My nostalgia switch is broken
- Thread starter Goji
- Start date
i miss being in college. that was the best three years of my life.
I have become very nostalgic for music from the 70's...I am not so crazy about music today. I no longer have any radio stations that play current music programmed in my truck radio. I attributed my relatively recent preference to that I now am officially a geezer.
What's even funnier is that I definitely remember a thread here right about the time you finished High School when other guys here told you that one day you'd feel nostalgic about it, and you were vehement it would never happen!
I'm nostalgic for the 70's. I was a kid in the 70's but I'm nostalgic for the things that adults would have experienced. It's an odd sensation, really. It's more odd because when I think of the 70's, I think about it in that kind of washed-out blueish filter way they use in films.
What's even funnier is that I definitely remember a thread here right about the time you finished High School when other guys here told you that one day you'd feel nostalgic about it, and you were vehement it would never happen!
It wouldn't have happened if I had anything to say about it. And if I EVER figure out which part of my brain is responsible, that sucker is going down.
Perfectly normal. It's called growing up and getting over the stupid shit that bothered you when you were a kid with no perspective. Congratulations, you're an adult!
I'm over nothing. If anything, it bothers me more now that some uncontrollable part of me actually thinks of it fondly. Bah.
As many here probably know already, I am nostalgic of the 1980s. Even though I was only born half way through it, I have lots of early memories of the latter years of that decade, and the 'feel' of what it offered. Principally it was the dawn of modern technology, and how that was used in music, film, home entertainment, advertising, and how that was absorbed into youth culture.
The technology was rare enough to be both novel and arcane. It had personality, and more often than not, was over engineered to some indestructible standard that doesn't exist anymore. In those years we made some of the most creative and most celebrated films and musics - having an intrinsic quality that we seem unable to recapture and emulate 25 years on, despite our technological advances. No artificial media hype was needed when quality spoke for itself.
It was also a time when fashions (or lack of) weren't mocked, because there was no widespread peer pressure.
The technology was rare enough to be both novel and arcane. It had personality, and more often than not, was over engineered to some indestructible standard that doesn't exist anymore. In those years we made some of the most creative and most celebrated films and musics - having an intrinsic quality that we seem unable to recapture and emulate 25 years on, despite our technological advances. No artificial media hype was needed when quality spoke for itself.
It was also a time when fashions (or lack of) weren't mocked, because there was no widespread peer pressure.
*raises one partially shaved eyebrow (above a very glam eyelid) in skepticism*
^^ Yes, I remember Mohawks and colored stripes-- well, I guess colored stripes have become pretty mainstream now, but they were mocked back then.
I'm nostalgic for the 60s, 70s and early 80s; but if I ever become nostalgic for the 90s, I may consider brain salad surgery.
I'm nostalgic for the 60s, 70s and early 80s; but if I ever become nostalgic for the 90s, I may consider brain salad surgery.
In 16 years, I never felt the slightest shred of nostalgia for my high school years. Maybe because they were uneventful. Not good or bad.
But some are mentioning nostalgia for music. And I have to say, although I am partial to music from every decade, I am sick of always hearing, at parties, or especially in dance clubs, the same 30 titles that are supposed to trigger a nostalgic response in a certain demographic - or the older generation. It seems they try to make you feel nostalgic about nostalgia!
(I quit going to dance clubs to avoid the umpteenth hearing of those songs - or at least I am not nostalgic of my club-going years. )
You can get a kick out of new (to you) music as much as familiar stuff. I don't know about you guys, but I dance better to something I'm hearing for the first time. You have to keep the spontaneity going.
And it's all recorded for listening whenever we want, what are we complaining about? Or are people nostalgic when their music of choice has gone out of fashion? Do they really need other people's approval? Music is always replayed and recycled anyway. For the anecdote, in France we have a radio station called 'Radio Nostalgie'.
Anything similar in your respective countries? I bet there is.
I may miss elements from my high school or college years, like people or activities, but not the years per se. I suppose that comes when you lose your looks or your fitness.
But to those who look at the past through rose- or blue-coloured glasses, I say find out about the cool things going on today before they, too, belong to the past. There is always something.
Things don't need to be over in order to be validated and appreciated. And if you like something only because it belongs to the past, then there is indeed something wrong with you. 
Although, there is nothing wrong with late discovery of course, with music as it is with literature, etc.
But there is a reason why nostalgia about a decade in history or in one's life comes many years later. We need time to forget about the bad things. Fortunately, our brains save mainly the best of everything. We can't have a misery overload. So it's easy to look back and think it was a good time. Today is just as good, except you still have to sort out the good and the bad. Unless we need distance to determine what's good and what's bad. Should that be determined by the outcome, or consequences, by the way we judge things after they're over, or by the way things felt when being experienced? Both schools of thought are defendable.
