S

Reynolds discerned a combination of causes for this twenty-year renewal. “Two tendencies coalesce in revivals like this,” he wrote. “In one, people who were young during the period being celebrated reach middle age and experience pangs for the styles of their youth. In the other, a new generation becomes fascinated by the pop culture that prevailed when the generation was in its infancy. So the 80’s revival is driven in part by pure nostalgia and also by the more intriguing notion of nostalgia for something never lived through.” Although the revivals seem to turn up like clockwork, and therefore appear to be automatic, one might also suggest that they represent a longing for something different. It is notable that there was no ’40s revival in the ’60s (though there was something of a ’20s boomlet in mid-decade), and that each revival represents an infatuation with times noticeably different from the current one. Perhaps the safe, antiseptic ’50s looked

good to people of the early ’70s in the aftermath of the tumultuous ’60s; in the ’80s, with the country moving in the conservative direction of President Reagan, some people longed for the progressive times of the ’60s; in the complicated, morally confusing ’90s, the goofy ’70s days of platform shoes and disco sounded like fun; and by the ’00s, the ’80s stylistic extremes-the big hair of the metal bands, the heavily synthesized music-attracted people in a time of national challenge and reduced expectations.