Posted on 10/20/2008 10:51:33 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
A Hemline Index, Updated
By TAMAR LEWIN
More suicides? Fewer male births? Less back pain? More laxative sales?
Data points litter the landscape as economists, sociologists, psychologists and marketers examine the societal changes, big and small, trivial and traumatic, that accompany a bad economy. And with this particular version of a troubled economy — a stock market that goes into convulsions at 3 p.m., a looming global recession, a $700 billion bailout plan that may or may not work, and a jittery public wondering what is coming next — changes should flow as freely as profits in good times.
It’s one thing to measure changes in society, however, and another to ascribe causes. But if the causal link is elusive, you still might expect to see slack soda sales, more frequent car thefts and meaning-laden tunes at the top of the pop charts during a recession.
Terry F. Pettijohn II, a professor of psychology at Coastal Carolina University, is one of those who sees popular tastes shift with economic conditions. Take beauty, for example. “What we find attractive is not a stable currency,” said Mr. Pettijohn, who has studied how economic and social factors shape preferences in popular music, movie stars and Playboy models. “It’s affected by the environment, by what’s happening in society, and what makes us feel more comfortable in threatening times.”
Looking at Billboard No. 1 songs from 1955 to 2003 for a study to be published in the journal Psychology of Music, he found that in uncertain times, people tend to prefer songs that are longer, slower, with more meaningful themes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping!
Dust in the wind....all we are is dust in the wind....
Proves the point.
Yeah, and punk happened in the 70’s. That’s the only silver lining in a potential Obama administration, maybe a new punk movement. That is, if the new Cultural Revolution allows anything besides Rap/Hiphop/R’n’B, and I’m still alive to hear it.
If there is one good thing to come out of a severe, prolonged depression, it will be seeing all these economists, “scientists”, psychologists who make a living sucking grants from the government teat to do these stupid studies- unemployed.
Yeah, they'll probably round up all the Boomers and send them to re-education camps where they'll be forced to perform Rap and Hip Hop and learn how to do those hand gestures.
Punk was good?
LMAO!
That rates about the same as rap crap.
Idiots banging on a guitar (they have no idea how to actually play them) and screaming cuss words into a cheap over driven audio system while a bunch of kids stoned on draino pills trample each other wasn’t anything I would consider “a silver lining” coming out of the 70’s.
besides, they are todays liberals... too scewed up and now too old to work, not that anyone would hire a 45 year old “punker” with his fat belly protruding from his 2 sizes to small black t-shirt and face piercings not even his mother loves.
Yeah, and so did Disco. Jeez, let us hope we never revisit that genre....
Disco.
I don’t even want to discuss it.
Just love it enough to let it go.
I buried Disco at crossroads with a stake through it’d heart.
But, did you make absolutely sure it was dead? These things have a way of coming back to life, you know.......maybe there's time to go back and pump a few silver bullets into it?
I need a drink.
Fortunately I live in Texas where the full bodied female is the rule rather than the exception.
A few cubic yards of raw garlic dumped on top might be optimal too.
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