Am I Too Nostalgic?
Lately, I've gotten really into, for lack of a better term, "boomer nostalgia." And it gives me very conflicting feelings as somebody with no personal stake in the stuff. I feel like I can finally verbalize why I do it: I'm fascinated by a time when lasting cultural institutions were a thing, but I struggle to come to terms with what that means.
It really hit me when I was listening to a podcast interview with John Di Domenico, the biggest Donald Trump impersonator (I love my impersonators apparently), and he commented on exactly that. He's been doing dozens of different characters for decades, but things have been moving too quickly in recent times for there to be a new character that he could do reliably for more than a couple weeks/months. So while Domenico's characters such as Dr. Evil/Austin Powers, Columbo (my beloved), and Jay Leno age out of relevancy, there's nobody significant enough to replace them.
It creates this weird vacuum in our culture where, barring few exceptions, you're stuck either sticking with the classics, or keeping up with whoever the flavor-of-the-week is, which is, quite frankly, unsustainable. As a result, your older material means needing to cater to older audiences. Younger people already have their needs met cycling through amateur impressions of whoever's trending on TikTok, simply because the uploaders were quick to respond rather than them necessarily being good. (And, by the way, I love my amateur impressions, but when being quick is all that matters, there's no staying power. You can't build a career on Ken Bone in 2025.)
I for one, have no problem going to the "old person" side and seeing productions dedicated to public figures of yore that I know nothing about. I see it as a chance to learn about the past in a fun, interactive way.
That's all well and good, right? I'm putting money into what I like, but it's not that simple. The conflict of me supporting boomer nostalgia comes from knowing that I'm not supporting innovation in the arts. My contributions are, essentially, paying for the life support of something that has already run its course, and there's a sense of guilt that comes with doing so. Way too much of our modern culture relies on recycling the same things over and over again, and even though I'm conscious of supporting individuals over corporations, they're still part of the machine.
I recently purchased a documentary series of Elvis impersonators from, like, 25 years ago. On one of the DVDs, one of them confessed that doing Elvis came out of a "nervous breakdown" as he realized he'd never be able to make a career doing his own music. That crushed me, because I'm basically proving him right by paying for tribute acts instead of original music.
25 years later and it's still a sorry time to be a creator, and it's a sorry time to be a consumer. I think nothing exemplifies it more to me than where music is at right now. I always found music discovery algorithms to be subpar, so I've been living in my little music bubble where my recommendations are within the genres I like.
I’d love to leave the bubble, but it requires that I abandon music streaming altogether and it’s BLEAK out there. You’d have to fundamentally change the nature of your consumption in a world that has forgotten how to consume without algorithms. Most people can’t or won’t do that.
It's been far easier for me to just… Talk to people in person. And what types of shows have a strong tradition of existing physically? Boomer nostalgia shows. I'm happy to deal with the impracticalities to see them, but I get that not being everybody's cup of tea.
The internet (and wider culture as a whole) has instilled this sense of guilt in me knowing that, whatever you do, you're "part of the problem." Well guess what? We're ALL part of the problem just by existing, and the whole rhetoric of being a saint in a broken system is wholly unproductive.
I suppose the moral of this is similar to my last post: just put your energy into the things that are worth it to YOU and do the best you can.
It's not perfect, but at the end of the day, I see value in supporting performers who I can watch in real-time. Nostalgia or no, that's who they are, and I'm supporting them.