Line #33 Main/PopularHistory


1	->''"The temptation is to have the characters keep reminding the audience what year it is. But characters in historical fiction don't know they're living in the past. They think they're living in the present. And they can't see into the future. So they shouldn't talk as if they're cribbing from history books about their own time. Dialog shouldn't contain many temporal signifiers. Which is to say you don't want to have characters who happen to be living in [[TheSeventies the 1970s]] saying things like: 'Did you watch the Watergate hearings today? Can you believe [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Nixon]] taped all those conversations!' Or: 'I bought the new [[Music/LedZeppelin Zeppelin]] album today. Man, that Jimmy Page is a genius!' Or: 'They're called Earth Shoes. They're supposed to be much better for your feet than regular shoes.' "''
2	-->-- '''[[http://lancemannion.typepad.com/lance_mannion/2008/06/swinging-with-1.html Lance Mannion]]'''
3
4	Popular History is when a show or movie set in a previous decade focuses on certain elements of the era's pop culture to an implausible degree, often mixing and matching things from different points in the decade and acting as if they existed at the same time, regardless of whether these elements came before or after the year the work's set (for example, ''Film/TheWeddingSinger'' is explicitly set in 1985 yet is more of a collage of various elements and trends from across the entirety of the [[TheEighties 1980s]]).
5	!!!Early 1910s
6	For instance, every man in [[TheEdwardianEra 1912]], would have been in [[UpperClassWit high spirits]] sporting their [[SharpDressedMan sharp tailored suits]] with their [[TheSuffragette suffragette wives]] in large-feathered hats and willowy, exotic dresses that [[OldTimeyAnkleTaboo scandalously show the ankles]] as they ride their [[CoolCar newfangled horseless carriages]] to the Ragtime piano shows and tango balls and see exhibitions of exotic places, cubist pieces, [[ThoseMagnificentFlyingMachines flying machines made of wood and canvas]], moving pictures, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking affordable black and white photography]], while lamenting the tragic sinking of the [[UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic Titanic]] and scoffing off [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the affair around the Balkans]].
7	!!!Mid 1920s
8	Every [[TheFlapper gal]] in [[TheRoaringTwenties 1926]] would have [[TwentiesBobHaircut cut her hair]] beneath her tight-fitting hat, wearing [[PrettyInMink fur-trimmed coats]] that blend in with her outrageously loose knee-length dress and beaded necklace, flashing her rayon stockings with painted knees, and donning heavy makeup while [[WomenDrivers badly driving a roadster]] with her tough-faced [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster gangster boyfriend]] at her side, drinking [[HillbillyMoonshiner overproof moonshine]] from a flask and crying her heart out for movie stars like exotic Creator/RudolphValentino or funnyman Creator/BusterKeaton.
9	!!!Mid 1930s
10	Everyone in [[TheGreatDepression 1936]] will be a [[TheTeetotaler teetotalling]], dirt-poor poverty-stricken American [[DownOnTheFarm farmer]] in the dustbowl, or a migrant family going west in a truck to look for work, or a [[{{Ruritania}} Eastern European]] peasant under the steel-capped boot of ThoseWackyNazis, the DirtyCommunists, or fascist flunkies. Or if one is lucky enough to escape the Dust Bowl or the Totalitarian Wasteland, he would have been in the US watching movie stars in sharp tailfin suits tapdancing and singing [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood on the talking silver screen]] with glamorous platinum blonde leading ladies wearing satin dresses lined with [[FluffyFashionFeathers feathers]] and [[PrettyInMink fur]] all the while [[SexyBacklessOutfit flashing her flawless back]] as they dance around the moonlight gleaming through the [[{{Surrealism}} trippy, surrealistic]] [[ArtDeco streamlined]] landscape.
11	!!!Early 1940s
12	Everyone in [[TheForties 1942]] would have [[ShouldersOfDoom shoulder pads]] in their suits, dresses, coats, uniforms, and even underwear, donning updo hairstyles with fancy hats decorated with fruit, and dancing to a [[{{Jazz}} swing jazz band]] in a conga line while distributing war bonds. As well, they'll either be serving in the military in Europe or Asia or helping the war effort at home by working in a factory or as a nurse in a war hospital. Grandpa works as an air raid warden.
