History Main / CyclicNationalFascination

* Fixations on specific cultures are an OlderThanRadio trend. {{Orientalism}} is the prime instance -- mainly [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinoiserie Chinoiserie]] ([=XVIIIth=] century) and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonisme Japonisme]] (late [=XIXth=] century), but also TheThemeParkVersion of the Indian culture (TheGildedAge) and the AncientEgypt[[note]]called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Revival Egyptian Revival]][[/note]] (early [=XIXth=] century). Even though all four are a direct result of Europe's colonialist campaigns, the last one is special since the culture being mainstreamed was long extinct by the time UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte "visited" the territory. Unlike most examples on this page, which only got popularized to the rest of the world (to varying extents) because the US first became fascinated by them, Orientalism was born in Europe (particularly French and the UK) and then brought to the US.

* Returning American servicemen from [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Pacific War]] brought home a fascination with the Polynesian culture that flourished from the late [[TheForties '40s]] to well into TheSixties. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki_culture "Tiki culture"]] took off with the 1947 ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition and the 1948 James Michener short story collection ''Literature/TalesOfTheSouthPacific'' (loosely adapted the following year into the musical ''Theatre/SouthPacific''), and continued with the pseudo-tropical "exotica" music genre and a slew of "fun in the sun" movies set on Pacific islands. UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}} gaining statehood in 1959 and the rise of cheap air travel gave it a second wind, embedding Hawaii in American pop culture as a pleasure resort (before that, it was a distant colonial outpost known for plantations, Pearl Harbor, and little else), a status that managed to outlast the Polynesian craze. The trope of the former GI running a tiki stand in paradise can still be found in some works.
* {{Blaxploitation}} and a heavily stereotyped Black Culture became a national fascination in TheSeventies. This current is characterized by high-octane action, disregarding the law to solve conflicts, and a cast comprised almost entirely of black people. It came back in the early '90s in the form of urban gangster films (Boyz N The Hood, New Jack City), and several times in TheNoughties and TheNewTens thanks to Creator/QuentinTarantino.

* Returning American servicemen from [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Pacific War]] brought home a fascination with the Polynesian culture that flourished from the late [[TheForties '40s]] to well into TheSixties. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki_culture "Tiki culture"]] took off with the 1947 ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition and the 1948 James Michener short story collection ''Literature/TalesOfTheSouthPacific'' (loosely adapted the following year into the musical ''Theatre/SouthPacific''), and continued with the pseudo-tropical "exotica" music genre and a slew of "fun in the sun" movies set on Pacific islands. UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}} a statehood in 1959 and the rise of cheap air travel gave it a second wind, embedding Hawaii in American pop culture as a pleasure resort (before that, it was a distant colonial outpost known for plantations, Pearl Harbor, and little else), a status that managed to outlast the Polynesian craze. The trope of the former GI running a tiki stand in paradise can still be found in some works.

* When UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica started importing Asian soap operas (mainly [[KoreanDrama Korean]], [[UsefulNotes/Bollywood Indian]], and, several years later, [[TurkishDrama Turkish]]) around the mid-[[TheNewTens 2010s]] up to [[TheNewTwenties 2020s]], its population became very fixated on said Asian cultures. Kind of a huge, real-life AddictiveForeignSoapOpera fever. It was coupled with the rise of popularity of {{Anime}} and [[KoreanPopMusic K-pop]] in the region.

* The telenovela industry of UsefulNotes/{{Peru}} during TheNewTens made unreported employment and low-paying jobs the subject of most of its productions. Predictably, it often was a rather romanticized view on the matter -- not accurately portraying the country's poverty, initially over-relying on provinciano stereotypes, and usually revolving around some sort of by-proxy RagsToRiches plot (meaning, the LoveInterest tends to be wealthy). It all can be traced back to ''Series/YoNoMeLlamoNatacha'' and ''Series/MiAmorElWachiman''. Respectively, the tale of a GuileHero domestic worker who travels to Lima, the capital, to work for well-off families; and the love story between a pituca (rich, sheltered girl) and a poor security guard. There have been made telenovelas about carretilleras (ambulant, food vendors), informal clothing makers, landladies of low-income zones, and Cumbia singers. It was such a popular trend that one of the latest productions is a {{Deconstruction}} spawned by a tragedy that made all of the previous idealistic takes much HarsherInHindsight.

* The telenovela industry of UsefulNotes/{{Peru}} during TheNewTens made unreported employment and low-paying jobs the subject of most of its productions. Predictably, it often was a rather romanticized view on the matter -- not accurately portraying the country's poverty, initially over-relying on provinciano stereotypes, and usually revolving around some sort of by-proxy RagsToRiches plot (meaning, the LoveInterest tends to be wealthy). It all can be traced back to ''Series/YoNoMeLlamoNatacha'' and ''Series/MiAmorElWachiman''. Respectively, the tale of a GuileHero domestic worker who travels to Lima, the capital, to work for well-off families; and the love story between a pituca (rich, sheltered girl) and a poor watchman. There have been made telenovelas about carretilleras (ambulant, food vendors), informal clothing makers, landladies of low-income zones, and Cumbia singers. It was such a popular trend that one of the latest productions is a {{Deconstruction}} spawned by a tragedy that made all of the previous idealistic takes much HarsherInHindsight.

