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No sooner have we recovered from melomaniacs\u2019 rekindled excitement over bands like the Lumineers<\/u><\/a> and other \u201cstomp, clap, hey\u201d indie rock music of the late 2000s and early aughts than society must ready its takes on another pop culture staple from that era.<\/p>\n This one too is about brooding men with an inner glow.<\/p>\n Lionsgate is rereleasing<\/u><\/a> its blockbuster \u201cTwilight\u201d movie series, which ran from 2008 to 2012, in theaters beginning Oct. 29.<\/p>\n Nostalgia has a way of coming for us all. But have we ever been this interested in information from such a recent past? Can we only reflect upon periods that show up in history books and not in Facebook timelines?<\/p>\n In a 1989 piece for South Atlantic Quarterly<\/u><\/a>, literary theorist Fredric Jameson used the term \u201cnostalgia mode\u201d to reference the way boomers and Gen Xers then viewed the 1960s through rose-colored teashades. Now Rodrigo Mu\u00f1oz-Gonz\u00e1lez, a professor at the University of Costa Rica who adapted his PhD thesis into the book \u201cYoung People, Media, and Nostalgia,\u201d uses the term \u201cnostalgia economy\u201d to describe how corporations have monetized that feeling.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> Think life just keeps getting worse? Try being nostalgic \u2014 for the present<\/a><\/p>\n In a world of decreasing attention spans and increased pressure to make your project stick, of course this year would see a hyperanalyzation of the \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d reunion live reading in New York and how alt rockers the Goo Goo Dolls managed to have the song of summer 2025<\/u><\/a> with a \u201890s hit.<\/p>\n \u201cNostalgia is almost a guarantee that you will have success in some markets,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz-Gonz\u00e1lez says during a recent Zoom interview. Plus, he says, \u201cHard times, in economic terms, are triggers. It all stems from an unsatisfactory present.\u201d<\/p>\n This can help explain why AMC Theatres was so keen to get back into the water with \u201cJaws\u201d<\/u><\/a> 50th anniversary screenings and why Disney was eager for \u201cFreaky Friday\u201d stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan to reteam for a sequel<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n It also gives a second life to projects that weren\u2019t as noticed the first time around, or have since found a younger audience through streaming and social media.<\/p>\n One of the best examples of all of this involves the TV series \u201cCrazy Ex-Girlfriend.\u201d The comedy premiered in 2015 on the CW and is about a character so desperate to feel happy that she romanticizes a relationship she had as a teenager at summer camp. Its original songs frequently paid homage to music from the late 20th century or musicals from that era like \u201cLes Mis\u00e9rables.\u201d The show was a beloved underdog for most of its run but its frank stories and songs about the sheer exhaustion of adulting resonated with a new fan base who discovered it on streaming services during and after the pandemic.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> Retro movies are hitting big at the box office. Why cinephiles and theaters are going back in time<\/a><\/p>\n The cast recently reconnected for a short tour of what they called the show\u2019s 10(ish) Year Reunion Concert, meaning a show about nostalgia benefited from the nostalgia economy. The tour culminated in a sold-out concert at the Wiltern on Oct. 17 that was live-streamed on the platform Veeps.<\/p>\n Rachel Bloom, the star and co-creator of the series, thinks part of her show\u2019s appeal is that \u201cmusical theater is, inherently, escapist\u201d and that there\u2019s a reason \u201cwhy we listen to music when we\u2019re walking down the street and picture that we’re the star of our own movie.\u201d<\/p>\n Plus, while the show tackled topical issues like abortion rights and mental health, the storylines are general enough that they don\u2019t feel dated. As someone who finds herself romanticizing the \u201890s even though they were a hard time in her childhood, Bloom knows why younger audiences connect to her show and the era it was made.<\/p>\n \u201cI think they understand there’s a destabilizing effect with all of the stimulation that’s coming in,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n But this isn\u2019t just seen in movies and TV.<\/p>\n Mu\u00f1oz-Gonz\u00e1lez says we have never before had access to so much information and imagery from the past as we now do. When it comes to reflection, he says, \u201cThe time span has become shorter.