Nostalgia can be a beautiful thing. It can also be a beast.
I do not consider myself a nostalgic person. Occasionally I’ll look at old photographs or watch a film that I enjoyed as a youngster, but these events are few and far between.
I’ve noticed a surprising amount of people online commenting on YouTube song videos for oldies (but goodies) saying how they believe that they were born in the wrong era. I understand that most people mean that they prefer older styles of music as opposed to the stuff on the radio today.
That’s a complaint I can live with. Most of the time they bring up how they are uncomfortable with the profanity or lack of originality in many of today’s pop songs. It’s still a sweeping generalization as there are many good bands and musicians out there today making music, but the point is understood and well taken.
But I’d like to talk about the people who really seem like they’re stuck in a past that they were never really in to begin with. It troubles me that so many people are fixated on not living in their own time but rather wish to recreate a past that when viewed through nostalgic lenses looks better than it might actually be.
So, because I’m a party-pooper, I thought I would take the liberty to go decade-by-decade and ruin the nostalgia for all those who wish to go back in time to the most popular decades simply because of the music.
The 1920s: You love jazz and swing dancing, so you wanna live in the Roaring ‘20s eh? Well, I hope you have your polio shot and don’t mind not having air conditioning in the hot, hot, summers. You better really like jazz music, because television won’t be invented for another few decades and movies won’t have sound until the near-end of the decade.
The 1930s: Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby and other greats get their start in this decade. What’s not so great? The economy is in the dumper. If you’re not living amongst a collection of shacks known as a Hooverville, the odds are you’re glad just to have a dollar in the bank. Oh, that dollar? It’s not so secure with bank robbers like John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson running around.
In my adventures I’ve yet to come across a person who distinctly wants to live in the 1940s, so we’ll skip that one.
The 1950s: Doo-wop music and post-WWII patriotism, don’t you just love America in the 1950s? I sure hope so, because if you forget to hang Old Glory on Flag Day I’m going to call HUAC and tell them you’re a commie! (P.S. if this is your decade of choice get ready for living amongst constant crap-your-pants level fear of Russia and the repeating of the phrase: “Better dead than Red.”)
The 1960s: The Beatles, the Stones, and other great early rock bands! What could be better? Not much…until President Lyndon B. Johnson takes over after the tragic death of President Kennedy and ignites the fire known as Vietnam.
The 1970s: Classic American rock and the birth of heavy metal or punk may be your thing, hopefully one of the worst recessions in American history is too as well as an unwinnable conflict over seas and an energy crisis.
the 1980s: Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Prince. Wow! Some great artists came out of the 1980s. Unfortunately, so did the vast spreading of crack and cocaine in America leading to the War on Drugs. Not to mention, a new found fear of the AIDS virus.
The 1990s: Nirvana, Pearl Jam and other grungers come to the forefront in music. Odds are if you’re into that kind of thing, nothing I can say will depress you more than your music choice will….
The 2000s: Is anybody really nostalgic for our last decade already? I mean “Fergalicious” was a great song, but c’mon!
The point of this exercise wasn’t to poo-poo anybody’s taste in music or to make anyone feel stupid. It was to demonstrate that nostalgia clouds our understanding of history. Be a person of your own time.
Brian Laughran
Senior Viewpoints Editor
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