Pinpointed: Nostalgia Core and Living in The Moment
By Bailey Tolentino
Though it is not an official genre or movement, Nostalgia Core has been deeply influencing artists’ choices in the music industry in recent months. Undoubtedly, nostalgia has always had a relationship with music; it is the reason most people have a difficult time deciphering a “good” song from a “personal favourite” song. Our obsession with nostalgia is probably inseparable from the political turmoil taking over the world right now. Without getting too much into the details of said turmoil, it is clear we long for a past that feels only slightly out of reach… but I am not sure this is great for the state of the music industry.
The best definition I can come up with for Nostalgia Core (in the context of music) is: A sonic style focused on evoking similar feelings of recent, yet distant memories — typically early the 90s and early 2000s. Typically, it seems to me that Nostalgia Core usually only gets an artist one or two hits, because the sound is — after all — not theirs, and of another time that has only just passed. I find it peculiar that we believe people are not fundamentally the same creatures we were merely two or three decades ago. I’ve seen many tweets and reels speaking of Nostalgia Core. They often read along the lines of something like “men don’t yearn this way anymore,” captioning a video of the Goo Goo Dolls performing ‘Iris’ live in the early 2000s. I’ve also seen people create and share Spotify playlists entitled “songs that sound like X” or “POV” TikToks capturing “what X song feels like,” and the song is usually something like ‘Fade Into You’ by Mazzy Star.
We do not seem to hold the same sentimentality for songs that are a few decades older, like songs by The Beatles, which are not considered “classics” instead of “nostalgic”. I honestly think the term Nostalgia Core is arbitrary and dull, because it assumes that everyone feels nostalgic over the same things. I believe what it is trying to express, however, is a longing for music with real instruments, lower quality mastering and mixing, and more expressive melodies. I was watching a video by The Swiftologist this past week, where he discussed “the loudness war” in the music industry. Before streaming services, producers could control the volume of tracks because there was only one version to be purchased via iTunes, CDs, cassette tapes, etc. It is the reason Taylor Swift’s 1989 is so catchy and recognisable — every song on it is super loud. Plus, the music technology in 2014 (when it was recorded) was simply not as advanced as it is now, so there is a slight muffled quality to each song. It almost feels like a time portal — like you’re listening through a seashell or a tin can.
While music may be of better sound quality nowadays, it is perhaps too close (to the ear) for comfort. It is too clear, the autotune is too obvious, and the sounds feel warped because so many new artists are trying to bait listeners by engaging in this broad idea of Nostalgia Core. Our longing for these sounds from just a decade or two ago can be compared to the reason vintage/used vinyls are more desirable than newly pressed ones. Minor scratches on a used Billie Holiday vinyl causing the needle to skip here and there, for example, may make the music sound and feel more of its time. New releases which are trying to sound like the 90s, 2000s, or 2010s can never truly feel “of the time” because it is neither genuinely a product from those decades nor genuinely a product of the current one. A synthesiser’s drum kit will never sound like a real drum set, and a 2026 synthesiser will always sound sterile compared to one from even just 2016. It is the same reason karaoke does not sound the same as a studio track, or why all of the “Taylor’s Version” re-releases of Swift’s catalogue all sound a bit off.
What I wish to emphasise, though, is that we shouldn’t be trying so hard to recreate something that — in the grand scheme of things — just happened. While I understand the appeal of Nostalgia Core, I think the internet is far too obsessed with it. I think there is something interesting about how much nostalgia can skew our opinions of music. I wonder if current music really is soulless because of the “sterile” synthesisers, or if we just romanticise music from the past because it was made in a time where music could only be made with true talent, rather than pre-made Garageband loops and/or AI music-producing applications.
Inspiration is necessary and inevitable, of course, but copying for the sake of selling is always contrived and it can be felt. I think, ultimately, “Nostalgia Core” is actually just another buzzword on social media that fails to describe a music subgenre. Instead of constantly curating playlists, outfits, daily routines, meals — hell, everything in our lives — upon a “vibe” or “aesthetic” or “POV,” it might be worth either just enjoying things for what they are and living in the moment, or researching real terminology to explain what it is that we like about certain styles.
It feels like we have spent so much of the 2020s trying to capture something from the past that there are no defining sounds of this decade — and we are already past the half-way point. All this said, however, I might just be stuck in an echo chamber on my Instagram feed and this may not actually be a huge issue.
To end on a more positive note, here is a list (in no particular order) of some newer songs (released within the past 2 years) that I believe touch on nostalgia for the 90s-2010s, while still bringing an original sound and without feeling dated or contrived. (Yes, some of these are already very popular, so they’re not so much suggestions as they are notes of appreciation.):
Say Something Kind To Me Again - Sydney Ross Mitchell
DEVOTION - Justin Bieber
Go The Distance - Chrissy
Can we talk about Isaac? - Rachel Chinouriri
Au Pays Du Cocaine - Geese
The Shadows - Marcus King & Noah Cyrus
January - Storey Littleton
How Bad Do U Want Me - Lady Gaga
The Subway - Chappell Roan
Sweet Cherries - FINNEAS