13	!!!Mid 1950s
14	Every woman in [[TheFifties 1955]] would either wear sleek cherry-red tailored suits, long tight skirts and spike heels and [[RedScare be fearing communism]], watching [[BMovie B-Movies]] and hanging out at the local MaltShop in {{Suburbia}} or EverytownAmerica, or wearing {{pink\|MeansFeminine}}, fancy polka-dot dresses with a cute poodle on their skirts while watching hip-gyrating Music/{{Elvis\|Presley}} on black and white television; and men in either tailored lounge suits and trenchcoats, or NiceGuy polo shirts with bowties and khakis running on suspenders, or if they're a BadBoy, [[HellBentForLeather black leather jackets]], tight blue jeans and black boots with matching [[DelinquentHair shiny black]] [[FiftiesHair pompadours]] while riding on their [[CoolBike custom made motorbikes]].
15	!!!Late 1960s
16	Everyone in [[TheSixties 1968]] will be in long hair, beads and sandals, living on a {{commune}}, wearing [[NewAgeRetroHippie groovy tie-dye shirts]], [[TheStoner smoking pot and dropping acid]] and going to see the [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Stones]] or Music/TheDoors while protesting Jim Crow laws and UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and men are waving their burning draft cards as women wave their burning bra.
17
18	For the uptight squares, every man has a buzz-cut to contrast Music/TheBeatles style [[SixtiesHair moptop]] and wears a pressed, colourful vintage three-piece suit and shined shoes and every woman would have a [[BeehiveHairdo giant bouffant]] to go with her pastel-colored space-agey minidress and go-go boots as they ride on a Vespa scooter and listen to Bossa Nova.
19	!!!Late 1970s
20	Everyone in [[TheSeventies 1977]] will either be wearing platform shoes, a polyester leisure suit, an [[AfroAsskicker afro]] with [[SeventiesHair sideburns]], and will be going to the {{disco}} to dance to Donna Summers and ABBA songs, take Qualuudes and cocaine and hook up in with a stranger (or three) in the disco bathroom, playing Pong or Atari video games or Pinball machines, or if they're into PunkRock, wearing torn jeans, Doc Martens or Converse running shoes, ripped band t-shirts, leather jacket and DelinquentHair and going to pogo and slamdance to Music/TheClash or the [[Music/SexPistols Pistols]]. And if they're not doing that, they're usually sniffing glue or protesting in the streets over [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Watergate]] or Margaret Thatcher.
21	!!!Mid 1980s
22	Everyone in [[TheEighties 1985]] will sport ''Series/MiamiVice''-type pastel clothes and mullet or big gel-heavy hairstyles if they are men, [[EightiesHair big hair]], [[UncannyValleyMakeup lots of make-up]] and [[LadyInAPowerSuit power suits]] if they are women, and early Music/{{Madonna}} or Debbie Gibson-type outfits if they are teenage girls. The kids will be playing on the [[Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] video game systems 24/7 on big CRT [=TVs=] and watching VHS tapes (if not watching celebrity-endorsed {{Saturday morning cartoon}}s), and their parents decry everything new as the work of Satan while pledging allegiance to [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reaganomics]] and fearing Communism and nuclear war, and teenagers will be parading down the street in the most garish pastel-neon colors possible, listening to Music/MichaelJackson and Music/TwistedSister on their Sony Walkmen or boombox and doing the {{moonwalk\|Dance}} the moment they see a red and white Pepsi can, while sneaking out to HouseMusic events in underground raves to take Ecstasy and dance all night.
23	!!!Mid 1990s
24	Everyone in [[TheNineties 1996]] will wear flannel shirts, baggy acid wash jeans, [[Creator/JenniferAniston Rachels]], hi-tops, or [[NinetiesHair angst-ridden moptops]], with baseball caps worn backwards, while listening to grunge like Music/{{Nirvana}} or rap like Music/TupacShakur [=CDs=] on the boombox and inserting floppy disks while listening to the squeals of their 28.8 modems as they drink their triple shot latte on the go. Adults will joke on the street about Creator/WoodyAllen and Michael Jackson touching little kids and UsefulNotes/BillClinton getting sucked off in the Oval office, while kids have brawls on the playground over [[MediaNotes/ConsoleWars whether or not]] [[Platform/SegaGenesis Genesis does]] [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem what Nintendon't]]. Meanwhile, Los Angeles is constantly up in flames from police brutality to Black communities, and nobody could care less because everyone's glued to their TV screens to see if football star Creator/OJSimpson's gonna get what's coming to him, while the news tickers scroll about [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars the affair around the Balkans]].
