these are just marketing terms
i dont think any of them actually care about historical accuracy
Reminds me of the debate about what’s defined as girl crush and what isn’t. There’s supposedly even a difference between badass concept and girl crush concept.
I feel like their concept relays more on Korean nostalgia hence their fashion taking inspiration directly from the late 90's early 2000's
In current times, pop culture tends to get nostalgic about previous decades, so you'll see trends from all sorts of decades being implemented.
It goes on a 20-30 year cycle and has been kicking since at least early 70's, when movies like Grease tapped into 50's Nostalgia, which carried through the 80's as well. Movies like Back to the Future and even Edward Scissorhands (though 1990) played with the nostalgic looks and fashions of the 50's and early 60's.
The 1990's started into the later 60's. The Beatles had a revival in popularity, as did stuff like The Brady Bunch, Flintstones, Looney Tunes, Austin Powers (which then leant into 70's nostalgia) etc. Holy shit, did Austin Powers help drive late 60's nostalgia.
Later 1990's and early 2000's leant into the 70's. Abba nostalgia, Disco and disco remixes, That 70's show. There's some argument to be made that the "futuristic" look and feel of the new millennium had some inspiration from 70's disco fashion. The "hippy" look had really big moments in the 90's and early 00's as well. Flares had a comeback, flower power stuff, even the rebirth of certain kinds of music festival trying to recreate Woodstock.
And so on and so on. The constant cycle of movie remakes for older properties is a huge part of this.
I find it interesting the grunge, which was a huge part of the early 90's, never had a really big nostalgia moment in the sun though.
Once the Internet took off, it allowed the Nostalgia Cycle to speed up a bit, as it did become easier for people to "reminisce" about the old days, and much easier find things online that were actually upload in those days. The whole Pokemon thing, especially cards, is deeply rooted in 90's nostalgia.
Whats interesting is that while Nostalgia Cycles are kicked off and driven by people who were children in the era and had memories of it, it also get's picked up by people that weren't even alive in that era. It's through that lens that the "nostalgia" starts getting blurred, and things that aren't quite accurate get included. We see that with New Jeans and their younger fans getting in Y2K aesthetic.
Also, theres now the idea of double up nostalgia cycles, where people become nostalgic for say the 80's, and because of that, also end up crashing into 50's/60's nostalgia as well and some of that then folds in.
Display MoreIt goes on a 20-30 year cycle and has been kicking since at least early 70's, when movies like Grease tapped into 50's Nostalgia, which carried through the 80's as well. Movies like Back to the Future and even Edward Scissorhands (though 1990) played with the nostalgic looks and fashions of the 50's and early 60's.
The 1990's started into the later 60's. The Beatles had a revival in popularity, as did stuff like The Brady Bunch, Flintstones, Looney Tunes, Austin Powers (which then leant into 70's nostalgia) etc. Holy shit, did Austin Powers help drive late 60's nostalgia.
Later 1990's and early 2000's leant into the 70's. Abba nostalgia, Disco and disco remixes, That 70's show. There's some argument to be made that the "futuristic" look and feel of the new millennium had some inspiration from 70's disco fashion. The "hippy" look had really big moments in the 90's and early 00's as well. Flares had a comeback, flower power stuff, even the rebirth of certain kinds of music festival trying to recreate Woodstock.
And so on and so on. The constant cycle of movie remakes for older properties is a huge part of this.
I find it interesting the grunge, which was a huge part of the early 90's, never had a really big nostalgia moment in the sun though.
Once the Internet took off, it allowed the Nostalgia Cycle to speed up a bit, as it did become easier for people to "reminisce" about the old days, and much easier find things online that were actually upload in those days. The whole Pokemon thing, especially cards, is deeply rooted in 90's nostalgia.
Whats interesting is that while Nostalgia Cycles are kicked off and driven by people who were children in the era and had memories of it, it also get's picked up by people that weren't even alive in that era. It's through that lens that the "nostalgia" starts getting blurred, and things that aren't quite accurate get included. We see that with New Jeans and their younger fans getting in Y2K aesthetic.
Also, theres now the idea of double up nostalgia cycles, where people become nostalgic for say the 80's, and because of that, also end up crashing into 50's/60's nostalgia as well and some of that then folds in.
Wow, this is insightful and intriguing to me. I could talk about this for a while.
South Korea took interest in "high teen" style for quite some time. The concept is what you'd see in '90s American sitcoms about American teenagers and young adults. Somi, STAYC, and Weeekly are just a few names who partook in this. Eventually, Koreans' interest evolved into Y2K and McBling, what we're seeing today.
Kids of the future will probably look at our fashion choices today as "2020s style" even though our fashion is heavily influenced by decades of the past. Someone out there will look at our current favorite groups the way we see groups of the past. It's fun to think about.
Good point about the Internet. It seems multiple eras can "come back" at once and overlap. I've seen today's teenagers emulate emo, punk, and goth looks that were popular in the 2000s. Others opt for other aesthetics.
Even the Wild West aesthetic of the 1800s got picked up by some K-pop groups in recent years. I've seen it integrated into modern fashion as well.
My next point is that TikTok helped revive songs from previous decades. We've seen users remix old songs, adapting them to current times.
There's a lot to talk about, but basically, we're experiencing something of an overload when it comes to retro aesthetics thanks to the Internet.
wow, I feel old.
Terrible, terrible time for fashion, mc bling.
Everything IMO was awful. Low waist jeans, thing stilettos, tiny purses... sigh.
Can't wait for the naughties to be popular again so we can go back to ribbons and some lace and fringes.
Can't wait for emo phase in K-pop!
It’s Japanese Y2K. Not American
First, what I didn't get until I looked at a "What is y2k" post on /r/kpophelp is that y2k is a very specific subculture like goth, punk, or rave, not a time period of around 2000. So if you aren't a member of that culture, you would probably have a very narrow idea of what it looks like (E.g. rave = rainbow accessories, glowy stuff, beads, and fur leg warmers) and only know the most popularized elements.
Second, like some other people said, in some cases k-pop could be using "y2k" as a generic, not too defined keyword like girl crush or "refreshing concept". But also, during aespa's Savage showcase, they called the Hallucination quest concept photos "y2k" and I think it's kinda accurate (I wouldn't know) so in many cases they could be using it non generically.
Third. I am sure average people would be able to correctly identify aesthetics/fashion styles if they looked at the ideal, ultimate version examples like the ones in your OP and the articles. But NewJeans/kpop groups have a mix of styles (not 1 specific thing) and might change a lot every comeback/photo shoot so it is kind of hard to say they are specifically 1 thing.
Later 1990's and early 2000's leant into the 70's. Abba nostalgia, Disco and disco remixes, That 70's show. There's some argument to be made that the "futuristic" look and feel of the new millennium had some inspiration from 70's disco fashion. The "hippy" look had really big moments in the 90's and early 00's as well. Flares had a comeback, flower power stuff, even the rebirth of certain kinds of music festival trying to recreate Woodstock.
Is that why I wore tie dye shirts and peace signs when I was young? XD
NJ also have 90's b-boy era hip hop styling in there as well, it's clearly a mix of multiple aesthetics depending on the shoot
Then isn't it just like every k-pop group that has clothes that match the song or the music video and the clothes are kind of a secondary aspect (in most cases), I feel like people are greatly overcomplicating things by analyzing the fashion influences, it just fits the song
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