Growing up this was something that seemed true to me and still does. Like if a teenager says they despise some of the things their peers do, sometimes people won't put as much stock into it as they would if it were someone their parents' age saying the same words.

For instance, I was on a message board in the late '90s where the topic of current music came up. Some people hated Limp Bizkit, early Britney, boy bands, and the saturation of TRL with a passion. Well anyway, I remember this 14-year old left a comment to the effect of how he was annoyed by his peers at school all being into that, and that he wished he'd been around for the previous eras of music that were so much better. The irony is this kid was saying much the same things that the older people were, yet they kinda ignored his post in relation, whereas they kinda praised each other.

I experienced this as a kid and younger teen (even today to a small extent). Like if I told someone in 1994 that I loved '80s music, or how I missed a certain old house I'd lived in, sometimes they kinda politely blew it off since I was "still a kid and hadn't even lived yet" and such. That annoyed me because it was like my feelings were being tossed to the side or discounted because of something I couldn't help. That never really seemed fair or accurate to me, because anyone can feel a certain way. It all depends on the person and their life, because I think our environments have a hand in forming our tastes and how we think about things.

I think maybe you were being a bit over sensitive, and,  perhaps you are confusing feelings for opinions.  You may have been expressing certain feelings, then looking for a validation of those feelings.  Opinions are usually given more weight if they are backed by experience, and people as they age tend to be more experienced.

Hmm...I do notice this somewhat, but I think it has lessened over time.  I do think that many parents feel that no one can be nostalgic if they were, say, 17, but it can happen and I notice it has happened quite the bit with kids at my high school in the mid-00s.  On the rare occasion that an old tv show would be mentioned, the majority of the kids seemed to praise it, saying "remember (insert show here)?  That was awesome!" with other kids agreeing.  I even see it in college now, as I saw about 5-6 guys (around 18) talking about how "Saved By The Bell kicked ass" and how they watched Inspector Gadget all the time.  I think the bar for nostalgia has been lowered in recent years.  

Most adults I encounter seem to brush off "youthful nostalgia" (aka people being nostalgic at a young age), but I don't think many of the "Generation Y" members feel that way.  You'd be surprised how many Gen Yers still love old school Nickelodeon and how they love music of the past.  Heck, they did a study back in 2005 and found out that about 8% of teenagers listened to Classic Rock...the highest percentage since the 1980s (when "Classic Rock" wasn't even that old).

It seems like today's young people are much more "retro" than previous generations.  I visit the Gamefaqs message boards (one of the top 250 websites on the internet...6000 people on the boards at once usually) and there are a TON of people on the Rock board (which gets well over 1000 new topics a week) who hate mainstream, modern music ("You need to look past the radio and listen to other stuff" is what they say.  That or "00s music sucks in general".).  These people are all in the teen and 20s, on one of the most active message boards on the internet, and the sense of hatred for modern music is great.  Right now, they're going through a "lets play early 90s" phase where tons of topics are being made praising Nirvana and Grunge while denouncing Hair Metal with the occasional topic saying that the hair bands are "REAL ROCK" and that Grunge ruined Rock due to Post Grunge and Nu Metal (two really crappy genres) being inspired by it.  I also knew several kids who hung out with the "cool crowd" in high school who listened solely to Classic Rock with tiny bursts of 90s and 00s Rock (usually Sublime for some reason).  They weren't made fun of, they were part of the cool crowd!

So yeah, adults may brush off nostalgia by young people, but I don't think the "Gen Yers" have that view at all.  I think the internet has helped greatly with this as it provides greater access to older music that people might not otherwise be exposed to.  The prevalence of an "underground = great, mainstream = bad" view has also been spread as a result of this and it wasn't that uncommon for people at school (and in college, of courses) to like certain bands that weren't played on the radio (although they did seem to like the same bands as all the other "undergrounders").  It certainly wasn't the norm, but it wasn't like it was particularly rare either.

^ Excellent points, I agree, and you're probably right now that I think about it.

One explanation is that people use their own lives as a template. Whether we mean to or not, I think it's just natural. So a present day 40-year old might brush off the idea of a high schooler who longs for their childhood, or who appreciates pop culture from before their lifetime. Most likely it's because they can't relate to it directly since they were probably very into what was current as teens.

In the past, my mom has had trouble fully understanding my retroness, although I can understand this now. Back then, a 16 year old in 1970 listening to big band or barbershop quartets would've been absolutely unheard of. It just didn't happen, and it was practically a given that young people would've been listening to The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix en masse. They wanted to break away from their parents and thought their stuff was kinda lame, so I suppose they just assume generations after them would feel the same.

I also agree the Internet definitely has had a hand in having older stuff be much more accessible than it was in the past. This is probably when I noticed being retro became alot more common. That, along with the fall of a thriving, common pop culture in the last five or six years.


You're around 19 now I'm guessing, right? Although I've seen young nostalgizing with my peers (I'm 26), I do notice it picking up more steam with guys your age, and oftentimes quite younger too. I see comments on '80s music videos on youtube quite a bit, where younger teens will be praising it or talking about how much it rocks compared to today.

P.S. I guess I was about a decade ahead of my time as a kid and I just didn't yet know it, lol.

One other explanation is that people use their own lives as a template. Whether we mean to or not, I think it's just natural. So a present day 40-year old might brush off the idea of a high schooler who longs for their childhood, or who appreciates pop culture from even before their lifetime. Most likely it's because they can't relate to it directly. When they were teens (in the early-mid '80s) they probably were extremely into what was current over anything else.

In the past, my mom has even had trouble fully understanding my retroness, since back then (being 16 in 1970), listening to big band or barbershop quartets would've been absolutely unheard of. It just didn't happen, and it was practically a given that young people would've been listening to The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix en masse. They all wanted to break away from their parents, so I suppose they assume the generations after them would feel the same way.






So your mom cannot fully understand your "retroness". Your attitude that she doesn't fully understand you is a symptom of your breaking away from your parents.  It is a natural progression to maturity that you seem to believe was part of her generation but not yours.  It may, though it shouldn't, surprise you that it wasn't unheard of for young people of our(your mothers and mine) generation, to not be into the Beatles, Stones and especially Hendrix.  The people who were buying the music and going to the concerts were into them, but they were(are) a small fraction of the population as a whole.  I think you are using your own life and experience as a template, and conversely projecting a specific template on the whole of your mothers generation.

So your mom cannot fully understand your "retroness". Your attitude that she doesn't fully understand you is a symptom of your breaking away from your parents.  It is a natural progression to maturity that you seem to believe was part of her generation but not yours.  It may, though it shouldn't, surprise you that it wasn't unheard of for young people of our(your mothers and mine) generation, to not be into the Beatles, Stones and especially Hendrix.  The people who were buying the music and going to the concerts were into them, but they were(are) a small fraction of the population as a whole.  I think you are using your own life and experience as a template, and conversely projecting a specific template on the whole of your mothers generation.


You know what? Even though I disagree with you, I think you actually make some good points, and I admit I never thought about it that way before.

Maybe I worded it wrong, 'cause you can never totally say everyone did a certain thing. However you've gotta admit, it was far more common for teens to be exclusively into that stuff back then (according to people I've asked, and what I know about that time). Whereas now it depends more on the individuals. Like Sonikuu said, because of there being more sources for information and pop culture to choose from, you'll see far more retro kids and teenagers than you probably would before.


Oh I never rebelled against my parents or anything, and I should say my mom has always been very youngish for her age. Which is probably why it just seemed a little humorous to her (not in a bad way) when I would lament that cassettes or some other kind of old school analog technology wasn't as popular in, say 1999. Because people and elements of the "80s world" were around my whole life, I was/am more bonded to it than they were.

I don't know about being 'less respected', but it's clear that retro is more 'in' than anytime in history. In the 70s, you were square if you listened to Sinatra or something, but then again some of the old blues artists or whatever were revered, as is the same now I guess. Now though it seems liking older stuff is definitely more accepted by your peer group - I remember even in the 90s you could be seriously mocked for liking 60s or 70s music.

Maybe not directly related, but there's a general thing I've noticed among adults when they talk about teens/very early adults. I don't even know what to call it...not "talking down" per se, but kind of overemphasizing their youth traits and making it sound like they're so much younger. Merely because they're looking at it only from their current age perspective. There's two perimiters to everything.

For instance, it makes me puke when someone acts like an 18 year old is still a little kid or stereotypes them as immature jerks who don't know anything.

How do I say this without being rude? I think there's a tendency to treat teens like they're essentially big, strong, deep voiced 9 year olds. Personally, I experieced alot of this about a decade ago, so I guess it still annoys me in a secondhand way when I see it happening to current teens. I've been there, so I'll never do it myself. Quite frankly, it just seems hypocritical.

Sure, from my current perspective 12 year olds seem pretty darn little and young to me, but I have to remind myself that when I was 7, I looked UP to them and thought of them as way older. Whether it was babysitters, or older siblings of kids I went to school with, I'll never forget what the other side felt like. I think it makes you humble when you can look at things in a progressive sense like that.