I just finished this article for the paper at school. I actually really liked it, so I feel like posting it here. I wish every article I write for various papers could be this fun...
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Bell-bottom pants.

Neon.

Snap bracelets.

Acid-washed jeans.

“Like, totally radical, man.”

Sound familiar?

If any of it does – and it’s likely that at least one or two of the above items do, provided you’ve been paying attention for the last two or so decades – then you, along with the bulk of contemporary culture, know at least a thing or two about fads.

What can be called a fad? Tons of silly books, TV shows, movies, toys, and clothes with little to no staying power come and go each year. A few, though, manage to retain enough public interest and affection to come back in some form again and again, even after their “shelf life” has expired, in spite of the expiry often perhaps being for the best (anyone remember Vanilla Ice?). Usually, this interest is really people acting their deep-seated attachment to certain things – music, for one – because of its significance in their own lives at one time or another. There are a whole slew of revoltingly bad 80s “power ballad” songs that starry-eyed Gen-Xers danced to at their high school proms, for example, that have been immortalized on far too many “best of…” CD collections and AM radio stations for my own personal comfort. Do the one-time prom kings and queens care that “Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx makes my ears bleed? Nope. And why should they? It’s, uh, beautiful to them, and, really, that’s what matters.

Fads often remind people of a time when life was simpler. Take, for example, a favorite TV show or movie which saw an individual through a significant or long period in their life. I’m sure tons of stay-at-home mothers hold deep-seated attachments to “General Hospital” and “Judge Judy” for just that reason. If the reader will permit a bit of a personal digression at this point, I have a similar attachment to “Roseanne” – my personal favorite sitcom from the 80s (or any time, really) ever. Yes, the show often descended into the realms of vulgar and tacky. Yes, nine seasons was a bit of overkill. And yes, they switched the actress in the role of Becky Connor halfway through and then back again for no apparent reason. But I didn’t, and don’t care. I grew up with the Connors every evening at 8 PM, and later, during high school, ever afternoon after school. I wanted an Aunt Jackie and a sister like Darlene and a hilariously crazy grandmother like Bev. In my case, hindsight was most definitely 60/40.

Fads are often a totally potent form of self-expression, regardless of how mass-produced they might have seemed to less fortunate “outsiders”. I guarantee you that at least ten people reading this now fervently believed that owning parachute pants and a snap-on metal bracelet (with gender-appropriate cartoon characters, of course) was their key to fame, self-awareness, social success and life management at the age of eleven. Who else remembers how important it seemed, at the age of eight, to own an Atari computer or original Nintendo console that took up half the living room table and held less memory than your pocket calculator does today? The sweaty, nacho-cheese and Cherry Cola - filled afternoons around a dimly-lit terminal or video game station reeked of real social success more than a trip to the local library (or a bar of soap among you all, for that matter) ever would. And when six of your buddies were all wearing identical Ninja Turtles underwear and watches, or argyle sweaters and carrying unicorn purses, you could rest easy knowing that your esteemed status as an individual expressing yourself in a socially acceptable manner was golden for the moment.

Mind you, I’d rather not be called a shallow and frivolous column writer just yet. Fads still ran the gamut of social classes and types, and, in their own way, contributed to social change. Remember the crazy idea that women could, like, maybe vote, too? Or the notion that people couldn’t be bought and sold as slaves anymore? What began as a series of fads among like-minded people eventually caught on to the point where it became a serious progression toward social justice in action. To use a less extreme and more timely example, who had ever heard of female CEO’s or male schoolteachers until half a century or so ago? If we simply must get back to the clothing argument (it’s probably the most fun in terms of analogies, though, huh?), who had ever heard of girls wearing blue jeans or boys getting their eyebrows waxed until the last twenty-five years or so? Fads aren’t always short-lived, vapid, and regrettable affairs of neon and Spandex. Sometimes they lead towards more substantial things that only may have to include music by Cyndi Lauper and Madonna.

In general, fads are a part of our love affair with a seemingly perfect past. We may not be able to travel back to high school days where we’ve conveniently forgotten about things like gym class and having to take math tests, but we most definitely have access to the things that made the time there special to begin with. Music, clothes, and other types of fads from our personal bygone eras will be with us as long as we like – and, really, who cares if that patchwork peasant dress or barracuda jacket looked way better on the rack at the nearest Goodwill? Last year’s fad is just the not-yet-discovered “in” thing for next summer, anyway, so really, the joke’s on all the other losers out there.

Like, totally radical, man.