Did people in the 1970s think the 40s were ancient?

Yes, the 40's seemed ancient to us.  We youngsters sometimes reacted with curiosity when we saw certain 40's acts such as the Andrews Sisters on TV - perhaps we liked their style.  But to me, as a 1970's teen, the 40's represented my parents' childhood, not something I could relate to.  During the early 70's, people lived "in the now" (nostalgia just wasn't very prevalent).  Later in the 70's, though, the nostalgia boom kicked in, and we started romanticizing about all things 50's (60's nostalgia didn't kick in until the '80s).  I don't recall any kind of major 40's nostalgia boom, at any time.

We thought the 40s were ANCIENT. We didn't think a thing about them and basically avoided any references to them. Everything there existed in black and white. That is why I find it such an unusual phenomenon today that kids who are now the age I was in the 70s often show such in interest in the 60s, 70s, 80s, etc. Wearing T shirts with the Doors or Bob Marley and the like on them. Recently I saw someone maybe 19-ish coming out of a coffee shop in full punk regalia with leather jacket, spiked mohawk, etc and he carried himself like he thought he was the hippest thing on Earth. I saw people who looked exactly this way in 1976! The kinder part of me thought "that kid is cool, I guess". The lesser kind part of me thought "can't you find something new of your OWN to be into?". In the 70s, if we had dressed or listened to music from 40 years before (with the exception of folk and blues) we would have been laughed out of the universe. Most things from 40 years before did not seem relevant.

Even stuff as recent as the early 60s was considered corny.

Born in 1960 ... The 40's were pretty ancient (even though WWII had been only 15 years earlier).  Now the Vietnam War is further in the past than that. 

Yes, the 40's seemed ancient to us.  We youngsters sometimes reacted with curiosity when we saw certain 40's acts such as the Andrews Sisters on TV - perhaps we liked their style.  But to me, as a 1970's teen, the 40's represented my parents' childhood, not something I could relate to.  During the early 70's, people lived "in the now" (nostalgia just wasn't very prevalent).  Later in the 70's, though, the nostalgia boom kicked in, and we started romanticizing about all things 50's (60's nostalgia didn't kick in until the '80s).  I don't recall any kind of major 40's nostalgia boom, at any time.


There may have been a minor '40s nostalgia boom in music during the early 1970s, since that's when soft jazz-inspired ballads got sort of popular again, Perry Como made a chart comeback, and Bette Midler had a big hit covering "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". Other than that, I don't know if there was really much to reminisce about from the '40s in the first place.

There's more '40s nostalgia in the '10s, particularly from a certain group of people.  :-X

Jazz enthusiasts

There's more '40s nostalgia in the '10s, particularly from a certain group of people.  :-X

Jazz enthusiasts

Very old Jazz enthusiasts Who are now 75 and older. 

There may have been a minor '40s nostalgia boom in music during the early 1970s, since that's when soft jazz-inspired ballads got sort of popular again, Perry Como made a chart comeback, and Bette Midler had a big hit covering "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". Other than that, I don't know if there was really much to reminisce about from the '40s in the first place.


Anyone who was around when the war ended would have experienced the greatest high ever.  Imagine the relief and sheer joy ... mixed with the sorrow of the great loss of loved ones.

Anyone who was around when the war ended would have experienced the greatest high ever.  Imagine the relief and sheer joy ... mixed with the sorrow of the great loss of loved ones.


This was in marked contrast to the end of the Vietnam War in the 70s where there was really no such elation. More of a sense of exhaustion and a subsequent "malaise". (The mid-late 70s was sometimes referred to as "a time of malaise").  When the Vietnam War ended for real and for good in March, 1975 a "War Is Over Concert and Peace Rally" was held in Central Park in New York on May 11 1975 featuring Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, , Peter Yarrow, Paul Simon, Patti Smith (not yet as famous as she would become), Bella Abzug, Harry Belafonte, Ossie Davis, Tom Paxton, Odetta,Richie Havens and others. But it seemed a somewhat low key affair, even somber.

This was in marked contrast to the end of the Vietnam War in the 70s where there was really no such elation. More of a sense of exhaustion and a subsequent "malaise". (The mid-late 70s was sometimes referred to as "a time of malaise").  When the Vietnam War ended for real and for good in March, 1975 a "War Is Over Concert and Peace Rally" was held in Central Park in New York on May 11 1975 featuring Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, , Peter Yarrow, Paul Simon, Patti Smith (not yet as famous as she would become), Bella Abzug, Harry Belafonte, Ossie Davis, Tom Paxton, Odetta,Richie Havens and others. But it seemed a somewhat low key affair, even somber.


That's the big difference between World Wars and the smaller wars. Not everyone will be onboard for the smaller wars ... there is no real objective when you aren't prepared to cross the border and finish the job.  Far too political!  The World Wars had evryone onboard ...you were either fighting for good or evil. Basically, you can't argue against being in it. Even America, eventually had to join the European effort in WWI and joined WWII (in both Europe and The Pacific) after Pearl Harbour.  Japan and Germany were the common enemy of all free people.