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"Only 90's Kids will recognize this!!!" Is a mental virus

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XiaNaphryz said:
The viability of it was built in the 70s through things like MASH, Happy Days, American Grafitti, etc. Hell, it's built into the name of Happy Days - literally telling you things used to be better given the generally grim world outlook there was during the time frame.

What also really helped propel it in the 80s was the deaths of Elvis and Lennon. Those got a lot of people to start going wanting to go back to their music of the 50s/60s. The growth of media options was what really helped propel the nostalgia market than anything, it just so happened to come to a head in the 80s.
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Yep. The real first wave of marketable nostalgia was baby boomers waxing romantic about the '50s. George Lucas is pretty directly responsible for modern nostalgia!
 
nullset2 said:
Let's discuss something I've noticed lately: Why are people so self-complacent with indulging in 90's nostalgia so much? I despise that such a thing happens.

Some background: I'm a 23 year old, young by all accounts, and my friends are of the same age give or take, same generation. We have all gone through college and some of them are even making plans to marry and incur debt without batting an eye (terrible decision, but I digress), and one of them even has a child now, so you'd think they'd have an adult attitude and viewpoint for things. We're not 18 year olds anymore, yes? Even so, four out of five times we hang out, the conversation will veer into "hey guys remember this commercial pop culture product from the 90's? Oh damn, my childhood, damn. I grew up on fuckin' DBZ and I can't stop talking about it even though there's way better anime out there and it's been outclassed in every single way but, damn, my childhood! Remember the SNES? Yeah, it's because of my childhood... damn, those were some good games, but how have I come to that conclusion? Is it because of a deeply cultured approach to the medium, contrasting them to other exponents in it? Nah, it's because of --you guessed damn right--, my childhood again lol!!!" And I seriously want to get some critical discussion going on this, because it's becoming way, and way more prevalent.

Like, I don't get it. I'm having way more fun now that I'm 20-something than I did when I was a shitty pre-teen. I'm getting better entertainment, and I have better, actual relationships. I am now able to give and share with others that which makes my life good. Yes, I understand what nostalgia is and its nature, and how it's in human nature in fact to have nostalgia for things, but it's like, yo, stop fucking posting about Pokemon, those games are not even that good and as a franchise they have barely moved forward in depth and complexity. Stop it with the classic Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network stuff on facebook. Move forward and towards greater heights all the time, tell me about more complex propositions in the animation field, how come you aren't you being critical about your media consumption?

Stop staying shelled in your past so much, like, is your life that dull now that you need to actually work to get shit instead of having mommy and daddy give you everything that you have to constantly ache about the olden days to try and ease the pain? Now that you have credit debts and are running victim to your biological clock to get married? You want to crawl into Mother's womb so badly? Why aren't you producing, creating something new and deep and fresh for all? How can I appreciate your evolution, your improvement as a person, and as a human? What are you providing on top of what's already done? I am completely dumbfounded by how fast people are to wrap in this attitude to hell and back. That's what enables media producers to pander so much to people and to make a quick buck on cheap "retro" shit. Sure, you can have your rainy, funny days of nostalgia, but it has to be only that, not like every single time we get together. Now you're in control of stuff and you have the chance to make stuff kickass, or waste it and delve into eternal mediocrity, but the matter is, you're in control now, which you weren't when you were a kid and which can be loads better if you make the smallest of an effort. It's either renew or die, baby.

So, let's chat.
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this post reeks of euphoria.
 
XiaNaphryz said:
Didn't it do something like $50 million the year it came out? I'd hardly call that "nobody."
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Well according to Wiki that 50 mill was mostly overseas - I guess it was a cult hit in France. But I would hardly say American Graffiti kicked off any kind of nostalgia movement in the US.
 
