Redartz: Hello friends! Today we are going to toss a concept out to you, and let you 'chew the fat' on it. I have often thought that nostalgia seems to operate on a 20 year cycle. I don't know if that has something to do with the generational shift that occurs over that time, or why else it may be. But if you consider it, you may agree.
Back in the 70's, if you're old enough to remember, there was a nostalgic craze for the 1950's. Shows like "Happy Days" were hugely popular, and films such as "American Graffiti" and "Grease".Move forward to the 1980's, and now the 60's were in vogue. Remember comeback hits from Roy Orbison and the Monkees?
Move onward to the 90's, which brought us 70's nostalgia. "That 70's Show", "The Wonder Years". I was amazed at the time to hear 70's tunes played on the radio as classic hits.
And nowadays we keep hearing about 90's nostalgia. It just keeps on going; forward, ever forward. So can we expect to have fond thoughts of the Marvel cinematic universe, Facebook and Adele when 2030 arrives?
11 comments:
There's little doubt that generational shifts as youngsters become adults and more to point adult consumers that interest in what quickened their interest in their youth becomes a theme for the times. I am often reminded of this when I visit a certain comics shop in my local area which has been playing the same radio station for the entire time I've been visiting there for decades now. The station has been playing the same songs for fifty years now since the stuff was contemporary (Led Zeppelin, The Who, etc.) and as the years have passed. The only thing which changes is the target audience gets a little more hard of hearing as the decades come and go.
Rip Off
The answer to your question is probably "yes, you can." Although I wasn't 100% aware of a current 90's nostalgia craze--
The phenomenon might not be as pronounced now because a LOT of those crazes had to do with yearning for media and content (music, movies, television, radio, etc) that were remembered from Youth, and weren't readily available anymore. Now, pretty much EVERYTHING IS available through the magic of digital media and the internet. . . and consumer demand is clearly high enough to sustain accessibility to pretty much anything you might want to pull up from any pop-culture era.
Clothing and fashion might be the one exception to this-- HBGirl has quite an eye for the styles from any given era, and bemoans the sad look of 90's fashion (of which I am entirely unaware-- I still HAVE clothes from the 90's. . . ). But even then, there's a huge appreciation for "retro" looks that are based in almost any decade or era.
On a related note-- "Hipsters" have been around (or at least the label has) since the 50's, and somehow they have always been considered the ironic cutting edge of upcoming understated fashion trends. Visually, they do seem to have morphed wildly over the decades-- and yet the label has somehow existed as a snarky stylistic answer to mainstream pop-cultural trends for 60 years or so (!). Nichols & May were considered the Hipsters' Hipsters when they started out. . .
HB
In the '80s there were lots of films released that were set in the '60s - in fact, there were so many that it was getting annoying in my opinion. So the 20-year nostalgia rule was true.
But nowadays the TV series "Stranger Things" and the new version of Stephen King's "IT" are both set in the '80s - 30 years ago - so maybe the 20-year rule is dead.
Hi Gang,
Allow me to grossly simply...
The unique things about the 40s (Big Band, WW 2), the 50s (rock, cars), the 60s (revolution, clothes) the 70s (disco, clothes), the 80s (new wave, clothes)...
What is so stylistically/musically unique about 1990s, 2000s, 2010s that would create a fad? I can't think of anything off hand?
I don't see anyone eventually getting nostalgic for Lollapalooza like they do for Woodstock? Nostalgic for a Hyundai Elantra like a 56 Chevy? A gap t-shirt like bell bottoms and tube socks?
Man - it's a beautiful day in Chicago... wish I could share the weather!
What blows my mind is when I think about how when I was a kid in the 1970's (around 11 or 12 years old), the 1950's seemed like such a long long time ago (since I wasn't even born then). And now, to kids born in say 2005, the 1990's must seem like old-fashioned and/or ancient times.
That thought always makes me feel like I'm about 100 years old. Since the 90's still feels like a very recent and modern era to me.
