Replacing the Old With..the Same Thing? (Montrell Wiley)

Have you ever obsessed over something or even someone only because of the current cultural climate and influences? Well, even if your answer is no, you probably have but never noticed or thought about it that way. Today's media includes all sorts of spreadable media that fall under what British cultural critic and theorist Raymond Williams would define as cultural practices. These practices include emergent, dominant, residual, and archaic cultural practices that each have various distinctions. Media can sort of hop through each of these categories and can sometimes be difficult to distinguish which one it is in during current times, especially if that form of media has "changed" into something similar which we will get to later.

When I think about all of the things that I am interested in, I don't usually think of what sort of category those interests lie in. After reading about Williams's theories, I got to get a clear idea of how culture and media change throughout its "life cycle". Media can have a roller coaster like fluctuation between each category. It can come from being the dominant cultural practice to becoming fully archaic with little to no use to society. I sat back and examined a few things that I find interesting or things that I collect, and started figuring out the patterns of their relevance to the world.

Before jumping into an example, it's important to remember that people enjoy certain media for a myriad of reasons. Sometimes that reason can be a selfish one, where they only enjoy it if no one else does, but there are also those who only like things because everyone else likes it. Those are the two most likely reasons, but people can definitely like something because they generally like it as well.

One thing that I find interest in in everything is aesthetics. It is hard to pin down what exactly is seen as aesthetic, but it certainly seems to fall in certain categories. I would say that something aesthetic is usually a residual piece of media, that brings a feeling of a different time or space than one wouldn't normally see. This would include Polaroid cameras that give a vintage feeling or a rainbow sitting atop a mountain that gives a sense of wonder. As far as cultural objects, I own a pair of finger-less gloves that, unless you are in the 1990's blasting that new Nirvana album, you wouldn't normally see anymore. To me it's a throwback to grunge and punk culture that isn't as prevalent anymore, becoming archaic. Although, one could argue that that culture has not gone away but has transformed into something similar, giving a more residual effect. An example of this would be artist Lil Uzi Vert or artist XXXTentacion seeing as their style of music and audience give a reformed punk culture vibe.



So, it's arguable that Punk culture has more or less become molded into something different to fit current times and cultural practices, and has become residual. But, what happened to the old culture of punk/grunge? Has that itself become archaic and replaced by a newer version of it? Or are they both the same thing, and the old punk has become residual? I think that in fact the older version is long gone and has been replaced by this newer version, even though they seem to be the same thing. I find this interesting that a culture can be replaced by a culture that was born from and influenced by that same culture, leaving the old behind. Sure there are still punk bands that follow the original spec of a punk band, but they certainly aren't as dominant as they used to be in the 1990's.

With this reformed version of old ideas comes cultural consequences. Simon Reynolds, the author of Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past (2011), would certainly argue that this form of recollection media is hindering our need to branch out into original ideas. "Reynolds is concerned that, in a world where vintage music can be increasingly recovered instantaneously through YouTube or file-sharing services such as BitTorrent, less incentive exists for audiences to seek out distinctive new sounds or for musicians to explore new directions. Instead, musicians imitate their predecessors and engage in retro stylings." (Spreadable Media, p.98) What we end up doing instead of coming up with new ideas is simply renovating past ideas to fit modern cultural standards.

It is arguable that we actually have no choice in the matter of doing this. Every time someone comes up with an idea, there's such a low chance of it being completely original given that someone else in the past has already tried that. I don't think that it is such a bad thing to renovate older forms of media and create your own image attached to it. It's like turning an old suit of armor that has zero relevance to today's military and adding photon cannons (kind of like Iron Man). I for one certainly believe that would still get the job done.