Count Dookkake said:
And it was essentially turned into Happy Days.
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What's funny is that the Happy Days pilot made in 71 under a different name was what inspired Lucas to cast Ron Howard for American Graffiti.

teruterubozu said:
Well according to Wiki that 50 mill was mostly overseas - I guess it was a cult hit in France. But I would hardly say American Graffiti kicked off any kind of nostalgia movement in the US.
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Looking at the WIki it says "It had only modest success outside the United States." That doesn't sound like "mostly overseas" to me. It also made a bunch more money during a reissue in 1978. Does that count as nobody in the 70s watching it as well?
 
It's not like you've discovered something amazing or particularly insightful.

The only thing worth mentioning with people who are currently in their early twenties is that these people grew up with the internet, and as such perhaps have a different outlook on what they can and should share on social media.


As for nostalgia, that always will and always has been around. Maybe your point is that we should be less nostalgic, as it's a sign you're living in the past more than you should, but is it really that harmful?
 
Only one family can save us now.

Brady_bunch_movie_poster.jpg


Another example of how nostalgia typically abides by the twenty year rule; the days of nineties kids will end as soon as it began in time, and then you can dislike even more people for fondly looking back at their past.
 
XiaNaphryz said:
Looking at the WIki it says "It had only modest success outside the United States." That doesn't sound like "mostly overseas" to me. It also made a bunch more money during a reissue in 1978. Does that count as nobody in the 70s watching it as well?
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Ah well. Can't argue w/George Lucas. The reissue in '78 is obvious - Star Wars.
 
OP is over the top and is too young to already be yelling at clouds.

Even so... I am reminded a former friend years back. He represented the extreme possibility for nostalgia addiction. At 30 then, he was a child of the 80s and early 90s, and 100% lived in the past. Viciously cynical and dismissive of everything created past 1995. The truth was, he was miserable. He was in a personal situation, not entirely of his own doing, that left him hateful of his life and everyone in it. He couldn't empathize with anything "new" because it was all seen through the filter of a crapsack world. He retreated into childhood nostalgia as a defensive mechanism.

I don't look down on him, I just felt sorry for him. His situation contributed to my feelings that nostalgia can be, for many, a defense. The adult world puts terrible pressure on people, and for some it can be difficult to find any satisfaction with the overhead of so much stress. With the well poisoned for new experiences, all one has left is the past.

Personally, I have seen the same effect mirrored in the attitudes of a lot of people. They cannot enjoy anything past the cut-off point for their life becoming full of adult concerns and mainly focus on the negative aspects of everything.
 
Kyuur said:
Not everything new is better than old. I still play and watch things from the 90s and 80s and enjoy them more than modern entertainment. I can agree about people who only talk about old things while having no current connection to them.
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This.

Why is it not okay for people to have different tastes? I love the SNES and N64 more than Wii and Wii U era, but should I stop playing the former because Nostalgia is icky and useless? Also, I like R&B from the 90s more than what gets released nowadays (even though some of it is still very good), so I keep listening to it. And don't get me started with the golden age of the Simpsons, or really good shows like Seinfeld, Daria and Married With Children. I'm still watching these on a regular basis, just as much as I watch most of current shows airing. I really don't see what's the problem with nostalgia.

Sure, some things were hilariously bad, like the fashion. But when people bring that up it's mostly to get a good laugh about it, imo.
 
Real talk I kinda want to punch people through the computer when the go off on some "why are you raping my childhood" shit in reaction to franchise revivals.

So I get you OP. Kind of irksome seeing a bunch of 20 year olds go on about how playing a video game or watc hing a cartoon "makes them feel like a kid again".
 
90s were dope though

ok computer, golden era simpsons, same with seinfeld, mix tapes, mainstream adoption of the internet, etc. man I still remember going from dial up to our first modem. holy shit! nowadays it would be slooow as shit hahaha. even our very first computer which cost us over $1000 and was all custom built looks so pathetic today. 4GB hard drive lol

so much to love

also lol classics vs modern interpretations. people call them classics for a reason
 
OP and his friends are to young too even fully experience the 90's anyways. You guys were entering kindergarten by the time the mid 90's were rolling around.
 
