Nostalgia is a fairly common feeling to have but Associate Professor in Social Science at the University of Canberra, Dr Michael Walsh, believes it’s playing a huge role in the decisions contemporary society makes.
Over the past few years, popular trends and fads have crept their way back into the mainstream. Vinyl records are outselling CDs again, the mullet haircut is back and retro imagery and fashion is just about everywhere.
Yet it beckons the question of why these elements are in the spotlight.
With “futuristic” technology like AI, the internet, and streaming services being so commonplace, why do we find interest in a past most of us didn’t live through?
Dr Walsh says one of the reasons is because of streaming services, like Spotify and Netflix. They are helping society to develop a fascination with the past.
He used the TV series Stranger Things as an example of this, and through it’s ‘80s imagery and music, it allows its viewers to live through a reimagined version of the ‘80s.
The popularity of Stranger Things saw fans dressing in ‘80s fashion and listening to ‘80s music. Most notably from this though was the resurgence of interest in Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, which was featured in the series. Despite the song being nearly 40 years old, it managed to top the modern charts.
Dr Walsh has been researching how consumers are using music streaming services in their everyday lives and has found that nostalgia implicitly plays a role in consumption habits.
In his own research, Dr Walsh found that many users would often use nostalgia (in the technical sense of the word) when making playlists, often centring them around particular periods of their lives, and using this to relive a version of that time.
Dr Walsh also found that while many users seamlessly integrate music streaming into everyday life, many don’t want to let go of traditional music consumption, which he believes is a contributor to the resurgence of popularity in vinyl.
And with vinyl having its moment in the mainstream, vinyl is existing both as a medium, and as a cultural artefact. Dr Walsh points to research that shows while vinyl sales are up, only 50% of consumers are actually playing them.
With mostly younger demographics driving popularity of what’s in the mainstream, Dr Walsh says that the technical definition of nostalgia is being challenged because the younger demographics are romanticising time periods they never lived through.
With retro elements popular once again, one question remains: the more things change, the more they stay the same?