1. Theorizing musical nostalgia

Many different subfields of music theory and musicology have theorized about how musical nostalgia is created. One way we can understand musical nostalgia is through empirical studies undertaken by music cognitionists. For example, music cognitionists have discovered that “one of the most frequently mentioned functions of music in daily life [by survey participants] is as a reminder of a valued past event.”Footnote ⁶ In other words, regular people use music in their everyday life to purposely feel nostalgia—for example, by listening to “our song,” the song that a couple danced to on their first date or at their wedding.

While this tells us that listeners might commonly use music to purposefully evoke nostalgic feelings, it does not actually tell us about the mechanics behind how this transfer of emotion may be accomplished between music and listeners. However, a 2016 study attempted to purposefully evoke nostalgia and autobiographical memories in listeners in a new manner, and in the process revealed one of these transference mechanisms.Footnote ⁷ Previously, scientists attempted to invoke nostalgia in listeners in empirical studies by playing randomized self-selected popular songs from a participant’s past (the participant had previously ranked the songs as holding nostalgic meaning to them). However, the 2016 study undertook a novel methodology. First, listeners entered three songs that made them feel nostalgic into the music website Pandora; the website then created a personalized “station” of seven songs that were similar to the three songs that the participants entered. Listeners were much more likely to rate the Pandora-selected songs as “moderately high” to “very high” in evoking nostalgia, a rate much higher than past studies.

What does this mean? Fascinatingly, this study implies that not only do memory-laden songs, which are—on some level—personal for an individual, evoke nostalgic emotions (again, think of “our song”), but that stylistically similar songs (as determined by an internet music website) do as well. This implies that there could be a relationship between more general musical style characteristics (i.e., songs similar in genre and time period) and nostalgia evocation. In plainer language, songs similar to “our song” may be nearly as effective as introducing nostalgia in a listener as the original “our song” itself.

Other subfields of music theory and musicology have come to similar conclusions, albeit in a less scientific and more philosophical way. For example, musicologist Stuart Feder has analyzed American composer Charles Ives’s use of multiple music quotations (or “musical borrowings” as they are often called in musicology) as creating perhaps the “most concentrated work of nostalgia” in the composer’s output.Footnote ⁸ Most importantly, Feder notes that not only are several American folk songs directly quoted (such as “My Old Kentucky Home” and “The Battle Cry of Freedom”), but there are also musical fragments in the composer’s song that “sound as if they ought to be portions of old tunes,” and that these musical fragments are just as effective at evoking nostalgia by alluding to bygone genres of music as the actual musical quotations themselves.Footnote ⁹

Essentially, both musicologists who are dedicated to more theoretical and philosophical methodologies and music cognitionists who focus more on the replicability and empiricism of the scientific method seem to agree on at least one thing: musical nostalgia can be evoked in listeners not only solely from listening to a specific song with which a listener may have associated personal memories or feelings, but also from songs like those more specific personal songs. Put differently, musical stylistic allusion—not a direct musical quotation but an explicit reference to a more general style or type of music—may effectively induce nostalgic feelings in engaged listeners.Footnote ¹⁰

2. Nostalgia in The Life of a Showgirl

“Opalite”—track three of Swift’s new album—may induce nostalgia in listeners not because it directly quotes from a particular song of the past (although it arguably does this as well, as I will explore below), but because it stylistically alludes to dated musical genres of the past, such as doo-wop and 1960s rock. According to Swift, “‘Opalite’ is a song about forgiving yourself for having gone through something that didn’t pan out the way you wanted it to. It’s giving yourself permission to not have it all figured out or not marry the first person you ever dated.”Footnote ¹¹ If we accept Swift’s explanation, the song is—timewise—backward-directed, pertaining to self-reflection and the pondering of past mistakes in romantic relationships.

It is perhaps appropriate for a song about dwelling on the past to include musical references to the past as well. In the chorus of “Opalite,” the song suddenly switches gears, pivoting from a modern pop style to a stylistic allusion to doo-wop, a style of music associated with the 1950s and early 1960s in which a “variety of onomatopoetic vocal phrases” were sung by “various back-up singers executed in syncopation with their lead singers.”Footnote ¹² The genre originated in African-American communities (think of groups like the Mills Brothers and the Teenagers), and was taken up by white singers in the early 1950s (think of groups like the Skyliners or the Four Seasons).

