It's possible for pieces of entertainment to age well or poorly but one thing nobody seems to ever take into account when discussing entertainment is the time frame in which it released and the culture it released in.

Pieces of entertainment are made and influenced by the culture it was made in at the time and cultures change.

Films can age (outdated special effects & filming techniques for example, or outdated themes & ideas) but a film not ageing well doesn't make it bad.

Just because it comes from a different time in culture and it doesn't really fall under modern standards doesn't make it bad.

Whenever discussing a piece of entertainment, you should always take into account the context of when it released and what it was trying to achieve back then.

This doesn't mean you can't look back on something with modern eyes, but ignoring the context of its release is bad.

The creators have goals they set out to fulfil and you should take into account their goals and whether or not they succeeded them.

Obviously, your own standards for things are important but you should take the creators' goals into consideration.

For example, the standards films were trying to live up to 30 years ago aren't the same standards we hold modern films up to today and thus it seems pointless to me to discuss films entirely in that manner.

Yes, this also applies to any piece of entertainment. (Books, Music, Video Games, Etc).

Of course that discussion is still a very valid one and it is important to say why a film doesn't really hold up today but judging an old work entirely by modern standards and never considering the standards it was trying to live up to is short sighted.

Context is key and it's something that I think is missing from discussion of entertainment nowadays.

What I am basically trying to say is that only judging pieces of entertainment by modern standards is close minded and that you also need to think about the goals of the artists who created them back when the art was created.

Did they succeed at what they set out to do? You decide.

I am just tired of old works being entirely judged by modern standards and that they are somehow bad simply because they come from a different culture in time and that they don't try to reach today's standards.

Basically:

Just because something hasn't aged well doesn't mean it is bad.

Movies, Music, Video Games from today will age in time. Is it because they're bad? Or is it because they came from a different time in culture and that cultures change with time and what we create now won't live up to standards in a couple decades time?

Obviously things can age well too, but everything I've said previously still stands. I would still recommend judging it from the standards it was trying to live up to as well as your own.

Either way, this thread probably makes no sense but I just wanted to voice my frustration.

What do you think?