Neo Neo Romanticism, or, where's our Bob Dylan?

The Missing Voice

Every generation has its voice. The voice that captures the moment, that articulates what everyone feels but can't say, that becomes the soundtrack to a cultural shift.

For the 1960s, it was Bob Dylan. For the 1970s, it was punk. For the 1990s, it was grunge. But what about now? Where's our Bob Dylan?

The Problem with Neo-Romanticism

We've had neo-romanticism. The return to emotion, to authenticity, to the personal. But maybe we need neo neo-romanticism—a return to the return, a second-order romanticism that's aware of its own romanticism.

The original romantics were reacting against the Enlightenment's emphasis on reason. Neo-romantics were reacting against modernism's emphasis on form. But what are we reacting against? And what are we returning to?

The Authenticity Paradox

Bob Dylan was authentic in a way that felt new. But authenticity itself has become a commodity, a performance, a brand. How do you be authentic when authenticity is what everyone is selling?

Maybe neo neo-romanticism isn't about authenticity at all. Maybe it's about something else—something we haven't named yet, something that can't be commodified because we don't know what it is.

The Cultural Moment

We're in a strange cultural moment. Everything feels derivative, everything feels like a reference to something else. We have endless content, but does any of it matter? We have infinite voices, but does any of them speak?

Maybe the problem isn't that we don't have a Bob Dylan. Maybe the problem is that we don't have a moment that needs one. Or maybe we do, and we just can't recognize it.

The Death of the Counterculture

Dylan emerged from a counterculture. But what's the counterculture now? Is there one? Or has everything been absorbed, commodified, neutralized?

Maybe neo neo-romanticism isn't about counterculture at all. Maybe it's about something that can't be absorbed—something that exists outside the cultural marketplace entirely.

The Search for Meaning

The original romantics were searching for meaning in a world that felt increasingly meaningless. Neo-romantics were searching for authenticity in a world that felt increasingly artificial.

What are we searching for? What's missing? What do we need that we don't have?

Maybe we're searching for something we can't name. Maybe that's why we don't have our Bob Dylan yet—because we don't know what we need him to say.

The Problem of Scale

Dylan's moment was smaller. The cultural conversation was more contained. Now everything is global, everything is instant, everything is connected. How do you be the voice of a generation when generations don't exist the same way?

Maybe the problem isn't that we don't have a voice. Maybe the problem is that we have too many voices, and none of them can cut through the noise.

The Return to the Personal

Maybe neo neo-romanticism is about returning to the personal in a way that's aware of how personal the personal has become. Not the personal as authentic expression, but the personal as something else—something we haven't figured out yet.

Or maybe it's not about return at all. Maybe it's about something completely new, something that doesn't fit into our existing categories.

Where's Our Bob Dylan?

The honest answer is: I don't know. Maybe they're already here, and we just can't recognize them. Maybe they're coming. Maybe they'll never come, because the moment doesn't need them.

But the question itself is interesting. Why do we need a Bob Dylan? What would they do that we can't do ourselves? What are we waiting for?

Maybe we're not waiting for a person. Maybe we're waiting for a moment. Or maybe we're waiting for ourselves to recognize that the moment is already here, and we just need to start speaking.

The Uselessness of Waiting

In the end, maybe waiting for our Bob Dylan is useless. Maybe we need to stop waiting and start creating. Maybe the voice we're looking for is our own.

Or maybe that's the whole point of neo neo-romanticism: recognizing that we're always waiting for something, always looking for a voice, always hoping someone will say what we can't say ourselves.

But maybe the answer isn't finding that voice. Maybe the answer is realizing we don't need it—or that we already have it, and we just need to use it.

"The times they are a-changin'"—but maybe we're the ones who need to change. Maybe our Bob Dylan isn't coming. Maybe we need to be our own Bob Dylan.