By Sydney Altschuler ’12, Staff Writer

The television, movie, music, and bookstore industries have seen a major shift in 2010.  The witchcraft and wizardry furor of the Harry Potter era seem but a distant memory now as vampire culture takes the stage. The dominance of vampire culture can be seen through the celebrated trinity: Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, and Tru Blood.  As vampire culture has now infiltrated all aspects of contemporary life as a downright trend, I wonder this:  Did the release of Twilight spawn a change in our attitudes toward the culture, or rather, did our attitudes spawn the release of Twilight?

The way vampires are portrayed today is much different than the way they were portrayed in earlier generations.  Looking back at the world’s first iconic vampire, Dracula, those of today could not be any more different. Dracula reflects the monstrosity of vampire culture and was associated with cannibalism and evil nature.

In contrast, vampire culture today has been immersed into pop culture and modernized.  The so-called Trinity—Twilight, Vampire Diaries, Tru Blood – showcase a shared theme: the dark and brooding vampire boy who happens to be strikingly handsome falls in love with the small-town innocent human girl.   Thus emerges a conflict of interest between in the dual relationships of predator and prey and teenage lovers.  With a timeless Romeo and Juliet-esque vibe, viewers and readers just cannot get enough.

Every generation seems to adopt their own forbidden love story, and vampires have come to define ours.  Our modern depiction of vampires is a return to the previous generation’s bad-boy sporting a leather jacket, but now with a shiny sports convertible and mortal arm candy.  Edward from Twilight seems to attract more screaming tweens than he does terror—especially in his shiny, black ray-bans.  The trend has also broken into the music industry.  A popular band has taken on the name “Vampire Weekend.”  This band has absolutely nothing to do with vampires, and yet they name themselves accordingly.  Why? Because of this modern image—Vampires signify something that is trendy and cool, a vibe that the band perhaps was trying to emulate.

This trend is becoming more and more influential in pop culture everyday.  Don’t expect to see it die down anytime soon, because really, the vampires are living dead. Thanks for playing Harry, but it is Edward’s show now.