Reviewbrah Discovers Food Ground Zero
For the past several years now, we've catalogued various cultural phenomena under the umbrella heading Ground Zero. Whether in movies, comic books, or anime, it's well-documented that consumers could no longer expect new iterations of popular IPs to improve on their predecessors, starting in 1997.Nor did Ground Zero happen all at once; it was a decade-long process of sporadic decay that culminated with video games after 2007.
Yet new data points keep emerging in support of Cultural Ground Zero as online commenters increasingly notice the aesthetic exhaustion that fist struck in 1997.The latest instance of a prominent cultural noticer observing the Ground Zero effect came to my attention just the other day.Meet the Report of the Week, aka Reviewbrah.
In the course of a career spanning fourteen years, Reviewbrah has tasted and critiqued more fast food than perhaps any other human being in history. So it's no hyperbole to call him the most trusted man on YouTube.Recently, Reviewbrah produced reviews of Taco Bell's new Decades Menu. For those who are unaware, the Mex-American restaurant chain has rolled out a special menu which reintroduces five popular items, each from a past decade.
Because Taco Bell's release of the aughts item was, as is par for the course, delayed, Reviewbrah separated his analysis of the Decades Menu into two videos.See him review the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s items here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q79Hz1hV1nEAnd the aughts item here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_fCkwqW0DMUpon watching both videos, it occurred to me that within them, Reviewbrah discovers Food Ground Zero.For those keeping score at home, here are Reviewbrah's ratings for each menu item, arranged by decade:
Related: Ground ZeroThe results are unmistakble. And they reflect the larger cultural trends prevalent in America during those decades.A downturn in the 1960s hits a nadir in the 70s, only to make a dramatic recovery throughout the 80s to a high point in the 90s. After that, it's pretty much back to the doldrums of the 1970s–the decade taste forgot.Which is where we remain stuck to this day.But never fear. New generations of creators inspired by the high culture of the 80s and 90s, and informed by the rich traditions of the pulp era, are working hard to break the Ground Zero barrier.And we're taking you with us.Keep watching the eastern sky.
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