Nostalgia economy

Watching the trailer for Michael Jackson's biographical film, when the song "Billie Jean" plays, Michael Jackson appears on stage with a bejeweled glove, and as he performs the Moonwalk as if defying all laws of physics, the audience feels a sense of excitement.

Hannah Montana recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Nostalgia for Michael Jackson is returning, in the form of a $200 million blockbuster film. Nostalgia truly has enormous economic value.

An informal study using data from Spotify suggests that by the age of 33, people are discovering almost no new music. "New music" here refers to new songs appearing on the charts and new artists debuting in the market.

But if you only discovered Michael Jackson at age 33, that doesn't count. In other words, this study shows that everyone, at some point, will return to the past.

So, if youth culture with its twenty-something idols is a major economy targeting young teenagers, then nostalgia culture is the economy for those entering middle age, giving them a feeling of rejuvenation.

Michael Teaser

Nostalgia can be found everywhere in the world.

Hannah Montana just celebrated its 20th anniversary. The children who grew up with Disney Channel, yearning to live two lives like the teenage singer in the show, are now adults.

They have experienced many ups and downs in life, just like Miley Cyrus herself, who has seen the world through different eyes. They want to reminisce about their innocent youth, when the dream of a fulfilling life was still alive.

Is there a year that doesn't have commemorative events, significant milestones? For example, 2026 marks the 270th anniversary of Mozart's birth; and in Salzburg, his hometown, people are celebrating the legacy of the great composer with the theme "eternal light."

Who needs a new legend when the past is already glorious enough to illuminate this city forever?

The past is truly a great asset. Blockbuster movies will forever reuse songs that already have a history.

As seen in the final scenes of Project Hail Mary, when the reluctant hero-turned-teacher decides not to return home in order to save his alien friend who shared his struggles in the vast universe, which song did the filmmakers use to depict that beautiful friendship?

They used The Beatles' "Two of Us"—a song that evokes the friendship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Old memories interwoven with new footage create a multi-layered and complex emotional experience.

And it's not just in Europe and America that people are nostalgic. In China, UMGC Group has launched a long-term development strategy based on heritage: they want to revive the first generation of music idols by bringing back their music archives.

In their first release, they launched the music library of Little Tigers - a band that was only known to those born in the 80s or early 90s.

But it's not just middle-aged people who have a need for nostalgia. Even younger audiences, who never experienced those decades, have a need for nostalgia.

They enjoy the feeling of being older than their age, of being an adult, of being different from other young people, of having depth. They like to feel like they are part of an era when music was pure, when lyrics were dreamy, when people were not yet corrupted by social media or artificial intelligence.

While the 80s generation might feel a sense of nostalgia for the past when they hear the lyrics "Don't let your youth pass by in loneliness, plant the lucky grass of your dreams in the garden" from the Little Tigers, Gen Z audiences, upon hearing those lyrics, become curious and even idealize the past, believing that the past is always more beautiful, and that what has passed is the best.

Perhaps the further one ventures into a futuristic world, the more one dreams of the past. And old popular culture has always been a promised land, "flowing with milk and honey."

Hien Trang

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nen-kinh-te-hoai-niem-20260412094621072.htm