Eleven Year Cycle
From doktorsleepless
Even a cursory observation will reveal that culture shifts and changes over time, particularly music, with trends and movements occurring as similar acts emerge at around the same time. It has been observed that during the latter half of the twentieth century some of the most important of these movements occurred at fairly regular eleven year intervals, providing defining trends as well as cultural markers. This time period presumably reflects the time taken for each movement to permeate the culture, for creators to work through the ideas suggested by each movement and the time for a new "generation" of musicians to emerge, digesting previous trends and wanting to start their own. (n.b. obviously huge amounts of musical fluctuation happen between these key points and many genres keep trundling along and changing at their own pace.)
The years:
1955- the dawn of Rock 'n' Roll
1966- Psychedlia, the heart of the Sixties
1977- Punk explodes
1988- Aciiiiiiiiiid
This cycle seemed to disappoint upon the arrival of 1999. There are two possible interpretations of this, both of which are relevant to the themes of Doktor Sleepless in regards to what we ought to expect from the future and what we end up getting:
Anachronesis
Nothing is new. It's all been done. The best you can hope is to recombine various elements of the past. We have entered the Long Now and are doomed to repeat the same trends forever.
While it can seem this way upon observing mainstream culture, the alternative interpretation is far more promising.
Micro-Movements
Thanks to modern communications technology ideas can travel back and forth across the world in such a short amount of time that mini-scenes can develop very rapidly. Rather than relying on cultural movements building up enough momentum to break through into mainstream culture smaller groups of creators can rally together, regardless of location, creating their own trends and movements.
Rather than living in a perpetual Now we are living in the briefest of eras where the Next New Thing is only around the corner, if you're prepared to look.
"You live in The Future and don't even know it."
Related
Sunday Hangover- Tilt into the future. Or get the eternal past you deserve
Blissblog- Arctic Monkeys and Anachronesis
