Sometimes, there is nothing better than listening to something familiar. And what could be more familiar than something you have heard over and over again, in the last maybe 10, 15, 20 years.
In the last thirty years there has been a nostalgic movement not only in music, but in general style including fashion and design, that tries to capture the essence of times past. The time that is recaptured is a complete decade, usually the decade from twenty years ago. This was very clear in the 2000’s, where there was a widespread nostalgia for the so called 80’s, the music from this decade was replayed and replayed again, a lot of new musicians utilized 80’s sounds, and even fashion was affected by this phenomena. But this isn’t the only example we have. On this so-called nostalgia for past decades, something similar happened in the 90’s but reaching towards the 60’s and the 70’s. And why? does at least 15 years have to pass to have a notable influence from a certain decade?
This is probably because of the difficulty of categorizing a decade with a certain stereotyped and relatively homogenous style, apparently some time has to pass until we can look back at a certain decade and seize it as a whole. What tends to happen is the new decade negates the last one as in Hegelian dialectics (I can’t believe Im applying his principles) trying to differ in almost everything. A clear example of this is Woodstock, even if today it is appreciated as something “mythical”, in the 70’s it was shunned as slightly ridiculous, representing the excesses of the peace and love revolution. This bring us to our next point, the nostalgia for older styles can sometimes be with a kitsch edge to it, recognizing it absurdity but recapturing it, just for fun.
And what comes next? A widespread influence from the 90's? Maybe, after the very colorful and bouncy feel of the 2000’s being very similar to the 80’s what we need is more troubled, existential, rougher music, a greyer, dirtier, organic aesthetic, similar to grunge and British rock. Even widespread popular music from the time, like the Backstreet Boys, Hanson etc. that were slightly less hedonistic and superficial, unlike most certain pop acts from the 2000’s.
We can conclude that people appreciate music and styles from the past, no only for their intrinsic value but because of the good memories it brings them from that moment, a feeling to which I can completely relate to.