I live a pretty sad life and i want to talk about/live in the past... don't ruin this moment for me, time 5-6 years and the 90s craze will end.
Let me enjoy this moment please.
 
Kopyii said:
Only one family can save us now.

Brady_bunch_movie_poster.jpg


Another example of how nostalgia typically abides by the twenty year rule; the days of nineties kids will end as soon as it began in time, and then you can dislike even more people for fondly looking back at their past.
Click to expand...
Screw your 90s nostalgia for the 70s. I have 90s nostalgia for the Depression Era!

mdfbzy11ovajenmobhns53ykg9.jpg
 
XiaNaphryz said:
The viability of it was built in the 70s through things like MASH, Happy Days, American Grafitti, etc. Hell, it's built into the name of Happy Days - literally telling you things used to be better given the generally grim world outlook there was during the time frame.

What also really helped propel it in the 80s was the deaths of Elvis and Lennon. Those got a lot of people to start going wanting to go back to their music of the 50s/60s. The growth of media options was what really helped propel the nostalgia market than anything, it just so happened to come to a head in the 80s.
Click to expand...

Yes, and the 90s had a severe streak of 70s nostalgia. That 70s show, the reemergence of bell bottoms, the renewed interest in hippie idealism with veganism...etc.

And as for those comments about "Boy, people will have a hard time being nostalgic about the aughts, what with 9/11" - think about any other era and realize there was awful shit happening then, too. We're nostalgic about and romanticise WWII for christtsakes. And as a teenager in the 90s, we said the same shit OP is saying today and others are saying ITT. "Boy, people are going to have a hard time romanticising the 90s, what with the Clinton scandal, Backstreet Boys, Hanson and the genocides in Eastern Europe."

This idealism is cyclical.
 
heh in 10 years kids are gonna start getting nostalgic over gangnam style, harlem shake, boxxy and whatever stupid youtube/vine memes/personalities are popular now xD
 
Kite said:
heh in 10 years kids are gonna start getting nostalgic over gangnam style, harlem shake, boxxy and whatever stupid youtube/vine memes/personalities are popular now xD
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I feel like people already forgot all about Gangnam Style and Harlem Shake. Those were really fads in the strictest sense of the word. Or do things get uncool a lot faster nowadays?

Then again I'm really not sure doing the Macarena is considered as cool.
 
Grizzo said:
I feel like people already forgot all about Gangnam Style and Harlem Shake. Those were really fads in the strictest sense of the word. Or do things get uncool a lot faster nowadays?

Then again I'm really not sure doing the Macarena is considered as cool.
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The Macarea. The boot scoot 'n boogie. Achy-breaky heart. The cottoneye joe. Pogs. Zubaz. Vanilla Ice. Snow.

Time makes people forget the truly shitty things in favor for the kitschy silly shit.
 
Kai Dracon said:
OP is over the top and is too young to already be yelling at clouds.

Even so... I am reminded a former friend years back. He represented the extreme possibility for nostalgia addiction. At 30 then, he was a child of the 80s and early 90s, and 100% lived in the past. Viciously cynical and dismissive of everything created past 1995. The truth was, he was miserable. He was in a personal situation, not entirely of his own doing, that left him hateful of his life and everyone in it. He couldn't empathize with anything "new" because it was all seen through the filter of a crapsack world. He retreated into childhood nostalgia as a defensive mechanism.

I don't look down on him, I just felt sorry for him. His situation contributed to my feelings that nostalgia can be, for many, a defense. The adult world puts terrible pressure on people, and for some it can be difficult to find any satisfaction with the overhead of so much stress. With the well poisoned for new experiences, all one has left is the past.

Personally, I have seen the same effect mirrored in the attitudes of a lot of people. They cannot enjoy anything past the cut-off point for their life becoming full of adult concerns and mainly focus on the negative aspects of everything.
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Beautifully written post, dude. Well done, and one of the many angles I'm trying to raise discussion to explore here.
 
