Patrick Metzger, Writer and Technologist, joins Cheddar Reveals to break down how nostalgia has influenced pop culture, why it remains in a trend loop for every generation, and why that trend is likely never going to end.

Cheddar Reveals

How Pop Culture is Riding the Nostalgia Pendulum

Welcome back to Cheddar reveals, brought to you by curiosity stream. Have you noticed that so many of the latest big Hollywood blockbusters are all based on existing content? It's not that Hollywood actually lacks creativity but that investors want more predictable returns. Many consumers write this off as laziness and lack of originality in Hollywood. Is this closer to the truth or do studios just know how and when to cash in on our nostalgia joining us now. Patrick Metzger, writer and technologist. Thanks so much for joining us. Tell us more about the nostalgia pendulum and what factors have led to 20 to 30 year recurring cycles? Hi Asia. Yeah, so the nostalgia pendulum is a phrase I used to describe a phenomenon that's been happening for centuries. Uh some sort of art or cultural expression, writing, film, TV fashion you were talking about earlier uh, and then 20 or 30 years later, that thing starts to trend again. So recent examples would be Space jam. A new legacy came out last year. The original came out 25 years earlier in 1996. Father of the Bride is coming out this summer and steve martin. The steve martin version came out 31 years ago in 1991 and hulu is releasing a reboot of hellraiser this year. The original came out in 1987 35 years ago. Um, as for why, you know the factors that lead to it To the nostalgia pendulum. There are several things Children watch something when their kids and then 25 years later. They're the primary market of consumers with money to spend Anyone in their thirties right now is probably noticing all the 90s media coming back around. Similarly, Children grow up to be the creators of media and culture. So naturally they create something that reflects their own experience and then both of those groups have their own Children, they want to share their culture with them. And finally, media companies know all of the above factors and market to the relevant age group for those reasons. This is so fascinating. I feel like we could talk about this for hours but wondering how these cycles change over time. It's interesting in Alicia, my co host last interview, she was talking about how in the age of streaming, the loop has kind of closed in terms of what we find nostalgic. You don't have to go back three decades, you could find something that was kind of more recent. Are you starting to see that as well? Yeah, I mean, I think there is a bit of narrowing, but some of the kind of human lifespan cycles impact things as well. So, you know, adolescents as was mentioned in the previous segment and maturity and when we kind of become financially independent, some of that is still roughly in that 30 year window. So you can think of, it kind of like a rolling 30 years were like 30 years ago were in the nineties and then, um in eight years will be in the early two thousand's, I guess one interesting effect is that you also get six year and 90 year cycles. Um so the new west side story just came out last year. And in the nineties there were a bunch of broadway and West End revivals. Um The original Westside Story came out in 1957 and the movie was released in 1961. So that's like sixties to nineties to today. The same thing for Cruella, the 2021 movie and then 101 dalmations. The remake with Glenn Close was in 1996 And the original came out in 1961. So there are some kind of interim patterns with that. Yeah. Patrick, with all this talk about movies, I have to wonder how has the age of streaming changed our appetite for new content versus existing? I. P. Yeah, streaming. It's I think the two factors I see as the biggest game changers there are binge watching and big data. So basically there's kind of a give the people what they want sort of attitude. And the data tells the producers at a streaming service folks are, you know, watching westerns and they love Benedict cumberbatch and psychological thrillers are doing well right now. They can kind of predict that the power of the dog will do well. And they're off to the writer's room. Yeah. So does that explain why more and more of the top grossing movies have non original content. And what is kind of the balancing act at play? We mentioned this kind of up top but between studios having investors that definitely want their return on that investment. But also the creativity that thrives in Hollywood. Yeah. Absolutely. I think this is a really important trend to examine. So especially if you look at domestic films last year in 2021 85% of the top 50 highest grossing films in the US were non original stories, either a remake or a sequel or based on pre existing intellectual property. Five films in the top 10 were Marvel movies. So there's some good data to suggest that this has been getting more drastic over the last 20 years or so. As for why it's just lower risk to bet on an existing franchise than to take a chance on something totally new. It makes a lot of financial sense. But when finances kind of the primary driver behind an artistic medium you get a bit of kind of like populism that is pretty stagnant and I think it limits the possibilities for creative expression, martin Scorsese has been pretty outspoken about this among others. Yeah. And culturally what do you think has changed in Hollywood where non original I. P. Drives more people two seats than even the biggest stars. I remember um maybe even like 10 years ago or 20 years ago it was always about the a list celebrity that was attached to a movie totally. I mean, I think social media plays a big role. Uh, stars, you know, individual stars are kind of important, but we're all in our own filter bubbles echoing the culture that is already familiar to us. So it's, it's more about sort of sort of the stories that are told. Um, the way that chirality works, popularity has become the priority on social media. So things that become popular, get shared and remixed to become even more popular. And so those known cultural memes are kind of what ends up with the big bucks, streaming platforms of course have an impact as well because they've taken people away from movie theaters and the traditional studios are scrambling a bit more on profits. So they kind of go for what's familiar and of course the pandemic exacerbated that a whole lot. Yeah, just about a minute left with you, but I have to know, what do you think the reboots of the future will look like? Will we ever fall out of obsession with nostalgia? Oh, for sure. I, so I don't think we're gonna get tired of reflecting back on our childhood. So personally, I think the pendulum will keep swinging. I hope we see a shift towards more original content, but in terms of remix, No one can see the future. But personally, I think there are some great and relevant stories from the early 2000s to bring back to life. So like V for vendetta or Coraline Since Disney acquired Fox, we could get an X Men movie that's in the marvel cinematic universe, and I hear they're working on a new Buffy, the Vampire slayer, so that could be fun. Lots of good stuff there. Patrick, Metzger, writer and technologist. Thank you so much for joining us here on cheddar reveals.