music for bears

[Doug Henwood]

Reclusive market guru Robert Prechter of the Elliott Wave Theorist - 
a crackpot of sorts, but an interesting one - theorizes that the 
stock market reflects the broader social mood, and he uses pop music 
to illustrate the point. For example, he argues that 70s punk 
reflected the nihilism of the time, which was also one of the worst 
decades for stocks in U.S. history. When the bull market began in the 
early 1980s, punk receded from view (though there was the early 80s 
hardcore movement, but it was more obscure, and was mostly over by 
1986). Similarly, the grunge phenom was mostly early 90s, another 
gloomy economic time.

So, anyone see signs of a return to nihilism in pop culture today? 
Pink's excellent song, "Don't Let Me Get Me," is a bit of nihilo-pop 
- her socks are dirty, she can't root for the team, she doesn't want 
to be herself, and she's tired of being compared to that "damn 
Britney Spears" ("she's so pretty/that just ain't me"). So she's like 
the bear market Britney. Anything else? Movies?

Doug