In a busy crowd of office workers, a young woman happily hugs a newly-purchased vinyl record to her chest. Another girl strolling around campus is wearing bell-bottom jeans that were prominently featured in 1960s films. An adult man nearby celebrates his successful early-bird purchase of Pokémon bread at a local convenience store… What year is this? Retro aesthetics and culture are experiencing a renaissance in the aftermath of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. What does this mean for our society, and is it finally time to put a stop to this nostalgia?

Retro never goes out of style. Trends are constantly being rebirthed and revitalized, with different eras being deemed trendy. For example, in the 1980s, the flower power headbands from two decades prior were part of the nostalgic wave. However, unlike the retro wave of the 80s, the current retro craze has been assisted by social media, causing multiple eras to experience simultaneous comebacks. While the 1980s and early 2000s seem to be the main nostalgic periods at the moment, there is no shortage of goods and styles hailing from the 1920s, 1990s, and even the 2010s. The takeover of the 21st century by nostalgia impacts all avenues of life, from fashion and art to global politics. The return of retro brings with it an appreciation for the past and intergenerational connections, yet not all of its effects are as innocuous as they may seem.

Resurrecting Past Pop Culture

Rediscovering value in the past is seen frequently in pop culture, with remakes, reboots, and revivals becoming more common than ever. A majority of films are based on previously established characters or franchises; the 50 highest grossing films in the world are mainly made up of Marvel Studios’ comic book-based films, as well as the Harry Potter franchise and live-action remakes like The Lion King or Aladdin.

Audiences are always delighted to re-encounter a well-known character or storyline on the big or small screens. Much of pop culture gains inspiration from the past. For example, Netflix’s hit show Stranger Things is based on nostalgia surrounding 1980s cultural references. Pop artists like Dua Lipa, The Weekend, or Olivia Rodrigo have built their musical identities on previous mainstream music trends like disco and punk rock. These examples of pop culture, although originating from niche places of interest, have gained much popularity by uniting people from all generations.

However, the repeated return to retro leads to pop culture with a significant lack of originality. Audiences often crave something familiar, and in an effort to meet their demands, Hollywood films are often pushed away from creativity and, toward recycling well-established storylines and characters. This is more problematic than it seems. The Guardian journalist Jeremy Kay once even stated that “the remake business is a cynical money-making exercise.” Additionally, the reuse of content hinders overall creativity, encouraging artists and creators to basically copy ideas rather than create new ones of their own.

Another example of pop culture reviving the past is the recent biopic boom. Films that feature the lives of great public figures of the past became even more popular with the release of the 2018 Academy Awardwinning film Bohemian Rhapsody. Since then, major production companies have released a slew of biographical films, such as Rocketman (2019), Judy (2019), and Elvis (2022). Originally, these films were made to celebrate public figures and the marks they made in the world, while revealing the hardships they endured. However, in reality, the majority of these films profit from the personal lives of public figures and their acquaintances without their consent, creating an ethical dilemma. Because many of the subjects of these biopics are dead, they have no say in how their lives are presented to the world through the movie character, which may result in defamation and falsification of their life stories.

An example of this is Bohemian Rhapsody, whose main antagonist Paul Prenter was not as villainous as depicted in the film. While the script portrayed him as a black-and-white character, who only ever had bad intentions, Prenter was not alive to prevent the exaggeration of his character. His brothers protested his depiction in the film, with one of them commenting, “They never would have dared to do it had Paul been alive.” The film gathered much love and attention for its throwback to the 1970s and 1980s, but, unknowingly hurt quite a few people on its way to glory and success.

Marketing Nostalgia

It is the job of major corporations to use any means necessary to get consumers to buy their items. This leads to the adoption of a range of marketing tactics, including those that rely on the fear of missing out, perceived innovative quality, and desired luxury. Limited availability and hype marketing are both scarcity tools implemented by companies to encourage people to consume more. Some brands even use nostalgia to market not only their products but also themselves.

According to Professor Tony Garrett (Department of Business Administration), brands rely on nostalgia for two major reasons: product marketing and brand re-establishment. Product marketing refers to the promotion of items meant to evoke nostalgia, whereas brand re-establishment refers to the practice of using a brand’s past to elevate its current status and remind consumers of its reliability and reputation.

One of the reasons nostalgia marketing may seem so prevalent these days is due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Garrett explains that the feeling of uncertainty brought on by the pandemic led to many consumers seeking the familiarity and comfort of mom’s cooking, meaning things from their past that they still cherish. In Korea, for example, beauty brands highlight their use of traditional ingredients as a nostalgiabased marketing tool to draw in customers who value the perceived simplicity and certainty of the past.

