[h8kurdt]

Is it something you have a lot of? If so, what period in your life is it you're nostalgic for? And if you don't ever feel nostalgic why not?

I only ask because at the moment I've been getting it a lot recently and tbh, I hate it. It's mainly for the clichéd age of 15-17 when the discovery of new music was this incredible journey, I was watching films that consistently blew me away. This is before cynicism kicked and was instantly in the side of "this will be shit" rather actually giving things a try. That mindset is one that took me a LONG time to get out of. Oh, and playstation was a massive thing. Jesus, I was hammering that computer at that age.
And yet I know there was a lot in that I period I wasn't happy about at all. So why am I consistently looking back on it like it was sunny all the time and things was just perfect? Guess that's what nostalgia is, right?

Also, I think it can't be understated the massive difference from before 9/11 to post 9/11. That moment is one of the defining moments where seemingly everything changed.

[h8kurdt]

Bloody bag of shite site glitchin'

[h8kurdt]

Bloody bag of shite site glitchin'

[Antagon]

I'd say I'm a fairly nostalgic person. Though not in an unchecked way. I think it's important to view it with a critical eye. Unfiltered nostalgia is actually quite dangerous. See certain people that tend to glorify the "olden days" without thinking about social and political circumstances they entailed and the people for whom they may have not been so wonderful. Or condemning everything that is new right out of the gate, because it doesn't conform with their very particular expectations.


That preamble out of the way: Yeah. I mean, it's 2021 and most of the things I used to do and enjoy in the public have come to a screeching halt. Nostalgia is kicking in hard right now. But even before that, I think my sense of aesthetics was informed pretty early on in my life. Images, movies, etc... film was still pretty ubiquitous when I was in my teens. Something to the saturation and grain of film that is somewhat lost in digital media. I frequently shoot film these days and even when I edit pictures I have shot on my DSLR, I catch myself editing them in a way (mostly saturation-related) that is distinctly "film-like". Hell, before Covid I used to host a 90s-themed Alternative Rock event series. It was mostly born out of bands like the Youf, Helium, MBV etc. having had a huge impact on the evolution of my listening habits. Also because I was fed up that "90s party" is almost exclusively equated with Eurodance, Bad-Taste events and the likes here in Austria. I wanted to counter that with something more Shoegaze/Trip-Hop/Grunge-oriented that didn't always go for the most obvious song choices. And plenty of MTV's "Downtown" and "Daria" clips, because that's really just kind of part of the aesthetic. A friend of mine even did create some psychedelic visuals to go with it - he's big into the 60s and 70s, which fit perfectly, because the 90s were big into the 60s and 70s. And my more Goth-oriented main event-series is super heavy on the late 70s and 80s, with mostly 8mm and 16mm + vintage kooky and spooky visuals from all across the 20th Century.



So, to conclude - I think I'm heavily nostalgic on an aesthetic level. Whenever it comes to reminiscing about "back then", I remain vigilant though. I guess it's like you said - looking back at a time when the world was approached with less cynicism, or, less weariness. I wouldn't wanna trade all the realizations I've made over the years though. There may be less levity now and way more fuzziness/greyness, but that's just life. Nostalgia in the end is what it is - looking back at a specific and deeply personal time that can and should not be replicated the same way. But it has lain a foundation for the person you've become. And there ain't nothing wrong with looking back at that.

[Antagon]

^
Also, I wanna note that nostalgia being quite so ubiquitous in the popular conscious right now is in no small part driven by very contemporary machinations. Case in point: As I type this, there is a round-the-clock Vaporwave Stream with vintage visuals running in the background as I'm currently taking a few minutes off from my research for my master thesis. It's also never been easier to learn about cool music that might've slipped under your radar many years ago, or was before your time and quite obscure.

[Diesel]

9/11 at the time was just a very realistic movie on tv and simply provided countless hours of searching-for-Bin Laden stoner friendly news coverage for years.

And that windows 95/98 vapourwave scene is a load of bollocks. I was around at that time and the aesthetic of computer folders and exe files was fucking shit mate. Who wants to see that shit again? A bunch of dumb young hipster sampling plagiaristic cunts thats who. That is all, 4am, fucked, ta'ra.

[Antagon]

Originally Posted by Diesel

4am, fucked.

You don't say!?

[Skuj]

This morning I did a lovely walk, thinking about life, and the women I have known.

On the walk, a lady who I lived with in the 90s showed up. We had a brief chat.

I'm not attracted to her anymore. It seems that I'm only attracted to 30-somethings now. I'm 59. Is the red sports car next?

Why didn't any of the women in my life realize that I was perfect?

I think I'll post this twice.

[Skuj]

This morning I did a lovely walk, thinking about life, and the women I have known.

On the walk, a lady who I lived with in the 90s showed up. We had a brief chat.

I'm not attracted to her anymore. It seems that I'm only attracted to 30-somethings now. I'm 59. Is the red sports car next?

Why didn't any of the women in my life realize that I was perfect?

I think I'll post this twice.

