Why nostalgia will always win
What does nostalgia mean for creatives and their creative practices?
I just came home from my trip to the cinema to watch…drum roll please…Lilo and Stitch. This is one of my favourite cartoons. I am a 21-year-old who unashamedly loves Lilo and Stitch — and I am not alone. When I was at the cinema today, there was of course a bunch of kids there — but there were also young adults, grown men, and a group of elderly ladies who came to watch this movie without kids. Nostalgia is a sentiment that comes in cycles and seems to last forever. When it comes to creativity, how can we leverage nostalgia to balance impact and longevity in our outputs? In this blog article, I will be addressing three reasons why nostalgia will always win.
1. An emotional time capsule
Nostalgia is the one emotion that allows you to time travel. According to Google, nostalgia is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past. Most feelings are felt in the present and are fleeting and temporary. But nostalgia is all about emotions of the past that are accompanied by memories. It is a bittersweet cocktail of good and bad as you smile at the memory, but frown for the times that have passed.
But sometimes, it’s nice to sit in thoughts of the past. At the end of the movie, they started playing the soundtrack and a group of elderly ladies got up and began dancing. There were three of them, just dancing in front of their seats. I imagine it was a nostalgic moment for them as the original movie came out in 2002. I wondered what memories they had with this movie to push them to come and watch it at their older age. In that moment as they grooved it out, they were just girls again.
2. Bridge the past with the present
While nostalgia can bring you to the past, it can also bring the past to the present. Live-action remakes of a movie are a great example of this. It is an opportunity to identify what was really loved at a certain point in time. Who loved it? Why did they love it? And how can it find its place in the world today? I always notice what parts of a movie remain the same or what changes when a remake is made — some changes I agree with, some I protest against (why did they change the villain in Lilo and Stitch?!). Producers must go through a very selective process of embracing the past, choosing what to continue in the new story while parting with things that no longer work. As much as I love the original Lilo and Stitch movie, I can understand that a copy-and-paste script for the live-action in the name of nostalgia might be a bit boring.
As creatives, no matter how much we may love or be attached to a particular project, we must allow ourselves to grow. While it is important to know when to pivot, change and let go — it is also important to identify ways to hold on and transform. One thing I learnt from submitting a bunch of A-grade research files during my time at university is that creativity thrives on development. You don’t have to start from scratch every day. Why not dip into the past, develop, recreate, improve? A project you made at 10 years old can still possess value when you’re 30 years old — but how you introduce it to this new world is what counts. Embrace the past, love it even, learn from it, then develop.
3. Introduce the past to the future
Future Nostalgia is the name of a Dua Lipa album but also an interesting concept to consider. What will we be reminiscing about in the future? As I watched the adverts before the movie started in the cinema, I noted how repetitive and even cringe some movies are. I thought how sad it is that a lot of the movies we have today aren’t going to be remembered in 10, 20, 30 years' time — or even in a month. It’s a crazy concept since the movies I grew up watching are still on my current watch list because of the lasting impact storylines had.
This then caused me to reflect on the lasting impact of creative outputs. Are we still creating with the intention of being remembered or merely to be seen? Will our impact last longer than a TikTok trend or are we okay with being gone with the wind? As creatives, I think it is important to find a harmony between impact and longevity — will what we create today matter tomorrow?
I challenge you now to reflect on two things. 1) What do you find yourself being nostalgic about? Are there moments in your life that you hold dear to your heart or projects that you were particularly proud of? Now think about how you can bring those back alive in your life today. 2) The next time you create something, consider how it will be remembered in the future. Are you creating for the sake of creating, or will this next project be a part of your future nostalgia? Make sure to subscribe to this blog post below via email for updates on new blog posts that will be part of my future nostalgia.
