ABSTRACT
Nostalgia has fond connotations for most people; however, the word actually has negative overtones. From year to year, the prime variant consists of who is feeling nostalgic about what. Michael Barrier noted, "Nostalgia is like sex: Every generation thinks it is discovering it for the first time". With respect to nostalgia in the late 1980s, he added, most people, as they approach middle age, sense that their lives have settled into patterns that may not change significantly for many years to come. The nostalgia experienced by baby boomers covered a vast array of fields, most of which became big business. Barrier qualifned just what constitutes nostalgia, arguing that it wasn't the same as mere enthusiasm for what is old. Despite the ever-present spectra of crass commercialism, the nostalgia boom has had its positive features. It has functioned to bring the cherished past alive in the present, thereby making lives seem whole.