25	!!!Late 2000s (decade)
26	Everyone in [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2007]] will either be wearing leather jackets, ripped jeans, and ironic {{hipster}} trucker hats for men, or yoga pants, tube tops, and jelly bands for women who constantly binge-watch UsefulNotes/{{Nascar}}, Series/TheBiggestLoser, and Series/AmericanIdol, while being completely oblivious to [[UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror their soldiers being blown up in Afghanistan, and abusing prisoners in Iraq]], but are still paranoid and hateful of everything non-Christian including homosexuals, anyone with brown skin, and Literature/HarryPotter. Teens meanwhile are hooked onto Website/MySpace, and illegally downloading music by Music/TaylorSwift, Music/BackstreetBoys, and Music/{{Nickelback}} onto their iPods and flip phones ''that fit in your pocket!'', whereas the kids tune in their [=TVs=] to Creator/{{Toonami}} and play either family-friendly sport simulators on the Platform/{{Wii}} game system, or gritty first person shooters to spit out various sexist slurs through Platform/XboxLive.
27	!!!General approach
28	Also applies to cars in the street; they will ''all'' be models from the year portrayed, as if nobody has kept a car they bought in a previous decade.
29
30	This unrealistic way of depicting an era is especially painful when you consider that the writers generally lived through the era being depicted.
31
32	Sometimes, a movie about the period that's considered "[[RealityIsUnrealistic not enough]]" will hit a lot closer to home. In general, a decade never comes into its own right away, with the early years oftentimes having considerable holdovers from the last few years of the preceding decades. The early and even mid-1980s, for instance, had a lot of late '70s styles hanging around; the perm or wavy haircut was very common around the mid-1980s (the Cobra Kai guys all had this cut in ''Film/{{The Karate Kid\|1984}}''), but you never see it being used when people recreate the '80s, probably because it "[[TheCoconutEffect doesn't look '80s enough]]". The general misconception of decades being entirely encapsulated by their stereotypes is so prevalent that a common complaint whenever a new one starts is that it feels exactly the same as last year; it's not until the new decade becomes the old one that people look back and realize how much changed in just ten years.
33
34	In a similar vein, some trends associated with a given decade may begin just before it starts, such as boxy cars or NewWaveMusic associated with the '80s - which actually began in the late '70s. Trends simply don't care about numbers on the calendar.
35
36	None of this is to imply that ''nobody'' in a past era was conscious of the time they were living in or historically self-aware; indeed, cultural critics and pundits have often made a living in the field of attempting to be prescient (and sometimes they have succeeded!). This trope is for instances when an "average person" who can't possibly predict future nostalgia is depicted having an outlandish amount of [[GenreSavvy Genre Savviness]].
37
38	For a good depiction of a time period, one should look at the TV shows, books, plays and movies that were made ''during'' that period. ''Film/PrettyInPink'', ''Series/TwentyOneJumpStreet'', and ''Series/PunkyBrewster'' for the 80s; ''Film/LoveStory'', ''Series/BarneyMiller'', and ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' in the 70s; and ''Series/TheFugitive'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'', and ''Series/TheDickVanDykeShow'' in the 60s. ''Series/DoctorWho'' episodes set in what was then the present day are particularly good sources if you're looking for life in the UK in particular, given that the show's been on the air [[LongRunners since the 1960's]]. However, beware of a show that tried to be TotallyRadical.
39
40	NothingButHits is a subset of this trope. Related to SmallReferencePools. See also: PoliticallyCorrectHistory; NostalgiaFilter; MisterSandmanSequence. Compare: AnachronismStew; FrozenInTime. For this trope in reverse, see PresentDayPast. When a work actually made during the relevant time period appears to fit this trope, it's an UnintentionalPeriodPiece.
41	----
42	!!Examples
43
44	[[foldercontrol]]
45
46	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
47	* Portrayed in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' where a cafe from the year 2015 is dedicated to the Popular History of the then-contemporary [[TheEighties 1980s]]. In fact, Cafe '80s turns out to be right on the money when it comes to identifying the elements that would become stereotypical for the decade in later years.
48	* The entirety of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull''. It looked like they were dredging up ''every single possible period detail'' relating to the 1950s.
49	* ''Film/ForrestGump'' had plenty of this, with the titular main character just ''happening'' to bump into the biggest figures and events in history and pop culture throughout his life, [[BeenThereShapedHistory in some cases even instigating them]]. The most prominent example of this is in one scene where Gump gets invited to meet with UsefulNotes/RichardNixon. Nixon decides to gift Gump a stay at a luxury hotel nearby, only for Gump to have to file a complaint to the staff the next night because he was being bothered by some people apparently playing around with flashlights in a window visible from his own. At the end of the scene, we're shown the name of the hotel: [[{{Scandalgate}} Watergate]].