Makes me wonder: what will 2000s kids be nostalgic about? Even though I lived my teens through that decade, outside of videogames I have no idea what childhood was all about then. Harry Potter and LOTR?

Kite said:
heh in 10 years kids are gonna start getting nostalgic over gangnam style, harlem shake, boxxy and whatever stupid youtube/vine memes/personalities are popular now xD
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I don't see too many 90s kids who are nostalgic about the Macarena, if that's comparable.
 
Prez said:
Makes me wonder: what will 2000s kids be nostalgic about? Even though I lived my teens through that decade, outside of videogames I have no idea what childhood was all about then. Harry Potter and LOTR?
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Beat me to the punch. Harry Potter is going to have an ENORMOUS nostalgia bomb in about 10-15 years. Wii and XBL will be nostalgia overload. We can already see the early strains of the nostalgia virus with the Dreamcast and PS2 worship.

Grizzo said:
Just to say that "wine sniffers" is an awesome phrase, so thanks for that. And that you're right about the things you listed. But these are still heard at weddings, I think.
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lol you're welcome. And you're right, but Bonnie Tyler and Bon Jovi are unironically played at weddings too. They weren't exactly the pinnacle of 80s pop culture. I've even heard "Get Jiggy Wit It" at a wedding. Nostalgia does weird shit to people and we all think we're going to be immune from its effects. Spoiler. You won't be.
 
Grizzo said:
Just to say that "wine sniffers" is an awesome phrase, so thanks for that. And that you're right about the things you listed. But these are still heard at weddings, I think.
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At nearly every wedding I've been to the last couple of years, they all had some version of late 80s to mid 90s R&B slow jam mega mix medley played during the reception, which was when we all went through high school and started college. But yeah, those other things mentioned still get played for the older people in the crowd (Electric Slide, Achy Breaky, etc).
 
WanderingWind said:
Beat me to the punch. Harry Potter is going to have an ENORMOUS nostalgia bomb in about 10-15 years. Wii and XBL will be nostalgia overload. We can already see the early strains of the nostalgia virus with the Dreamcast and PS2 worship.
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To go even further: what's there to be nostalgic about in the past 4 years? It seems to me that 2010-2014 doesn't compare to 2000-2004 and was all about stupid fads, funny YT videos and dumb smartphone games. When it comes to what kids will remember in 10-15 years, I don't see anything notable so far. Then again, I'm not a kid anymore so I don't know what they're into these days.
 
Your friends probably don't have time to do as much these days, so they have less to talk about now and more about then. I do way less now then I did when I was a kid. I'm not up on most TV shows. I play less video games, read less books, do athletic things less, and go out to socialize less then I did 5 years ago.

They're probably talking more about old times because that's when they had time to do things. Now they have to work to pay off the debts, take care of a kid or do something with a girlfriend instead of marathoning House of Cards or playing the latest video game.
 
WanderingWind said:
I think you meant inevitable remake.
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Who says they can't be one and the same in that timeframe? The all-CG cast will still be voiced by the same actors! ;)

Prez said:
To go even further: what's there to be nostalgic about in the past 4 years? It seems to me that 2010-2014 doesn't compare to 2000-2004 and was all about stupid fads, funny YT videos and dumb smartphone games. When it comes to what kids will remember in 10-15 years, I don't see anything notable so far.
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Superhero movies maybe? Every year I see tons of superhero costumes at my kid's elementary school.
 
I don't even remember what songs were played at my wedding (2008). Aside from having to do the first dance with my wife, I pretty much just sat there bored thinking how loud and annoying everything was, and how silly most people looked.

nofunallowed.gif
 
Prez said:
To go even further: what's there to be nostalgic about in the past 4 years? It seems to me that 2010-2014 doesn't compare to 2000-2004 and was all about stupid fads, funny YT videos and dumb smartphone games. When it comes to what kids will remember in 10-15 years, I don't see anything notable so far.
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3DS. 3D movies. Avatar. Batman movies. Netflix streaming. Game of Thrones. Breaking Bad.
 
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