Word: retro
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...York Times, "New Ideas from the Top of the Charts." Sanneh makes the excellent observation that the tops of the Billboard charts are filled with music that blends different popular styles (No Doubt, Linkin Park), while rock's rebel fringe (The Strokes, The White Stripes) has gone retro, inspired by ancient garage rock and punk. Sanneh allows that in many cases the latter milieu cuts better albums. But the story also seems to equate the mix-and-match stylistic approach of the popular bands with innovation and originality, and the apparent purism of the fringe with originality's opposite...
...Sanneh's take on the retro fringe, it's true that "critics bicker about exactly which bands the Strokes are ripping off - Television? The Modern Lovers? Silkworm? but no one denies that [their album] 'Is This It' pays tribute to a quarter-century of punk and post-punk." Only this leads to a faulty conclusion: "While some acts earn millions of fans by trying something new, the Strokes delight an elite audience with stylish nostalgia...
...film was a flop at the box office (Winchell announced, with apparent pleasure, that it lost $2 million) and invisible at awards time (it was the only one of Lehman's 50s scripts that did not win a Writers Guild nomination). Since then, "Sweet Smell" has become a retro-classic. Its wonderfully ornate cynicism is cited in "Mad Max," "Diner," "Rain Man" and "Boogie Nights" and on "The Simpsons"; this week's A&E special "New York at the Movies" had Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee and Peter Bogdanovich reciting passages of dialogue from memory...
...Monopoly can now be played in 34 editions, including I Love Lucy and Spiderman (featuring such properties as Green Goblin, a notorious Spidey foe). A Scooby-Doo edition of Clue was released last month. "Some of the resurgence is post-9/11 and some is part of an overall retro trend," says Maria Weiskott, editor of Playthings magazine. "But particularly during a soft economy, it's important to have something fun and affordable that families can do together. People are remembering how much fun the old games are." But they're also finding fun in new ones, like the best...
...success has spawned a mini industry in Hong Kong. Artist Eric So's career took off when he released a collection of retro-dressed Bruce Lee figures in 1997. So, 33, a friend of Lau, describes his recent Sprite-commissioned dolls and Vespa-riding Sam Lee figures as "playable artworks." Radio presenter Martin Lam, 26, creates hunched bad-boy dolls as promotional items for streetwear shops such as Tokyo's Double Taps. "They are all animated versions of me, my other personas," Lam says...