Nostalgic Tendencies

I wrote my Masters thesis on the Post Classical Hollywood Musical, so of course I had to look at the Classical Hollywood Musical (for those of you who are wondering, the Classical Hollywood Musical is a musical movie produced before the collapse of the Hollywood studio system in 1948). In this thesis I looked at how the new musical films are popular, partly through the fact that they create nostalgia for the past, in particular, the Classical Hollywood musical film such as High Society (1956) or An American in Paris (1951).

Before you tune out, I am not going to go on about these films here because this is not my point. My point is nostalgia. I think everyone carries around some nostalgia for their past to some degree and the post classical Hollywood is an example of how we use the past to create nostalgia. We remember back to when things were easy and the days endless. Some of us remember back to when we were children and how great everything was then. We remember the summers that seemed to go on forever, getting stuck up trees or down holes and generally coming home exhausted, covered in mud and declaring that we had the “best day ever!”.

Some of us think back to more recent times when everything was simple. Recently my ex boyfriend and I have got to talking online, it took me three years to get to the point that I could talk to him without wanting to inflict massive pain on him and for the first time since we broke up I do not harbour any ill will towards him. In fact, I now consider him to be one of my closest friends. The point is, we spend a lot of time reminiscing about the year that we spent together. It was not a perfect relationship and it was far from a perfect break up, yet we still talk to each other about it quite often.

Dictionary.com defines nostalgia as: “a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to one’s home or homeland, or to one’s family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days.” This appears to be exactly what my ex and I are doing, sharing a wistful desire to return to the relationship we were in several years ago. This could be because the relationship is something that we have in common, or, and I think this is the real reason, that we are nostalgic for an easier time. The relationship, as I have mentioned, was flawed, but it was an easier time, we were in college together, and a few years younger than we are now, and the pressure of acting like a responsible adult did not quite apply to us yet. We are remembering the relationship, but we are nostalgic for the younger versions of ourselves that have had to leave behind over the last few years.

Nostalgia is all around us. It can be created through almost anything, once it has associations with the past for us. The most common thing for me that gets me thinking about the past is music. There always seems to be a moment associated with songs that I love that is brought to mind every time I listen to them. This can be both a good and a bad thing. For example I cannot listen to Bell X1 without thinking of an ex boyfriend, and for that reason, I could not listen to them at all for a long time.

From my understanding of nostalgia, it makes sense to me that Wispa bars have been brought back to the market. There was there a massive internet campaign from customers to bring the Wispa back, which also involved protesters storming a stage at the Glastonbury festival. Not only are Wispa a great chocolate bar, but also because of the nostalgic memories associated with the bar. For me, Wispa bars remind me of when I was 8 and I finally got enough pocket money to buy one. For the same reason, I am a little confused as to why Pizza Hut are changing their name to Pasta Hut. According to an article in The Telegraph on October 6^th this is because they want to develop a healthier image, attract new customers and change the image of the chain to a more upmarket one. I can see why the chain wanted to develop a new menu to attract those customers who do not like pizza, but I think that changing the name of the restaurant is the opposite of nostalgia. In fact, the chain appears to want to destroy any image and fondness that the customer had of the chain. Kelloggs tried to rebrand Coco Pops as Choco Krispies in 1998, but after a drop in sales the name was changed back in 1999.

Perhaps Pizza Hut are trying to work against the image they believe the public has of the chain but in rebranding their restaurants they are getting rid of any wistful nostalgic memories that customers had of the chain. Perhaps this is an overstatement on my part, but as we can see with the revival of the musical film in recent years, the re-emergence of 1980s fashion and the return of the Wispa, we all engage in nostalgia and enjoy looking back on the good times in our past.