[[AC: Miscellaneous]]

* {{PlayedForLaughs}} in Creator/DanielPinkwater's ''The Last Guru'', America becomes enveloped in a New Age religious craze -- 99% of the population abandon their previous faiths in favor of meditation, chanting, and gong-ringing. Eastern gurus become the most in-demand profession. This all ends after Harold, revered as a semi-divine figure by much of the populace, asks everyone to stop, and people return to their old faiths and practices as suddenly as they started.

* In TheEighties, the US obsessed with {{Awesome Aussie}}s, as illustrated by the AustralianNewWave. It was prompted by the resurgence of Australian cinema and it captured the world's attention, not only the US's. Prime examples are the huge success of ''Film/CrocodileDundee'' and Creator/SteveIrwin's popularity.

As the subculture falls "out of style", there is sometimes a backlash against it. Either way, it is followed by a fallow period, which itself is followed by a more relaxed acceptance of some or all of the co-opted subculture elements. The culture at large then usually remains quiescent for several years before [[TheNewRockAndRoll discovering some new subculture]] to obsess over, thus beginning the cycle anew.

As the subculture falls "out of style", there is sometimes a backlash against it. Either way, it is followed by a fallow period, which itself is followed by a more relaxed acceptance of some or all of the co-opted subculture elements. The culture at large then usually remains quiescent for several years before discovering some new subculture to obsess over, thus beginning the cycle anew.

** The widespread worry about nuclear war in the late [[TheForties '40s]] and [[TheFifties '50s]] should count as an even earlier example of survivalism, although there were no zombies. Bomb shelters were a popular home-improvement project in some circles (even inspiring ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Shelter"), the sci-fi and comics of the time practically LIVED on tropes related to the nuclear apocalypse and radiation mutations, and many Baby Boomers still chuckle about the deadly-serious suggestion given in educational filmstrips that hiding under one's school desk was a viable way of avoiding a city-melting fireball. Science-fiction author Robert Heinlein deliberately fed the hysteria in a series of essays (see his collection "Expanded Universe") meant to scare people badly enough to get nukes banned. Didn't work, obviously, but a case could be made that he accidentally "created" survivalist.

* Thanks to [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar cold war intrigue]] and the success of the ''Film/JamesBond'' franchise, TheSixties produced a fascination with [[SpyFiction spies and spy culture]]. Shows such as ''Series/ISpy'', ''Series/TheManFromUNCLE'', ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'', and the parody ''Series/GetSmart'', films like ''Film/TheIpcressFile'' (along with parodies like ''Film/OurManFlint'' and Music/TheBeatles' spoof ''Film/{{Help}}''), spy movie-influenced songs like Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" and Edwin Starr's "Agent Double-O-Soul", books by Creator/JohnLeCarre and Creator/LenDeighton, and spy undertones in ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' and ''WesternAnimation/SecretSquirrel'' abounded, and spy toys were popular with young children. The craze died out as the Cold War fizzled, but its influence can be found in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'' and the Film/AustinPowers movies and cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' and ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies''. The genre has experienced a new lease of life in the wake of 9/11 and the subsequent [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror War on Terror]].

* Reportedly, what it's currently know as the "Tea Parties" have long since existed, emerging every fifteen years or so. For the confused, we mean right-wing, anti-UsefulNotes/{{Washington|DC}} (neo-) populist movements in the US, not parties where people drink tea, which emerge every fifteen minutes ([[BritsLoveTea at least in the UK]]). It tends to reach a fever pitch of media attention every fifteen years, manifesting itself as the John Birch Society in the '60s, the "[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reagan]] Revolution" and the "sagebrush rebels" in the late '70s and early '80s, the "Contract with America" in the mid-'90s, and the Tea Party movement today. The left-wing version appears as well, but less frequently: recent examples include the craze over UsefulNotes/BarackObama and the "Occupy" movements fitting this trope.

* American interest in AncientEgypt peaked with both the discovery of King UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}'s tomb in TheTwenties and the touring exhibit of his relics in TheSeventies.

* Fixations on specific cultures are an OlderThanRadio trend. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism Orientalism]] is the prime instance -- mainly [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinoiserie Chinoiserie]] ([=XVIIIth=] century) and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonisme Japonisme]] (late [=XIXth=] century), but also TheThemeParkVersion of the Indian culture (TheGildedAge) and the AncientEgypt[[note]]called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Revival Egyptian Revival]][[/note]] (early [=XIXth=] century). Even though all four are a direct result of Europe's colonialist campaigns, the last one is special since the culture being popularized was long extinct by the time UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte "visited" the territory. Unlike most examples on this page, which only got popularized to the rest of the world (to varying extents) because the US became fascinated by them, Orientalism was born in Europe (particularly French and the UK) and only then it was brought to the US.