Dr. Garrett points to the marketer’s foremost desire — to appeal effectively to a target audience as the driving force behind all marketing decisions. Nostalgia marketing may refer to the revival of past popular products, such as BMW’s revamp of the Mini brand. Otherwise, it could also indicate a brand’s re-emphasis of its established reputation, such as Nike’s ongoing “Just Do It” campaign.

Dr. Garrett believes that the implementation of these marketing tactics comes down to the innate desire of individuals and companies to be noticed to some degree. A company standing out thanks to its long-standing traditions and robust history may be the key to its future success. Points of differentiation can determine whether a company sinks or swims in a competitive market, and having a deeprooted history is an edge that older companies have over innovative and new companies. The ethical waters get murky, however, when companies concoct a false history in order to gain consumer trust.

The ethics surrounding nostalgia marketing is associated with how much of it is a fabrication or twisting of the truth. Bluntly put, the past was not glamorous or simple for everyone. “Minorities have experienced many notoriously difficult eras in history, and sugar-coating this is an ethical issue,” argues Dr. Garrett. This is precisely why brands take greater caution when employing nostalgic marketing because relying on the past too heavily can backfire if it attempts to rewrite painful history. Nevertheless, if a brand has a well-known past, using it to boost its current standing is all-toocommon in the world of marketing, and whether or not consumers respond to it depends on how well the marketing department does its job.

The Two Faces of Thrifting

Retro is often accompanied by a revival of fashion styles and an increase in the demand for authentic vintage items, which are often found in thrift stores. The practice of thrifting has taken on a life of its own in the past few years and has gained popularity through the normalization of thrift culture online. Applications such as Depop and Daangn Market allow consumers to easily buy and sell second-hand goods. Countless people also flock to Goodwill and other brick-and-mortar thrift stores in hopes of finding hidden gems for a low cost. Despite the positive spirit of upcycling and reusing old products, thrifting has a darker side that results in the scarcity of quality items in thrift stores, potentially affecting society’s most vulnerable consumers.

Traditionally, thrifting focused on sustainability; in the past, people bought new clothes, wore them until they didn’t want them anymore, and donated them to thrift stores so that low-income people could buy them for a significantly reduced price. Even though low-income people were unable to keep up with the newest styles, they still had decent quality options for a reasonable cost. However, nowadays, the return of retro has upended this process, creating an entirely new thrifting environment.

Retro fashion at its best involves upcycling secondhand items and similar sustainable practices. In reality, however, the demand for retro styles nowadays is far too high to be quenched with hand-me-downs . Participants in the movement who are relatively welloff flock to thrift stores in search of items that will match their new aesthetic. This results in the lower availability of affordable, quality items for those in need. The bandwagon effect of the retro trend’s current wave can thus lead to entitlement and a decline in the availability of quality items in the world of thrifting.

According to GlobalData, the value of the secondhand apparel market is projected to hit 30 billion United States dollars (USD) by 2025. For comparison, the worldwide value of the same market in 2015 was 14 billion USD. The World Bank states that, even though there was a spike in global poverty due to COVID-19, poverty rates are still lower than in 2015, meaning that the rise in the value of the thrifting market is not associated with greater poverty. In other words, it is reasonable to conclude that the increased demand for thrift items is not from those in need, but rather from people who are relatively more financially secure.

In cases when thrift store shoppers are not actually in need of secondhand items, their purchases directly affect those who used to rely on these shops to dress themselves. Purchasing quality stock ultimately affects lowerincome people. In the best-case scenario where stock is bought by well-off individuals, quality thrift shop items may simply cost more, which still makes them unavailable to people living in poverty. In the worst-case scenario, there is a shortage of quality items in the first place, leaving the most vulnerable once again in the position of having to settle for worse quality, which was the problem thrift stores were established to combat. The brunt of the impact of thrifting falls on those who cannot choose another mainstream store to shop at, raising questions regarding the deeper ethics of this sustainable practice.

A Critique of Retro

As seen above, retro has many advantages and drawbacks. On one hand, retro creates intergenerational connections and provides comfort. On the other hand, it stifles modern innovation and originality. The current iteration of retro is perhaps the biggest wave so far, seeing as almost everyone participates in it to some degree, and thus both the wave’s benefits and disadvantages are amplified.

Retro’s popularity brings together people across generational divides and allows different age groups to bond over similar interests. Intergenerational solidarity, even that generated via commercial solidarity, opens the door for increased communication and cooperation in all fields. Retro may very well be an aesthetic path to future cooperation, providing a common ground for younger and older people to work together.

