A popular era full of fashion, games, and music has been making a fast return over these past few years. Vintage styles and retro items, such as record players and clothes, are gaining more attention as teens discover old trends from around the 1950s-1980s.
One of the most popular retro items is the record player. The way the world listens to music has changed significantly over the years as technology has advanced. However, even with these changes teens seem to be going back to using record players, cassette tapes, iPods, and CD players to listen to their favorite songs. While apps like Spotify and Apple Music offer a fast and easy way to play music whenever and wherever, the sound quality is arguably worse. CDs and records offer a sound that is uncompressed and unique to vinyls, the sound being fuller and more detailed than when just streaming music. With younger generations discovering this change in music quality, many people have turned back to using these retro ways to listen to music.
Ava Manchillo, a sophomore, shared, “After getting a record player, I quickly realized the difference in audio. The sound is definitely better than it is when you’re just streaming a song from your phone.”
Photography has been rising in popularity, and with it, old polaroids and retro cameras are appearing on wish lists. Small vintage film, polaroid, and early digital point-and-shoot cameras are an item many teens have begun to carry around with them once again. Offering a quick way to print mini polaroid pictures with nostalgic prints and unique colors, many people are taking more interest in these older cameras over the newer modern ones.
Retro fashion styles are also making a huge comeback this year. Y2K , a nostalgic style from the 1990s as well as the early 2000s, is one of these popular styles consisting of bright colors, denim, graphic tees, fun patterns, etc. Low rise jeans, baby tees, crop tops, tube tops, halter tops, chunky platform sandals, butterfly clips, and more are some of the clothing styles that have been brought back over the years. Teens commonly seem to mix newer modern styles with these older vintage styles.
Kendall Reynolds, a senior, said, “I have noticed an insurgence in the Y2K styles comeback. I personally love things from the styles such as graphic tees, denim jeans or anything denim, and I am big on hair clips to put my hair up. I am also incredibly happy about us bringing back the retro trends an items.”
Items and decor like retro clocks and modern mid-century furniture are being seen once again. People have begun to style their homes in a more retro style featuring things such as 1940s and 1950s kitchenware, old collectables, vintage technology, tactile wall art, and chrome accents. This continues to show the popularity of the retro style.
Over the last couple of years the retro style has become popularized once again, as teens discover the style and items that were around during this popular era.
Photo Credit: Lily Shiltz