* Fixations on specific cultures are an OlderThanRadio trend. Orientalism in general -- mainly Chinoiserie (eighteenth century) and Japonisme (late nineteenth century), but also TheThemeParkVersion of Indian culture (TheGildedAge). Unlike most examples on this page, which only got popularized to the rest of the world (in varying extents) because the US became fascinated by them, Orientalism was born in Europe (mainly French and the UK) and only then it was brought to the US.

** The relics are on another exhibition tour now. Whether this will spark another such fad remains to be seen.
** In the early [=XIXth=] century, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte's Egypt campaigns and the subsequent popularisation of ancient Egyptian culture also generated a fad for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Revival all things]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_revival_decorative_arts pharaonic]].

* Fixations on specific cultures are an OlderThanRadio trend. Orientalism in general -- mainly Japonisme (late nineteenth century) and Chinoiserie (eighteenth century), but also TheThemeParkVersion of Indian culture (TheTens). Unlike most examples on this page, which only got popularized to the rest of the world (in varying extents) because the US became fascinated by them, Orientalism was born in Europe (mainly French and the UK) and only then it was brought to the US.

[[AC: Miscellaneous]]
* In the late [[TheFifties '50s]] and early [[TheSixties '60s]], the previously secretive world of {{advertising}} agencies suddenly became the focus of immense cultural interest. The inner workings of Madison Avenue became the fodder for books, plays, TV shows, and movies (''The Man In the Grey Flannel Suit'', ''Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'', ''Film/WillSuccessSpoilRockHunter'', ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'', ''Lover Come Back''). Its unique internal jargon, often focused on CYA (Cover Your /-\$$) and consensus building, briefly flooded American speech. Some bits of it still remain (for instance, "run it up the flagpole and see who salutes", which was a well-worn cliche decades before it appeared in Music/HarveyDanger's 1997 song "Flagpole Sitta"), and the TV series ''Series/MadMen'' seems primed to revive much of the old adman slang. (As a nod to the old fad, ''Mad Men'' casts Robert Morse, the leading man in the original 1961 Broadway production of ''How to Succeed in Business...'', as the eccentric Bert Cooper).
* UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball, a.k.a. soccer, became highly popular in the United States during the late [[TheSeventies '70s]] with the New York Cosmos's signing of several big-name international stars such as Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer. After Pelé's retirement, the game's popularity declined and the league folded. Interest revived somewhat with the 1994 World Cup when the U.S. hosted the event and the men's team reached the knockout stage for the first time in over 60 years, and again in the 2010 World Cup when the men's team won their group on a stoppage-time goal. The establishment of Major League Soccer, and more recently the National Women's Soccer League, may eventually make soccer less of a fad and more of an ongoing niche interest.

%% Please add new examples in chronological order.

* In the late [[TheFifties '50s]] and early [[TheSixties '60s]], the previously secretive world of {{advertising}} agencies suddenly became the focus of immense cultural interest. The inner workings of Madison Avenue became the fodder for books, plays, TV shows, and movies (''The Man In the Grey Flannel Suit'', ''Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'', ''Film/WillSuccessSpoilRockHunter'', ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'', ''Lover Come Back''). Its unique internal jargon, often focused on CYA (Cover Your /-\$$) and consensus building, briefly flooded American speech. Some bits of it still remain (for instance, "run it up the flagpole and see who salutes", which was a well-worn cliche decades before it appeared in Music/HarveyDanger's 1997 song "Flagpole Sitta"), and the TV series ''Series/MadMen'' seems primed to revive much of the old adman slang. (As a nod to the old fad, ''Mad Men'' casts Robert Morse, the leading man in the original 1961 Broadway production of ''How to Succeed in Business...'', as the eccentric Bert Cooper).
* {{Blaxploitation}} in TheSeventies, which came back in the early '90s in the form of urban gangster films (Boyz N The Hood, New Jack City), and several times in the last twenty years thanks to Creator/QuentinTarantino.

* The post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarII villains ''du jour'' in American media have been: Sinister Russian [[DirtyCommunists Commies]] during the postwar period, Sinister Muslim [[ArabOilSheikh Oil Barons]] during the energy crises of TheSeventies, Sinister Russians again during TheEighties and TheNineties (with [[UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia a transition]] from commies to [[TheMafiya gangsters and arms dealers]] after the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar around 1990), and Sinister Muslim Terrorists during UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin is working hard to maintain the cycle -- it got worse when he invaded UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} in 2022.
* OlderThanRadio: Japonisme.
** Older Than Japonisme: Chinoiserie.
** Orientalism in general, really, thought the Western world was also unhealthily fixated on [[TheThemeParkVersion "genuine"]] Indian culture at the turn of last century, and still is to a degree.
* American interest in AncientEgypt peaked with both the discovery of King UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}'s tomb in TheTwenties and the touring exhibit of his relics in TheSeventies.
** The relics are on another exhibition tour now. Whether this will spark another such fad remains to be seen.
** In the early [=XIXth=] century, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte's Egypt campaigns and the subsequent popularisation of ancient Egyptian culture also generated a fad for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Revival all things]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_revival_decorative_arts pharaonic]].

