The rise and fall of the fad phenomenon goes a little something like this: One day there's a gang of outcast kids rolling down the street, the next rolling is a garnish in the latest teen flick starring the forgettable heart throb of the day, closely tag teamed by a random feature in the latest ad campaign of a certain fizzy brown drink. The rolling apparatus is available at multinational retail giants and supermarkets and before you know it the fad eats itself and the kids who started off the craze are beating up the kids who finally cottoned on. From rollerskates, to skateboards, to BMXs, to rollerblades, to Razors and fixies – whatever the fad, its saturation in pop culture will, without fail, suffocate itself. Such is the nature of the beast.
There is that point in the explosion of a fad when it is inescapable in everyday life and nobody can even remember what life was like before it arrived. One such time I'd like to focus on is that of the rollerskating and roller-disco fad of the '70s, which peaked in 1980.
As a side note it's interesting that when a fad appears in a movie that stars Steve Guttenberg it usually marks the beginning of the end.
The Death of Rollerskating Exhibit A
– Can't Stop The Music (1980)
Possibly the worst movie of all time.
Death of Skateboarding Exhibit B –
Police Academy 4 (1987)
Featuring The Bones Brigade.