happy. The desire to conform never fully went away, and became a permanent aspect of popular culture after this. What was once something for some to do and others to watch morphed into what it is now. Everyone participates, everyone watches, everyone wants to fit in.
The psychedelic sixties were home to counterculture and phone-booth stuffing. This bizarre activity works like it sounds, people tried to fit as many people into one phone booth as possible. This activity promoted the lack of material culture for this decade, if fun could be had sticking many people into a small public space, then the materialistic desire which cluttered the fifties was not needed. The small activity increased as counterculture became more and more the current culture, along with other minor fads which relied on the use of public space or experiences, things like drugs or music festivals. While the rejection of a materialistic was killed by the same generation that created it, the communality of trends can still be seen. Many trends tend to be based on the experience of it performing an action now, very little to no outside additions needed.
The main bizarre trend found in the seventies was the fad of pet rocks. These easy to care for pets began as a joke, but soon developed into a craze. The main draw was that a rock with googly eyes did not need to be cared for, which assists in increasing the detachment shown in this decade. The seventies could roughly be viewed as a return after the sixties, but the aspects of popular culture that arose to trends caused a near apathy. The rock which no one had to care for, but anyone could have, was a perfect conduit for these feeling to come out into the open during this generation. While this level of apathy is often joked about, it has not truly been seen again, but it has been too short a time to claim that no lasting effects of seventies pop culture will not show up.
The eighties had the worst trends of any trends in all of history, the mullet. While this terrible hair style says a lot about people’s taste in style, it says little about the culture. It hints at the promotion of duality, but it is too soon to tell exactly what in 1980s culture the mullet embodied. An educated guess however, would suggest that it augmented the professional atmosphere, essentially bringing it down into a more casual zone, along with the rest of eighties’ culture. By creating a relaxed work environment, the mullet essentially assures its survival, and made the idea of the eighties career man a permanent fixture in most films of the era or homages to it. This environment faded with the rest of the eighties, and pure corporate America returned.
The nineties saw the birth of grunge. This style of music was a fusion of rock and metal born in Seattle. Grunge was the voice of a generation, and, when they grew old enough to speak for themselves, it faded away. Grunge voiced the struggles and feelings of the nineties to a tee. Whether or not it followed the emotion or created it cannot yet be said, along with in potentially lasting effects of this beautiful music, as little time has passed between then and the present in the grand scheme of things.
Bizarre American trends have been a part of America since before they easily could exist. These trends bring forth the qualities of people in them that are lying dormant. They actualize what people hope, and make it a reality by making it common. In that way these trends are integral parts of their respective decades, and modern trends serve more functions than getting baby boomers annoyed with the young kids. Trends can leave lasting impacts, like most of the ones discussed in this paper, or can simply fade away into obscurity, like the use of the Walkman or even portable CD player. Each trend was truly a wacky part of history, but, with a nation as complex and diverse as America, trends have to be weird for everyone to give them attention. Besides, there are worse things to do than hunker with friends or die a little inside when one of them dabs.
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