Zeitgeist - Decade Rhythms
The Rolling Stones and Beatles 50ths have prompted me to think again about the Decade Zeitgeist Rhythms. 

We all use a shorthand to talk about the recent past where we divide up the time into decades and expect our audience to immediately understand. So when people talk about "the 60s" or "80s music" we pretty much understand.

The problem is that the actual rhythm of change doesn't match up with the numbers. So here's a variation. If we look at several examples what we find is actually a three stage process.

02-05, 1st Wave
06-09, 2nd Wave
00-01, Hangover

The 1st wave begins once we're well into the decade and runs for about 4 ears. It starts when the pressure cooker of innovation and disatisfaction with the old order begins to boil over with something new. The 2nd stage is an equal or greater turn round the spiral and is often responsible for what we then go on to apply to the whole decade. Then we have a short period of pre and post decade angst that is something like the hangover after new year's eve. So this is a 10-4 rhythm broken into 2 bars of 4-4 and one bar of 2-4 (The-Main-Ten/Playing in the band by the Grateful Dead!). 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2 So for instance take the 60s. On this basis 1960,61 are actually a hangover from the 50s, JFK has been elected but hasn't had a chance to really get going. Music is still stuck in old school rock'n'roll. Then in 1962 The Beatles and Stones form and all hell breaks loose for 4 years. In 1966 something happens to take this youth culture into left field. We then get 4 years of hippies and psychedelia. In 1970-71 there's then the tail end of the 60s hippiness as there's a recapitulation and resolution. The pressure to change builds up and boils over in 1972 with the birth of Glam Rock.

1962 The English Invasion. Beatles and Stones. Pop-Art. Kennedy
1966 Boomers, Psychedelia. Johnson
1970 Altamont, IoW, numerous deaths. Leave Vietnam. Nixon/Heath.
1972 Glam Rock, Prog Rock - Spiders, Roxy, Dark Side of the Moon, Ford
1976 Punk (duh!), Carter
1980 Reagan
1982 2-Tone, Post-Punk, New Romantics, Madonna, Reagan/Thatcher
1986 Chicago & Detroit House, Golden age hip hop
1990
1992 Rave, Acid, Trip Hop, Clinton
1996 Hardcore, Garage, Drum and Bass, Big Beat, Clinton/Blair
2000 Bush
2002 IDM
2006 Dubstep
2010 Obama   
2012 Brostep

The problem is that the model holds up quite well for the 60s and 70s but fits less well for the 80s, 90s, 00s. I think I can feel the rhythm 80,82,86,90,92,96,00,02,06,10 but I have a harder time trying to names and faces to the peaks.

And now we get to 2012. We're half way though it and we should be able to feel the drop or the wave beginning to break that defines the next 4 beats. But what is it? Perhaps it started last year.

ps. As usual I'm mostly using music trends as a glass to look through. There are parallels in the other arts, social movements and of course politics.