I was just listening to this a minute ago and it really reminds me of some of the old school people today (not just on this board) in general who prefer that over what's current, and are proud of it. It seems to be from the perspective of this guy who despises disco and everything else going on in music in 1978, preferring to stick with the classics (the '50s and pieces of the '60s), even if it alienates him from his friends and people think he's weird.

P.S. I think the Disco era was the first time where pop music was different enough from the real oldies, for people to start saying things like this. It also was the first time when it was really common to see older artists updating their sound to "keep up with the times".

Yep.

I think people like Billy Joel and John Lennon also started doing nostalgic songs like that, possibly a tad bit later than Bob Seger's "Old Time..."

I can't help it-every time I hear that song I picture Tom Cruise dancing around in his underwear.



Cat

Well, the 1970s in general were the first really nostalgic era.  There was tons of 50s nostalgia in the 1970s with stuff like Grease and Happy Days being extremely popular.  Heck, this nostalgia even carried over into the 80s with stuff like Back to the Future and the band Stray Cats ("Rock This Town").  60s nostalgia didn't really seem to kick in until the second half of the 80s when the Beach Boys and Grateful Dead had chart hits again.

It makes sense for the 70s to be the beginning of pop culture nostalgia.  It was pretty hard to be nostalgic for the 30s and 40s because they consisted of the Great Depression and World War II, the 20s were ancient history by the 50s (no tv, silent films, etc.), and nostalgia for the 1950s couldn't happen in the 60s due to it being too recent.

I was just listening to this a minute ago and it really reminds me of some of the old school people today (not just on this board) in general who prefer that over what's current, and are proud of it. It seems to be from the perspective of this guy who despises disco and everything else going on in music in 1978, preferring to stick with the classics (the '50s and pieces of the '60s), even if it alienates him from his friends and people think he's weird.

P.S. I think the Disco era was the first time where pop music was different enough from the real oldies, for people to start saying things like this. It also was the first time when it was really common to see older artists updating their sound to "keep up with the times".


Good observations.  The song itself wasn't a huge hit in 79, but it's popularity resurged with the Risky Business movie.  Its sentiment was a fairly new in 79, at least in terms of pop culture.  Although nostalgia music was already in full swing by then, it was regarded an "alternative" more often than a "preference" to current music, until expressed in this song.  The song's timing coincided with the Disco backlash sentiment that crested around that time.

Well, the 1970s in general were the first really nostalgic era.  There was tons of 50s nostalgia in the 1970s with stuff like Grease and Happy Days being extremely popular.  Heck, this nostalgia even carried over into the 80s with stuff like Back to the Future and the band Stray Cats ("Rock This Town").  60s nostalgia didn't really seem to kick in until the second half of the 80s when the Beach Boys and Grateful Dead had chart hits again.

It makes sense for the 70s to be the beginning of pop culture nostalgia.  It was pretty hard to be nostalgic for the 30s and 40s because they consisted of the Great Depression and World War II, the 20s were ancient history by the 50s (no tv, silent films, etc.), and nostalgia for the 1950s couldn't happen in the 60s due to it being too recent.



Good observations.  The song itself wasn't a huge hit in 79, but it's popularity resurged with the Risky Business movie.  Its sentiment was a fairly new in 79, at least in terms of pop culture.  Although nostalgia music was already in full swing by then, it was regarded an "alternative" more often than a "preference" to current music, until expressed in this song.  The song's timing coincided with the Disco backlash sentiment that crested around that time.


Good points. I agree that nostalgia for pop culture in general started in the early 1970s, since that's the first time a "cool" era became old enough. I don't think people looked back on earlier times with that kind of fondness because life in general was rougher and it wasn't really something people wanted to revisit. Even the limited pop culture that did exist was completely outmoded by the time the rock era began around 1955.

Yeah, the '80s seemed to share '50s and '60s nostalgia pretty equally, moving as the decade progressed. When The Wonder Years came out, I think that was a sign that Sixties retroness was in full swing.


I also agree that it was more of an occasional choice for people to be nostalgic and prefer "the past" over what was current before the late 1990s. I wonder if Seger's title character in the song ripping on disco reflected the beginning of a public backlash?

I can't help it-every time I hear that song I picture Tom Cruise dancing around in his underwear.



Cat


The song actually re-charted in the US due to it's use in that scene lol

I can't help it-every time I hear that song I picture Tom Cruise dancing around in his underwear.



Cat


Seger's publisher probably called one morning and said, "Hey, they wanna use 'Old Time Rock 'n' Roll' in a movie, you could make a few more bucks off it...Oh, it's some crummy teen flick no one's gonna remember."

D'oh!

Marty's right though.  The disco craze was the first time in 20 years that rock 'n' roll had competition for its core audience.  However, there was significant backlash against it from rock fans and critics alike. Even in 1978 the consensus was disco wouldn't have much staying power.  Yes and no.  Disco influenced the sound of new wave, rap, and modern rock.  The electronic disco sound Giorgio Moroder developed was proto-techno/electronica.  The white polyester suits and the permanent wave were kitsch by 1982, but the influence of disco stays with us to this day. 

It's kind of funny the way Seger was singing about "old-time rock 'n' roll" like some geezer pining for Glenn Miller or Vaudeville when Bob was 33 years old and "old time rock 'n' roll" was barely old enough to drink!
:D