History Main / PopularityPolynomial

** Case in point: [[http://www.rotten.com/library/culture/doctor-who/ this article]] from the Rotten Library, written in 2005 just as ''Doctor Who'' was returning to television, exemplifies the dismissive attitudes (in this case, from an American perspective) that many people had towards the show at the time. It would be unimaginable for that same article to be written today.

* In general, the "two decades behind" rule of coolness applies:

** TheNewTens has seen a revival of [[TheNinties 1990's]] pop culture.

** The [[TheNinetieties 1990's]] [[TheSeventies 1970's]] revival.

** TheNewTens has seen a revival of [[TheNineties 1990's]] pop culture.

* The [[TheEighties 1980's]] [[TheFifties 1950's]] revival (mostly in Hollywood movies)
** The [[TheEighties 1980's]] [[TheSixties 1960's]] revival (mostly in independant music, but also in fashion trends)
*** The post-2000 [[TheEighties 1980's]] revival (mostly in pop music, but also in fashion trends)

* For much of the late 20th century, film musicals were DeaderThanDisco, having effectively been [[GenreKiller killed]] by a parade of flops over 1967-69 (''Camelot'', ''Doctor Dolittle'', ''Paint Your Wagon'', ''Finian's Rainbow'', ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'', and finally ''HelloDolly!''). While the genre persisted into TheSeventies via a few successful (mostly pop-rock) efforts, it gave up the ghost early in TheEighties. 2001's ''MoulinRouge'' was the first live-action musical in years to attract positive attention, but a comeback truly kicked off the following year with the Oscar-winning film of ''Film/{{Chicago}}'', and has continued into the present with the likes of ''{{Dreamgirls}}'', ''{{Hairspray}}'', ''MammaMia'' and ''LesMiserables''. {{Disney}} even managed to make a highly successful franchise out of ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', to the point where the third film was upgraded to a theatrical release. And now there's ''Series/{{Glee}}''...

* The 1967 film ''ToSirWithLove'' laid this trope bare for the audience in a scene where Mark Thackeray (SidneyPoitier) informs his disbelieving students about many things that are OlderThanTheyThink: their clothing is from the 1920s, their hairstyles from the 16th century, and so on. A trip to a museum later in the film re-{{lampshade}}s it when one of the students is shown with his head next to that of a Renaissance statue -- and they both have the same haircut.

How often the item cycles back and forth between "cool" and "not cool" depends on many factors. If something reached a peak when you and your friends were kids, then when you become teens, it is a reminder of a childish time -- and as the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up kick in, you don't want to think about it. But when you become adults again, it is seen as harmless. And once ''your'' kids discover it, it may even become cool again (as long as they don't associate it with their uncool parents). Now apply that on a larger scale.

* The market for [[IdolSinger contemporary dance-pop music]] has seen great periods of popularity and decline, starting with the mid- to late [[TheEighties 1980's]] led by Music/MichaelJackson's ''Thriller'' and {{Madonna}}'s early period, then falling to {{Grunge}} and hip-hop in TheNineties. It returned with the rise of the Music/SpiceGirls, BackstreetBoys, N*Sync, {{Hanson}}, ChristinaAguilera and BritneySpears in 1998-1999, then gained a new audience when DisneyChannel and {{Nickelodeon}} stars like TheJonasBrothers, [[Series/LizzieMcGuire Hilary Duff]] and MileyCyrus branched out into teen pop careers in the mid-to late 2000's. Music/JustinBieber, Cody Simpson, One Direction, Carly Rae Jepsen, BigTimeRush and Burnham seem to be flying the flag for the 2010's.

