Public Domain

Have you seen the new show on these days, Swingtown? It's a melodramatic telling of the lives of three couples (families) living in the Chicago suburbs in 1976. It's follows a line of Nostalgia TV. Those look what we were like sitcoms and dramas set in the "good old days."

In the eighties, we had Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley which were both set in the fifties. In the nineties, we had The Wonder Years which was lovingly set in the sixties. Now that we are in the '00s, our television has snuggled-up to the seventies; we have That '70s Show and now Swingtown set in 1976.

I don't want to alarm anyone, but have you noticed the pattern? These shows are coming on when the period in which they are set is about thirty years in the past...

What does this mean? The music in each series is just coming into the public domain. It is the nefarious plot of the networks to feed our nostalgia with the music in the public domain! (There are fewer royalties to pay that way.)

This has got to stop!

NOW!

It's not that I have anything against the producers of these shows, or the network's blatant manipulation of our (all-too-human) nostalgia! I simply want... NO! We need this trend to stop!

Oh, sure, it's kind of kitchy; looking back at the housewives wearing high heels and pearls as they clean the oven, and every night having fresh-baked rolls or breads with dinner. It's even kind of fun hearing the music and laughing at the hair and clothing styles we used to wear (willingly!). But this has got to stop!

Does anyone remember what comes next? Sure, there were rumblings of it on the horizon as early as the mid-seventies, and some would argue that it started as early as '74 (with Rock The Boat by The Hughes Corporation) but it really took off at the end of the seventies, and early eighties. Yes, that's what I am talking about. I'm talking about the coming storms that would scar our sensabilities next!

In the late seventies and early eighties, fueled by cocaine, Quaalude, and whatever other recreational pharmaceuticals we could mix with our Cuba Libras, Disco made it big! And with Disco, the Leisure Suit! And all those synthetic materials that are still happily living-out their half-lives in a landfill somewhere.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, remember: Rap will become "Nostalgic" in just another few year! Please! Stop the madness now!

Wherever you are today, I hope all your memories are pleasant ones!

Don Bergquist - June 14, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA