NOSTALGIA FITE!

hmm, semi-synchronicity! i was musing about nostalgia on 1471 earlier this week.

That would be right here, yes? Giving it a looksee right now...

From Gareth's article: "Last Saturday nights television had nostalgia and retrospectives on all the channels simultaneously. A few years ago, it was tempting to think that the seemingly exponential rise in nostalgia was simply a logical effect of the approaching millennium, a hyper-acceleration of culture, in which all the pasts are lived One More Time, but, post-millennium, not only has this trend shown no signs of abating, but has continued ever faster, devouring and regurgitating all."

As he notes near the end, nostalgia's probably a last-gasp attempt at staying young. The reason for its pervasiveness, I imagine, is its availability. With motion pictures and television and other visual media (especially periodicals), it's easy to go back and experience something again. There's always been a market for it; these technological advances make it easier to meet the demand. (Seems obvious to say this, though.)

A lot also has to do, of course, with the relative age of those in positions of power (editors at magazine, program directors, etc.) Odd to note how some eras (50s nuclear family & 60s counterculture) are looked back on reverentially, idealized, while others (70s disco; 80s new-wave) are seen as kitschy. And this doesn't just apply to music (though my defining the 70s & 80s in terms of music might have something to do with their relative lack of serious consideration).

old shit is old shit. cant be arsed to look up yr other crap just do a summery. lifes too short. only peple who look up old freds are saddoes.

Old Freds? "Hey, McMurray! Get your cranky, rotting ass in here!"

Buzzcocks and Chameleons songs inevitably come to mind to me when the word 'nostalgia' is invoked, especially the former song, which is to my mind at once hilarious and heartfelt. The Chameleons collapsed in a messy total heap and when they reunited in 2000 I sure as hell went to their shows, feeling as much of a need as it sounds like David, Sterling, etc. felt for MoB (who are good and all, to be sure).

Tom's point is a good one, though -- it can cut both ways, however. The Human League may well have kept going, but so has REM, and as that Smiths vs. REM thread showed, do they deserve more respect as well? Of course, you can argue that the whole fact REM generally do get more has something to do with...ROCKISM! Run!

Tom seems to have a real lack of tolerance for classick American indie, it is true (see earlier comments about Husker Du), which I think is unfortunate. On the other hand, he seems to love Abba's album The Visitors, which endears him to me immensely...one of the best albums of the 80s, bar none, and one that would probably sound good in clubs even today. ("Who is this amazing group?" "It's ABBA!" "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" <-- results of actual experiment in a club in the mid-90s.)

I should really get off my ass and write that piece on modern dinosaurs, especially now that the results of the Echo/P.Furs nostalgia cage match are pouring in.

The thing I thought of when looking at this thread earlier was the difference between the world of music and the world of film, for example. If Spielberg and Lucas decided to do another movie together, would everyone say, "Aw geeze, why are they doing this? Can't they work on their own anymore? Do they really have to fall back on the glories of Raiders again?"

Would it be nostalgic of me to listen to a new single I first heard an hour ago? "I remember liking this the first time I heard it..."

Tom seems to have a real lack of tolerance for classick American indie, it is true (see earlier comments about Husker Du), which I think is unfortunate.

That's because Jihad Tommy is with the terrorists.

So were the chameleons' re-union shows any good then, Ned? "Don't Fall" = thee ultimate riff IMO

I don't know if anyone's already made these points elsewhere, but firstly: you don't have to have been 'there' to experience nostalgia because nostalgia itself is primarily an imaginative experience. Hence the interest in the Strokes, who have that something in their guitars and lyrics (much more so than in their image) that really hits the right notes with people from across generations. I like the Strokes' music but I often wonder what they make of themselves.

Secondly, and lastly, nostalgia can most certainly be a 'good' thing insofar as it allows people to express themselves in different ways and to imaginatively reconstruct the past. For me a good example of this is Fennesz's Endless Summer. The more intuitive our 'memory' of the past becomes, the more honestly we will be able to cope with our regrets, collective and individual.

Some GRATE bands I would never go to a reunion of. Why? Coz the album captures them fine. Some bands are just better life, as was Mission of Burma. There's no way I'd ever experience that sort of total sonic distortion rush outside of a live setting. Again, I promise more in piece I'm doing.

So were the chameleons' re-union shows any good then, Ned?

The one I saw was fan-fucking-tastic, as they say.