention is dispersed, tantalised, teased.'