The saving past: why will not we let go of nostalgia for the twentieth century
'15.02.2020'
Source: RBC Style
Ksenia Naumova from "RBK Style" studied the phenomenon of longing for bygone times and understands why in the 2010s society once again survived the XNUMXth century and what makes us constantly return to the past.
In cinemas, Terminator, It, and The Lion King succeed each other, shoe stores are crammed with platform shoes, Jennifer Lopez spins on a pylon in Versace’s shiny leotard, Shakira moves his hips under Whenever, Wherever, Eminem on the Oscars ”Shouts out the words“ Lose Yourself ”against the backdrop of a giant audio cassette - the audience shakes their heads to the beat, new Pussycat Dolls and Green Day clips are rapidly gaining views on YouTube, on posters around the world - Spice Girls, Blink 182 and Backstreet Boys, about which there is nothing was heard for many years, and even Natalya Vetlitskaya threatens to return.
What, say, year in the yard? 1993th? 1995th? No, 2020. Right-handed with relief 2019 became the culmination of our longing for the departed. Over the past ten years, we seemed to have lived the whole previous century in rapid speed once again with the heroes of Downton Abbey, Mad Men, Very Strange Things, rummaging through vintage clothes and jewelry, praying for the heroes of Marvel, DC and Disney, who are all , of course, were born in the XX century and were a response to the requests of bygone times.
The only people who are not covered by brutal attacks of deja vu now are those who were not even in the project in the 90s. Perhaps one of these young people is surprised why there are so many elderly heroes in the new films, whose parents applaud the screen. The fact that the next blockbuster for one weekend is actually a sequel or prequel to a film of twenty, thirty, or even forty years ago, people of the generation with clip consciousness may not know: the connection of times in the digital age breaks up quickly and almost painlessly. Remember the main question at the end of 2019: “Can I watch Star Wars if I have not seen all eight of the previous parts?” Yes, everything is possible.
The beginning of 2020 brought a lot of some kind of "muddy" news - Australian fires, coronavirus, replacing the Russian government with another one exactly the same, and so on and so forth. People are saved from this toxic infoflow by anyone. They use ASMR video and podcasts, cross-fit and marathons, life coaches and psychotherapists: to each his own. Millennials seek reassurance in nostalgia.
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Nostalgia is when you return not to the past, but to your own feelings in this very past. The sources of the deepest feelings for the generation that survived the change of millennia in full consciousness were not volumes of classics, but video clips, video games, series, sneakers and a line at McDonald's on Pushkinskaya. So the current wave of nostalgia is, ahem, somewhat consumeristic. Well, what is it.
Who is tormented by the feeling that the XNUMXst century seemed to give a false start, take a step forward. In fact, the reasons for this are understandable - everything changes so quickly that those who find disk or even button phones desperately cling to familiar patterns. Experience shows: if you endlessly try to keep up with the trends, sooner or later you will begin to feel dumber than the fifteen-year-olds, who intuitively understand all of these ticks, they don’t even have to turn on the brain to figure out what's what. The word "millennial" is still used in the meaning of "new generation", although a little more - and it will become synonymous with the word "starter".
Technology at the beginning of the century developed at such a rate that several terribly advanced and hype products never entered the market. It turned out that we are ready to see “smart” glasses, clones and unmanned vehicles in science fiction series and tech blogs, but are not yet ready to make them part of our lives. This, of course, is about the mass consumer, and not about the pioneers of progress and super-energies that have already implanted chips in their hands and do not part with virtual reality helmets.
Most of the accelerated progress is not so much fun as it is scary: you will tear yourself away from watching videos with cats for a minute, look - and there drones fly into the window, the division of clothes for men and women has been canceled in stores, and a government video camera has appeared in your own toilet. Well, such normal millennial phobias. For some, the modern social agenda, being seemingly quite reasonable - equality for all, the right to be yourself, that’s all - turned out to be too radical, and this also became a source of frustration. No matter how much you uphold traditional values in the comments under media publications, and the birth rate for some reason is not growing.
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In general, no matter what feeds our anxiety, nostalgia acts on everyone like a finger sucking in infancy: soothing. Oh, these patterns, familiar from childhood! Oh, this feeling that is born in the soul at the first measures of “Give Me Baby One More Time”! Where there is demand, there is supply. Do people want to review Friends for the hundredth time? For God's sake, we will arrange a large-scale celebration of the 20th anniversary of them, put the series on all new streaming services and release special LEGO sets. Have people missed your waist bags and micro backpacks? Fill counters with little freaks to the joy of installers of all ages.
Once upon a time - at least, judging by books and films - humanity was eager for the future, in space, in progress. Now it’s not that anyone really wants to (except for enthusiasts like Elon Mask). Well, what awaits us there? Ecological catastrophy? Another million meaningless social media disputes? Another thousand wacky laws? Total surveillance? Increase in unemployment due to AI?
When was the last time you saw a utopia movie about a bright future? One of the program stories of science fiction in recent years - people fly away from Earth there, I don’t know where. We have lost our illusions, therefore we are constantly returning to the past, which now seems to be carefree.
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No panic: all this does not mean that we are threatened to suffocate in mothballs. The outgoing decade, of course, has generated a host of fundamentally new phenomena and aesthetic guidelines that do not cause us any rejection. In fashion, these are oversized down jackets, Yeezy, Vergil Abloe futurism, the curved side irony of Vetements, and Jacques' new sexuality. In culture and media - flirtatious depression Billy Elish, virtual influencers, selfie with dog ears, YouTube bloggers. In everyday life - delivery of everything in the world, bionic prostheses for people and even animals, Siri and Alice, beautiful photos from drones, the ability to pay for purchases by phone.
All this is a pretty and already-coming future that suits us perfectly. But still, it’s hard to see the “typical 2010s” at once, in one shot. Too little time has passed. Meanwhile, the cultural strata, which we look through the thickness of time, were rammed, formed into a single whole, ripened. Or, if you like, they opened like aged wine. Even the 90s - the last, the most stupid and rather dubious from an aesthetic point of view, the decade of the XX century finally gained some charm in our eyes. Black noises and ugly platforms began to arouse tenderness in the soul, and when I see Natalia Vetlitskaya with pink hair dancing under “Look into the eyes”, I want to press my hand to my heart.
By and large, any cultural and fashion trends are always an attempt to reflect political and economic upheavals. The 11st century did not start very well - on September 30, continued with terrorist attacks and the financial crisis, and there was still a lot of things. So who dares to blame us for the fact that we celebrate the XNUMXth anniversary of McDonald's in Russia with more enthusiasm than our own birthday.
Although, perhaps, still it's time to take your head out of the sand and start a new life.
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