It’s been here for a few years now

Society’s inherent infatuation with youth and its fear of aging will always resort in people celebrating or reliving the past in some form or fashion.

Celebrating / propping up the past (nostalgia) will always be a thing because we were all younger in the past and everything was always better in the past to most ppl

So yes OP it was always there

In 5 years, a bunch of parents are going to be teaching their kids how to "Crack Dat" on the song's 20th anniversary.

Just look at the gaming industry

It can't be an emergency product if it never goes anywhere.

You only see it more these days because social media allows you to more easily document and relive past moments and occurrences.

In general though, an affinity for the past has always been present, especially in entertainment.

In the 90's, niggas was saying the 80's was better for rap. These days, niggas say the 90's was the golden era for rap. These days, niggas s*** on Lil Baby and Smurk in favor of the older Drake/Cole/Kendrick early 2010's era.

In basketball, Wilt Chamberlain used to s*** on Shaq and the 90's era of basketball.

The affinity for the past has always been there.

I think it's because we as humans feel uneasy about uncertainty/the future and we also suck at living in the present moment so it's easier and feels better to look back on the past and have the comfort of already knowing how it played out. Forgetting that back then it was the same feeling lol

Yezzir

70s culture was a driving inspiration behind 90s mainstream and 90s counter-cultures alike

Yeah 100% lol

To your point, the funniest thing about nostalgia is how we as humans completely forget the negatives of the past. Nostalgia is almost always a good thing even though in real time it did not play out that way.

Fresh Prince was wearing 80's drip for like the first two seasons of the show

waiting for when we finally get nostalgic for the 2000's

I said “a” inspiration not “the”. 80s seeped into the 90s for sure but grunge, trip-hop, Brit-pop, R&B , industrial music and boom bap leaned heavy into 70s inspiration

Been happening for the past four years

Throw on some Evisu & make it happen 👀

any examples in music? I'm tired of the 80s throwbacks

Yeah this is always a thing. Every generation has a style they’re exposed to and probably connect with when they’re young and then when they’re in their late teens or 20s and these people become part of the work force and able to create these things and/or they have disposable income now so people cater to them again because they’re a money spending demographic. Nothing wrong with it really. Same reason stuff like Pokémon and comic book stories have popped again recently. All the kids who grew up with that as kids are now bringing these things back.

this is nothing new, things go in cycles with small changes

everything is built on the past, that's how innovation happens

music, fashion, it doesn't matter

first thing I thought

I'm not disagreeing. I was simply adding to your point. Fresh prince was in the 90's rocking s*** from decades before.

Will never wear baggy jeans and 4xl shirts again though

Not really an emergency button more so artists having fond memories of their childhood so they naturally draw inspiration and consumers buying into it for the same reason

Nostalgia is a tried and successful commodity. This is part of why even in a vacuum Kanye did amazing at the Hoover show (no knock to him by saying this) because people could associate memories with the music that make it more meaningful whereas drake did very recent songs that don’t have that aura yet.

It’s why concert merch, vinyl, etc are making comebacks. Documentaries as well.

Every generation ironically has intrigue for the past, as much as we all posit that our generation did it the best. I don’t mind reaching back to previous eras, as long as it’s done tastefully.

but is that different from how it ever was