| Cafe Coffee Hanyak-bang in Euljiro Street. Korea Times photo by Jung Hae-myoung |
'New retro' captivates millennials
By Jung Hae-myoung
A 26-year-old student surnamed Park takes photos with her vintage film camera and gives them out to her friends.
Park enjoys wearing old clothes worn by her mother some 20 years ago. She also likes to discover new cafes and restaurants in Seochon and Ikseon-dong that house many cafes in renovated hanok (Korean traditional houses).
“Trying things that my parents or grandparents did when they were younger makes me feel warm. Using the antique items allows me to think affectionately about how they lived back then,” Park said.
“New retro” has been popular among millennials. It is different from “retro” in that people not only treasure antiques but also try to recreate them.
For millennials there is a charm in operating unfamiliar objects from the 1980s. The older generation is familiar with and nostalgic about the objects, but the same items are a source of wonder for the digital generation who grew up online.
Kim Joon-young, 24, recently found his grandfather's old camera and decided to breathe new life into it. “I am attracted by the time-consuming process of taking and developing photos in an analogue way,” Kim said.
Some millennials recreate old, worn books, songs with hissing noises and faded films.
The current retro fad began in 2012 when cable network tvN's hit drama “Reply 1988” was airing. The TV series depicted the lifestyle of teenagers back in 1988. After “Reply 1988,” the popular “Reply 1997” and “Reply 1994” captivated the viewers.
A retro boom was created among the public in the wake of the hit "Reply" series.
“The media depicts the 1980s as a decade full of humanism. This affected the millennials' way of thinking of the past decades. People in their 20s, who didn't exist in the 1980s, view the decade positively, believing unlike today, people back then were warm, humanistic and relaxed as they had no worries about getting jobs,” Lim Hee-soo, a research fellow at the 20s Lab of Daehaknaeil, told The Korea Times.
| Entrance of Coffee Hanyakbang. Korea Times photo by Jung Hae-myoung |
“Their perception of the 1980s is in a stark contrast to the cruel competition that is underway nowadays. People no longer care about others and youth unemployment is a serious problem.”
Some experts say the retro wave originates from “people's tendency to find comfort in the past.” Thus the retro phenomenon is somewhat passive. But the new retro phenomenon is much more than thinking about the “good old days” in that people are trying to recreate old things into new ones.
“New retro is different from simple retro. While the retro trend in general is a reflection of the older generation, for example those in their 40s and 50s, about how society was when they were younger, the new retro is a phenomenon among teenagers and people in their twenties,” said Yoon Deuk-hwan, an executive of MacroMil Research company.
Jung Ji-won, author of “Branding out of Context” and the founder of J& Brand, said some restaurants and cafes successfully used the New Retro trend in their marketing by keeping the old hardware and used cutting-edge digital technology in delivering services.
“The older generation finds comfort and becomes nostalgic when they think about the past, but millennials look beyond the aesthetic aspect of antique products. The antiques are a source of inspiration for millennials,” said Jung.
According to a survey conducted by Tillion Pro, 71.7 percent of 400 people in their 20s to 50s responded positively to retro-style objects and retro-themed restaurants. Thirty-five percent said it is refreshing and 32 percent said it is cool.
| Milk bottle sold during the 1980s in Korea. Korea Times photo by Jung Hae-myoung |
New retro is in vogue in the culture industry worldwide.
It started a couple of years ago in countries in Europe and then in the United States. Millennials, regardless of their nationalities, share a similar taste because they are the generation of Instagram and Netflix.
While the retro style “Reply” series was a big hit in Korea, “Stranger Things,” aired on Netflix in 2016, was a sensation with young people. It features vintage clothes, colorful sweaters, old pop music and handheld game consoles from the 1980s.
“This Is Us,” aired on NBC in 2016, also shares the new retro code. The background jumps from 2018 to the 1980s, back and forth, telling the story of 30-year-old triplets overlapped with their parents' story of 30 years ago.
In Korea, the new retro trend is evident in underground culture. Pop music, television programs, restaurants, and branded fashion brought it to the mainstream when the number became large enough to target.
On March 18, singer Baek Ye-rin and indie rock band Jannabi, both far from the highly sought-after K-pop style, have swept the music charts on seven music streaming websites, and even had their past songs return to the charts. Music critics point out the popularity of Baek is unique in that “she has increased her fandom with music that is not mainstream pop.”
Radios are another retro object that has been revived. tvN, a Korean cable broadcast, has launched a new reality program called “Show, Audio Jockey!” on March 17. The cast runs radio programs which are then made into an episode for the TV show.
The new retro trend is related to embracing variety in a society where all kinds of people including minorities and elementary students can become content creators.
“Today's culture is all about sharing content among ordinary people, including those who were often marginalized in society,” researcher Yoon Deuk-hwan said. “In the past, only development was emphasized and looking back into the past was deemed abnormal. So was retro culture.”
However, abnormal is the new normal now. For millennials, abnormality has become a source of uniqueness and individuality.
“New retro is not just having fun with old objects, but looking for rare old objects. Searching for old film cameras and vinyl records that are not distributed anymore are part of the same context,” Yoon said.
New retro reflects the main thoughts of millennials, in which they no longer feel the need to follow the mainstream of society, but embrace being a minority to find their unique personality.