But some are mentioning nostalgia for music. And I have to say, although I am partial to music from every decade, I am sick of always hearing, at parties, or especially in dance clubs, the same 30 titles that are supposed to trigger a nostalgic response in a certain demographic - or the older generation. It seems they try to make you feel nostalgic about nostalgia!
(I quit going to dance clubs to avoid the umpteenth hearing of those songs - or at least I am not nostalgic of my club-going years. ) You can get a kick out of new (to you) music as much as familiar stuff. I don't know about you guys, but I dance better to something I'm hearing for the first time. You have to keep the spontaneity going.
And it's all recorded for listening whenever we want, what are we complaining about? Or are people nostalgic when their music of choice has gone out of fashion? Do they really need other people's approval? Music is always replayed and recycled anyway. For the anecdote, in France we have a radio station called 'Radio Nostalgie'.
Anything similar in your respective countries? I bet there is.I may miss elements from my high school or college years, like people or activities, but not the years per se. I suppose that comes when you lose your looks or your fitness.
But to those who look at the past through rose- or blue-coloured glasses, I say find out about the cool things going on today before they, too, belong to the past. There is always something.
Things don't need to be over in order to be validated and appreciated. And if you like something only because it belongs to the past, then there is indeed something wrong with you. Although, there is nothing wrong with late discovery of course, with music as it is with literature, etc.But there is a reason why nostalgia about a decade in history or in one's life comes many years later. We need time to forget about the bad things. Fortunately, our brains save mainly the best of everything. We can't have a misery overload. So it's easy to look back and think it was a good time. Today is just as good, except you still have to sort out the good and the bad. Unless we need distance to determine what's good and what's bad. Should that be determined by the outcome, or consequences, by the way we judge things after they're over, or by the way things felt when being experienced? Both schools of thought are defendable.
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Nothing that I know of. Nostalgia is about remembering good times; how is that complaining?
We have plenty of radio stations like that, both broadcast and satellite. My cable company has digital music stations for music of the 50/60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. I think the satellite companies even have nostalgia stations with old radio shows like The Shadow. On Sunday nights here in Boston, we have a show on 103 FM called "Lost 45s" with old songs that "you never thought you'd hear again on the radio" (available on the Internet, too, at 7pm local time).For the anecdote, in France we have a radio station called 'Radio Nostalgie'.
The rights are certainly cheaper than for recent stuff. Hence the interest for the media to cultivate nostalgia.
And yes, I thought I was hearing people say it was too bad some things had gone out of fashion and had to be found on YouTube, for instance. Nostalgia is a pleasure derived from a tinge of sadness about things being over. At least I am seeing that side of things. I don't say it's all bad.
Now do we prefer our classics when connected with memories of the time or not? Each to their own.
And yes, I thought I was hearing people say it was too bad some things had gone out of fashion and had to be found on YouTube, for instance. Nostalgia is a pleasure derived from a tinge of sadness about things being over. At least I am seeing that side of things. I don't say it's all bad.
Now do we prefer our classics when connected with memories of the time or not? Each to their own.
Well, that's true; it is sad when some things go out of style, so that can be part of it. Or when the culture is going through an especially dull phase, like it is now. I mentioned old radio shows earlier; I love those and I think it's a shame that they've gone out of style. I like variety in the Arts and the media, and that's hard to find these days.
Well it may be because I was seeing the world through innocent child eyes back then. But I guess what I'm saying is there seemed to be less social grading/competition than there is now.
Nowadays fashion/trends and technology seem to be judged and compared much more readily, and much more harshly than they were back then.
It's like most children/teens nowadays have a need to declare this "pwnness" between rival brands and products and fashions.
And also, as adults, there is a tendency to look to the past and laugh at how things were and the preferences we had, eg fashion-wise.
I feel that this is analogous to culture bashing. Just that here it is dissing a culture across time rather than across continent. Things were done differently, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. It doesn't provoke negativity.
Could it be simply that the western culture of this decade is just a hyper-criticial one, which has a greater tendency to make negative judgements of past hairstyles or fashions, or 'cheesy' music? Where children are pressured into small scale rivalry over which is the better game/toy, and how many have they got.
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It's a harsh decade. People are very insecure and that gives them the desperate need to prove something.
You're probably right, although I find it hard to have critical distance with the time I'm living in. Culture would definitely be poor if we didn't have older stuff to draw from or replay. But I also try to find the best of the new.
One thing that bothers me is when people criticize new things, then wait for them to be old and finished in order to grant them value.
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