* The history of CountryMusic in America for the past few decades has essentially been a tug-of-war between those who performed a slicker sound inspired by pop and rock music (with frequent crossover forays on those charts) and those who preferred a more traditional country sound. From the late '50s through the '60s, the "Nashville sound" (also known as countrypolitan) dominated the country and pop charts alike, but it witnessed a backlash in the '60s from the rival "Bakersfield sound" and in the '70s from outlaw country artists, which both rejected the Nashville sound's pop stylings and, in the latter's case, took on a DarkerAndEdgier attitude to boot. The film ''UrbanCowboy'' in 1980 spawned a return of pop-country inspired by that film's soundtrack, which eventually produced a backlash in the late '80s in the form of the neotraditional movement, which drew its main influences from '40s and '50s country.\\

The "Class of 1989", a group of young artists led by Music/GarthBrooks and Music/ClintBlack, was a turning point in country music, marking its transition into a mainstream force throughout the American music world. The booming, Arkansas-based retail chain UsefulNotes/{{Walmart}}, using discount records as a loss leader to pull customers into the store, helped to popularize country outside of its rural base and bring it into suburban America. Furthermore, as explained in [[http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/123260-pour-some-sugarland-on-me-why-country-music-is-the-new-classic-rock/ this article]], the collapse of HairMetal and ArenaRock in the early '90s and the rise of ThreeChordsAndTheTruth in rock music caused a lot of talented session musicians to pack up for Nashville, where that kind of guitar work was still in demand. This pulled into country music a lot of fans of "classic" rock styles who were turned off by {{Grunge}} and AlternativeRock. Today, this "rock-country" style remains the dominant trend within country music; time will tell how long it lasts.

* The original TimBurton ''Film/{{Batman}}'' movie was a massive hit and spawned a resurgence of similar comic book flicks (''Film/TheShadow'' and ''Film/ThePhantom'', among others), but after a string of sequels, ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' came out and pretty much [[GenreKiller killed the]] {{superhero}} genre. A few years later, ''Film/{{Blade}}'' and ''Film/XMen1'' came out and slowly started making comic book movies a viable genre again (albeit usually [[MovieSuperheroesWearBlack with more subdued costumes]]), and ''BatmanBegins'' effectively resurrected the Batman franchise. Cut to the present day, and not only are superhero movies routinely top earners at the box office, but ''Film/TheAvengers'' is now one of the highest grossing films of all time.

* Indie gaming and the {{Wii}} have brought back quite a few genres of gaming that were once assumed to have died during [[VideoGame3DLeap the switch to 3D]].
** [=2D=] side-scrollers, such as ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'', ''{{Contra}}'', ''SuperMarioBros'' and ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'', once made up the bedrock of the industry. Later, they were viewed as quaint relics of the pre-{{Playstation}} era, and were relegated to handhelds and cheap Flash games... until ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' and ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' tore up the charts, and titles like ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'' and ''{{Eversion}}'' became critical darlings.

* Speaking of {{synthpop}}, it dominated pop music in the '80s, but was supplanted by RAndB, {{idol singer}}s and alternative rock during the '90s and '00s, and was viewed as overly-synthesized and artificial by listeners from those decades. Now, however, artists like Music/LadyGaga, Music/{{Kesha}}, Music/LaRoux and Music/OwlCity have brought it back into the mainstream.
* ElectronicMusic in general hit a peak in popularity during the Second Summer of Love in the late '80s, and is currently enjoying a resurgence.

The genre returned in a big way in the late '90s/early 2000s with ''WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' and ''TheWeakestLink'', as well as shows like ''{{Greed}}'' and the {{revival}} of ''HollywoodSquares''. This boom also caused a deluge of [[WhoWantsToBeWhoWantsToBeAMillionaire their assorted clones]]. In the early 2000s, ''Millionaire'' and ''Link'' pulled in tens of millions of viewers and were watercooler discussion fodder, and their hosts (Regis Philbin and [[TheMeanBrit Anne Robinson]], respectively) were household names. Then their networks [[AdoredByTheNetwork began marketing them to death]] (Creator/{{ABC}} aired ''Millionaire'' almost every night of the week), and reality shows like ''Series/{{Survivor}}'', ''AmericanIdol'' and ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' started taking off and providing what were then innovative alternatives to the traditional quiz show model. Almost overnight, the shows were only surviving in syndication -- and even that wasn't enough to keep ''Link'' alive. To this day, their catch phrases ("Is that your final answer?" for ''Millionaire''; "You are the weakest link. Goodbye!" for ''Link'') are considered annoying as all hell.

