Whatever Happened to Romance
Victoria Hart

Whatever happened to romance?
Whatever happened to those first impressions,
Kissing lessons?
It's all too fast;
Magic moments don't last.
No "Hello", no
"Can I get to know you?" No--
Everybody's in it for the thrill of the minute.

Whatever happened to romance,
Guys that I've been dreaming of?
The modern world,
It's too confusing for the average girl.
I think they've done something funny to love.

You do your dating on the internet.
Hook up with someone you can easily forget.
He's never learned about etiquette
And if it rains you'll just get wet.

No one's got the time
For anything other than a bump and grind.
Lately they've done something funny to love

He wants to make it on the very first date.
He thinks you’re silly if you want to wait.
You say “ok” he says it's just too late.
Oh, the fuss that he’ll create.

You meet on vacation
In a bar where the lights are low.
During the conversation
you realise he’s just a gigolo - oh.

Whatever happened to romance?
Whatever happened to those stolen glances;
The game of chances?
It’s all too fast;
Magic moments don’t last.
No "Hello," no “Can I get to know you?”--No.
Everybody’s in it for the thrill of the minute.

Whatever happened to romance;
The boys that I’ve been dreaming of?
The modern world
Is way too confusing for the average girl
And I think they’ve done something funny,
Lately, they’ve done something funny,
I do believe they’ve done something funny to love.
They've done something funny to love.

Whatever happened to romance?
Everybody's in it for the thrill of the minute...

The highest grossing movie of all time, according to TIME magazine, earned $1,329,453,600 (amount adjusted for inflation). It came out in 1939. Know what it is? Gone With the Wind. To quote one of the people interviewed in the article, "I asked my friend Alyssa for some advice on romance, and she said that she sticks to the classics...She's a huge fan of Audrey Hepburn films." Nothing wrong with that, right? Audrey Hepburn is classic. What is wrong, however, is that the girl who said that was 17. And do you know why she and her friend are such big Audrey Hepburn fans? Because, in today's fast-paced world of big blockbuster action films and high-grossing opening weekends, the romantic movie (and whatever stars that may have come from it) has died.

TIME magazine listed the "top 10 romantic moneymakers" of all time. Only three of them were released within the last 20 years. The list is as follows:

1. Gone With the Wind (1939) - $1,329,453,600


2. Titanic (1997) - $844,515,900


3. Doctor Zhivago (1965) - $816,811,300


4. The Graduate (1967) - $563,059,800


5. Love Story (1970) - $460,587,800


6. Ghost (1990) - $338,641,200


7. Top Gun (1986) - $313,546,200


8. An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) - $287,252,100


9. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) - $284,631,000


10. Pretty Woman (1990) - $277,520,900

A few quotes from the article follow:

The most successful movie of all time by almost any standard, Titanic, will be 10 years old this year. It made roughly $600 million in the U.S. and won 11 Academy Awards. That same year, As Good as It Gets, My Best Friend's Wedding, and Good Will Hunting, all of them romantic to the core, were among the top 10 box-office draws. Since then, however, not one romantic drama has cracked that list. The only love story this century to be among the five highest-grossing movies o its year was My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

The recent movie calendar is pockmarked with the craters of little romantic bombs (Catch and Release, In the Land of Women, and The Ex).

Why the harsh reception? Is it that several decades of sexual liberation and feminism and a decade of Internet dating have fundamentally altered the potency or chemistry of the traditional love story? Or is it more that romance has had its power drained by an industry that is increasingly geared toward films that gush rather than trickle money? Who killed the great American love story?

When teenagers, the sweetest fruit on capitalism's vine, have to use a half-century-old product because they can't find a more recent model that works for them, there is something seriously wrong with an industry.

It used to be that playing a romantic lead was a rite of passage for any actor who wanted to be on the A list. But in a world saturated with details of what sweatpants and cereals celebrities choose, it's hard for actors to get people to pin their romantic dreams on them. And there have been so many romantic duds, it's a risk they will take only for a great script.

Ah, the story. Love stories are old. They're universal. Nearly everyone has one. Which makes them nearly impossible to write well.

But it's not just familiarity that breeds contempt for love stories. It may be actually getting harder to get people to believe in them, acknowledges Richard Curtis, writer of such indelible romances as Four Weddings and Notting Hill, because our expectations have changed.

"[I]f yo write about two people falling in love, which happens about a million times a day all over the world, for some reason or another, you're accused of writing something unrealistic and sentimental."

I think that this lack of romantic idols is why everyone today is so down on love. The few times we have seen it it's comedic or damned. Is it so wrong to want a little romance to exist in life? I just want an old-fashioned romance to sweep me away.