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Post by mc98 on Jan 26, 2022 7:53:20 GMT 10
From the 1920s to 1950s, there was a lot of nostalgia for the 1890s, often referred to as the "Gay Nineties". There were various movies about the 1890s, even a Mickey Mouse cartoon about the 1890s released in 1941. Why did people back then hold on to this particular decade with so much nostalgia and passion?
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Post by 10slover on Jan 26, 2022 9:38:50 GMT 10
From the 1920s to 1950s, there was a lot of nostalgia for the 1890s, often referred to as the "Gay Nineties". There were various movies about the 1890s, even a Mickey Mouse cartoon about the 1890s released in 1941. Why did people back then hold on to this particular decade with so much nostalgia and passion? A decade's culture is defined both by it's characteristics that did not exist in prior decades AND it's it's characteristics that do not survive into subsequent decades The 1890s were very different from both the 1870s-1880s and the 1900s-1910s, giving them a more "consistent" and "tangible" culture The 1900s and 1910s were EXTREMELY changeful decades, just compare the world of 1899 to the world of 1909 or 1919, it's a different universe The other way around too, compare the world of 1890 to the world of 1860 and 1870 This is the same reason why Nostalgia for the 1920s, 1950s and 1980s was so huge Don't get me wrong, 60s, 70s, 90s and 00s nostalgia is/were huge, but they don't compare to 1920s/1950s/1980s Nostalgia because the 1920s, 1950s and 1980s were so incredibly different from the decades that came immediately before and immediately after them, just like the 1890s I have seen people referring to these decades as "legacy decades" because of how well beloved they are for long periods of times(1920s and 1950s nostalgia are still a thing, somehow) On a sidenote, all these decades are 30 years apart, could that mean that the 2010s will be the next legacy decade?
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Post by mc98 on Mar 16, 2022 5:43:45 GMT 10
bump
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Post by Telso on Mar 19, 2022 13:50:50 GMT 10
I think it's because it was seen as the peak of Victorian decadence and over-the-topness. It was around the time that social norms starten to loosen and things like hobbies and freetime became a social construct. It's after all this time that gave us the iconic image of bowler hats gentlemen and pigeon-chested ladies riding bikes, which was an emblem for the era:  It was also a very changeful decade, with cinema, music releases and ownable cars all being developed during this time. So for a long time, the time was seen as fun and "progressive" and not as rigid as previous decades, but still charmingly elegant and not depraved like the post-war decades. The 1900s marked both the end of the Gilden age and the Victorian era, and the beginning of social turmoil with major fights for labor laws and the Suffragette movement, so the 1890s kind of felt like a 'calm before the storm' era. Especially after the World War, 90s nostalgia really kicked in high gear as they were seen as the "good old days".
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Post by astropoug on Mar 19, 2022 16:09:40 GMT 10
I think it's because it was seen as the peak of Victorian decadence and over-the-topness. It was around the time that social norms starten to loosen and things like hobbies and freetime became a social construct. It's after all this time that gave us the iconic image of bowler hats gentlemen and pigeon-chested ladies riding bikes, which was an emblem for the era: It was also a very changeful decade, with cinema, music releases and ownable cars all being developed during this time. So for a long time, the time was seen as fun and "progressive" and not as rigid as previous decades, but still charmingly elegant and not depraved like the post-war decades. The 1900s marked both the end of the Gilded age and the Victorian era, and the beginning of social turmoil with major fights for labor laws and the Suffragette movement, so the 1890s kind of felt like a 'calm before the storm' era. Especially after the World War, 90s nostalgia really kicked in high gear as they were seen as the "good old days". Your description of the 1890s reminds me a lot of how people viewed the 1920s and 1950s. Less rigid than previous decades, but more classy and less depraved than later decades. What's interesting is that it seems later decades, as in from roughly the 1970s onward, when people revere them, it's precisely because they were NOT classy, and were all about chaos, pushing the envelope, and fucking around, vs later decades which are seen as more serious and strict. Probably because, for the 1990s for example, it's basically impossible to see a decade with Beavis and Butthead and Jim Carrey being popular as being particularly classy or elegant. Many people I know who like 1990s culture liked how edgy, sarcastic, and boundary-pushing it was.
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Post by Telso on Mar 19, 2022 22:24:08 GMT 10
Your description of the 1890s reminds me a lot of how people viewed the 1920s and 1950s. Less rigid than previous decades, but more classy and less depraved than later decades. What's interesting is that it seems later decades, as in from roughly the 1970s onward, when people revere them, it's precisely because they were NOT classy, and were all about chaos, pushing the envelope, and fucking around, vs later decades which are seen as more serious and strict. Probably because, for the 1990s for example, it's basically impossible to see a decade with Beavis and Butthead and Jim Carrey being popular as being particularly classy or elegant. Many people I know who like 1990s culture liked how edgy, sarcastic, and boundary-pushing it was. Oh I think it depends on who you ask lol. People tend to be very cherrypicky one way or the other. If it's not that decade was free and unhinged unlike today, it's things were cleaner and nicer before. I've definitely heard people arguing that 90s music for example was innocent and angelic while today's music is all about sex with porn videos or something like that. The Brady Bunch movie from the 90s is a good example of romanticising/sanitizing a decade's culture. In that movie the people of the 70s are depicted as well-mannered and happy-go-lucky while the 90s are contrasted as being uncivil, sleazy and dingy.
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Post by mc98 on Mar 21, 2022 1:07:30 GMT 10
Your description of the 1890s reminds me a lot of how people viewed the 1920s and 1950s. Less rigid than previous decades, but more classy and less depraved than later decades. What's interesting is that it seems later decades, as in from roughly the 1970s onward, when people revere them, it's precisely because they were NOT classy, and were all about chaos, pushing the envelope, and fucking around, vs later decades which are seen as more serious and strict. Probably because, for the 1990s for example, it's basically impossible to see a decade with Beavis and Butthead and Jim Carrey being popular as being particularly classy or elegant. Many people I know who like 1990s culture liked how edgy, sarcastic, and boundary-pushing it was. Oh I think it depends on who you ask lol. People tend to be very cherrypicky one way or the other. If it's not that decade was free and unhinged unlike today, it's things were cleaner and nicer before. I've definitely heard people arguing that 90s music for example was innocent and angelic while today's music is all about sex with porn videos or something like that. The Brady Bunch movie from the 90s is a good example of romanticising/sanitizing a decade's culture. In that movie the people of the 70s are depicted as well-mannered and happy-go-lucky while the 90s are contrasted as being uncivil, sleazy and dingy. I notice that there is a lot of nostalgia for the year 2019. That year is the ultimate "calm before the storm" year.
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Post by fusefan on Nov 19, 2022 2:59:03 GMT 10
Probably the way the 70s and 80s the “good ol days” in the 1950s before all this Vietnam war and hippy stuff.
Or how my generation romanticizes the 90s because it was before 9/11, the wars, trump, bush whatever.
I guess people missed the time when they were young before WWI and WWII and the Great Depression and such.
It’s just being young and carefree during a certain era.
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