I'm afraid I have to correct you on one of these. The 50's as we know it really began in the late 40's, especially with regard to fashion. Christian Dior's New Look of 1947 was a defining moment in fashion history, and marked the change from fabric-conservative 40's looks into the decadence and femininity that would define women's fashion in the 1950's. Included in that, would be the silhouette that would later become the iconic poodle skirt.

I think it might be fair to conclude that the 50's as we know it actually ran for about 15 years (sort of like Disney anniversary years?)

Yeah, as mentioned before, many of these "decades" don't quite match the calendar.

The 50s to me run from the end of World War II to 1957 or so. And are all about the United States dealing with its new position as the most powerful nation in the world, the burgeoning communist "threat" and a booming economy.

'57 to '63 is kind of a gray area as the Civil Rights movement starts to fracture the perceived conformity and "go along get along" tone of the '50s but the sixties don't really get going until the Vietnam War gets added to that mix and as a nation we start to struggle with the fact that maybe the government is an active source of wrongdoing. Then the sixties last until 1973 or so when the wind down of the Vietnam War eliminates the bete noir of the counterculture forcing it to see if it can survive all on its own.

Combined with proof that the government isn't to be trusted and economic malaise the '70s really only lasts 5 or 6 years until 1982 or so when Reagan policies really begin to creep in and AIDS lays waste to the ideas of relatively riskfree promiscuity.

But that's my view of it all. The actual "pop cultural" artifacts of each era are secondary byproducts to the larger social phenomena producing.

I think it might be fair to say that most people, unlike our beloved Alex, don't think of the nostalgic past in anthro-political terms. ;)

Watergate, Vietnam, Berlin Wall falling, Desert Storm, I Have a Dream, Great Depression. Those define decades just as much as bell bottoms and hoop skirts ever did.

Desert Storm, really? ;)

Yes, really. Green night vision images of anti aircaft fire still = Desert Storm and the 90s to me.

Yes, really. I'm another who thinks of decades first in anthro-political terms. When I think of the fifties, the first things to mind are red scare, McCarthyism, Brown vs. Board of Ed, I like Ike. Thoughts of cars with fins, hula hoops and Elvis are secondary.

I will put you two on the mailing list for my cult newsletter.

I'm only partway in. I consider both sides of the coin relatively equally. I think the political and the cultural/pop cultural are rather inseparable.

I think the big political and socio-economic crossovers are considered by the larger populi as endemic to their times. Yes, the Great Depression certainly DEFINES the 30's in America.

Vietnam is essential to everyone's consideration of the 60's.


The Cold War went on so long I don't think it can be ascribed to any particular decade.

But wow, the 10-day Desert Storm action being essential to the 90's? My mileage certainly varies on that one.


I'm not making anyone wrong. If that's 90's to you, then it is. There's nothing incorrect about picking and choosing which elements of time you assign in your mind as quintessential to any artificially-defined time period.



So yeah, I suppose even I can come up with a political element or two that are quintessential to the Milleni-Os (sp? - but I love that term). But no pop-cultural ones spring to my mind ... for the last 20 years. No fashions (seems everything is a re-tread of earlier fashions). No music (nothing seems a new and unique style). I'm getting the distinct feeling It's All Been Done.