But IS it "nostalgia" or is someone just calling it that? Is this (thing before your time) making you feel intense longing? On the other hand, if it's a feeling of being "left out" or "I wish I experienced that", or "things were so much cooler back then, I wish I wish I was alive then" it's not nostalgia. It's historical interest. And possibly a dissatisfaction with one's own time, but that is NOT the same thing as nostalgia.


I agree, what you're describing is not nostalgia, but I was talking about  a general sense of nostalgia being triggered by older media. To me, that is still nostalgia because you aren't nostalgic for the era itself, you're longing (subconsciously) for times you have experienced, due to universal themes like "childhood" or "memory" being evoked.

People confuse this for "nostalgia for before I was born" but the distinction is important.

I think people can totally be nostalgic for things that occurred before they were born. Case in point: When I was a kid growing up in the 1970's, my parents listened to an MOR/adult contemporary AM radio station that played pop songs from the 1950's to the 70's.

I especially liked the songs from the 1960's and even though they were made before I was born, they still bring back childhood memories of riding around with my mom and dad.

I think people can totally be nostalgic for things that occurred before they were born. Case in point: When I was a kid growing up in the 1970's, my parents listened to an MOR/adult contemporary AM radio station that played pop songs from the 1950's to the 70's.

I especially liked the songs from the 1960's and even though they were made before I was born, they still bring back childhood memories of riding around with my mom and dad.


The water is getting a bit muddy here. The 60s songs may have indeed been made before you were born, but, in your case,  the time when the songs were made (the 1960s) is not what you are being nostalgic for. You are being nostalgic for the time you HEARD them (which is different than the time they were actually made), because hearing them invokes your OWN childhood memories. See the difference?  :)

In this instance, I consider that "pseudonostalgia", in that you're actually reminiscing about something you experienced earlier in your own life, but in reality, doesn't quite paint the overall experience of the era. Its the intersection of nostalgia, historical interest, and fiction (many late Baby Boomers/early Gen Xers have this with the 1950s/early '60s, as do many Millennials/some Gen Zers with the 1980s since their parents passed on "their generation" to them). Thankfully, recent media about the 1950s/60s are starting to view those decades in a more authentic light than the Greases, Back to the Futures, Wonder Years (although that's coming back again), and Happy Days did. They're just second/third/etc. generation fans of that era.

But for the most part, if you suddenly listen to that classic song/movie or experience a historical re-enactment, that's just historical interest. We just saw this over the weekend in America with Gen Z/Alpha and 9/11, even though it's hardly a "Rose-tinted" event.

In this instance, I consider that "pseudonostalgia", in that you're actually reminiscing about something you experienced earlier in your own life, but in reality, doesn't quite paint the overall experience of the era. Its the intersection of nostalgia, historical interest, and fiction (many late Baby Boomers/early Gen Xers have this with the 1950s/early '60s, as do many Millennials/some Gen Zers with the 1980s since their parents passed on "their generation" to them). Thankfully, recent media about the 1950s/60s are starting to view those decades in a more authentic light than the Greases, Back to the Futures, Wonder Years (although that's coming back again), and Happy Days did. They're just second/third/etc. generation fans of that era.

But for the most part, if you suddenly listen to that classic song/movie or experience a historical re-enactment, that's just historical interest. We just saw this over the weekend in America with Gen Z/Alpha and 9/11, even though it's hardly a "Rose-tinted" event.


This is where the water gets muddy again. You are using the word "nostalgia" in the way is often see it used here, "the culture or pop culture of an era that is, in effect, available to anybody to feel 'nostalgic' about at any time, or at a scheduled time when it is 'trendy' to do so because it 'came back'". I would define THAT as the "pseudonostalgia" (a good term, by the way). There is no rule that says that what a person experiences as nostalgia that legitimately happened in their own lives HAS to be what was part of the zeitgeist of the era. The poster here who feels nostalgia for the 70s when he hears 60s songs, because the 70s is when he first heard them while riding in his parents car, was experiencing GENUINE nostalgia. It doesn't matter in the least that the 60s songs were not part of the 70s zeitgeist. Hearing 60s songs in the 70s was part of HIS LIFE at that specific time and is something that can evoke legitimate nostalgia.

...The poster here who feels nostalgia for the 70s when he hears 60s songs, because the 70s is when he first heard them while riding in his parents car, was experiencing GENUINE nostalgia. It doesn't matter in the least that the 60s songs were not part of the 70s zeitgeist. Hearing 60s songs in the 70s was part of HIS LIFE at that specific time and is something that can evoke legitimate nostalgia.


Interesting concept.  I'll use as example the song "I Wanna Meet You" by the Cryan' Shames.  It was a 1966 hit, but the first time I heard the song was on an oldies station in the mid-80s when I was a college student.  When I hear the song, it takes me back to my mid-80s college student days, not 1966.  I think this is what you're talking about.  So is this genuine nostalgia, or "pseudonostalgia"?

Interesting concept.  I'll use as example the song "I Wanna Meet You" by the Cryan' Shames.  It was a 1966 hit, but the first time I heard the song was on an oldies station in the mid-80s when I was a college student.  When I hear the song, it takes me back to my mid-80s college student days, not 1966.  I think this is what you're talking about.  So is this genuine nostalgia, or "pseudonostalgia"?


That's GENUINE nostalgia for sure. Hearing the song triggers nostalgia for the time, place and period when you heard it. Plain and simple. The song itself does NOT have to be of that time.

All this "picking and choosing" that goes on here, "when will nostalgia for 2011 be coming back so I can be into it", someone just "deciding" to be nostalgic is pseudonostalgia. Nostalgia comes unbidden. It must REMIND a person of something.

Well, if this doesn't just take the cake! Not only are some people "nostalgic" for time periods they never actually experienced, now we've got people who are NOSTALGIC FOR THE PRESENT. You read right. NOSTALGIC FOR THE PRESENT.

I was reading this article about Joni Mitchell, a musical favorite of mine and recent recipient of the Kennedy Center honors. The article was clearly written by a Millennial woman, and a Millennial woman of some financial means it would appear. But within the lengthy article, triggered by Mitchell's song "The Circle Game"  the writer makes this absurd statement:

But it wasn’t until I was working as a cleaner at a camp site in my early 20s that “Circle Game” fully sunk in. At the time, I was feeling as though I was in some kind of holding pattern, waiting for my “real” life to begin, because this one didn’t yet seem grand enough or match my soaring ambitions for adulthood. It was on an afternoon sweeping out empty cabins in anticipation of another round of young campers, singing to entertain myself, that I fully found solace in “Circle Game.” Sure, I already knew the lyrics from memory, but I’d never really reflected on them until then, each hitting like a new wave of realization. Wistful and hopeful at the same time, the lyrics struck a new chord and suddenly I was nostalgic for my present, so aware it was slipping by, but comforted by the line “there’ll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty.” By the time I hit the final chorus I was crying.

What?? Now people can even be "nostalgic for the present"?? It is now clear to me that the word "nostalgic" has been mangled out of all meaning. 


The article is here:

www.elle.com/culture/music/a38573556/joni-mitchell-essay-kennedy-center-honors/