Pop culture moves fast. It leaves little time for fans to give every artist their flowers, perpetuating a vicious cycle of 15 seconds of fame before fading into obscurity. But that cycle can be broken when a work of art reemerges in the public consciousness, like a late-stage comeback in the game that neither team expected. Resurgences can be meticulously planned, like musicians revamping their entire Instagram feed and declaring death to their old musical selves, or completely unintentional, like songs released years ago being brought back due to TikTok trends. Resurgences can be wildly successful (sometimes sequels are better than the original) or utter failures (because if nobody cared for the first movie, there was no point in making a sequel). Maybe the resurgence isn’t even a resurgence at all, such as artists who’ve already cemented their immortal legacy releasing comeback albums. Daily Arts writers are back with another B-Side, exploring questions such as what a resurgence means for an artist’s career, how resurgences shape public opinion and what kind of legacy a resurgence imparts within a broader artistic context.
Daily Arts Writer Kristen Su can be reached at krsu@umich.edu.
