Photo Credit: Kyle Loftus

Across multiple countries and generations, music – and especially music videos – is the “ultimate driving force of nostalgia,” outranking film, television, gaming, and more, according to a new study of media-consumption attitudes.

Said study comes from Vevo, which surveyed 1,800 “general population consumers” in connection with a just-released report entitled “Then Is Now: A Study on Modern Nostalgia.”

Responses were divided evenly among three markets (the U.S., the U.K., and Australia) and three generations (Gen X, millennial, and Gen Z), with 600 participants falling into each of the categories.

All told, 88% of respondents described music as well-suited to fuel nostalgia, followed by 81% for film, 80% for television, 50% for gaming, and 41% for sports. And within the music category, music videos (68%) were found to “drive nostalgic feelings more than any other format,” against a 59% share for straight audio tracks and 50% for live performance videos.

By genre, pop was deemed “the most universally nostalgic genre,” with a 48% affirmative-response share for Gen Z, 51% for millennials, and 58% for Gen X. Hip-hop’s corresponding percentages came in at 48%, 43%, and 22%, and concerningly, younger generations shortchanged rock with its respective 25%, 38%, and 58% percentages.

Of course, nostalgia isn’t static; it won’t be too long before Gen Alpha looks back on the present through rose-colored glasses. (Quick, someone capture a music video documenting the early days of AI’s rise, before the robots take over and begin calling the shots.)

To be sure, Gen Z’s nostalgia “sweet spot” is in the 2000s and 2010s, compared to the 90s and 00s for millennials and then the 70s and 80s for Gen X, according to the report. In other words, the public’s thirst for nostalgia spans many decades; Vevo also explored the prevalence of “borrowed nostalgia” for periods that one didn’t experience firsthand.

Admittedly, the findings, though worthwhile, don’t come as a revelation. But they are interesting from the perspective of broader consumption and investment trends.

Catalog music, referring to that which released over 18 months back, continues to command the lion’s share of on-demand streaming consumption, for instance.

This definitely hasn’t been lost on investors, who are still pouring billions into song rights. In keeping with Vevo’s findings – and as summed up by DMN Pro’s Music IP Acquisition Tracker – legacy acts certainly aren’t alone in selling their bodies of work.

Rather, a number of professionals in their 30s and 40s have likewise opted to cash in on their catalogs – decisions that could prove regrettable in the approaching decades. Additionally, that well-established acts are capitalizing on nostalgia to achieve largescale touring success isn’t a secret.