Retromania

For the last decade, corporate marketing (and its target) seems to have been very much oriented toward the past. More and more products are presented with an old‐fashion, almost nostalgic, glow, praising the qualities of former times. One of the symptoms of this tendency could be seen in the current popular culture that is constantly referring to earlier decades. That is what Reynolds analyzes in his captivating book, Retromania. His exhaustive, detailed and well‐written study offers insightful view on the closed cycle that pop culture, and its by‐products, has entered since the end of the 1990s.

As Reynolds puts it at the beginning of his book, “pop culture has become obsessed by retro and eager for commemorations” (p. 7). To him, the greatest danger that the creativity potential of our time is facing is its own past. Always looking at the future, the 1960s were psychedelic and rebellious and the 1980s were in a technological quest. Compared to the last few decades, the author finds the years following 2000 fairly quiet, if not boring. “It's like time itself had started dragging its feet” (p. 8). The most prominent manifestation of this tendency for him is the constant invasion of the past in the production of today's pop culture (music, art, movies and all their marketing franchises) that should be – and have always been – trying to make the future happen in the present. For the author, the 2000s only appear to be what he calls the “Re‐decade”.

Reynolds defines the term “retro” as a conscious fetishism of the typical style of a specific period (music, fashion, design, products) that is expressed through pastiche and quotation. He holds a particular grudge against the “old current music played by young musicians heavily influenced by the past” (p. 11). Obviously, every period has been influenced by previous experiments and ideas. However, according to the author, there has never been such an obsession for the cultural artifacts produced in the immediate past. Inspiration does not come from ancient references any more, but draws from trends and fashions that everybody remembers, that most people have known first‐hand. Focusing on music and the movie industry, Reynolds worries and wonders: where are revolution and innovation gone?

Retro appears everywhere. Rock has found its place in the music museum, an ancient style that is today reproduced without real contribution. Hollywood builds more and more on old series adaptations and sequels (James Bond, Pink Panther, Tron, The Fly, Star Trek, etc.) On stage, remakes and spin‐off are becoming the norm, not to mention musicals based on vintage music (We Will Rock You, Good Vibrations). Even television seems to recycle its old programs (The Prisoner, Hawaii Five‐O, Beverly Hills). As a consequence, marketing is more and more focused on vintage products: old‐fashioned furniture, retro gaming, old school ring tones, and vintage advertising.

For Reynolds, the essence of pop culture used to be in the “here and now”, revealing a present, an identity of the current. Yet, most of the 2000s commercial success in music has more to do with recycling: Amy Winehouse or Adele (1960s black music), White Stripes (1970s garage punk) and Lady Gaga (1980s synth‐pop music). Vintage has become so important that, to him, “today, the avant‐garde is a rearguard” (p. 19). The weight of our past seems to have overwhelmed us and has pushed us to look backward instead of moving forward. In this area, the proliferation of micro‐trends has been frenetic, encouraging an escalade of Retromania in production and consumption. To the author, the industry, and the public, seems to have confused the artistic nostalgia often carried by pop culture and a desire to go back to a lost golden age.

Reynolds traces the concept of nostalgia back to the seventeenth century. Then, it was used to characterize the sadness that Swiss mercenary felt after a long time away from their country. It was homesickness, a wish to go back to one's native land. During the nineteenth century, it slowly moved from a spatial to a temporal pathology. Nostalgia became a melancholic feeling toward happier, simpler and more innocent time. As the author puts it, “present is now a foreign country” (p. 26). It could be understood as a reactionary reflex against modernity and progress. Based on Boym's essay, The Future of Nostalgia, Reynolds differentiates reflexive and restorative nostalgia. Restorative nostalgia is stringency toward any form of novelty. It often takes a positive form in tales of glorious achievements and better products as there were in the past. It tends to be a collective feeling, especially sharpened in times of rapid innovation and radical change. Reflexive nostalgia is more individualistic and definitely a‐politic. It cherishes a vague, woody nightshade emotion toward the past. While restorative nostalgic believe in the possibility of rebuilding an ancient order, reflexive nostalgic have quietly renounced.

Reynolds underlines an interesting phenomenon in today's nostalgia. All these products and artists reminding consumers from a simpler time are often rooted in a period that none of them has really lived! How can thirty‐ and forty‐years old truly be nostalgic of the 1950s? To him, nostalgia has colonized pop culture and its marketed by‐products during the second half of the twentieth century. “Nostalgia is now indivisible from commercial entertainment: we cannot resist to yesterday's products” (p. 29). Indeed, the term “retro” appears during the 1970s in reaction to the extremely rapid evolution of society in the 1960s, as a way to brake this race toward a “far elsewhere”. For Reynolds, it is important to understand that retro is not a simple form of inspiration. Every music, every trend, refers to some other and find its roots somewhere. Retro is about replication, about remaking products exactly the same – at least on some features – with a pseudo irony to mask the obsession.

The first part of the book, called “today”, examines the many forms taken by nostalgia and retro in our modern societies. From music to museum and especially in more and more marketing product, the author shows how we have become retromaniacs. In the second part, “yesterday”, he expands on this “temporal homeland” that consumers feel they have lost – without having known it. Focusing on music, Reynolds traces back some of the references that seem ubiquitous today. Finally, in the last section called “tomorrow”, the author considers the implication of today's Retromania for future developments. To him, even though the 2000s were a cultural replication of the past decades, art and culture will always find a way to innovate and produce new forms.

This well‐written, extremely well‐documented book tackles a vast issue. By focusing on pop culture, it allows for a manageable approach to the latent nostalgia that seems to impregnate our society. Even though the focus on music can sometime be felt as restrictive, Reynolds always widens his analysis. Moreover, he does not hesitate to strengthen his point by referring to philosophers, sociologists and historians. By the end, though not academic per se, this book is a true mine of information for social science scholars in general and marketing researchers in particular.