* Reportedly, what we currently know as the "Tea Parties" have long since existed, emerging every fifteen years or so. For the confused, we mean right-wing, anti-UsefulNotes/{{Washington|DC}} (neo-) populist movements in the US, not parties where people drink tea, which emerge every fifteen minutes ([[BritsLoveTea at least in the UK]]). It tends to reach a fever pitch of media attention every fifteen years, manifesting itself as the John Birch Society in the '60s, the "[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reagan]] Revolution" and the "sagebrush rebels" in the late '70s and early '80s, the "Contract with America" in the mid-'90s, and the Tea Party movement today. The left-wing version appears as well, but less frequently: recent examples include the craze over UsefulNotes/BarackObama and the "Occupy" movements fitting this trope.
* From about 1985 to 1990, HeavyMetal music became hugely popular. Everywhere you looked kids were growing their hair long, buying leather jackets, and throwing up the devil horns hand gesture. Heavy Metal's popularity reached such high levels that the MoralGuardians of the day even held Senate hearings trying to force record companies to put warning labels on albums with explicit lyrics. When {{Grunge}} killed HairMetal in 1991, many record companies, as well as Creator/{{MTV}}, also forgot about heavy metal in favor of the newest trend. As a result, public interest in heavy metal dropped significantly but still managed to maintain a devoted fanbase, with bands like Music/{{Pantera}} managing to become very successful during TheNineties despite receiving little attention from mainstream media sources. In the mid-2000s heavy metal experienced a resurgence in popularity due to the highly successful ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' video game franchise, although metal still doesn't have the mainstream popularity that it did in the latter half of the 80s.

** The widespread worry about nuclear war in the late [[TheForties '40s]] and [[TheFifties '50s]] should count as an even earlier example of survivalism, although there were no zombies. Bomb shelters were a popular home-improvement project in some circles (even inspiring ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Shelter"), the sci-fi and comics of the time practically LIVED on tropes related to the nuclear apocalypse and radiation mutations, and many Baby Boomers still chuckle about the deadly-serious suggestion given in educational filmstrips that hiding under one's school desk was a viable way of avoiding a city-melting fireball. Science-fiction author Robert Heinlein deliberately fed the hysteria in a series of essays (see his collection "Expanded Universe") meant to scare people badly enough to get nukes banned. Didn't work, obviously, but a case could be made that he accidentally "created" survivalism.

* UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} enjoyed a period of popularity in TheNineties thanks to ''Film/JurassicPark'', to the point that the movie singlehandedly made the ''[[RaptorAttack Velociraptor]]'' a {{Stock Dinosaur|s}}. They seem to be coming back in 2014 and 2015, with the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' franchise getting [[Film/JurassicWorld a revival]], ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' getting dinosaur-themed installments (respectively, ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction'' and ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge''). As well as the release of a few other dinosaur-focused works such as ''WesternAnimation/TheGoodDinosaur'', ''VideoGame/FossilFighters'', and ''ComicBook/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur''.

* UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} enjoyed a period of popularity in TheNineties thanks to ''Film/JurassicPark'', to the point that the movie singlehandedly made the ''[[RaptorAttack Velociraptor]]'' a {{Stock Dinosaur|s}}. They seem to be coming back in 2014 and 2015, with the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' franchise getting [[Film/JurassicWorld a revival]], ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' getting [[Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction dinosaur]]-[[Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge themed]] installments, and the release of a few other dinosaur-focused works such as ''WesternAnimation/TheGoodDinosaur'', ''VideoGame/FossilFighters'', and ''ComicBook/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur''.

* UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} enjoyed a period of popularity in TheNineties thanks to ''Film/JurassicPark'', to the point that the movie singlehandedly made the ''[[RaptorAttack Velociraptor]]'' a {{Stock Dinosaur|s}}. They seem to be coming back in 2014 and 2015, with the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' franchise getting [[Film/JurassicWorld a revival]], ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' getting [[Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction dinosaur]]-[[Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge themed]] installments, and the release of a few [[WesternAnimation/TheGoodDinosaur other]] [[VideoGame/FossilFighters dinosaur]]-[[ComicBook/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur focused]] works.

* The post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarII villains ''du jour'' in American media have been: Sinister Russian [[DirtyCommunists Commies]] during the postwar period, Sinister Muslim [[ArabOilSheikh Oil Barons]] during the energy crises of TheSeventies, Sinister Russians again during TheEighties and TheNineties (with [[UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia a transition]] from commies to [[TheMafiya gangsters and arms dealers]] after [[the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar around 1990]]), and Sinister Muslim Terrorists during UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin is working hard to maintain the cycle -- it got worse when he invaded UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} in 2022.

* In the late [[TheFifties '50s]] and early [[TheSixties '60s]], the previously secretive world of advertising agencies suddenly became the focus of immense cultural interest. The inner workings of Madison Avenue became the fodder for books, plays, TV shows, and movies (''The Man In the Grey Flannel Suit'', ''Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'', ''Film/WillSuccessSpoilRockHunter'', ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'', ''Lover Come Back''). Its unique internal jargon, often focused on CYA (Cover Your /-\$$) and consensus building, briefly flooded American speech. Some bits of it still remain (for instance, "run it up the flagpole and see who salutes", which was a well-worn cliche decades before it appeared in Music/HarveyDanger's 1997 song "Flagpole Sitta"), and the TV series ''Series/MadMen'' seems primed to revive much of the old adman slang. (As a nod to the old fad, ''Mad Men'' casts Robert Morse, the leading man in the original 1961 Broadway production of ''How to Succeed in Business...'', as the eccentric Bert Cooper).

