Attack of the Fads

Ask about anyone who’s been around in the Entertainment Industry or media for a few decades and they’ll tell you that fads and trends come back around in 15 and 30 year cycles.

Fads and trends do run in cycles but a lot of it is easily explained.

In radio – “oldies” station run a heavier mix of hit songs that are around 15 years ago.

Why? Because hit songs are made popular by teens. Those teens are now 30 or so years old and listen more to the radio which is advertisement driven.

Fashion is almost the same but is heavier to repeat 30 years in the future.

Why? (this is my own observation) Those who are now the clothing buyers and designers were hip teens wearing the latest fashions 30 years ago. They now are in control of what is carried and designed now. What is safe to predict is what was cool when they were teens. And the teens don’t know better – they think they came up with it.

I know this because I led a marketing survey to find out what was considered hip and contemporary. Just a year or so ago all the bag boys at the stores looked just like we did in the 70’s. Right down to the hair styles.

What does this all mean?

The 80s are coming back. Yikes !!! But it’s true.

But like with all returning trends, it has a modern twist.

We did not have powerful microprocessors in everything back in the 70s – yet we had electronic toys.

Remember those amazing toys and computers in the 80s?

Remember the IBM PC-XT ? Bill Gates said then we would never need a hard disc larger than 20 megabytes or more than 640 kilobytes of ram.

What will the modern Teddy Ruxpin look like in a few years ?

Surely he will have a USB PORT !

And be smarter than the average bear.

And have more guts …

And more obnoxious !!!

Success comes with recognizing the next big thing. That’s a real trick – it’s easier to recognize cycles of trends. The next coming trends will be a mix of mid-1950s meets the early 1980s with a modern technical twist. You can quote me on that.

Category: Tony Rollo Blog