Where Do We Go From Here?

In their latest issue, the magazine Vanity Fair addresses a topic which, for many reasons, is close to my own heart. They write that during the 20th century, there were dramatic differences in the cultural landscape - art in most of its forms, music, fashion, etc. over 20-year periods. Thus the outward appearance of our world and our peoples could be distinctly recognized as belonging to a particular era. A person living in 1952 could not be confused, for example, with a person of the era of 1932, at least not in a photograph or on film. Likewise, the image of a person living in 1972 could be immediately distinguished from a person esconsed in 1992.


However, over the last 20 years - 1992 to 2012 - there are very few perceptible differences in the outward appearance of popular style and culture, despite the vast leaps in technology and science. It is as if we are stuck in a groove of a culture and constantly looking to the past, rather than trying to create a new future.



In fact, the look of today goes back even further than 1992. Even in the mid to late 1980s, the way we dressed and the kind of culture we consumed was not that different from today. Believe me, I was there. There are of course several advantages to this. For me, this means that I can wear clothes that I bought in the early 1990s or even a few treasured garments that I purchased in the early 1980s, and not look old-fashioned. A friend said to me a few years ago, "You've been wearing leggings for the last 100 years and now they're finally in fashion". But even better than this - my clothes, and even some of my shoes, are interchangeable with those of my children, who are now in their mid-20s, both son and daughter - or at least they would be, if my children were not so much taller than me.


This leads to the inescapable conclusion that people in their mid-20s must have been wearing much the same clothes for all of their lives. When I was growing up in my teens, fashion literally changed every season and two years was a long time in the life of a pair of trousers (figuratively speaking of course, as the trousers themselves wouldn't have lasted that long when I was that age). Skirt hems went up and down like the stock market and you needed to be very much on the ball to keep up with the times. Over the last few decades, though, I have been unable to ascertain much diversity in the way we dress - which in a way makes it kind of boring, but at the same time provides a security that was missing before.


In addition to wearing almost the same clothes, I am able to listen to and appreciate much the same music, and have a similar taste in films, art and other popular culture, including social networks, as my children. You would think that this would lead to a better understanding with each other. When I was growing up, there was much talk of the "generation gap". It's a long time since I heard that concept made reference to. Everybody's doing the same thing now. However, despite all living in the same world, being on the same page and all being on Facebook together, clashes between family members still seem prevalent - perhaps it never did have anything to do with taste and culture.


Vanity Fair mentions that back in the 1960s, everything looked and sounded perpetually new, new, new. I can remember this very well. Even I, as a small child during this time (I was 10 in 1969) was highly aware of the general need for shock and constant change. Truly perpetually, it seemed, something new was happening. For a child looking for security and continuity, it felt to me as if the ground were constantly being whipped away from underneath my feet. It didn't help, of course, that my own parents had moved from Calcutta to London when I was just under four years old. Seeking some kind of firm basis in my new London life, I remember worrying most of the time about everything - from topics as diverse as long hair on men to the outbreak of the Third World War. Are they going to destroy everything? Will they take away all our good values? were thoughts which constantly passed through my mind.


Nostalgia for past cultures started suddenly in the early 1970s. I used to read the teenage magazine Jackie at this time - I had to save up for it and buy it from my own pocket money, as my parents considered it too modern. They bought me the girls' magazine Princess Tina each week (or at least they did until I won a national art competition and the prize was a year's supply of two magazines - which was when I started paying for magazines for the family) - even though Princess Tina itself had undergone a radical facelift in the early 1970s, becoming almost unrecognizable in order to keep up with the times and revamp itself from the 1950s into the future.


In Jackie, I distinctly remember a cartoon in which the Jackie girl's cat was looking into the Jackie girl's wardrobe and musing: "1971: the 1920s, 1972: the 1930s, 1973: the 1940s, 1974: the 1950s, 1975: the 1960s, 1976: ???" Could it in fact be, that after circa 1975 we had simply done almost everything and just kind of ran out of ideas?


The point is, if we are to move on, and get out of this groove that we have been stuck in for the last 25 years or so, where should we go to? Haven't we kind of tried everything already (particularly in the 20th century)? Not only have we done it, but we've also gone back and done it again. And sometimes, we've done it a third time. Over the last couple of years, my son has become a Beatles fan. He keeps asking me why I'm not. "But you grew up in the 1960's", he insists. "They were right there". But actually they weren't. By the time I had become aware of music, the Beatles were already old-fashioned, as were mini-skirts, smoking pot, really long hair on men and flower power. The popular culture was so volatile and there was still so much to do, and to be done, people were racing ahead trying to do it all immediately. Did they use it all up?


Despite having an Ipod, an Ipad, a PSP, a laptop, a computer, a smartphone and round-the-clock access to the Internet, my son's birthday wish was an old-fashioned record player, which I bought him and mistakenly called a gramophone. He now only buys "vinyl" (we used to call them LPs), whether second-hand or new. He can't explain why, or rather, doesn't need to, he says. It's obvious.


Back in the 1960s, we were all going to be wearing sleek silver unisex suits in the future. The clothes were body-hugging and looked a lot like leggings and good quality sweatshirts. You might find something similar at the Gap or Esprit. But we've done all that now. And cars - I think we've got those down to a pretty cool number now. Except for flying cars, of course, I am still waiting for those. As for music and art - we seem to have reverted to art that actually depicts and reflects the subject in a recognizable way, rather than the bizarre and abstract representation of the 20th century, and music is once again melodious and acceptably so.


So where are we going? Are we going to move on, or are we just going to stay here for a while longer? Does this portend the slow demise of our culture as we know it, as Vanity Fair suggests? For myself, I wouldn't mind a bit more of this stability for a while. But it would be a shame for the younger generations not to be able to participate in cultural innovations such as they used to be.