The Nostalgia, Music and Music Studies conference series aims to bring nostalgia studies more broadly into conversation with music and music studies. As a theoretical framework, nostalgia studies allows us to explore attitudes towards the past underlying both musicology and music composition/performance. It illuminates the ways nostalgia is used by creators and audiences, as well as the ways it affects and influences our perceptions of history, heritage, self and others. Guided by the work of Svetlana Boym and others on nostalgia types (restorative vs reflective, individual vs. collective memory), this conference aims to bring scholars and artists together to deepen our understanding of nostalgia’s powerful presence in music and music making.
Panelists:
- Sara Gulgas, “Postmodern Nostalgia and the Countercultural Disordering of Time”
- Elizabeth Upton, “Anthems in Eden: folk music, early music, and the fungibility of time”
- Ross Mitchell, “Shovel Knight: 80s Retro-Synths and Hyperreal NES-talgia”
- Julin Lee, “Retro Sounds from the Upside Down: Navigating Mediated ’80s Nostalgia via the Soundtrack of Stranger Things (Netflix, 2016–present)”
Moderator: Gillian Gower
This program is made possible by the Joyce S. and Robert U. Nelson Fund. Robert Uriel Nelson was a revered musicologist and music professor at UCLA, who, together with his wife, established a generous endowment for the university to make programs like this possible.