Pop culture is closely related to popular fads and trends; trends have a long term effect while fads are short lived. In our culture today, fads have become increasingly relevant and there are usually numerous fads at one time; however, trends are less likely and are often not emphasized as much as fads. The culture before 2000 had many trends most recognizably focusing on fashion and music. These trends have lasted for countless years and are still pretty relevant especially compared to the fads from 2000 on. These fads from the 2000s have often lasted a few weeks or a couple seasons for clothing yet none of them have made a permanent change or impact on society thus far. Our culture is always constantly excited for the next big thing; for example once the IPhone 6 appears on markets everyone will forget about the IPhone 5 and will often consider its capabilities inferior to those of the new IPhone. During the time current high school students have grown up fads have come and gone very quickly.
Do you remember tamagotchis, the virtual pets that people used to play with for hours on end? Or do you remember how cool crocs were and that everyone owned at least one pair? However, one of my most memorable fads was webkinz, the stuff animal pets that you could play with on the internet to try to win money to buy an amazing house and the biggest and most important competition was to have the most pets? Webkinz used to cost around $15; now people can buy them at the dollar store for $3. It is incredible how quickly this fad died and how the company basically faded away in a couple of years.
One more recent example of a fad was 2048; the objective was to combine tiles until you reached the number 2048. This game took over the whole world; everyone one was so obsessed that they downloaded it onto their phones in hopes that the extra practice would lead to them achieving the tile 2048. However, after a month of this game becoming popular everyone virtually stopped playing. Some people may have won the game; however, others like me had simply lost interest and wanted something else that was exciting to do. These fads cannot even compare to the impact that trends from the 20th century had on the current culture. People still listen to Bohemian Rhapsody which came out 38 years ago and they are able to sing every single word in the song without missing a beat. Moreover, every child still knows the game Pac Man that came out in 1980; different versions of the game come out all the time.
Why it that there are fewer trends today than there is was in the past century? Clothing designers such as Betsey Johnson had to file for bankruptcy and are currently trying to reinvent their whole clothing line. The whole world has become about current fads. If there are no trends, what will future generations remember about us other than our love for technology and globalization? There will be barely any signature trademarks from this time despite all the excitement in our lives.
Do you remember tamagotchis, the virtual pets that people used to play with for hours on end? Or do you remember how cool crocs were and that everyone owned at least one pair? However, one of my most memorable fads was webkinz, the stuff animal pets that you could play with on the internet to try to win money to buy an amazing house and the biggest and most important competition was to have the most pets? Webkinz used to cost around $15; now people can buy them at the dollar store for $3. It is incredible how quickly this fad died and how the company basically faded away in a couple of years.
One more recent example of a fad was 2048; the objective was to combine tiles until you reached the number 2048. This game took over the whole world; everyone one was so obsessed that they downloaded it onto their phones in hopes that the extra practice would lead to them achieving the tile 2048. However, after a month of this game becoming popular everyone virtually stopped playing. Some people may have won the game; however, others like me had simply lost interest and wanted something else that was exciting to do. These fads cannot even compare to the impact that trends from the 20th century had on the current culture. People still listen to Bohemian Rhapsody which came out 38 years ago and they are able to sing every single word in the song without missing a beat. Moreover, every child still knows the game Pac Man that came out in 1980; different versions of the game come out all the time.
Why it that there are fewer trends today than there is was in the past century? Clothing designers such as Betsey Johnson had to file for bankruptcy and are currently trying to reinvent their whole clothing line. The whole world has become about current fads. If there are no trends, what will future generations remember about us other than our love for technology and globalization? There will be barely any signature trademarks from this time despite all the excitement in our lives.