They’re both nostalgic, and nostalgia is zeitgeisty right now. People in their 20s and 30s are the driving force behind this particular wave of nostalgia. We were the first generation to have computers in large numbers and grew up with the message of new everything. Technology is improving so quickly that several generations of “new” stuff have come out and become obsolete in our lifetimes.
My elementary school had 8-bit Apple computers, which seemed laughable as soon as Windows 95 came out. We had one machine with Windows 95 shared by the whole family, and my sister and I crowded around it to play computer games on CD-rom. A few years later laptops came out, and now every family member (except me) has a smartphone. We grew up with pop culture milestones like Y2K and The Matrix, which are very much about a brave new world of technology. Fifteen years later, all that stuff seems quaint and just… lame.
(I think Inception is the Matrix of this decade. The aesthetic of the Matrix was very much about coolness and especially the coolness of technology. You’ve got hackers, stoic badasses in sunglasses, goth/industrial clubs, downloading knowledge directly into brains, etc. It looks like it takes place in the future, even though “inside” the matrix is everyday life in 1999. Technology is a major part of the movies and kind of what they’re all about. The aesthetics of Inception are totally different. There are some clean, modern buildings and crisp suits, but a lot of the scenes have a dusty, shopworn feel to them. The scenes are shot in mostly clear, everyday sunlight. When technology shows up, it’s just a tool. It’s sci-fi, but no longer futuristic. Come to think of it, when is the last time we’ve seen a brand new, imaginative sci-fi epic sweep the nation? Star Wars is a throwback and there have been a rash of dystopian young adult movies like the Hunger Games and Divergent. It’s a pessimistic view of the future.)
I think the idea of newness being cool just grew stale with my generation. We’re the first cohort that grew up with new things becoming old and obsolete so quickly. Stuff that was hyped as the big new technology thing when we were young now seems unimaginably quaint and corny. The video I linked also makes a brief mention of people turning their backs on corporations, and I think the idea of the Next Big Thing is inextricably commercial. So we’re turning to nostalgic things like beards, bacon, folk music, handmade everything, and zombies in a search for meaning, and also I guess in a search for novelty.
