Nostalgia Isn’t “Back”…It Never Left
My Scene doll comeback, Joey & AJ tour, Stanley tumblers and 2014 Tumblr ❇️
Had some technical difficulties this week, but as the Degrassi theme song says, whatever it takes, I know I can make it through. This issue is pretty jam-packed, so I’ll let you get right to it.
In this issue:
🍒 This Week on Nicstalgia
🐰 That meme of 2014 Tumblr kids
🛍 Spice Girls stamps, My Scene dolls, Sephora children, Stanley cup moms
📲 Joey & AJ tour, Hollister dance party, American Apparel disco pants, 2016 makeup
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🍒 This Week on Nicstalgia
In this episode, I explain how “nostalgia” is often used as a misnomer for “nowstalgia” when marketing an old cultural object to a new consumer demographic. Drawing inspiration from my article, “Nostalgia vs. Nowstalgia, and Why Both Matter in 2022”, I dig into six key considerations of how both affect connection, communication, and commerce: regenerative revenue, trend zeitgeists, context collapse, retro subversion, compensatory consumption, and projection bias.
Get ready for a deep dive on the commodification – more specifically, the Etsyfication, Coachellafication, yassification, and tattooification – of licensed band t-shirts that capitalize off of existing, nowstalgic IP. Why does every youth culture fixture generation think they invented every style when it's really a recycled version of what came before? We’ll explore the context collapse of flannel shirts, The Cerulean Principle (inspired by the infamous The Devil Wears Prada monologue), and my personal favorite nowstalgic aesthetic: Groovival, a revival of 60s culture from the vantage point of the 90s.
You will learn about how isolated cultural objects, like an olive green utilitarian jacket, gain context through composition and can therefore be dated like a time capsule. Millennials’ fear of being cheugy exemplifies their resistance to The Chasm™ – when you become old enough to witness the completion of a standard 20-year trend cycle and are no longer considered the fixture generation of youth culture.
I explain how tie dye has been an enduring cultural symbol with different meanings over time, why hipsters annoy everyone, why Millennials are outraged by Gen Z reselling their 00s pink and black zebra print homecoming dresses, why I love nowstalgic content creators (shoutout to Merel, Nicole aka. Misss 2005, Sammiee, and Sarah), and why everyone for some reason thinks they can predict the future about what will “come back”. Even if a headline says the biggest trend for 2024 is nostalgia, it isn’t. That’s because nostalgia never goes out of style. Watch here.
🐰 Down The Rabbit Hole
2014 Tumblr resurgence has been trending on TikTok since 2020. I attribute this to Gen Z disenchantment, or what I like to call the fixture generation of youth culture’s nostalgia for the recent past. It’s like when you start growing up and realize you took everything for granted. I experienced this firsthand; I wrote on my Xanga, “I wish it was summer 2005. God I miss those times too much.” It was February 2007!!!!!!
12-15 year old kids in 2014 are currently 22-25 year old Gen Zers at the beginning of their career and young adulthood. They’re longing for their childhood, with technology but without the hyper-acceleration of trends, overstimulation of TikTok, and knowledge that – like every generation that came of age before them – they’re just another marketing demographic with spending power.
This meme came back into my consciousness because of someone comparing them to Boygenius and Timothée Chalamet on SNL. There’s a Reddit thread What ever happened to the alternative/indie/American Apparel tumblr British kids standing in front of that fence? and tbh, I’d really like to know.
I don’t have a definitive answer, but I did a little digging. Someone in this comments section said the kids were from Cologne, Germany. On Know Your Meme, the photo is called, “Iconic 2014 Tumblr Arctic Monkeys Concert Group Photo”. Okay, let’s see. In 2014, the Arctic Monkeys toured Bremen and Berlin in 2014. Nope. Not near Cologne. They toured Offenbach am Main, Berlin, and Düsseldorf in November 2013. Düsseldorf is only about a 40 min drive from Cologne! So I concluded that the kids went to the concert in November 2013, posted the photo, and it made its rounds in 2014. Actually I still have no idea when this image caught on, but it was fun to think about it now that Litas are apparently back.
