Definition of "revivalism" [re•viv•al•ism]

• The spirit or activities characteristic of religious revivals. (noun)
• A desire or inclination to revive what belongs to an earlier time. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Twisted Sister reunites: Why '80s revivalism is a bad thing"
• "These days, a working country artist can either move the genre forward into unrecognizability -- the course Nashville has chosen -- or backward into revivalism, which is what such retrosmarties as Gillian Welch or Jim Lauderdale or Dale Watson are up to."
• "Like most currents of what we call "revivalism," it usually had an erotic side; and the larger temples frequently have attached to them female staffs of attendant votaries and _corps de ballet_ of very easy virtue."