50	* Done oddly in the movie version of ''Film/MammaMia'', where Donna flashes back to her three old boyfriends in their prime. Apparently they each wore clothes from a different decade, even though these flashbacks were supposed to take place in the 1980s. Watch out for Pierce Brosnan as a hold-over hippy...
51	** We are talking about a movie that has cars, dresses and culture from the 40's-50's Greece in the present day! I mean... look at the cars!
52	** Fashions can express a lifestyle as well; neo-mods in the 1980s, pseudo-hippies in the 1990s.
53	* In ''Film/TheNakedGun 33 1/3'', Drebin recognizes a woman as a suspect in an unsolved murder back in the 70's. Cue FlashBack of the murder: It happened in a disco, and Drebin, Hocker, and Nordberg are all decked out in leisure suits, gold chains, and huge afros. Of course, this may most likely be PlayedForLaughs, given its similarities to another over-the-top disco sequence in ''Film/{{Airplane}}''.
54	** It gets even more ridiculous when you realize that the woman, who is about in her late twenties in the present day (1994), wouldn't even have reached puberty yet when ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' was in theaters, but in the flashback is as... er... "buoyant" as ever.
55	* ''Rumor Has It...'' gets pretty annoying with it, but the worst example is probably prominently showing during a party scene three men with no bearing at all on the plot discussing how there's this thing called Website/{{Google}} that's gonna be a huge hit.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Literature ]]
59	* The Literature/TimeScout series mostly averts this. The authors go to some effort to make sure they avoid the worst stereotypes and be historically accurate. How well they succeed depends on your own knowledge.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
63	* ''Series/LifeOnMars2006'' and ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'' are good examples of this. ''Ashes To Ashes'' mixes very early eighties fashions (Ray's ''Series/TheProfessionals'' look) with yuppies wearing mid-to-late Eighties ''Series/MiamiVice'' gear. Both series also play with this trope, as it's revealed that [[spoiler: the periods we see are largely influenced by the main characters' ideas of what things looked like then.]]
64	* The SitCom ''Do Over'' took place in 1980, but had certain elements as far as 1985. Furthermore a character in the first episode said it was the year 1981, which just made the confusion even worse. This was subverted and lampshaded in an episode where the main character (a man reliving his high school years) dresses up as a [[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} ghostbuster]] for [[HalloweenEpisode Halloween]]. It isn't until he shows it to his dumbfounded friends that he remembers that the movie won't come out for another four years.
65	* Played with in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Robin was a teen idol in Canada, and the film clip to her song ''Let's Go to the Mall'' is stereotypically [[TheEighties eighties]], but it was made during the early nineties. This is played more as a joke that Canada is behind the times, though.
66	** If you lived in Canada in the early to mid 90s and remember Music/AlanisMorissette's "Too Hot" and then re-invention as an angry grunge singer, it's even funnier.
67	* ''Series/ColdCase'' frequently does this when returning to a flashback with the music playing during the era that's discussed. Pop culture references are also frequent if they happened around that decade.
68	* ''Series/GossipGirl'': Lily has a flash back to the eighties, and it is complete with all the associated stereotypes.
69	* Sort of averted in ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris''. Most of the kids wear clothes that are generally in style (jeans and a t-shirt) and Rochelle has a seventies hairstyle in the early episodes.
70	* Averted in ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'': None of the characters wear the standard '80s attire as it is only 1980, and disco is popular (much to their annoyance).
71	* Averted in ''Series/MadMen'': While set in the 60's, the attitude and style of the main characters still reflect [[TheFifties the previous decade]], with many of the older characters (like Duck and Roger) reflecting [[TheForties the decade before that one]]. And Bert Cooper seems to be a holdover from TheRoaringTwenties.
72	* Mostly averted in ''Series/That70sShow'', where it's a pretty well done sitcom that happens to take place in the 70's. The barely-related spin-off, ''Series/That80sShow'', face-planted into this trope by pointing out the fact that it was in TheEighties so blatantly that the ''commercials'' were almost unwatchable, nevermind the show itself.
73	* Played in ''Series/TheVampireDiaries''. Everyone who's taken an American History class knows that no actual witches were persecuted at the Salem witch trials, but the writers needed to give the no longer Scottish Bonnie an explanation for her psychic abilities.
74	** "Haunted" states the same fact, but there's still the question of why Bonnie's family had to be from Salem specifically.
