Nostalgia Is Ruling Modern Day Entertainment
Have you been to the movies recently? Or watched a popular TV show, only to notice a piece of your childhood appeared on screen? Seeing this particular item, or hearing a particular song, brought along a feeling of homesickness or longing for the days long ago… But, what is that feeling called??
This feeling is called nostalgia, a bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past (Urban Dictionary) and it has been ruling the modern age of entertainment. Everything from television shows and Hollywood films have been banking on this feeling to get audiences into the theatre. It is amazing to see a piece of your childhood reappearing on screen again, but also introducing a new generation of viewers to the film or show. Using nostalgia to get a reaction from the audience is an excellent way to persuade people to head to their sofa or to the cinema to rewatch a piece of their past return to the modern age.
Doing research on this topic made me realize that companies are banking on the idea of nostalgia. Disney buying the Star Wars franchise in 2012, which is considered a bargain due to the success of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. There is magic behind bringing this feeling out of an audience; they give the end of a franchise a long time period of silence before bringing it back to fruition, thereby allowing audience to bask in the sight of familiar characters, hints of storylines and music. Films like Star Wars, Star Trek and The Hobbit franchises were prime examples of bringing back the nostalgia of years past. Star Wars waited 10 years between the release of Revenge of the Sith (2005) and The Force Awakens (2015). Franchises like The Hobbit waited over 12 years between Return of the King (2003) and An Unexpected Journey (2012).
The main cause of the nostalgia craze was thanks to meta-modernism. This is a combination of modernism and post-modernism. Modernism was a rebellious movement that was born to break with traditional thinking patterns. Postmodernism is “mainly about irony: a feeling of distrust towards big stories that claim the truth, like religion, politics science and art. Artist Roy Liechtenstein’s take about his definition of art was “If I reproduce images used in comic books, can they become art? People were in shock. Something mainstream and consumable have never become a form of art! Because of those movements, its extra noticeable we aren’t breaking with subjects from the past, but embracing them instead” (Vertigo6).
I have been a personal victim of nostalgia, as it has affected me since I was very little. I have grown up around reboots of old television shows and films, and reboots seem to be constantly churned out by the entertainment industry. Films like Star Wars and The Hobbit gave me feelings of excitement and longing for the old days when I had seen those films for the very first time. I still get these feelings every now and again; especially this year, since the second Fantastic Beasts film is coming out this upcoming November, giving Potterheads (Harry Potter fans) a piece of the days when a new Potter film was coming out every year.
However, I have noticed these last couple of years that the entertainment industry is slowly running out of steam. They have churned out so many reboots over the last decade, that once all the good ones are made, they go back to other movies that haven’t been touched in decades. I do love that they are using nostalgia to make us excited to go to the movies again, but I am intrigued to see where this feeling of “nostalgia” takes us.