* Returning American servicemen from [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Pacific War]] brought home a fascination with the Polynesian culture that flourished from the late {{Forties}} to well into the {{Sixties}}. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki_culture "Tiki culture"]] took off with the 1947 ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition and the 1948 James Michener short story collection ''Literature/TalesOfTheSouthPacific'' (loosely adapted the following year into the musical ''Theatre/SouthPacific''), and continued with the pseudo-tropical "exotica" music genre and a slew of "fun in the sun" movies set on Pacific islands. UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}} a statehood in 1959 and the rise of cheap air travel gave it a second wind, embedding Hawaii in American pop culture as a pleasure resort (before that, it was a distant colonial outpost known for plantations, Pearl Harbor, and little else), a status that managed to outlast the Polynesian craze. The trope of the former GI running a tiki stand in paradise can still be found in some works.
* In the late {{Fifties}} and early {{Sixties}}, the previously secretive world of advertising agencies suddenly became the focus of immense cultural interest. The inner workings of Madison Avenue became the fodder for books, plays, TV shows, and movies (''The Man In the Grey Flannel Suit'', ''Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'', ''Film/WillSuccessSpoilRockHunter'', ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'', ''Lover Come Back''). Its unique internal jargon, often focused on CYA (Cover Your /-\$$) and consensus building, briefly flooded American speech.Some bits of it still remain (for instance, "run it up the flagpole and see who salutes", which was a well-worn cliche decades before it appeared in Music/HarveyDanger's 1997 song "Flagpole Sitta"), and the TV series ''Series/MadMen'' seems primed to revive much of the old adman slang. (As a nod to the old fad, ''Mad Men'' casts Robert Morse, the leading man in the original 1961 Broadway production of ''How to Succeed in Business...'', as the eccentric Bert Cooper).

* American interest in AncientEgypt peaked with both the discovery of King UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}'s tomb in the {{Twenties}} and the touring exhibit of his relics in the {{Seventies}}.

* Outside of Japan, {{Anime}} was an underground subculture that made its first inroads in the West with ''Anime/AstroBoy'' and ''Anime/SpeedRacer'', then percolated in TheSeventies (''Anime/StarBlazers'') and TheEighties (''Anime/{{Robotech}}'') before bursting into the mainstream in the mid-{{Nineties}}, peaking in the early [[TheNoughties 2000s]] when 85% of people under 35 watched at least one hour of anime a week. It hasn't faded away completely, but it has declined in popularity since the mid-2000s. Much of this may be due to declining quality as production houses, looking to exploit the new American market, focused on making shows that were either fast and cheap or overly filled with in-jokes for anime fans.

* From about 1985 to 1990, HeavyMetal music became hugely popular. Everywhere you looked kids were growing their hair long, buying leather jackets, and throwing up the devil horns hand gesture. Heavy Metal's popularity reached such high levels that the MoralGuardians of the day even held Senate hearings trying to force record companies to put warning labels on albums with explicit lyrics. When {{Grunge}} killed HairMetal in 1991, many record companies, as well as Creator/{{MTV}}, also forgot about heavy metal in favor of the newest trend. As a result, public interest in heavy metal dropped significantly but still managed to maintain a devoted fanbase, with bands like Music/{{Pantera}} managing to become very successful during the {{Nineties}} despite receiving little attention from mainstream media sources. In the mid-2000s heavy metal experienced a resurgence in popularity due to the highly successful ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' video game franchise, although metal still doesn't have the mainstream popularity that it did in the latter half of the 80s.

** The widespread worry about nuclear war in the late {{Forties}} and {{Fifties}} should count as an even earlier example of survivalism, although there were no zombies. Bomb shelters were a popular home-improvement project in some circles (even inspiring ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Shelter"), the sci-fi and comics of the time practically LIVED on tropes related to the nuclear apocalypse and radiation mutations, and many Baby Boomers still chuckle about the deadly-serious suggestion given in educational filmstrips that hiding under one's school desk was a viable way of avoiding a city-melting fireball. Science-fiction author Robert Heinlein deliberately fed the hysteria in a series of essays (see his collection "Expanded Universe") meant to scare people badly enough to get nukes banned. Didn't work, obviously, but a case could be made that he accidentally "created" survivalism.

* UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball, a.k.a. soccer, became highly popular in the United States during the late {{Seventies}} with the New York Cosmos's signing of several big-name international stars such as Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer. After Pelé's retirement, the game's popularity declined and the league folded. Interest revived somewhat with the 1994 World Cup when the U.S. hosted the event and the men's team reached the knockout stage for the first time in over 60 years, and again in the 2010 World Cup when the men's team won their group on a stoppage-time goal. The establishment of Major League Soccer, and more recently the National Women's Soccer League, may eventually make soccer less of a fad and more of an ongoing niche interest.
* UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} enjoyed a period of popularity in the {{Nineties}} thanks to ''Film/JurassicPark'', to the point that the movie singlehandedly made the ''[[RaptorAttack Velociraptor]]'' a {{Stock Dinosaur|s}}. They seem to be coming back in 2014 and 2015, with the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' franchise getting [[Film/JurassicWorld a revival]], ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' getting [[Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction dinosaur]]-[[Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge themed]] installments, and the release of a few [[WesternAnimation/TheGoodDinosaur other]] [[VideoGame/FossilFighters dinosaur]]-[[ComicBook/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur focused]] works.

* Returning American servicemen from [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Pacific War]] brought home a fascination with the Polynesian culture that flourished from the late '40s well into the '60s. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki_culture "Tiki culture"]] took off with the 1947 ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition and the 1948 James Michener short story collection ''Literature/TalesOfTheSouthPacific'' (loosely adapted the following year into the musical ''Theatre/SouthPacific''), and continued with the pseudo-tropical "exotica" music genre and a slew of "fun in the sun" movies set on Pacific islands. UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}} a statehood in 1959 and the rise of cheap air travel gave it a second wind, embedding Hawaii in American pop culture as a pleasure resort (before that, it was a distant colonial outpost known for plantations, Pearl Harbor, and little else), a status that managed to outlast the Polynesian craze. The trope of the former GI running a tiki stand in paradise can still be found in some works.
* In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the previously secretive world of advertising agencies suddenly became the focus of immense cultural interest. The inner workings of Madison Avenue became the fodder for books, plays, TV shows, and movies (''The Man In the Grey Flannel Suit'', ''Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'', ''Film/WillSuccessSpoilRockHunter'', ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'', ''Lover Come Back''). Its unique internal jargon, often focused on CYA (Cover Your /-\$$) and consensus building, briefly flooded American speech.Some bits of it still remain (for instance, "run it up the flagpole and see who salutes", which was a well-worn cliche decades before it appeared in Music/HarveyDanger's 1997 song "Flagpole Sitta"), and the TV series ''Series/MadMen'' seems primed to revive much of the old adman slang. (As a nod to the old fad, ''Mad Men'' casts Robert Morse, the leading man in the original 1961 Broadway production of ''How to Succeed in Business...'', as the eccentric Bert Cooper).

* American interest in AncientEgypt peaked with both the discovery of King UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}'s tomb in the 1920s and the touring exhibit of his relics in the 1970s.

* Outside of Japan, {{Anime}} was an underground subculture that made its first inroads in the West with ''Anime/AstroBoy'' and ''Anime/SpeedRacer'', then percolated in TheSeventies (''Anime/StarBlazers'') and TheEighties (''Anime/{{Robotech}}'') before bursting into the mainstream in the mid-1990s, peaking in the early 2000s when 85% of people under 35 watched at least one hour of anime a week. It hasn't faded away completely, but it has declined in popularity since the mid-2000s. Much of this may be due to declining quality as production houses, looking to exploit the new American market, focused on making shows that were either fast and cheap or overly filled with in-jokes for anime fans.

* From about 1985 to 1990, HeavyMetal music became hugely popular. Everywhere you looked kids were growing their hair long, buying leather jackets, and throwing up the devil horns hand gesture. Heavy Metal's popularity reached such high levels that the MoralGuardians of the day even held Senate hearings trying to force record companies to put warning labels on albums with explicit lyrics. When {{Grunge}} killed HairMetal in 1991, many record companies, as well as Creator/{{MTV}}, also forgot about heavy metal in favor of the newest trend. As a result, public interest in heavy metal dropped significantly but still managed to maintain a devoted fanbase, with bands like Music/{{Pantera}} managing to become very successful during the 1990s despite receiving little attention from mainstream media sources. In the mid-2000s heavy metal experienced a resurgence in popularity due to the highly successful ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' video game franchise, although metal still doesn't have the mainstream popularity that it did in the latter half of the 80s.

** The widespread worry about nuclear war in the late 1940s and 1950s should count as an even earlier example of survivalism, although there were no zombies. Bomb shelters were a popular home-improvement project in some circles (even inspiring ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Shelter"), the sci-fi and comics of the time practically LIVED on tropes related to the nuclear apocalypse and radiation mutations, and many Baby Boomers still chuckle about the deadly-serious suggestion given in educational filmstrips that hiding under one's school desk was a viable way of avoiding a city-melting fireball. Science-fiction author Robert Heinlein deliberately fed the hysteria in a series of essays (see his collection "Expanded Universe") meant to scare people badly enough to get nukes banned. Didn't work, obviously, but a case could be made that he accidentally "created" survivalism.

* UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball, a.k.a. soccer, became highly popular in the United States during the late 1970s with the New York Cosmos's signing of several big-name international stars such as Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer. After Pelé's retirement, the game's popularity declined and the league folded. Interest revived somewhat with the 1994 World Cup when the U.S. hosted the event and the men's team reached the knockout stage for the first time in over 60 years, and again in the 2010 World Cup when the men's team won their group on a stoppage-time goal. The establishment of Major League Soccer, and more recently the National Women's Soccer League, may eventually make soccer less of a fad and more of an ongoing niche interest.
* UsefulNotes/{{Dinosaurs}} enjoyed a period of popularity in the 1990's thanks to ''Film/JurassicPark'', to the point that the movie singlehandedly made the ''[[RaptorAttack Velociraptor]]'' a {{Stock Dinosaur|s}}. They seem to be coming back in 2014 and 2015, with the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' franchise getting [[Film/JurassicWorld a revival]], ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' getting [[Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction dinosaur]]-[[Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge themed]] installments, and the release of a few [[WesternAnimation/TheGoodDinosaur other]] [[VideoGame/FossilFighters dinosaur]]-[[ComicBook/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur focused]] works.

* Returning American servicemen from [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Pacific War]] brought home a fascination with the Polynesian culture that flourished from the late '40s well into the '60s. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki_culture "Tiki culture"]] took off with the 1947 ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition and the 1948 James Michener short story collection ''Literature/TalesOfTheSouthPacific'' (loosely adapted the following year into the musical ''Theatre/SouthPacific''), and continued with the pseudo-tropical "exotica" music genre and a slew of "fun in the sun" movies set on Pacific islands. UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}} a statehood in 1959 and the rise of cheap air travel gave it a second wind, embedding Hawaii in American pop culture as a pleasure resort (before that, it was a distant colonial outpost known for plantations, Pearl Harbor, and little else), a status that managed to outlast the Polynesian craze. The trope of the former GI running a tiki stand in paradise can still be found in some works.

* {{Anime}} may fit this. Outside of Japan, it was an underground subculture that made its first inroads in the West with ''Anime/AstroBoy'' and ''Anime/SpeedRacer'', then percolated in TheSeventies (''Anime/StarBlazers'') and TheEighties (''Anime/{{Robotech}}'') before bursting into the mainstream in the mid-1990s, peaking in the early 2000s when 85% of people under 35 watched at least one hour of anime a week. It hasn't faded away completely, but it has declined in popularity since the mid-2000s. Much of this may be due to declining quality as production houses, looking to exploit the new American market, focused on making shows that were either fast and cheap or overly filled with in-jokes for anime fans.
* Reportedly, what we currently know as the "Tea Parties" have long since existed, emerging every fifteen years or so.
** For the confused, we mean right-wing, anti-UsefulNotes/{{Washington|DC}} (neo-) populist movements in the US, not parties where people drink tea, which emerge every fifteen minutes ([[BritsLoveTea at least in the UK]]). It tends to reach a fever pitch of media attention every fifteen years, manifesting itself as the John Birch Society in the '60s, the "[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reagan]] Revolution" and the "sagebrush rebels" in the late '70s and early '80s, the "Contract with America" in the mid-'90s, and the Tea Party movement today. The left-wing version appears as well, but less frequently: recent examples include the craze over UsefulNotes/BarackObama and the "Occupy" movements fitting this trope.

Cycles are frequently triggered by some innocuous entry into the meme pool, like a popular song or book. See also FollowTheLeader, TheRedStapler, PopularityPolynomial.

* {{Blaxploitation}} in TheSeventies, which came back in the early 90's in the form of urban gangster films (Boyz N The Hood, New Jack City), and several times in the last twenty years thanks to Creator/QuentinTarantino.

* American interest in AncientEgypt peaked with both the discovery of King UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}'s tomb in the 1920's and the touring exhibit of his relics in the 1970's.

* {{Anime}} may fit this. Outside of Japan, it was an underground subculture that made its first inroads in the West with ''Anime/AstroBoy'' and ''Anime/SpeedRacer'', then percolated in TheSeventies (''Anime/StarBlazers'') and TheEighties (''Anime/{{Robotech}}'') before bursting into mainstream in the mid-1990s, peaking in the early 2000s when 85% of people under 35 watched at least one hour of anime a week. It hasn't faded away completely, but it has declined in popularity since the mid-2000s. Much of this may be due to declining quality as production houses, looking to exploit the new American market, focused on making shows that were either fast and cheap or overly filled with injokes for anime fans.

