Blasts From The Past: How Music Nostalgia is Always Around Us

Photography by Kenneth Cox

You can never truly escape music nostalgia. Most of us were likely raised on our parent’s music, ranging from The Beatles to Paul Simon to Nirvana. I never listened to much current music until I started seeking it out on my own. My preteen years were defined by Pandora radio stations, the original Spotify, and getting little glimpses of the top 40’s in the car until my dad changed the station to classic rock. I wrote down music I liked in a notebook so that I could look up the lyric video on YouTube, and slowly but surely, I started a collection of songs that were mine.

Now, thinking back on my first glimpse of what my music taste would eventually be like, I feel a certain sense of fondness towards that time period in my life. The music wasn’t particularly revolutionary, but it reminds me of being 12 years old, experiencing my first favorite songs. This was a time in our lives where we thought we could relate to the themes of love and heartbreak, even if we really couldn’t.

For Victoria D’Angelo, a senior at Emerson, the nostalgia towards the past was what inspired her to create her own radio show. Her show Middle School Dance Party allows the audience to submit their cringeworthy or hilarious middle school memories, matched with songs that Emerson students could have listened to when they were younger. “All of the songs we thought we had forgotten, along with the memories we made back then, are all coming back to us after ten years of growing and changing and becoming the person we imagined ourselves being back when we were 12-years-old.” D’Angelo created Middle School Dance Party as an ode to her friends and the memories they all formed around music. 

That’s the magic of nostalgia; it brings you back to a place you might not even remember until that first beat of “What Makes You Beautiful” hits, and suddenly you’re a preteen all over again. D’Angelo notes listening to music from your childhood can be a form of escapism from worrying about the future and growing up.

Nostalgia isn’t all about the good times, though. It’s also about longing. Fredricka King, a senior resident music professor at Emerson, noted that often times, music is what stands out the most for a person when they look back on those not so good memories. You might listen to that song that you played over and over again at 15 when your heart was broken for the first time--not to go back to that memory, but to remind yourself how much you’ve changed since then. 

King suggests people’s love of music from a distant past may also chalk up to wanting to relive their childhood and young adult lives. That’s why bands like New Kids On The Block still have such a large fanbase. It can be fun to listen to the music you used to dance around to as a teenager, and as D'Angelo mentioned, escape from your current life and responsibilities. 

Then why are 18 to 22-year-olds already longing for the past? Professor King predicts it could be due to the fact there’s simply more to cope with than ever before. Even though middle school was likely not the happiest time in anybody’s life, we were blissfully unaware of dooming presidential elections and a persistently depressing political and environmental climate.

We don’t have to be nostalgic only for music that came out in 2012, though. D’Angelo shared fond memories of listening to her mom’s music with her a few weeks ago, watching her mom transform into a younger self. D’Angelo was able to feel nostalgic with her in those moments- and despite the fact she had never been around for those original moments of Joni Mitchell vinyls, she was able to experience those feelings with her now. 

As I grow older, I too feel a fondness towards music my dad loves. Even if it annoyed me back then to listen to Meatloaf on repeat, I appreciate sharing that connection with him more than ever, especially since moving away for school. And even though I used to work on wanting a unique music taste that was all my own, I’ll slip a Pearl Jam song on my playlists every now and then just for him.

—

This piece appears in the October 2019 print issue of Your Magazine.