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 allow 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:
- John J. Sheinbaum, “Nostalgia, Regret, and Musical Structure in Bruce Springsteen’s “Racing in the Street”
- Joshua Duchan, “From ‘Souvenir’ to ‘Famous Last Words’: The Sound of Nostalgia in the Music of Billy Joel”
- Caitlin Vaughn Carlos, "The Aging of Youth Culture in the time of Future Shock: Youth, Fantasy, and Nostalgia in Early Seventies Rock"
Moderator: Tiffany Naiman
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.