75	*** Actually, "Haunted" toys with this trope: according to Bonnie's grandmother, no actual witches were persecuted in Salem because the real ones had enough power to escape beforehand.
76	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'':
77	** Very much in evidence in the time travel episode "Vanishing Act", though it begins in a fairly low-key way. The music is pretty much NothingButHits. On New Year's Eve 1949, Trevor [=McPhee=] turns off the radio while it is playing swing music. When he travels forward in time to New Year's Day 1960, he looks at 1959 issues of ''Magazine/TimeMagazine'' and ''Life'' featuring Vice President UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, UsefulNotes/FidelCastro and International Brotherhood of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa on the cover. At the Tiki Isle Bar and Grill, the Patsy Cline song "Leaving' On Your Mind" is playing on the radio. On New Year's Day 1970, Trevor finds that his now ex-wife Theresa and her new husband Ray are 40-ish hippies and runs into his former physician Dr. Golden at a protest against UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar outside a Marine recruitment office. When he goes to the Tiki Isle to drown his sorrows, the Music/JeffersonAirplane song "White Rabbit" is on the radio. On New Year's Day 1980, Trevor arrives in the middle of a disco at the Tiki Isle where the Van [=McCoy=] song "Do the Hustle" is being played. The disco patrons wear jumpsuits, strapless gowns, leisure suits, bell bottoms and gold medallions and chains. Trevor's final jump to January 1990 averts this trope, considering that it was only six years before the episode was made.
78	** "Ripper" takes place in VictorianLondon and prominently features the UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper murders, an OpiumDen, [[TheOldestProfession prostitutes]] and the East End slums of Whitechapel.
79	** In "Time to Time", Lorelle Palmer and Gavin visit the UC Berkeley campus on April 14, 1969 and see many hippies, several protests against UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and an ROTC officer trying to recruit students.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Pinball]]
83	* This is used throughout Creator/DataEast's ''[[Pinball/TimeMachineDataEast Time Machine]]''; the different eras of the game are represented by [[HollywoodCostuming period costumes]] and iconic symbols of each period.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Video Games]]
87	* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'', set in 1986, was one huge homage to TheEighties and its media and culture, and it does feature elements from all over the decade - several songs on the radio which was full of NothingButHits were well past their prime at that point, as were some phenomena parodied on commercials and talk shows - for example, the Degenatron is a primitive video game console clearly parodying the pre-crash [[MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfVideoGames second generation of video games]], when by 1986 the [[MediaNotes/The8bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames third generation]] was in full force with far more advanced technology than "bouncing squares".
88	* ''VideoGame/MafiaII'' takes place in 1951 and contains literally ''everything'' from TheFifties, with massive amounts of AnachronismStew. It's even emphasised in a MisterSandmanSequence after the main character leaves prison, meaning that in that world, as soon as TheFifties rolled in everyone threw away anything from TheForties and suddenly invented the entire 50s culture.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Web Original]]
92	* How anachronic [[TheEighties the 80s]] references are on ''Series/StrangerThings'' is lampooned in a ''Website/CollegeHumor'' video asking [[https://youtu.be/fP3kffG2EKg what year it's supposed to be set in]].
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	[[folder:Western Animation]]
96	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': While trying to look inconspicuous in 1947 Roswell, Leela wears a poodle skirt and the Professor wears a zoot suit (though they did pretty well considering they were from a thousand years in the future, and Earth and its records were devastated by wars several times during that period). In the second episode, this is slightly lampshaded when a 31st century attraction does this to the entire 20th century. "Let's disco dance, Hammurabi!"
97	** [[Series/GoodTimes DY-NO-MITE!]]
98	** The Roswell episode shows a lot of the failings of the 31st century characters' knowledge of history. The Professor and Leela don't realize that microwaves haven't been invented yet; when they go to a diner, Leela orders [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture "an injection of FemiSlim]] and a side of [[Film/SoylentGreen Soylent Coleslaw]]", then the professor ZigZags by ordering "the paella, [[SchizoTech two mutton pills]] [[TheDungAges and a stein of mead.]]"
99	*** The waitress simply shrugs and writes their order as "Two chilli dogs."
100	* Lampooned in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" (with the scene described shown in the background):
101	-->'''Kent Brockman:''' But first, let's take a look at the year 1928. A year when you might have seen [[TheRoaringTwenties Al Capone dancing the Charleston on top of a flagpole]].
102
103	[[/folder]]

Context Main / PopularHistory