* Adam West. In the late 1960s, he was a prime-time TV star and the actor charged with bringing Comicbook/{{Batman}} back to life. Head to the '80s and the return of the [[DarkAge Dark Knight]], and West is a ''persona non grata'', firmly stuck as a reminder of the DorkAge Batman. But today? He's a staple voice actor in comedies such as ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' [[AdamWesting precisely because of his history as Batman]], and trademark [[LargeHam overdramatic voice]].

* EltonJohn began as a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter celebrated for classic albums like ''Elton John'', ''Tumbleweed Connection'', ''Madman Across The Water'' and ''Honky Chateau''. His public popularity grew in 1973 with the albums ''Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player'' and the double album ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road''. which spawned some of the biggest hits of TheSeventies. His popularity increased through the first half of the decade, and his outrageous image, employing crazy costumes and glasses made him a phenomenon and TeenIdol, [[CriticalBacklash even though the reviews were less enthusiastic]]. An infamous ''Rolling Stone'' magazine interview in 1976, where he [[StraightGay declared himself bisexual]] (later he'd claimed homosexuality), costed him much of his Middle American fanbase, and his own wish to stop touring, saw his fame taper off. Although he had a successful free concert in Central Park in 1980, sales and airplay were nowhere near as they were in the 1970's. He returned in the mid-1980s with albums like ''Too Low For Zero'' and ''Breaking Hearts'', and enjoyed more success in TheNineties after going sober (especially after co-writing songs for TheLionKing), and he still has occasional comebacks to this day.

** Two particular anime that experienced this is ''DragonBallZ'' and ''NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Both acted as gateway series to the world of anime, DragonBallZ being the most popular shonen series and Evangelion once being regarded TrueArt. Around the early 2000s, HypeBacklash hit both series big time and it suddenly became wrong to openly admit to liking either series. Then later, with the creations of DragonballZKai and RebuildOfEvangelion respectively have renewed interest in both franchises.

[[folder:Anime]]

* Heavy metal in general suffered an deep slump in the early '90s, with {{grunge}} bands like Music/PearlJam and Music/{{Nirvana}} taking over the rock charts and {{MTV}}. The genre, which had ruled the rock music scene in TheEighties, was driven back underground; the few bands that did find success in TheNineties, like Music/AliceInChains and Music/{{Metallica}}, were those with a DarkerAndEdgier sound that fit in with the anti-HairMetal sensibilities of the decade. However, as grunge burned out and transitioned into PostGrunge, metal made a comeback in the late '90s as an antidote to the {{boy band}}s and {{idol singer}}s of the era. {{VH-1}} even celebrated this trend in 1999 with a TV special entitled ''The Return of the Rock'', featuring KidRock and various other extreme musicians.

* Thrash Metal had a sort of comeback in the mid to late 2000s. The album covers began being designed again by Ed Repka and many hundreds of thrash bands appeared out of nowhere, like in the 80s. Unfortunately, this was somewhat of a marketing ploy, many of the bands sounded nothing like 80s thrash and were essentially death metal. Unsurprisingly, this did not last very long, but thrash as a genre is now more popular than its ever been.
* Heavy metal in general supposedly suffered an untimely death in 1992, with Music/PearlJam's ''Ten'' on the charts and {{Nirvana}}'s ''Nevermind'' beginning to get play on MTV. In fact, metal didn't die; it just went back underground, got DarkerAndEdgier, and then made a comeback in the late '90s as an antidote to all the boy bands and girl singers. VH-1 even celebrated this trend in 1999 with a TV special entitled ''The Return of the Rock'', featuring KidRock and various other extreme musicians.

->''"Look on the bright side, Eddy. My parents say fads go in a cycle. In another twenty years, we'll be back in style!"''