Nostalgia Never Goes Out of Style
A gift of 5 art prints honoring songs I've loved for 10 years
Growing up, my dad constantly showed me the music that meant something to him. He was my primary ride to school from kindergarten until I could drive myself and we’d listen to music on every commute.
He would play Tom Petty, Hall & Oates, Journey, U2, and Styx and knew every word of every song. He can identify which album and which song it is from the first beat, and then proceed to tell you the name of every band member and some obscure history of the band. He would tell me to wait for the guitar solo or the drum to kick in — acting it out with one hand while the other was on the wheel. These are some of my favorite memories.
He told me in depth about the concerts he had attended, which stadium they were in, and what he remembered about them.
After so many years of our drives, I of course absorbed most of the lyrics and history — and, perhaps just because of genetics, have the same skill of identifying songs by their first note. (I was very good at Heardle!)
On random Saturdays, he’d pull up YouTube and show me live concerts from a decade ago and make me watch with him. I saw mulleted, young Bono climb on the rafters at an outdoor festival — and Freddie Mercury shout to a never-ending crowd. I’ve never really seen someone sit through hours of a concert film with such tenacity as my father (pre-Eras Tour movie haha).
The concert videos in our living room never really captured my attention. I couldn’t understand the appeal of watching a concert. He would describe everything in detail, every member of the band, the history, and the context in which they were writing music, and then watch with twinkling eyes as if he had never seen it before.
I didn’t quite understand it.
This week, I found myself home alone. I was tired and stressed. And I was watching an old Hannah Montana concert video on my TV. Not really sure why I thought to look it up, but there I was. And a grin spread across my face as I realized I remembered every outfit, dance move, and lyric. I felt a little lighter.
I started looking at other highly memorable music from my childhood and felt giddy as I remembered everything so vividly. I remembered myself so vividly.
And then it dawned on me I was doing what my dad does.
I was watching concert videos on YouTube and smiling.
Today, Taylor Swift re-releases 1989. And I am reminded once again of the power a song has. It makes us remember.
That was the first CD I played in my car when I turned 16, and now I’m 25 and the words mean so much more to me.
I sat with the songs this week, remembering how I felt when I first learned the words and kind of stunned that I still love it. I’m transported to the first time I drove alone around my neighborhood when everyone had Christmas lights up and I listened to “Blank Space.”
Our songs are good friends. Along with my father’s catalog of music, I’ve found my own songs too.
I wanted to honor some of those songs today, with you. I know a lot of us love them and were impacted by them almost 10 years ago. I designed 5 different posters to honor the album — and for our kind supporting subscribers, I’ve got them here for free for you to print and download.
Happy 1989 day!