Trends

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Lets talk about TRENDS.

In fact, let's talk about the EXISTENCE of trends - on the Lex's LJ in a recent post dubdobdee said he basically didn't believe in them, or at least found them harmful as a way of thinking about stuff (dunno if he was specifically referring to music or what). Boyofbadgers agreed.

I am interested in this perspective - do you think that thinking about music in terms of trends is useful? Do you think the ebbs and flows of musical fashion as documented by journalists has any relation to real life experience? If anyone else likes it, is it a bonus? (Or a PENALTY?)

Am I being too vague?

Comments

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

Believing that most trends pitched by the media are either dreamt up, a product of misunderstanding or – as boyofbadgers so accurately points out – just the result of a certain age group going through very standard life stages (hence the "babies - wow!" pieces, or the Guardian's traditional "I was a vegetarian for xx years, now I'm not"), is not the same as believing we don't live in a world of trends. Look at the ups and downs of the financial markets – it's all "Dude, everyone is getting out yen and into kroner, I better get with it"; the smart thing (what's making Goldman Sachs so smug this week) is knowing when to buck the trend.
And is anyone actually claiming that four years ago one-third of the women walking around Hoxton spontaneously decided to wear vintage T-shirts proclaiming their allegiances to classic rock bands?
As for the sudden outbreak of folk music in ads for unlikely products like phones and glasses, is that great minds thinking alike?
The fact that there are more false trends that real trends (Grazia claimed that fashionable women everywhere were going to be wearing DM boots this autumn – anyone seen one?) does not disprove the existence of trends. It just means they are tougher to spot than many assume.
Also, sitting around a magazine office trying to invent a new movement is fun! I've done it lots.