In recent years, I’ve watched as my peers and I have expanded our playlists and our music taste, reaching more than just the top hits of the moment. I’ve watched my own listening adapt to music from the 2000s, and then continuously expand back to tunes from the 50s and 60s. When my “Spotify Wrapped” of 2025 came out and my “Listening Age” was 65, I wondered what made music from a time that I wasn’t even alive so appealing to the young people around me and myself.
From what I’ve seen, the most influential factor in this rise of old music has been social media. As time passes, I see more and more Instagram posts using music from the generation before us, from Amy Winehouse to The Temptations. While scrolling on Instagram Reels, videos will be covers of Joni Mitchell or will be dancing to the music from Neil Young. Social media has revamped the usage of older songs in the digital world, and because so many young people spend multiple hours a day scrolling, the exposure to older music has surged. As more of my friends have used these songs for their posts, I’ve been able to discover older songs that I didn’t know before and immediately add them to my playlist of “oldies.”
The most love I’ve seen in recent years for an artist from before our time has been the praise and rise in listening of Fleetwood Mac. While Fleetwood Mac is deemed to be one of the best bands of all time, it’s so astonishing to see a band from the 1970s be so prominent in Gen Z culture. I’ve seen my friends use Fleetwood Mac songs on social media, in the car and I’ve watched as the band’s vinyls and CDs have made their way on the shelves of Target and highlighted at music shops everywhere. As a Fleetwood Mac fan myself, I feel that the band’s lyrics and style are raw and emotional, where current-day music can feel shallow at times. On the other hand, anything that ties me to the effortlessness and coolness of Stevie Nicks is something I want to be part of. Fleetwood Mac’s music has unique sounds and melodies that aren’t synthesized or enhanced by modern-day technology, making the music feel real and personal.
The biggest reason that I started listening to music from the past was the connection to my family’s lives from when they were my age. I started listening to Simon and Garfunkel from the late 60s to connect to what my dad would listen to when he was young. I listened to Patsy Cline from the 50s because I knew she was my great-grandma’s favorite. I listen to 90s country because that’s what my mom would listen to driving around in the car with her friends when she was a teenager. For me, it wasn’t random to start listening to older music. I looked for it to tie myself to the past of the people I love. I love being able to sing along with my mom in the car or feeling proud to listen to the same music that my great-grandma once loved.
Along with a rise in older music, I’ve seen this go hand in hand with a rise in young people buying physical media, like CDs and vinyl records. While we have streaming like Spotify, we’re still spending money to buy nostalgic pieces of the past. As someone who loves her record player, I like the feeling of being connected to something from years ago, something that existed before I was alive.
Vinyl records, along with old music in general, feel like a time capsule. Listening and experiencing things from a generation before our own is exciting and feels foreign to us. Creating a playlist of “oldies” opens the door to the past and allows us to walk through time with beats, tunes and lyrics that share experiences from years ago.