🛍 Hit ‘Em Up Style
I’m very excited to add a section here about consumer behavior, because it’s my favorite topic! I did a lot of research about compensatory consumption and identity, narrative, and self-discrepancy theories for this week’s Nicstalgia episode. Wanted to not only wanted to dig into a current multi-generational consumer phenomenon (Stanley cup moms and their Sephora tween daughters) but also explore ways nostalgic AND nowstalgic products and their marketing campaigns. Fun!!!!
Was excited to see Spice Girls 30th anniversary stamps and postcards!!!!! I’m not going to buy any, but if I lived in the UK, I would be getting a pack and sending all my friends snail mail. Spice Girls have done a decent job at licensing IP over the years and creating slightly more unique and diversified merchandise offerings than a typical band’s online store.
My Scene dolls coming back in 2024, allegedly, according to this Reddit thread. I actually think this is very likely. Remember, Mattel only came out with My Scene because in the early 2000s, they needed an edge over Bratz. After 2023 being the year of ubiquitous Barbiecore, I could absolutely see Mattel responding to Barbie fatigue and choosing to focus on another girlie pop IP.
Sephora Is Being Compared To Claire’s. Should It Do Anything About It? Omg I had way too many thoughts about this article – I wrote them down in a complete rage!!!! Enjoy LOL:
• “Younger kids and tweens today are more interested in beauty than previous generations” No, they are absolutely not. Patriarchy is still our society’s structure, so there’s always been a preoccupation with aesthetic labor (women spending time and money and energy making themselves “young” and “beautiful”).
• “While tweens have a right to shop and buy things like anyone else” Omg wtf late capitalism is insane. Adults don’t even have financial literacy (influencer culture-fueled credit card debt wrecked Millennials, BNPL wrecked Gen Z) let alone children.
• There are no third spaces for anyone anymore, let alone tween-specific spaces or stores, so kids are being marketed to through the same distribution channels as their moms.
• “The type of tweens who are into prestige skincare (and makeup) are sophisticated for their age and likely dragging parents into the store as well.” 10 year olds aren’t sophisticated. Stop. That is why there are concerns about them being disrespectful to employees, trashing tester displays, etc. It’s literally grooming in every sense of the word.
• “We are more exposed to the world and therefore more mature” Only a kid would call a kid mature. Yes kids are exposed to more information, but it’s information that is usually biased, from within your own internet echo chamber, or just plain wrong. Misinformation is pervasive, rampant, and more accessible than ever.
• “Having a birthday party at Sephora would be a dream come true for this age demo” I cannot think of ANYTHING that will alienate an adult customer – who actually has money and spending power; remember, a child cannot spend or acquire money if it is not given to them by an adult – more than this. Why can’t kids have their birthday at McDonalds or a nail salon????
• “Psychologically, we all tend to want what we can’t have.” Okay I do agree with this.
• “[Gen Alpha] is the next generation of consumers who are poised to hold the greatest amount of spending power in history.” — This is just categorically false, and something you’re of course going to say about a burgeoning new consumer demographic.
• “We see an incredible opportunity to not just be a retailer, but a trusted guide in the world of skincare, imparting knowledge that transforms routines hand-picked for a younger generation that encourages self-care that is both safe and fun.” Now this I agree with!!!!
• For Gen Alpha, they need to focus on care for others less than self care. Remember though – they’re Millennials’ kids. Millennials are a notoriously insecure generation (thanks Boomers lol)…how do you *think* their iPad kids are gonna turn out???
TikToks have been saying that Stanley cup moms are the ones whose tween daughters wear Drunk Elephant skincare. Basically, moms are acting like these gigantic water bottles are Cabbage Patch Kids in the 80s or Tickle Me Elmo in the 90s, and kids are getting skincare products that are the price of American Girl dolls. Stop the madness!!!! Garbage Day did an explainer about Stanley craze that’s very in-depth, so I’m going to default to that, but I was also intrigued by this TikTok (below) about the connection between these Stanley cups and Utah ‘sodie’ culture due to Mormons’ abstinence from caffeine and alcohol. I went to Salt Lake City a few years ago and had a lot of fun. (I’d never seen mountains like that in person!) So it was interesting learning about this culinary subculture; the closest thing to this I’d heard of is when people mix their fountain sodas at fast food restaurants. I personally detest soda and super sugary stuff – and actually like drinking water – but to each their own!
