Word: nostalgia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Nouveau Retro VH1 is Gen X nostalgia central...
...answer: recycled culture. Gen X had demonstrated an early appetite for nostalgia--witness That '70s Show and the Brady Bunch movies--and the network courted it with I Love the 70s and I Love the 80s, limited-run series in which moderately famous actors, comics and musicians riffed on mass-culture icons from Kojak to Kajagoogoo. The series riveted twenty-and thirtysomething channel surfers, as though tripping a Manchurian Candidate--like synapse. In just over a year, VH1's ratings jumped more than 100% among 18-to-49-year-old viewers. (Also, of course, recycling culture is faster--and often...
...channel's success is in capturing the tone of Gen X nostalgia, at once snide and affectionate. Executive vice president Michael Hirschorn calls VH1's focus not "nostalgic" but "retro," which he defines as less "sentimental and teary." (Although one could reasonably define it as "I am so not old enough to be nostalgic.") "The channel had been in a baby-boomer mode, which was very serious about music," he says. "We turned that into 'Let's have fun with pop culture...
...long. It slyly acknowledges that danger with a new series that is literally a parody of itself. Best Week Ever (Fridays, 11 p.m. E.T.) applies the I Love the ... format to the events of the previous seven days--celeb gossip, trends, music news, real news--as if the nostalgia cycle is so accelerated that it has almost caught up to us. Can All Access: Most Esoteric VH1 Countdowns be far behind...
...network is also finding fresher and more dramatically rewarding ways of plying nostalgia, in particular on Bands Reunited (weeknights, 10 p.m. E.T.). The point of the show is not so much the reunion concerts as the quotidian stories it tells on the way there--how former stars have become insurance underwriters and wedding-band players or how feuding brothers Mike and Ali Score of haircut band A Flock of Seagulls haven't seen each other in five years. When the Scores reunited for a London club show in front of their beaming mom, I misted up--even though...