Korea; 1950; a Hundred years ago
J.R. Hartley
So what has the past 8 weeks brought me? well the highs and lows, mostly lows but not terrifically low, so all is well! Exams for me are pretty much done and gone so i say fond farewells to those awful lot for this year, how great! (The only question left to ask is hows your lindy? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahoJReiCaPk )
Ahh speaking of the lindy, i have been immersed on the very early 20th century lately, i feel i'm stuck in about 1926, it's not even something that i have been doing on purpose, so that brings to me a question i have been toying with in my mind, why do people like the stuff they like... thats the blunt, short way of putting it, to elaborate i would state;
"Do individuals stick with popular culture because they were brought up gradually with the media and fashion around them, would they like other pop culture items from other points in our history if they were brought up with it?"
This actually is a really easy question to answer, and its almost Darwinian and Freudian in its answer; We are products of our environments and 99.9% percent of the time we adhere to that, but then i struggle when i come the exception of me and one or two others i have met, now this is not to say that i am the only person in this generation to know of things from the previous generation, i mean it in that me and the two other people i have met do not like the fashions and music of this generation at all... we all have a code when speaking to friends that if they play shit music and they ask us about it we always say " yes i could listen to this but its not something i would search for myself" or actually this is ok i guess... that is code for please turn it off...
yes back to my point, i just want to contrast the two generations now to examine why someone could not like the things of today is the question i next try to answer...
A wise man once said, Art is never Static, Art changes with time, with grace, with different conjures and interests. - Because of this i ask myself the question (While watching back to the future) how the fucking hell did we get from Bobby Soxers in poodle skirts having had their best boy take them the malt shop to listen to the NEW Elvis record. Coming forwards to 2013 To pretty much odd sods with Korean Pop music, sexually explicit lyrics, odd haircuts that would make a hedhog think twice about an attack and all while wearing their faux 1960's clothes from Top Man or Primark... or even worse, the dreaded nylon tracksuit with branding ablaze.
Now those comparisons are not to say one music or fashion taste is better than the other, no it is to question how we got from this
To this...
These were not the best, nor the worst photos i found, nor do the describe the generation fully - how i personally see it- but i couldnt find photos on how exactly people dress today. but you get the gist right? how come the bring contrast?!
I am not going to go into some massive debate about it because you, dear reader, know where my loyalties lie.
Now i can understand some reasons for change, like moving away from suits to tracksuits, thats because sometimes suits are just not practical but does this mean we should not wear suits just because its easy not to? i think not! whatever happened to wanting to really put some effort into your appearance, suits should be the social norm... for men anyway.
Now for women, yes you can wear trousers, i can understand why many have moved away from dresses and skirts, i can understand that, you can look good without them but please do not even consider buying strappy tops please...
Why can't we go back to a time where men wore suits, nice hats, brylcreemed their hair, drank during the day as alcohol was everywhere, most men smoked good cigarettes... Like these guys
Women had pale white make up, ruby red lips and hair like Peggy pee or Rita (see below) - and yes you can have trousers but i much prefer skirts... just make sure you look respectable!
This post really has lost its venom but it cannot be helped, i promise dear reader to try and be more frequent in my updates.
the next one will be my views on the Woolwich killing.
All the best, feel free to comment.
Oh one last thing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqsT4xnKZPg