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Sixteen-year-old Adhesh’s playlist features all the 2000s hits: A R Rahman’s kadhal sadugudu from Alaipayuthey, Yuvan’s loosu penne from Vallavan, and so on.
This does not seem to be an isolated trend. While new songs are dumped on the internet every single day, most of Gen Z seems to tune in and out. But what they keep going back to, it appears, is popular music from the 2000s, out of love for the rhythm and also to avoid FOMO (fear of missing out).
Instagram's overall aesthetic, which sets a standard for everything, is bringing back the “old aesthetic vibes” where Gen-Z is getting back to the early 2000s trends and reviving them.
"I listen to that music, especially as it has become a trend. I do not want to miss out on it when my friends are talking about it,” Adhesh says.
For example, the Malayalam number lajjavathiye by Jassie Gift, originally released in 2004, started becoming a trend again in 2023 on YouTube Shorts and TikTok. Gen Z has been catching on to such revivals, grooving to them. The re-release of blockbuster films and related social media buzz is adding to this momentum. Several recent films, like Vijay’s Leo, for example, also refer to old songs, which the new generation does not want to miss out on.
Millennials are on board, too. Several of those TNM spoke to say that these songs help them escape reality and go back to childhood and stress-free memories associated with them.
"I think that memory association or nostalgia is there for those old songs; with current songs, you're presently making memories. So obviously that nostalgic aspect is not there," says Antara, a 21-year-old student.
“Justin Bieber, for instance, is back on trend since his Coachella performance, and so ever since that, my Spotify is all Justin Bieber songs, and so it's on the top of my mind, but then I've gone back and listened to some of his earlier releases. So then, generally while scrolling, particularly on Instagram, the repetition brings it up to the top of my mind,” she adds.
Nostalgia is trending
Keshav (21) was introduced to the 2000s music by his parents. He says that songs from that time are played during drives with his parents, and that is how he grew fond of them.
For most Indian parents, the songs that they grew up with remain with them because of the beautiful memories they are associated with. Even in their adulthood, they keep listening to these songs and children who grow up around them, like Keshav, tend to pick up on this music.
The lo-fi beat music, a style of repackaging songs keeping small flaws like background noise, vinyl crackle, or tape hum, popularised during the 2020s, mostly features 2000s music. Several Gen Z youngsters listen to this while studying or to simply relax.
The research paper titled The Power of Nostalgia: Age and Preference for Popular Music says that "people do exhibit a preference for music released during their late adolescence/early adulthood. When targeting consumers of a narrow age demographic, music released during this time is more likely to be preferred than any other."
Swetha, 19, says that more than just nostalgia, these songs provide a sense of comfort that the newly released songs failed to. “There is a band called Sanam. They do covers of old Hindi songs by legendary singers like Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle, and Lata Mangeshkar; those songs actually cured the anxiety attacks that I get,” she says.
“The moment that I wake up, my father plays these songs. Initially, I used to hate them, but now it has become my routine too. It just feels like a home away from home when I am not in my parents’ house,” says 21-year-old Malavika.
Emaiya(20) added that her mother used to make her watch all the old, filmy Bollywood movies when she was a kid, and after she grew up, she started enjoying those films herself.
What becomes apparent from these testimonies is not just the role of social media in bringing Gen Z closer to old music. They are also very telling of a need to belong, to find a tether to their parents and their memories, that propel Gen Z to hold on to music from the 2000s, even as new chartbusters make their debut every day.
This story was written by a student interning with TNM.