\u201d<\/p>\n Mu\u00f1oz-Gonz\u00e1lez cites Gen Z\u2019s fixation on Obama\u2019s presidency<\/u><\/a>, especially if they\u2019re old enough to remember its relative economic stability. Time has also been kind to Obama\u2019s predecessor, George W. Bush, who left office with a 34%<\/u><\/a> approval rating but who younger voters now see as more sympathetic to immigration<\/u><\/a> than the current administration, despite his own policies that were tough on illegal immigration.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> \u2018Crazy Ex-Girlfriend\u2019 finale: The co-creators on ending Rebecca\u2019s story<\/a><\/p>\n Online, Gen Z makes up more than half of the users on millennials\u2019 former favorite microblogging site Tumblr<\/u><\/a> while Pinterest\u2019s summer 2025 trend report included an uptick in searches for \u201csummer 2015 aesthetic.\u201d<\/u><\/a> When asked if this was an anomaly, a spokesperson for the digital pinboard site said similar terms were still \u201csurging\u201d with Gen Z users; among them “2015 aesthetic tumblr” (up 530% compared with October of last year), \u201c2019 outfits\u201d (up 55%) and \u201c2018 outfits\u201d (70%).<\/p>\n Ethan Gibson, the director of communications in North America for auto auctioneer RM Sotheby\u2019s, says, \u201cNostalgia is one of the biggest drivers of collectible cars, when you take these specs and rarity out of it.\u201d But he says there’s a difference between a vintage car and a classic car: Vintage cars are roughly 25 years old. Classic cars are unique. And while middle-aged collectors are interested in cars that came out during their childhood, he’s seen a resurgence of car culture in younger generations who come to events just to see a more recent one-of-a-kind item that wasn\u2019t mass-produced.<\/p>\n Allyson Rees, a senior strategist for the consumer insight team at trend forecasting company WGSN, suspects the word \u201cnostalgia\u201d is in every one of WGSN\u2019s reports right now. It\u2019s for the reasons we expect: financial uncertainty, doomscrolling, general malaise. She says acronyms like FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and JOLO (Joy of Logging Off) have been usurped by FOFO (Fear of Finding Out), as in the anxiety we feel every time we get a push notification about a potential problem or crisis.<\/p>\n Rees says the pandemic did make us nostalgic, but it\u2019s also continued as digital platforms like TikTok have become social gathering places for an increasingly isolated world. Plus, a focus on green consumerism with recycled fashion sites like ThredUp and Depop means it doesn\u2019t take much for trends to cycle back in vogue.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> How do Penn and Teller, who ‘hate nostalgia,’ keep their comedy and magic show fresh after 50 years?<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cPeople really come to things when they come to them 1761647831, so the nostalgia is very much having to do with a time where people knew what everybody else was talking about,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s so fragmented now and there’s that emotional side of things; of wanting to turn inward and be comforted.\u201d<\/p>\n Because nostalgia isn\u2019t simply about yearning for the past. It\u2019s about how the past makes you feel<\/i>. John Koenig has run his website the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a lexicon of words made up to express emotions, since 2009 (a book version was published in 2021). One of his earlier entries is anemoia<\/u><\/a>: \u201cnostalgia for a time you never experienced.\u201d Conservative movements like trad wives (women who desire traditional gender roles) and President Trump\u2019s Make America Great Again slogan are meant to provoke a longing for a specific, sanitized version of a period in history. Teens who covet a world just before the explosion of smartphones are doing the same thing.<\/p>\n \u201cBack in the Middle Ages, everyone had a script and meaning was external and everyone was in these tight little beehives where nobody can move and you knew exactly what to say at any given moment and what to believe,\u201d Koenig says. \u201cAnd now we\u2019re these self-authoring agents. We have freedom. And freedom, it turns out, is really stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if he thinks there might be an upside to this \u2014 whether using the internet to look into the recent past will also teach us about the lived experiences of people in other parts of the world \u2014 Mu\u00f1oz-Gonz\u00e1lez smiles and says this was what early internet adopters thought would happen in the 1980s and \u201890s. He also says the media will continue to push nostalgia as long as it continues to be profitable.<\/p>\n \u201cI always talk about this concept I call the right to the present,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I think this is something really important for young people, especially in the sense that they are entitled to enjoy their present.\u201d<\/p>\n