Preserving a moment in time

“In west Philadelphia born and raised
On the playground is where I spent most of my days
Chillin out, maxin, relaxing all cool,
And all shooting some b-ball outside of school
When a couple of guys who were up to no good
Started making trouble in my neighborhood
I got in one lil fight and my mom got scared
And said “You’re moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air”
I Begged and pleaded with her day after day,
But she packed my suitcase and sent me on my way
She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket
So I put my walkman on and said I might as well kick it”

When I was a child I looked forward to when the Fresh Prince of Bel Air would show on tv. I would sit there singing along to the theme song, and in fact I still know all the words to the theme song. However as I sat there watching the show when I was younger I only really listened to what the characters were saying, and I just sat there laughing a lot. Now that I’m older, when I watch episodes of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I can’t help but notice so many differences between things shown on the tv screen, and the way things are now.

How is the artist able to preserve images of a particular moment in time, and why would they want to do so anyway?

Walkmen and bright colored clothing are just a few of the items that immediately stand out now while watching this show. I mean do many people now even know what a walkman even is? These days all kids know are ipods and iphones.

The culture of the late 1980s and 1990s is preserved throughout this show. Within the show we are exposed to two very different lifestyles, we see the wealthy upper class portrayed through Banks family, and we see the lower class represented by Will and his friend Jazz. The very first episode exposes these differences to us not only in the way that Will conducts himself while in the Banks household, but also through the way he dresses.

There was a clear distinction between the way that Carelton would dress, and the way that Will would dress. The producers of this show made the deliberate decision to make this distinction between the classes very clear to the audience. This provides us with some insight about the culture during this time period. We are able to infer that the social distinctions between the classes were a lot more noticeable during this time period than they are now.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air also preserves the culture of the late 8o’s and early 90’s because when we see the clothing that the characters are wearing, we can associate them with a particular time period. When you see bright neon colors on clothing naturally you will associate this with 80’s fashion. By having the characters in the show wear the clothing that represents that time period, it preserves the fashions from that time period. That is why now when we watch The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and think that the way that Will looks when he walks into his uncle’s house for the first time (which he’s wearing shorts, a bright colored t-shirt, and a hat that is on backwards), we think that he looks very silly, but that was the fashion of the culture that Will was representing, and the producers were just preserving this.

The difference between the classes during this time period was also shown through Will’s actions compared to the actions of the other members of the Banks family. While Carleton was a member of the glee club and was focused on his studies, Will was always portrayed as looking for adventure and never  worrying about situations. Will’s character was relaxed and free-spirited, where as Carleton was always anxious and not as free-spirited as Will. These two characters were used to show the differences in class in society since they were on such opposite ends of the spectrum.

So why is it important for the artist to preserve culture? Well from my own personal experiences, watching television shows and films set in different time periods has allowed me to learn about the life was in these other time periods. Now when I think about the 1990’s and what people during this time period were like, I will picture the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and the image of Will in his colorful outfit juxtaposed with the white mansion that was in the background. Certain themes, images and ideas define each era in history. The artist has a very important role of contributing to the themes, images and ideas that we correlate with a specific era.

So thank you producers of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for providing me with an idea of what life was like all the way across the country in the 1990s.