Coming out of nearly a decade of Republican rule, in a major recession, a charismatic democrat is coming to power talking of health reform and the middle class, we've still got troops in Iraq, Guns and Roses and Metallica just released their new records, and the rest of music is in a shitty festering heap of uncreativity.
Doesn't this all sound a bit familiar?
The 1990s are remembered fondly by some---many I would think. We experienced a significant economic resurgence, major political shifts in other countries (especially Russia), cratering oil costs, and somewhat a distancing from the Reagan-era evangelism. Everyone being "tired of Warrant" gave rise to a music industry that was vibrant again: corporate and palatable yet with an influx of new blood and new ideas.
Kurt Cobain said at the time that rap was the first really creative medium to come about since punk. He clearly thought his own movement, "grunge", was wrapped up in that. And he also warned that rap and grunge would become tired themselves in a few years. How true that has become!
So, I'm torn. Are the 2010s going to be another 1990s or another 1930s? I lean toward the former, if only because we have in place the New Deal reforms, and we've learned to be pragmatic about the market: it cannot be allowed to be left to itself. Apparently, this is a lesson we need to review every 20 or so years.
And so it goes. Government will reform, faith in our institutions restored as far as it can be. Will a social movement accompany it? I hope so. This hope is not necessarily 'audacious'. It comes from a sense of togetherness, of liberalism.
Here's to better times.