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📲 I’m Just a Simple Girl in a High-Tech Digital World
Current events:
• I love Lindsay Lohan so much. She looked amazing at the Mean Girls premiere this week.
• AJ from BSB and Joey from *NSYNC are going on tour together!!!!!! I need to interview them for the show when they’re in Connecticut!!!
• Jeremy Allen White’s Calvin Klein campaign broke the internet. People thought I had highly questionable taste for thinking he was hot, and look at them now!!!!!!! All I’m saying is I loved him first.
• Wrapping up the Saltburn discourse; an article came out with the 2006-2007 period piece discrepancies I mentioned last week.
My fav [nostalgic/nowstalgic] things from the internet rn:
How the 20 year trend cycle collapsed. “Why, when we can just revisit specific and vibrant and weird and nostalgic times, would we even make anything new?
Get ready to hear more about "pre-internet" times. This is exactly one of those articles I say that tries to act like nowstalgia – or as it says, “inchoate nostalgia” – is new. We get it, Gen Z and Alpha didn’t grow up with technology. But I had to have my parents explain to me what a fax machine did, what collect calls were, and how you would book an airline ticket back in “the olden days” – recently!
I’ve been doing my digital archiving project (more on that later) and you will not be surprised to learn that the first video I ever posted to Facebook is of this Hollister dance party from 2007. I am trying to figure out if I knew these people personally or which store they were from. The user’s other YouTube videos feature another HCo dance with the original Britney “Crazy” choreo (from Darrin’s Dance Grooves!) and cheerleading competition routines from a Rhode Island All Star team. I mean, if there’s anyone I would know, it would be the owner of this video LOL.
Was entertained by Air Mail’s Baby Boomers vs. Gen Z comparison. I’ve been thinking about generational theory a lot. People get soooooo worked up on the internet about generational identity politics, and it’s refreshing to see something simple.
Let us not forget about American Apparel Disco Pants.
WTF was going on with 2016 makeup? “…back when we watched YouTube to learn how to cut a crease for no reason other than the pure love of makeup, no longer exists outside the simulacrum of a TikTok filter.”
Roundup of headlines from this week’s Nicstalgia episode:
• Nostalgia vs. Nowstalgia, and Why Both Matter in 2022 (Cannot believe I already wrote this 2 years ago! Still apparently topical!)
• Clothes From the 2000s Are Vintage Now. For Some Shoppers, That’s Scary
• From Tumblrcore to 2014core, the nostalgia loop is getting smaller and faster
• Some Gen Zers are nostalgic for an era of clubbing they didn’t get to experience
• Millennial nostalgia sells. Just ask these influencers making their livings off it.
• Stuck in 2020, pretending it’s 2014
• Relentless Nostalgia Is Numbing Our Brains
• Teens Are Nostalgic For 2015 And They're Making Instagram Memes About It
• The Comforts of Nostalgia
• Why Gen X Isn’t Psyched for the ’90s Revival
• Hindsight is 2022: The Psychology Behind Our Cultural Nostalgia
• What 2020s trends will people be nostalgic about in 20 years?
💿 And We Danced All Night to the Best Song Ever
“Pieces of Me” and “On The Way Down” are the songs of the week!!!! Mind you, they both turn TWENTY this year omg. In alignment with this week’s Nicstalgia episode, Ashlee can be seen wearing a nowstalgic Led Zeppelin t-shirt while she works out with her personal trainer in the “Pieces of Me” video and a nowstalgia Marshall Tucker Band t-shirt in the “On The Way Down” video while she takes a break from closing the music venue bar she works at to mack it with her bf.
🧨 Spice Up Your Life
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Loved your recent podcast episode! Now that I think about it, the thing I love about MCR is nowstalgia. I loved them and listened to them religiously in the mid-00s, but dropped off from the fandom once I was in high school. I didn't start listening to them again so intensely until 2018!