I think the shared nostalgia trend is going to be over. With the advent of the internet there just is not enough shared common experiences that enough people will be able to bond communally over.
Yo yo
I agree with Yoyo, HB, etc. Even when the kids go to Lalapalooza there are 8 stages, not 1. Everyone is in their own world anymore.
Rip- It is impressive enough that the lcs you describe has remained in business that long!
HB- yes, I too have 90's remnants in my closet. Even still have a couple narrow 80's ties. No bell bottoms, though. So does HBGirl have a particular favorite fashion era?
Colin, Yoyo et al- I agree with the consensus that today's universal availability of pop culture history rather nullifies the nostalgia effect. However, one element of nostalgia was an anchor to certain historical events of a given era. As Charlie noted, the 40's were inextricably linked to WWII. The 60's had political turmoil, the space race and Woodstock. The 80's: the fall of the Iron Curtain. Now nobody will look back on an event such as 9/11 with nostalgia, but it may come to define a time period along with accompanying cultural elements. Same with Obama's election, Brexit and Trump. An era, defined by events, may carry along the emotional cargo of the pop culture of it's time. Any thoughts?
The fall of the Iron Curtain is something that marked the '80s. Not really, it happened at the very end of 1989, and the ensuing successive collapse of the regimes in the so-called Eastern Bloc and the aftermath of that were event squarely set in the 1990s. If anything, political events in the 1980s were characterized by a reinvigoration of the Cold War in Reagan's first term, which was then mellowed somewhat by Glasnost in the late 1980s once Gorbachev assumed the reigns of power in the USSR.
As for the so-called 20 year rule, it seems a bit rigid. There will always be nostalgia, but I don't think it follows any strict cycles - it just seems to sometimes. As Colin pointed out, there seems to be some notable pop culture products being made right now that are heavily steeped in 1980s nostalgia. And while I don't think its production was necessarily prompted by nostalgia, remember that a very recently popular television show was Mad Men, set in the 1960s (and I definitely got a bit of Mad Men vibe from X-men First Class, and not just because January Jones appeared in it). The Man from UNCLE movie was also done as a set piece in the 1960s.
Also, I remember in the late 1980s, when all I had was an AM radio in the car I drove most of the time, I listened to an oldies station that would often play songs by Toto, REO Speedwagon or Foreigner - stuff from the late '70s and very early '80s.
Y'know-- it could just be us, too. We're all oldsters now, and less-than-tuned-in (possibly) to up-to-the-moment dominant pop trends and fashions. I know HBGirl has turned her nose up at stuff that seemed "so 90's"-- and have overheard high-schoolers talking about "old-school" hip-hop from the early aughts (2000s). Just as our folks didn't really catch on to the fact that the Beatles had broken up at the end of the 60's. . . or that the Beatles and the Monkees weren't interchangeable. . . we ourselves may not be gleaning the particulars of current pop-cultural events.
Red-- HBGirl has historically been fond of the many fashions of the 60's-- but she has an eye for almost everything. IMO, she looks particularly stunning in styles from the 20's (which she's had the good fortune to acquire a couple of item from--). She does tend to covet almost every outfit Marlo Thomas wears in the episodes of THAT GIRL that we've caught. . .
HB
HB that is pretty funny about "That Girl". I remember my four sisters loving the show back in the day.
Red- the thought of politics being the modern pop culture is frightening on many levels. Interesting thought though.
I don't know the exact "time" that nostalgia kicks in but it seems more recently the levels get layered. Some shows you mentioned - and the timing of the influence resurgence - may have waves of impact because of modern electronics, the rise of the VCR, CDs, etc as well.
I'm just waiting to pull my multi colored converse all-stars, wide shouldered zoot suit and Hawaiian shirt out of the closet. Why as I type this do Huey Lewis songs start playing in my head?
And I start realizing I'm old when very little from the late 90s music or movie scene really resonates with me (and that was 20 years ago). It strikes me as pretty amazing that artists who still have an impact at 45 or 50 years old can stay in touch with the surging pulse of youth.
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