One of the greatest joys a person can experience is the warm feeling they get from reminiscing their youth. This makes perfect sense when we consider what youth for most of us represents. Memories of many firsts such as first kiss, first car, first girlfriend/boyfriend. We also invoke images of health, vigor, innocence and a more care free life.
Nostalgia is defined as a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. One of my favorite techniques to invoke nostalgia is to use name dropping. There's only so much you can accomplish with parodies of older songs you grew up with and often copyright infringement can become an issue. The use of NAMES is quite different though. You can cross a wide expanse of generations and genres that are widely recognizable yet not incur any legal hassles by using the popularity of an artist or song.
OK, so here comes the part where I do shameless self promotion to display this technique.
Did it bring you a nostalgic feeling? =)
