The cutting edge of retro

[linebaugh]

The Obama supporter said he wanted to be Walt Whitman. That he was an American nationalist who wanted to claim nationalism back from the right.

He actually sent me this really good essay that was a completely brutal take down of whitman

Imagined America: Walt Whitman’s Nationalism in the First Edition of Leaves of Grass – Irish Journal of American Studies

ijas.iaas.ie

 

[version]

The most recent Weeknd album struck me as the cutting edge of retro.

 

[luka]

when i first started seeing the

He actually sent me this really good essay that was a completely brutal take down of whitman

Imagined America: Walt Whitman’s Nationalism in the First Edition of Leaves of Grass – Irish Journal of American Studies

ijas.iaas.ie

i think if you write a sentance like this

"Whitman makes such claims based on an authority that he takes for granted; he cites no experts and fails to appeal to reason, simply assuming that his audience will accept his words as truth"

about a poem you might find people struggle to take you seriously.

 

[version]

It's interesting swears thought the 80s were played out, but eleven years later they seem to be the cutting edge. Case in point, Stranger Things.

 

[luka]

it was tumblr where i first noticed swears' cutting edge of retro being articulated

 

[luka]

it was tumblr where i first noticed swears' cutting edge of retro being articulated

that's where i think we were first forced to reckon with the aesthetic and emotional force of those 8-bit graphics and so on

 

[luka]

it was tumblr where i first noticed swears' cutting edge of retro being articulated

that mood board image seduction of tumblr all felt quite potent to me

 

[version]

Yeah, that and vaporwave. The two went hand in hand really. You'd get people's blogs full of photos of stuff like Tron, Knight Rider, Miami Vice, Space Invaders, Grace Jones, Vice City.

 

[luka]

yeah, inseperable.

 

[luka]

i haven't come across anything with that degree of seductiveness and coherence since. nothing that seems fresh in that way in terms of isolating something neglected and holding it up for reapprasail. it was making a very good argument. you couldnt deny it.

 

[luka]

if Jessie Ware makes a record which sounds like some old records everyone already knows and likes, yeah so what.

 

[luka]

i think it's about finding some aspect of the past which can only now reveal its secret potency and also its secret connection to the present

 

[version]

I wonder where all the tumblr people went.

 

[luka]

as swears says in his opening post things which are already canonised have nothing to teach us about ourselves. there has to be some kind of transvaluation

 

[luka]

I wonder where all the tumblr people went.

hopefully into high paid fashion and stylist jobs. but probably just fed into the meat grinder and turned into paste.

 

[luka]

that period of pop bands with jagged post punk guitars that coincided with Simon's book was another example. take some terrible music from a terrible time and find something good and fresh about it. turn it into catchy pop records.

 

[version]

Those bands weren't good though. You mean like The Wombats and Vampire Weekend?

 

[luka]

yeah. ive never really listened to them but i like the idea of saying they made better records than the post punk that inspired them and they excavated that guitar sound and showed how fresh it sounded

 

[luka]

so at the moment i dont know i havent seen anything compelling or had any hunch or where people might find it but if you do find it then share it on this thread and tell us about it. no half arsed speculation and guesswork allowed, we want to see the evidence.

 

[linebaugh]

So the cutting edge of retro is just whoever is using retro aesthetics most compellingly?

It's interesting swears thought the 80s were played out, but eleven years later they seem to be the cutting edge. Case in point, Stranger Things.

If that's the case then what version is saying here works, but you could also look at is as whatever past era is just now returning to the cultural consience. In that regard I still hold to the aughts being the cutting edge.

i haven't come across anything with that degree of seductiveness and coherence since. nothing that seems fresh in that way in terms of isolating something neglected and holding it up for reapprasail. it was making a very good argument. you couldnt deny it.

Im not sure its as compelling, but I've noticed an influx of instagram pages riffing on aughts aesthetics- photos that look to be taken on an old digital camera, myspace aesthetics- digital aesthetics becoming awkward and lo fi again as we develop past the analogue elements of vaporwave and enter the shakey ground of the completely digital.

that period of pop bands with jagged post punk guitars that coincided with Simon's book was another example. take some terrible music from a terrible time and find something good and fresh about it. turn it into catchy pop records.

How dare you.