DVR ate the video star

The VMAs came on tonight, (duh) and while I was watching, I kept thinking about how hilariously bad they are and how Luann and I had talked about watching together, but she ended up going out of town. She did, however, record it. Which got me thinking--remember back before DVR, in the dinosaur days of VHS, how if you wanted to watch a TV show but you were going to be out, or if some other show was on at the same time, you had to record it using your VCR? And then DVDs and DVRs came along and VHS became extinct, like all outdated technology eventually does. This got me wondering if VCRs and VHS nostalgia will start popping up everywhere. Kinda like how cassette tapes or records or SLR cameras are all over clothes and jewelry and other goods. Can't you see little VHS tape rings and pouches all over the place?

Maybe VHS tapes are just too boring looking, or maybe they just aren't outdated enough, or don't inspire that same sort of nostalgic feeling that cassette tapes do. But just like I made mixed tapes (by recording songs off the radio, naturally), I made mixed VHS tapes of shows and movies that I loved. Need some old, grainy, poorly spliced together Fraggle Rock episodes featuring the HBO opening credits? Or maybe a compilation of Christmas movies including a Muppet Family Christmas, The Christmas Toy, Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer, Frosty, and a California Raisins Claymation Christmas special complete with the commercials? I've got 'em. Of course you can find that stuff on youtube, unless they've been taken down due to copyright. But there still is something sort of quaint about VHS itself that would seem to lend itself to that sort of nostalgic consumption.

If you do an Etsy search for VHS, there are some upcycled goods and art for sale, and some of them are pretty cool. So who knows, maybe we will see more VHS themed goods in the future. Or maybe VHS will go the way of Betamax and A-track tapes. Maybe we will laugh at them like we do the VMAs, how they once seemed so cool and relevant, and now seem so lame and pointless. Maybe some things are better left in the past.