Dinosaurs! Ancient creatures. Nobody alive today has seen such a thing. And yet, they are still a HUGE topic of discovery. In fact, a new dinosaur was actually just discovered a few weeks ago in Argentina.
But even things as "old" as floppy discs from the '90s seem ancient to us now. And those were only 30 odd years ago.
That brings me to the topic of the blog for this week: time. No, we aren't talking about dinos or floppy discs (sorry to disappoint). We are talking about how things that are popular at one time or another either die with the times or resurface another day.
Raymond Williams, a Welsh socialist writer, actually has names for these things...
Archaic
Residual
Dominant
Emergent
The archaic stuff is like the floppy discs. Popular one day, but as new technology emerges we lose purpose or interest in those things.
The residual stuff is like vinal records. They come and go. The overall populations' interest in these things peaks and falls every few years or so. Right now, people love the idea of living in the past so the vinal records and record players are back in business...for now...
Dominant things are like Pokeman or dinosaurs. Things that will always have (or have continued to have) sway on people because the major population either is or isn't interested in it at the time. This is like when Pokeman Go was a big thing, but now if Jerry asks to go to the park for his Poke-stops everyone looks at him crazy. Or when Jurassic World came out and they decided to throw Chris Pratt in there. The series died a long time ago but because Chris Pratt was now the main guy and Dinosaurs, in general, are interesting, then why wouldn't you go to the movie to watch it. (But if your favorite movie in the Jurassic series is Jurassic World, don't talk to me).
The emergent stuff is like TikTok or Vine. What is popular right now. Normally it is quick-lived but we enjoy it for the time being. Everyone knows about it and everyone is on it.
We can actually play with this "timeline" so to speak. We see this a lot in movie remakes or reboots nowadays.
Jumanji, for example. Originally came out in 1995 with Robin Williams. Two kids play a board game that comes to life and accidentally free a kid who has been stuck in the game for 20 years. A crazy concept in the '90s!
22 years later, it's back. New people. New game. New times. They play off the nostalgia of all the people who saw the original Jumanji, but if you ask kids nowadays, they don't even know who Robin Williams is and have no interest in finding out. They are too caught up in the excitement of the idea that they too could be sucked into their own video games.
They even play off The Breakfast Club and through 4 completely opposite kids, who otherwise never would have met, into detention together, and by the end of it, they come out friends. So many popular movies with that trope have seen success, so why not Jumanji too?
The writers, directors, and producers all used these residual and dominant things to help create a new, emergent movie that feels new and fresh (and even went on to have a sequel).
We see this too with social media. Things coming, going, sticking around. Popular memes change all the time. Which app should be used the most, changes. What kind of content is popular, changes.
TikTok alone has been a huge social media platform for the last few years now. During the pandemic, it was popular to post dancing videos, simulating the previous app: Musically. Then it moved to short, funny videos like Vine. And now that stuff is harder to find. Now they take movie/tv show sounds and use them ironically, there are challenges, filters, storytime.
For now, TikTok is the place to be because regardless of how old you are, if you wanna reminisce, the for you page (FYP) will show you those archaic floppy disc repair videos. If you wanna see the newest dance video, it'll show up. If you wanna just scroll and see exactly what everyone is talking about, it'll show you that too.
Raymond Williams' cultural practices are a concept that has been around and will stay around for centuries to come. It continues to work and be true in fashion, television, media, and more
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