In reality, there is nothing inherently negative about feeling nostalgic about the past; there is no reason to criticize the harmless affection for mom’s cooking. Moreover, the feeling of nostalgia can also help preserve past practices for use in the future. Retro styles and fashions do not have to be limited to their aesthetic value, especially because their emotional value can co-exist alongside old cameras and oversized sunglasses.

Despite this, this retro wave has negative consequences that overshadow its benefits. The rampant imitation in multiple industries, especially art, limits growth, and innovation. Lauren Friedman of Forbes claims in her critical analysis of the retro wave that risk-taking may often be deemed unprofitable in the face of tried-and-true nostalgia. Essentially, when everyone knows that they can sell a romanticized blast from the past, why would anyone bother trying new things that have a higher chance of failure?

Nostalgia for Conservative Political Values

Retro is not just something that applies to culture, product consumption, or aesthetic pleasure. It also involves political and societal values as well. Many readers will remember the former president of the United States (U.S.) Donald Trump’s world-famous slogan, “Make America Great Again.” The mindset behind this slogan was based on nostalgia for past values, which in this case, are conservative values from when America was considered a more dominant nation than it is currently. This, along with many other recent political events, proves that society is, in certain ways, moving back in time.

Current issues such as the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, and the January 6 capital riots are all examples of this political throwback. Conservative values are making a comeback; once powerful countries are trying to regain their past glory, and their followers are doing whatever it takes to regain power. This may result in the glamorization of past political beliefs, which is more dangerous than it seems as it can create further conflict and chaos.

The struggle to relive the past has been ongoing for countless centuries. But, according to Professor Shang E. Ha (Political Science, Sogang University), in recent years, this has been a reflection of “the irony of freedom,” in which an increase in freedom after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and ensuing globalization resulted in a certain reluctance to change among many individuals.

Professor Ha explains three reasons for this phenomenon. Firstly, he says “free trade intensified economic inequality for developed countries.” An example can be seen in Trump voters, who have seen lucrative industries being taken over by the Chinese. “They miss mainstream American society before globalization in the 1990s.” Moreover, the expansion of immigration has also played a major role in conservatism. Professor Ha offers the example of Europe’s radical right, which opposes Muslim immigrants. “These people also miss the power they wielded before immigrants started entering their countries,” he adds.

Lastly, freedom of speech is considered one of the most sacred human rights. Yet, ironically, it has also resulted in the restriction of freedom and stronger solidarity amongst conservatives. Professor Ha elaborates on this, saying, “Reaching a consensus with people of extreme beliefs is becoming more difficult, as their voices become stronger and more widespread.”

The power dynamic between future and past-oriented groups – or rather, the progressives and the conservatives – has long been under strain, with the latter taking a retro perspective to politics, attempting to preserve the life they grew up with. However, as Professor Ha states, “It is almost too idealistic to search for ways to absolutely coexist with them, so we must pursue more fundamental ways to tackle the matter, such as resolving economic inequality or working towards stability in multicultural societies.”

The Nostalgic Mind Explained

Whether in the form of music, fashion, or political beliefs, the past has an inevitable influence on everyday lives. The craving for something old is quite interesting, especially in this day and age, when everything seems to be centered around invention, innovation, and development. Corona hakbun, or “the class of COVID-19” is one of the main holders of this sentiment. Because they missed out on what should have been their most exuberant, youthful years, it is no wonder that they are generally dissatisfied with campus life and pine after past lifestyles. Professor Constantine Sedikides (Psychology, University of Southampton) further explains that during the pandemic, nostalgia “helped to counteract loneliness.”

Though the reliance on nostalgia can be criticized, according to Professor Sedikides, nostalgia is “a predominantly positive, selfrelevant, and social emotion.” It can be divided into personal and relational nostalgia. The latter is the more public form, which includes collective or national nostalgia, referring to “idealized notions of the greatness of one’s group or nation.” This may result in more unity and harmony within a society, but when intensified, may even lead to isolationism or “antagonistic attitudes towards minorities.” Thus, although nostalgia has positive implications for the most part, it does have its downsides as well.

Retro and love for the past appear to be more than a mere trend, but rather a state of mind or a lifestyle. This is often seen in society, with conservative values time and again returning to the political table. In the arts industry, the retro craze stunts transformative and ground-breaking advancements, and it seems as if consumerism is not really the answer to the psychological desires retro claims to satisfy. So, before putting all their eggs in nostalgia’s basket, everyone needs to consider the motivation behind wanting to do so and not let the past dictate the future.