Several salient musical parameters combine to form this stylistic allusion, which first begins in the song’s chorus (0:54–1:25).Footnote ¹³ First, the chord progression is a variation of the “50s progression,” which was commonly used in doo-wop.Footnote ¹⁴ Aspects of timbre (pronounced “tam-brrr”)—the characteristics of tone quality of a certain instrument, sound, or voice—also contribute. For example, the bass guitar has been turned up loudly in the mix during the chorus, which also helps to reinforce the 50s progression, and there is a shimmery harp sound at 1:19, played by either an omnichord or a synthesizer, which contributes to a vintage soundscape.Footnote ¹⁵ Finally, and perhaps most marked, the unvoiced “oh, oh, oh, oh” sung by Swift herself is highly characteristic of the doo-wop genre.

The song’s bridge (2:43–3:20) also paints a stylistic allusion to doo-wop. The 50s progression continues, as do the unvoiced “ohs” (although these are descending in pitch instead of ascending). The subject matter of the text suddenly changes to that of a love song, as Swift addresses her beloved: “I can bring you love, love, love, love.” Love-song subject matter was typical of the doo-wop style, and doo-wop songs often directly addressed the speaker’s beloved in the song’s bridge, similar to what Swift is doing in “Opalite.” Perhaps most obvious, however, is the music sung during the “love” text (starting at 3:09). Swift outlines a dominant seventh chord, a chord that creates tension and demands the need for release, on the word “love.” She does this in a manner that directly borrows from the bridge of the Beatles’s “Twist and Shout,” a rock n’ roll song from 1963, itself a cover of a song by the Isley Brothers. Swift’s quotation in “Opalite” alludes to a more doo-wop style than the Beatles, thanks to the sudden switch to a vocal acapella style, another hallmark of doo-wop.

In “Opalite,” Swift is able to evoke nostalgia in her listeners by harkening back to a distinctive “vintage” musical soundscape, largely based on doo-wop. Listeners are brought from the present moment into the past, not only based on the text (which supports my arguments), but also because of the song’s musical parameters in its chorus and bridge, which combine to form a clear stylistic allusion to the doo-wop genre.

It should be mentioned that “Opalite” is not the only song to evoke nostalgia in The Life of a Showgirl, although other songs use visual and text cues to accomplish this. “The Fate of Ophelia” possesses a modern pop soundscape, but its music video nostalgically depicts “showgirl” eras of the past, such as premodern theatrical acting, Vegas showgirl performances of the twentieth century, and Busby Berkeley screen acting of the 1930s and 1940s. “Elizabeth Taylor” references the famous actress whose career peaked in the 1960s and early 1970s, while “Father Figure” borrows its text inspiration from the song of the same title by George Michael, who wrote major hits during the 1980s and early 1990s.Footnote ¹⁶ It could be perhaps argued that much of The Life of a Showgirl album serves this backward-looking, nostalgia-evoking function.

3. Connecting to nostalgia in American culture

In a recent interview, Swift said, “our goal is as entertainers to be a mirror.”Footnote ¹⁷ Swift was responding to album criticism while making this statement, but perhaps we could interpret her words more broadly, in terms of American culture. Many scholars have noted that aspects of modern American culture look toward the past; for example, modern furniture and home décor have trended toward the mid-twentieth century for the past several years, while TV show and movie remakes and sequels have dominated the big screen.Footnote ¹⁸ Nostalgia has even played a prominent role in recent American politics (“make America great again”). The reasons for why nostalgia is dominating contemporary culture are the subject of a much larger discussion than the current essay, but in the present work, I have simply argued that Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl is part of this nostalgia-inducing trend.

The question of why Swift herself chose to write an album rooted in musical, textual, and visual references to the past is a fascinating one. It’s unclear if the vintage musical soundscape of “Opalite” is solely Swift’s choice; more likely, it’s also the direct influence of the album’s producers, Max Martin and Shellback. It is the author’s opinion that Swift (and her production team) are always up to date with the latest trends, and certainly nostalgia and looking back to the past are trendy in the United States currently. One could therefore read this trend toward nostalgia simply, as Swift (and her music) are but a product of our current milieu. Or, one could read this trend slightly more complexly (and perhaps more interestingly!) as a deliberate choice to purposefully force her listeners into a soundscape of the past. Why? Perhaps as, essentially, a giant marketing ploy: a way of deliberately connecting with listeners’ fashionable longing for the past. This creates a sense of familiarity and comfort and therefore increases listeners’ liking and enjoyment of the album, potentially increasing sales of albums and merchandise.

It remains to be seen whether Swift’s trend toward nostalgia is here to stay, or if it’s a more fleeting fad. For now, our best bet as listeners is to settle down and cocoon ourselves in Swift’s rich soundscape of the past.