Will 2016 be remembered as the Year of GenX Nostalgia?
I know that technically Star Wars was released in last few weeks of 2015, but with its modern retelling of a beloved story, it kicked off a massive year of Generation X nostalgia.
One of the most popular new TV shows of 2016 was Stranger Things, a call back to 80’s classics like Aliens, The Goonies and ET.
The fastest growing mobile game of all time was released this year — Pokemon Go — smashing all records by being popular with both kids today and those who were kids when the series launched in the mid 90s.
The top selling books of the year are a Harry Potter theatrical script and “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” by Dr. Seuss (released in 1990). Apparently the latter is a very popular college graduation gift.
I’m not very up-to-speed on fashion trends — but I’m told the 90s are in resurgence there too, with the choker necklace leading the way.
Music seems to be the only sphere not currently riding this wave. The Best of Bowie is currently the 5th best selling album of the year, but I won’t count that as nostalgic.
The bestsellers have all been ideas that were popular with Generation X when they were kids, and now re-packaged and re-sold to them as adults.
And the trend looks set to continue.
In gaming, Nintendo is about to re-release its 1985 console the “NES” with 30 classic games, like the original Mario and Donkey Kong. I think this might be the surprise best-selling gift of Christmas.
In cinema, there’s a new Power Rangers movie (original:1993) and a Beauty and the Beast remake (1991) which will both be out next March. The Troll Dolls were a huge craze in the early 90s and the subject of Dreamwork’s big Christmas movie “Trolls”. All of these seem aimed at folks who were kids in the early 90s, rather than kids today.
What I don’t know is what’s driving this. Is it escapism? Is this something that happens every decade or so that I’m only picking up on now because it’s my generation? Is it because those kids are now the executives in Hollywood?
Surely a mixture of all of the above, which will continue for a while until we get overrun by terrible reboots trying to cash in on the wave, and so it will become a tired fad and we’ll all collectively move on to the next thing by 2018. Pop culture is fun.
