the decade in retrospect......those crazy Oh-Oh's

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As some of you have requested in the past, this post will have a 'Short Version' at the bottom for those of you who just want me to get to the damn point and not beat around the bush.

On my way in this morning, I was in quite the quandary. But I'm getting ahead of myself....

As we quickly approached the year 2000, most of you were concerned about the end of the world. Anyone remember Y2K? While I couldn't be bothered by the prospect of my computer (or any computer) not working or not having access to my bank accounts or being able to call someone up on the phone or the plane I was flying on suddenly dropping from the sky, I was much more worried about what nomenclature to give the brand new decade and to a much less extent, what the next 10 years would hold for us.

I remember looking forward and giving serious thought (much before everyone else because I tend to think about stupid stuff like this…have you read my other posts?) to whether or not the “Oh Oh’s” would work as our nickname for these terribly tumultuous times, all the way from Internet Bubble to Bear Stearns/Countrywide/Lehman Brothers/Merrill Lynch/Madoff Bye-Bye to Corporate Bailouts Oh-My!

Has it worked? Will these years be known as the “O-O’s” or “Oh Oh’s” or will something else stick?

Since we all tend to be a bit procrastinistic, I guess we’ll figure it out next year, looking back from 2010 and remembering the Uh-Oh’s of the Oh-Oh’s. I’ll feel much better in the next decade, when we can say in the ‘20’s, “Boy, those ‘10’s were good years”, although “20’s” sounds considerably better to me than “10’s”.

But aside from worrying about what name to call these years (and I was always told it wasn’t nice to call something names), I began to worry and wonder this morning what these times will be known for, aside from the things listed above. Aside from the obvious history being written as we introduce the first African-American into the office of President, which truly is historic, what on Earth else will we really take from the ‘O-O’s’?

I mean, looking back to the ‘90’s, I can’t remember much macro worthiness being taken from that decade either. They just kinda came and went. From the ‘70’s & ‘80’s though, man, we’ve got amazing music, style, wardrobe, dance. That could also be said for the ‘40’s, ‘50’s and ‘60’s. Truly amazing times which really had their own unique feel, as far as decades go.

My question is this. Are we losing that which distinguishes us from decade to decade? And it really is interesting because you can truly see the discrepancies between each. If we can remember Elvis and the Beatles in the ‘50’s, Berkeley in the ‘60’s, Disco in the ‘70’s and Miami Vice in the ‘80’s…..what the heck are we gonna remember from the ‘90’s and O-O’s? Perhaps I’m putting too much emphasis on style & music but in 30 years, what the heck are we going to call and take from this era? Better start thinking now & prepare yourselves.


Short Version:

-We're coming to the end of the decade

-What will this past decade be remembered for? Like in 4 words or less

-Are we losing our decade uniqueness/individuality?

[Scottw]

4 words or less:

Irrationality
Devastation
Greed
Change

[Mugen910]

Defenseless
Fear
Change
Hope

1. Avarice
2. Apathy
3. Immorality
4. Greed

On the lighter side in this decade I have found some great cigars,,,all is not lost!

[Jason]

1. communications connectivity
2. fruits of rampant materialism
3. globalization
4. mullet eradication

But what about true style & music?

Great stuff guys, keep 'em comin'!

Jason - I'm saddened by Point #4.

[muziq]

My thoughts about the "Double Aughts":

*Ubiquitous computing and communications - the Wireless decade and/or the Google decade (Napster, "Can you hear me now?", YouTube, cell phone plans as a commodity, instant and constant internet access, digital divide, etc)

*Music - post-millenial tension a'la indie- and post-rock + weird Americana (band *of* the decade - Interpol, followed closely by Explosions in the Sky)

*Politics - the decade of unchecked political expediency (e.g. state-sponsored terrorism, rendition, massive deficeits, political fundamentalism/demagoguery, etc)

*Culture/business - the decade of globalism (zenith of multinationals, off-shoring, Enron/Worldcom, immigration, greenwashing, etc)

[muziq]

And as for the 90s, there's plenty of good stuff there...just a snippet:

*Friends & Seinfeld (love it or hate it, those shows had a HUGE impact on not just American culture, but global perceptions of American culture)

*Electronica (although I hate that term, all music since the 90s has been influenced either at the compositional, engineering, or performance stage by the innovations that arose from 90s dance, experimental, and ambient music)

*Dot-com decade (who doesn't visit at least *ONE* website every single day of their life that doesn't end in .com? Even my hillbilly cousins in NW Arkansas who only got dial-up two years ago are on the internet daily)

*Another term I've been thinking about to characterize the 90s - the decade of the geopolitical interregnum - where the end of the Cold War produced a vacuum of global *political* leadership that was mostly dominated by the rise of multinationalism, until we get to the "Double Aughts" where the threat of terrorism puts the light back on the US...with China and India entering the spotlight.