Does magic now lie in the past rather than the future?
What happens when we believe that the best of humanity lies behind us?
Dance music, electronic music in the 90s was 'a trip into the future'.
The genre was a portal into a time that was yet to come, but somehow, ironically, technological advancements in music making and distribution have made this era in music unique and as a result it ended up getting trapped in the 90s.
Now a growing underground culture of digging ensures that the obsession with 90s dance music continues today, but in a weird 'recapturing of the past' kind of way.
'The future' has become nostalgic.
Diggers search for rare records and sounds from the heyday of dance music and trade these vintage pieces in a growing marketplace of those trying to recapture the past.
The vintage trend is more than consuming less by buying old.
For many, vintage is a subjective acknowledgement that the best of human endeavours may be behind us. Technology has made everything just to cheap and easy and because of this, real magic may well seem to lie in the past rather than in the AI-powered sterile landscape of tomorrow.
Digging is but a small microcosm of how this perspective affects the music industry, but you can draw similarities into clothing and apparel, books, art and movies.