recycled culture: the sin of skinny jeans

I am not sure how this happened. but it did.

At some point it seems that instead of continuing to create and develop a unique and original culture we just decided to take the things that "worked" in the past and reuse them in a modern day setting.... while I approve of some of this cultural carry-over, there is an extensive list of things that have become zombified only to attach itself to the youth of the day like some kind of flesh eating virus.

Some things withstand the test of time....

- classical music
- classic rock
- most fashion from the 1960's
- good food and drink
- motorcycles
- three piece suits
-  etc, etc, etc

and the list continues..

Then there is Recycled Culture which includes things were at some point dead and then raised from what should have been their eternal slumber...

- skinny jeans
- most fashion from the 1980's and early 90's

and more importantly, there is a sub-category of recycled culture that includes:

- movie re-makes
- books made into movies
- the 3-5 part movie series
- cover songs
- chain restaurants & coffee shops

basically anything that has become an acceptable substitute for originality and innovation, not in and of themselves bad.. until they begin defining the culture they are in.

This is the main difference between things that have persisted and things that have been recycled.  The things that have persisted stand on their own as great pieces of our culture.  They need no modification in order to remain beautiful and innovative... the Mona Lisa does not need a boob job.

Recycled culture declares Mona Lisa not relevant enough and instead of creating a new piece of art to represent the times, she is instead photoshopped and airbrushed until deemed appropriate.  Or else she is declared good as is, and cheap copies of her are made and circulated to the masses taking away from her uniqueness and beauty... but at such an affordable price!

boy bands were created, Starbucks and Caribous arrived on ever corner, the karate kid is now instructed by Jackie Chan, skinny jeans are worshiped by kids born in 1997, and we already know how the story ends long before the credits are rolling....

Why is this important?  We are becoming a culture.. a generation...  that is being defined by cheap remakes of original beauty.  We are limiting our potential by remaining entrenched in a recycled culture, and if this remains satisfactory it will likely become a cycle that is even more difficult to break free from in the future.  We embrace familiarity through cheap imitation and call it something new and in doing so convince ourselves that we are moving and creating when, really, we are feeding our laziness and comfort.  Why get up and move when we can pay to have the world move around us?

... or at least appear as though it is.