I think it's just techno reflecting the larger world of popular culture right now. Retro is hip now, and the next big thing is whatever was the big thing twenty years previous. Pop has eaten itself.
As for why, I think with techno-or, for that matter, any smaller sub-culture-it's inevitable for the larger trends to seep down into them. Someone can plead ignorance of popular culture, that they're too hip to be affected by what's hip, but the larger cultural themes tend to be so pervasive they're impossible to avoid. As for why retro is hip in the larger realm, I think that's just because it's cheaper and faster (for the handful of companies that control popular culture right now) to re-cycle old ideas than to try and come up with any new ones. Less percieved risk, as well. Stick with that worked in the past rather than something new and un-tested. > whatever happened to the future? > did it become an outdated concept? > > as I sat watching Matthew Herbert and his bag of crisps band last night, > I realised I was watching a 50 year old (at least) show. > > then, I thought, all the bands I've seen lately have harked to the past, > really heavily. All the records I buy are obsessed with the past, or are > old. > > even techno isn't futuristic any more. Jeff Mills scores films from the > '20's, Red Planet titles are all about native american indian issues, > instead of "sex in zero gravity" or "journey to the martian polar > cap"...... There's no "time, space, transmat" business anymore. I mean, > even the word "transmat" was made up wasn't it? No one does that any > more, there's no dreamers left, just flippin' historians. > > so why? is it too scary to contemplate any more?
