Thursday, September 1, 2011

And Batman Wept: Farewell, 1980s – Hello, 1990s Grunge!

Since ancient times, philosophers have said there comes a point in each man’s life when he must set aside 1980s nostalgia and take up 1990s nostalgia... 

...a time to set aside the dark thing spawned in March 1986 (when DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries gave us an unstable, troubled, hybrid reality – supplemented that same year by grim Watchmen and myriad Dark Knights – that truly died yesterday in Flashpoint #5, after twenty-five years of identity crises)...

...a time to let a new generation wrestle with profound cultural questions such as “So, wait, does Flashpoint #5 mean that Earths 0, 13, and 50 are no longer part of the multiverse?”...

...a time to let the young relish the return of body armor and bad attitudes (under the guidance of iconic 90s artist Jim Lee)...

...a time to stop beating punk, indie-folk, and the neo-New Wave thing to death (just as I was getting a handle on them) and admit that a quasi-grunge revival may already be at hand if the recent Red Fang and the enduring Fu Manchu (who Dave Whitney likes) are any indication...

...time to nod with understanding as news arrives that Cameron Crowe has a documentary out in three weeks called Pearl Jam Twenty in honor of that now-ancient band’s anniversary...

...time to pray I will be hip enough for the Williamsburg folk when I host bar events there this fall.  (Is it hip once more to tell them I almost moved to Seattle instead of Manhattan back in September 1991?)

Maybe the truly pop-savvy thing to do would be just to prepare now, biding my time, for the neo-Strokes revival nine years hence

P.S. Do we have to do “world music” again in a few years, or can we skip that since it was never a coherent genre?  This is an important trad-hip question that works on multiple levels, like Batman weeping for a lost world.

P.P.S. On the other hand, the Justice League now including Cyborg and fighting Darkseid does sort of smack of the mid-80s “Super Powers” version of the Super-Friends TV show.  No, no – best not to think in those terms.

2 comments:

Jacob T. Levy said...

Does it qualify as symbolic that on the day of the DC relaunch I set foot in Seattle for the very first time?

Todd Seavey said...

You should totally check out a Harvey Danger show, man. In retrospect, I think "Flagpole Sitta" is one of the best alternative rock songs of all time.