[Rob Instigator]

an open mind and a willingness to be surprised and experience joy and awe are required to enjoy anything, and it is up to keep our receivers (minds) clean and ready to receive new shit.

[Antagon]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

an open mind and a willingness to be surprised and experience joy and awe are required to enjoy anything, and it is up to keep our receivers (minds) clean and ready to receive new shit.

This, as well.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Rob Instigator again.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by Antagon

You don't say!?

For clarity this was not directed at you, more so the Vapourwave wank-smith 'artists' themselves who essentially take someone else's track, slow it down and add reverb. Job done. Bollocks.

That's not to say the genre does not have it's place: as used expertly in Dan Bells' youtube Dead Mall series. There is no better genre to better express 80/90's desperate materialistic over indulgence and cringe. Therefore when this music is used as the soundtrack to a man walking around a deserted and spacious failed relic of a mall it is perfect because the visuals mirror the shallowness of the music and capture failed capitalism. Ideal for the zoned out drug/alcohol inclined. Or Dawn of the Dead fanatics and/or weird cunts like me. But as a serious genre, feking avin' a laugh pal.

SURFING's Deep Fantasy LP was considered classic and aye it's catchy enough yet at the same time capable of leaving the listener with a sense of plagiaristic emptiness. Listening to their new one and they've made a big deal of ditching the samples and with it in turn seemingly ditched any character the biting may have brought. Underneath the samples they are just shite musicians.

[Antagon]

Originally Posted by Diesel

That's not to say the genre does not have it's place: as used expertly in Dan Bells' youtube Dead Mall series. There is no better genre to better express 80/90's desperate materialistic over indulgence and cringe. Therefore when this music is used as the soundtrack to a man walking around a deserted and spacious failed relic of a mall it is perfect because the visuals mirror the shallowness of the music and capture failed capitalism. Ideal for the zoned out drug/alcohol inclined. Or Dawn of the Dead fanatics and/or weird cunts like me. But as a serious genre, feking avin' a laugh pal.

Also for clarity's sake: A lot of that is kind of the reason why I enjoy it. I have a strange infatuation with abandoned/defunct places. Used to do a few urbex trips many years ago and I've created some sort of soft spot for dead-malling (though mostly vicariously, as there aren't that many super-dead malls around here). Something cathartic to seeing the odd quiet and solitude after a temple of commercialism has failed. I thought it was generally accepted that's what the whole vapor thing was about (However, looking at some of the comments in chat sections, I feel like some are missing the point). There's a certain kitschy-ness to it too.

And I'm with on you on the fact that some artists don't bother to do much beyond using a sample and changing the pitch. However, there are projects that have moved way past that. Windows96, as far as I can tell is producing his own stuff and it's pretty sweet, 2184 released a sweet futuristic original album that just oozes atmosphere and death's dynamic shroud have their own approach - sometimes using several samples at once to create something new - not unlike some instrumental Hip Hop producers like DJ Shadow did back in the day. Also, you can even use one sample creatively sometimes - I mean, taking the Gumby-theme and making it positively terrifying does take some talent.

In my original post, I was kind of trying to point out the irony of rather recent developments heavily favoring an overabundance of nostalgia. I agree with a lot what you said. A lot of the "genre"'s merits do tap into those post-modern sensibilities of scewering old properties. As of late, I've really learned to appreciate it though, as it kind of fits perfectly into this somewhat nightmarish society during the pandemic. I don't know, maybe I just have a weird doomy sense of romanticism, or maybe I'm just unapologetic about enjoying wonderful trash (I mean, it is already by definition) every now and then. Anyway, I think that certain artists have elevated it above just a tired gimmick over time, by putting their own spin on it. Though I do understand that criticism and in many cases will certainly agree.

[The Soup Nazi]

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

[Kuhb]

If you've got a spare 45 mins, Mark Fisher was great at articulating and describing the pervasiveness of nostalgia in the 21st Century.

He builds on Jacques Derrida's idea of 'hauntology' to describe how today we are haunted by the lost utopian future of what we imagined the 21st century to be like. We escape into nostalgia as we realise that the promises of what the 21st century might be like (The Jetsons etc) were never delivered.

https://youtu.be/aCgkLICTskQ

[!@#$%!]

loss of the jetsons, first world problem!

[Kuhb]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

loss of the jetsons, first world problem!

To be fair, nostalgia and malaise are possibly the most 'first world problems' of problems

[Kuhb]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

loss of the jetsons, first world problem!

To be fair, nostalgia and malaise are possibly the most 'first world problems' of problems

[The Soup Nazi]

I'm not gonna go down this particular rabbit hole tonight, but I need to say: please, enough with the '80s shit already. Please. Take a look at Angel Olsen's new EP and its tracklist:

 

01 - Gloria [Laura Branigan; originally an even worse song by some Italian dipshit]
02 - Eyes Without A Face [Billy Idol]
03 - Safety Dance [Men Without Hats]
04 - If You Leave [OMD]
05 - Forever Young [Alphaville]

PLEASE.

[_tunic_]

Test