This Life, Take That & the Retro 90’s

So it has begun: the 90’s, the decade of my adolescence has now become retro cool.

Double episodes of cult favourite This Life are being re-run on BBC2 in anticipation of a Christmas special. Take That have reformed, and judging by the amount of supposedly credible TV personalities salivating at their performance on An Audience With…, much to the delight of many.

(By the way, I just happened to be transfixed to the first few minutes of the show in the same way that people stare at a car crash – I was shocked by what I was seeing.)

There seems to be genuine delight, not just by soap actors, but by thousands of (mainly female office workers) people at a certain age (25-35) throughout the country. Fair enough, people want to re-live their youth, but however hard they try surely it is never the same the second time around?

When I was 15 I was a big This Life fan. Staying up after 11 (on a school night! ;o) to watch the 20-somethings drama seemed to add to the edgy nature of the show. I was pleased when I saw that it was being re-run in its entirety on BBC2, and enjoyed the first few instalments of the drama. However, as the series wore on, something struck me: Although it can be enjoyable to re-live your past, it is never as good the second time around.

Nothing is ever as good as you remember it to be. It never can be as the rest of your life has changed. So I stopped watching the re-runs, and to be honest, I really don’t see the point off the Christmas reunion special. The show was very much of its time: when scenes sex, drug taking and alcohol consumption can now be seen on any soap opera, they loose the edge that they had 10 years ago.

As far as Take That are concerned, they have just seen an opportunity to make some money and be celebrated for a while and they have grabbed it with both hands. Which is fair enough, but don’t think for a minute that they are ‘Back for Good’, because they’re not. A new album, best of and a tour and that will be it. Not through lack of trying, but because even their fans will have had enough.

Because although it can be fun to re-live your past, it is only fun for a while. Soon the excitement wears off and you realise why your life changes, why you don’t stay the same forever.

They’re not alone though: Even Oasis have released a best-of this Christmas, after Noel Gallagher once vowed that the only time the band would do such a compilation was when they split.

There clearly is a market for nostalgia and surely it won’t be long before we see an advert on the television along the lines of:

“NOW! THAT’S WHAT I CALL THE 90’S! – BLUR! OASIS! TAKE THAT! THE PRODIGY! BOYZONE! THE SPICE GIRLS! ALL ON ONE DOUBLE ALBUM!”

It won’t be long, because it will sell shitloads. But amongst the best-ofs and the ‘complete series’ DVDs, remember that there are plenty of exciting media around today.

I loved a lot of things about the 90s: of course I did it was the decade of my adolescence. And if I was to hear a track off Parklife or watch an episode of Game On, for example, then I’d still love it. But it doesn’t mean that I want to re-live these experiences for the rest of my life.

So, as enjoyable re-living your past can be, it can be even more enjoyable to discover new bands/TV shows/films etc. And while the marketing machine knows an easy few million can be made repacking our past and selling it back to us, I’d rather live in the present.