Are the 1960s more nostalgic or historic?

[Lord Garth]

About 10 years ago the 1950s started falling off the retro/nostalgia map. Even oldies stations stopped playing '50s music. About all you see are some diners. 35 years ago, shows and movies that took place in the '50s were supposed to be nostalgic. Happy Days, Grease and the like. Now films that take place in the '50s are from a historical perspective; such as Good Night and Good Luck. To remember the '50s first-hand you have to be near 60. Maybe 55, if you want to push the "50s" up to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I'd say the period now belongs more to history than nostalgia for most people.

But what about the '60s? Are they still retro/nostalgic or are they becoming more historic than nostalgic as well?

Which side of the divide would a series like Mad Men fall?

EDIT: I meant to post this in Misc! Sorry about that. I'd like to request it moved, though it could work here too, I suppose.

 

[Greg Cox]

Well, I still remember the sixties with nostalgia, but, then again, I was born in the fifties.

Not sure I speak for society at large!

 

[Lord Garth]

The answer seems fuzzier to me, and I say that as someone who was born in 1979. Even though the early-'60s were half a century ago and the rest of the decade will follow, I don't think the difference is as clear cut as it was with the '50s 10 years ago.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I think both the 50s and 60s are becoming American Mythology. On par with the Old West. Westerns have some elements of real historical details but are not limited to that. Its more a backdrop for exploring classic human themes drawing on iconic shared archetypes. I think the period of the 50s and 60s is moving into a similar role to Westerns, which has little to do with real memories.

 

[scotpens]

Hey, for some of us, it’s still the Sixties, man!

Peace.

 

[Yevetha]

The hippy thing happened at at the end of the 60s.

 

[MacLeod]

Nostlaga can be affected by when you were born and when/where you grew up.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Nostalgia can be an awful thing. The 60s were a charnel house for America - three major political figures assassinated within three years, tens of thousands of young men killed in a war where "progress" was being measured in official body counts released regularly by the Pentagon. Students shot by soldiers for protesting same war (okay, that was 1970).

Upside: weed was cheap and plentiful and it was easy to get laid...if you weren't dead.

I think the 60s are becoming more one of those ahistoric "periods" that are identified by most people with certain cliches of dress and behavior but very little popular understanding of or interest in the forces that actually drove the styles - rather like the 20s in the U.S.

 

[Forbin]

If you remember the 60s, you weren't there.

 

[the G-man]

If you remember the 60s, you weren't there.

I understand that the point of that joke is about people doing a lot of drugs back then, but it's a really silly point.

So, the families of JFK, RFK and MLK "weren't there," because I'm pretty damn sure everyone of them remembers the sixties.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I think when it starts approaching the 50 year mark since an era/style/building/item/event existed, it begins to move into history rather than just personal stories from memory. I'd say from about 50 to 70 years old is the transition period, during which you have some in the population that still have real and meaningful memories from that time so that it certainly doesn't feel like history to them, and you have others that weren't there or were young enough that they remember it through the nostalgic haze of carefree childhood.

It might interest you to know that, excluding some unique exceptions, buildings/sites are not considered for addition to the National Register of Historic Places until the date or time period in which they "achieved significance" was at least 50 years ago. In many archival institutions, collections that contain confidential personal information are often restricted from public view until at least 70 years have passed (though every institution can have its own set of rules when it comes to this, and may choose to instead redact the personal information and open the rest of the collection if it is not too expensive or time consuming).

My point is that society seems to have collectively agreed that something becomes "history" rather than "memory" after about one generation. It makes sense. Those who were children at the time that a certain era or event occurred will likely have a warped view of that period (for better or worse) because they are looking back at it through the eyes of a child. Those who were elderly at the time are long gone. It's all those adults in the middle that keep that time period alive, and once they have moved on into old age their collective personal narratives become a part of our history, to be studied and read about by later generations but never fully experienced the way that it originally was.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Here is a book that I read a few years ago, related to how personal memories move into nostalgia and then history, that I think you might find interesting:

The Presence of the Past

The authors started by examining the idea that Americans are ignorant of history and see it as this stale and boring school topic that doesn't factor into their daily lives. They conducted telephone surveys about this and got some interesting results that they discuss in the book. I promise, it's really interesting!

 

[Forbin]

If you remember the 60s, you weren't there.

I understand that the point of that joke is about people doing a lot of drugs back then, but it's a really silly point.

So, the families of JFK, RFK and MLK "weren't there," because I'm pretty damn sure everyone of them remembers the sixties.

Stick. Ass. Remove.

 

[Lord Garth]

Here is a book that I read a few years ago, related to how personal memories move into nostalgia and then history, that I think you might find interesting

Thanks for the link!

Reading the description on Amazon immediately made me think of today and social media; and how that will be looked back upon.

At the very least an entire generation of teenagers in 2025 will be embarrassed by all their baby photos being somewhere online. That and all the photos from wild parties that politicians will want hidden at all costs when Generation Y is the dominant force in politics...

 

[Kirby]

... all the photos from wild parties that politicians will want hidden at all costs when Generation Y is the dominant force in politics...

Reminds me of the end of Animal House with the 'where are they now?' thing. John Belushi's character is driving off in a stolen car with the sorority girl that he essentially kidnapped, and the caption read 'Senator and Mrs. John Blutarski'


I was born in 1968 and while I don't remember the 60s at all, but I do think that a lot of good stuff came out of that decade, especially civil rights, music, and all of NASA's accomplishments.
However, the bad: popularization of drugs like LSD and heroin, fashion, the slacker hippie mentality. Of course the 60s and 70s blend together for all three of these.

 

[the G-man]

If you remember the 60s, you weren't there.

I understand that the point of that joke is about people doing a lot of drugs back then, but it's a really silly point.

So, the families of JFK, RFK and MLK "weren't there," because I'm pretty damn sure everyone of them remembers the sixties.

Stick. Ass. Remove.

Yeah, that came off angrier than I meant it but it is one of those jokes that was kind of cute the first 500 times but now really deserves to die off at this point through overuse and irrelevance.

 

[Holdfast]

I'd suggest that as and when those responsible for financing and creating popular media become too old to do so anymore (either through retirement or death), the era they grew up in falls out the nostalgia envelope and drifts into the historial one.

 

[Sci]

Here is a book that I read a few years ago, related to how personal memories move into nostalgia and then history, that I think you might find interesting

Thanks for the link!

Reading the description on Amazon immediately made me think of today and social media; and how that will be looked back upon.

At the very least an entire generation of teenagers in 2025 will be embarrassed by all their baby photos being somewhere online. That and all the photos from wild parties that politicians will want hidden at all costs when Generation Y is the dominant force in politics...

We prefer to be called the Millennials, not "Generation Y." But, yeah, the effect of MySpace, Facebook, social media, and never-dying digital photographs on the political evolution of the next few generations of leaders will be interesting.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The hippy thing happened at at the end of the 60s.

Did someone say otherwise?

 

[Forbin]

I understand that the point of that joke is about people doing a lot of drugs back then, but it's a really silly point.

So, the families of JFK, RFK and MLK "weren't there," because I'm pretty damn sure everyone of them remembers the sixties.

Stick. Ass. Remove.

Yeah, that came off angrier than I meant it but it is one of those jokes that was kind of cute the first 500 times but now really deserves to die off at this point through overuse and irrelevance.

Okay, fair point.