** For the confused, we mean right-wing, anti-UsefulNotes/{{Washington|DC}} (neo-) populist movements in the US, not parties where people drink tea, which emerge every fifteen minutes ([[BritsLoveTea at least in the UK]]). It tends to reach a fever pitch of media attention every fifteen years, manifesting itself as the John Birch Society in the '60s, the "[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reagan]] Revolution" and the "sagebrush rebels" in the late '70s and early '80s, the "Contract with America" in the mid '90s, and the Tea Party movement today. The left-wing version appears as well, but less frequently: recent examples include the craze over UsefulNotes/BarackObama and the "Occupy" movements fitting this trope.
* From about 1985 to 1990, HeavyMetal music became hugely popular. Everywhere you looked kids were growing their hair long, buying leather jackets, and throwing up the devil horns hand gesture. Heavy Metal's popularity reached such high levels that the MoralGuardians of the day even held Senate hearings trying to force record companies to put warning labels on albums with explicit lyrics. When {{Grunge}} killed HairMetal in 1991, many record companies as well as Creator/{{MTV}} also forgot about heavy metal in favor of the newest trend. As a result public interest in heavy metal dropped significantly but still managed to maintain a devoted fanbase, with bands like Music/{{Pantera}} managing to become very successful during the 1990s despite receiving little attention from mainstream media sources. In the mid-2000s heavy metal experienced a resurgence in popularity due to the highly successful ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' video game franchise, although metal still doesn't have the mainstream popularity that it did in the latter half of the 80s.
* [[TropesOfTheLivingDead Zombies]] -- or rather, [[CrazyPrepared zombie-related survivalism]] -- is an example of a subculture that developed with the craze. It started in the early-mid '00s, when a number of highly popular zombie films (''Film/ResidentEvil2002'', ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'', ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'') came out within two years of one another, helping to bring back from the grave a genre that had been lying stiff since TheEighties. From there, the infection burned through film, books, comics, games, music videos, television, and especially the internet, where the ZombieApocalypse mutated into a {{meme|ticMutation}}.[[note]]There, is that enough [[AWorldwidePunomenon undead-related puns]] for you?[[/note]] Shows like ''Series/{{Community}}'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' had zombie-themed {{Halloween episode}}s, communities the world over staged zombie walks and games of ''LARP/HumansVsZombies'', and ''everybody'' had at least considered "a plan". Preparedness groups and even the Center for Disease Control jumped on board, using the pop culture's obsession with zombies as a way to tell people to be prepared for disasters and emergencies.
** For that matter, survivalism in general tends to ebb and flow depending on the times. It first flourished in TheSeventies due to fear of economic collapse and social unrest, and appeared again in the mid-'80s due to fear of WorldWarIII and in the late '90s thanks to fear of [[MillenniumBug Y2K]]. It later hit another high point early in the 21st century due to both the late-2000s economic crisis and, to a lesser extent, the [[MayanDoomsday alleged Mayan doomsday prophecy]], with reality shows like ''Doomsday Preppers'' and scripted series like ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' and ''Series/{{Revolution}}'' all rooted in survivalism. Needless to say, companies selling gold, canned foods, and guns and ammunition love this trend.
** The widespread worry about nuclear war in the late 1940's and 1950's should count as an even earlier example of survivalism, although there were no zombies. Bomb shelters were a popular home-improvement project in some circles (even inspiring ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Shelter"), the sci-fi and comics of the time practically LIVED on tropes related to nuclear apocalypse and radiation mutations, and many of Baby Boomer age still chuckle about the deadly-serious suggestion given in educational filmstrips that hiding under one's school desk was a viable way of avoiding a city-melting fireball. Science-fiction author Robert Heinlein deliberately fed the hysteria in a series of essays (see his collection "Expanded Universe") meant to scare people badly enough to get nukes banned. Didn't work, obviously, but a case could be made that he accidentally "created" survivalism.

* UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball, a.k.a. soccer, became highly popular in the United States during the late 1970's with the New York Cosmos's signing of several big name international stars such as Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer. After Pelé's retirement, the game's popularity declined and the league folded. Interest revived somewhat with the 1994 World Cup, when the U.S. hosted the event and the men's team reached the knockout stage for the first time in over 60 years, and again in the 2010 World Cup when the men's team won their group on a stoppage-time goal. The establishment of Major League Soccer, and more recently the National Women's Soccer League, may eventually make soccer less of a fad and more of an ongoing niche interest.

* Returning American servicemen from [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Pacific War]] brought home a fascination with Polynesian culture that flourished from the late '40s well into the '60s. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki_culture "Tiki culture"]] took off with the 1947 ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition and the 1948 James Michener short story collection ''Literature/TalesOfTheSouthPacific'' (loosely adapted the following year into the musical ''Theatre/SouthPacific''), and continued with the pseudo-tropical "exotica" music genre and a slew of "fun in the sun" movies set on Pacific islands. UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}an statehood in 1959 and the rise of cheap air travel gave it a second wind, embedding Hawaii in American pop culture as a pleasure resort (before that, it was a distant colonial outpost known for plantations, Pearl Harbor, and little else), a status that managed to outlast the Polynesian craze. The trope of the former GI running a tiki stand in paradise can still be found in some works.

* From about 1985 to 1990, HeavyMetal music became hugely popular. Everywhere you looked kids were growing their hair long, buying leather jackets, and throwing up the devil horns hand gesture. Heavy Metal's popularity reached such high levels that the MoralGuardians of the day even held Senate hearings trying to force record companies to put warning labels on albums with explicit lyrics. When {{Grunge}} killed HairMetal in 1991, many record companies as well as Creator/{{MTV}} also forgot about heavy metal in favor of the newest trend. As a result public interest in heavy metal dropped significantly but still managed to maintain a devoted fanbase, with bands like Music/{{Pantera}} managing to become very successful during the 1990s despite receiving little attention from mainstream media sources. In the mid-2000s heavy metal experienced a resurgance in popularity due to the highly successful ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' video game franchise, although metal still doesn't have the mainstream popularity that it did in the latter half of the 80s.