Post #186588 by thejab on Wed, Sep 14, 2005 11:03 AM

That piece by tikibars was an interesting read. Now I have some more thoughts on this:

I think that perhaps most people involved in the underground movements of the last 20 years (swing, lounge, rockabilly, tiki) come from the late 70s / early 80s punk movement. As we got older and the punk and mod scenes got bigger we just moved on to other music and lifestyles that already had small revivals in the early 80s. For example, rockabilly was a part of the punk scene before the Stray Cats made it mainstream. The Blasters in LA, the Cramps in New York, several English bands (Matchbox, Shakin' Pyramids, etc.), and others were a big part of the punk scenes. And swing had a short revival in the early 80s: remember Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive band? The same can be said for the lounge scene of the late 80s and the tiki scene that came out of that. We were just looking for variety.

What I see happening in the last 10 years is that our generation is starting to settle down finally and have children. Many of our old friends are staying home in their houses full of collectibles and home tiki bars and are content in a more domestic lifestyle. They have good incomes now, old stuff is harder to find and more expensive (Ebay partly to blame), and some are tired of attracting attention for the last 30 years by dressing different then most people, so they start dressing in "normal" clothes, or they go out less.

I don't see a whole lot of young people these days being interested in vintage clothes. Most young rockabillies, to my annoyance, just wear the "uniform" of rolled-up jeans, Converse high tops, and black t-shirts (on girls and boys). It seems like the underground movements exploring past lifestyles don't really happen anymore. There may be other revivals in the future, bit I don't think it's likely to happen.

So, now's the time to sell off your vintage stuff because it may be worthless in the future. Just sell it to me. :wink: