Nicstalgia Nicstalgia

Ana from This Must Be Pop is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We discuss how the music of boy bands have been overlooked in music history, how This Must Be Pop was developed through a feminist lens, reframing the whole idea of what being a “fangirl” or “fanboy” means, and legitimizing the fandom space by not diminishing the viewpoint of primarily young girls and the LGBTQ+ community.

When it comes to boy bands, there are soooo many dichotomies to unpack!! We dive deep on the reconciliation of being rich (well, depending on who your management is) and famous vs. exploitation and rejecting a a superficial, manufactured, crafted image with stifled individuality.

Ana and I talk about BSB and *NSYNC musically, commercially, and how you can’t really compare them the way we did in the 90s-00s. We ponder important questions: Why can fandoms be resistant to change? What if Howie was in Menudo? What would have happened to JC Chasez’s solo career had he had the label support Justin did? Do we really need all of these reunions? What does the future of fandom look like?

About our Guest Ana is a music journalist as well as the creator and host of "This Must Be Pop", a podcast that tries to shake us from the social stigma surrounding boybands by legitimizing the fan experience and showcasing the legitimately great music and talent of boybands.

Connect with Our Guest
Instagram

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TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack

Special Thanks 💖
Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_
Theme Music by @egmusicnyc
Intro Video by @valentinareyes9

YouTube CC available in English and Español
Episode Transcript

In this solo episode, we are doing whatever the opposite is of taking a walk down memory lane. I share with you my lifestyle, fashion/2010s revival, and tech trend predictions for 2023. We’re due for a 2020s version of wine/paint bars. Pickleball? Grandma stuff? Mushroom bags? I’m here for it. Will we see a resurgence of business casual, going out tops, or the perfect combination of the two: peplum tops?? Dare I mention…side parts? Giant Bakers-esque 6” platform stilettos? It’s time for a new generation to risk it all (namely, a sprained ankle) trying to leave the house. (Shoutout to the Diffusion of Innovations and my retail career for making this episode possible.)

Do younger generations ultimately just end up turning into their parents’ generations? Is ChatGPT for Gen Alpha just Wikipedia for Millennials? Is the -verse coming for us? (Taco Bell-verse will have us at bay.) I talk about web3, the next iteration of the internet based on ownership, and dig into what the future looks like for content creators and influencers as the breakdown of social media as we know it begins to unfold. What does content production and distribution look like when we center creators rather than platforms? I share what I think is going to happen to influencers and creators of different sizes based on the current web2 (social media) landscape, the tools that can facilitate positive change so we’re not a bunch of burnt out robots, and advice for fellow nano influencers. (TLDR: don’t trust an algorithm lol.) Nicstalgia had 41 episodes in 2022 – thank you for coming along for the ride!

Connect with Nic
TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack

Special Thanks 💖
Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_
Theme Music by @egmusicnyc
Intro Video by @valentinareyes9

YouTube CC available in English and Español
Episode Transcript

Andy Frye is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We chat about his book, Ninety Days In The 90s, the vibrant Chicago music scene, and how changes in popular culture are actually more gradual than we make them out to be in hindsight.

Andy talk about what he was able to discover in the late 80s and early 90s, contrary to radio pop and hair metal dominating the airwaves at the time. We dive into the quintessential Gen X topics: mix tapes, zines, the emergence of college and independent radio, and the age-old idea of being a ‘sellout’. How can you avoid betraying your ideals while still growing as an artist? Are Gen X authentic to a fault?

We explore the commodification of music, when concert tickets got super expensive, the best interviews Andy has conducted as a writer.

About our Guest
ANDY FRYE has written for Rolling Stone, ESPN, Chicago Tribune, and other publications. Currently, he writes about sports business for Forbes. Over his career, Andy has interviewed hundreds of professional athletes, rock stars and other celebrities. Among the bands and solo artists he has interviewed are Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, Morrissey, Jimmy Eat World, Rage Against The Machine, and Alice In Chains.

Connect with Our Guest
Twitter 〰 Instagram

Connect with Nic
TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack

Special Thanks 💖
Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_
Theme Music by @egmusicnyc
Intro Video by @valentinareyes9

YouTube CC available in English and Español
Episode Transcript

Nicole Randone from Misss2005 is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. This episode goes to show that Millennials and Gen Z have more in common than the internet makes it out to be. We talk about collecting physical media from the 2000s, experiencing the motorola rzr for the first time, my unhinged Mercari emails, and creating “authentic” yet ‘nowstalgic’ 2000s content. Is getting Starbucks at Target the equivalent of going to the gas station in the 2000s? If you’re looking forward to ‘just cracking up’ (shoutout to Jake Thomas), you will love this episode.

**Please note that Nicole has met Chad Michael Murray IRL since the time of this recording!!! We chat about One Tree Hill, A Cinderella Story, my Hilary Duff sighting, John Tucker Must Die, vintage Abercrombie & Fitch lace camis (my fashion degree comes out in full force lol), and blinged out Playboy bunny necklaces. We tap into the evolution of technology and content creation in the future, how we basically live in [the DCOM] Smart House, and if Nicole can really remember a time in life without technology.

About our Guest Nicole is an early 2000s content creator and influencer, most commonly referred to online as Miss 2005! Nicole has dedicated herself to using the past to bring happiness to the present.

Connect with Our Guest
TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 YouTube

Connect with Nic
TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack

Special Thanks 💖
Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_
Theme Music by @egmusicnyc
Intro Video by @valentinareyes9

YouTube CC available in English and Español Episode Transcript

Fabiola Larios, Gremlin, and Vivian Fu are featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We talk about making a critical statement through subversive glitter art, Dollz, cute internet sounds (what glitter sounds like), and early digital technology.

We dive deep on social media and identity, exploring how digital personas evolve, how social media became a romanticized performance, and the psyops behind manufactured illusions of vulnerability. Turns out, photo dumps, making songs in your bedroom, and crying on TikTok aren’t “authentic” after all. (Let it be known that Vivian started “dumpage theory”, dissecting performative ugliness online.)

We get into the psychology of the internet and optics of surveillance capitalism, looking at people as statistics in order to sell to them, and the lengths creators, influencers, and people with public-facing personalities on the internet will go to in order to be seen. We think about how to approach being online heuristically, where critical thinking, research, and media literacy help people discern what they see.

Whether you’re a creator or consumer of content, you’ll enjoy the candidness of our discourse around internalizing and rejecting the “influencer” moniker, having self-worth and acceptance as a creator, how to not care about algorithms, and dealing with the pressure of being ~always online~. Our heads are already in the future, thinking about how artificial intelligence (AI) impacts the creative process and how web3 will disrupt web2 economies of scale, aka. how musicians will make money from their work instead of the streaming/social platforms.

About our Guests
Fabiola defines herself as a Net Art AI Internet Glitter Artist, her work is about the representation of the self on the Internet, the vulnerability of personal data, and our digital footprint focusing on surveillance with digital and physical objects.

Gremlin is a Los-Angeles based creator who specializes in digital audio art. She makes pop music under the name Boule Goes Boing and creates experimental generative audio as gremlin_bb. When she’s not making music, Gremlin interviews web3 creators for Rusty Rollers Radio on Twitter and acts as a Category Lead for the web3 networking group Friends with Benefits. She loves analog synthesizers and heavy 808s.

Vivian is some girl who was once on tumblr but now works in tech.

Connect with Our Guests
Fabiola: Twitter 〰 Instagram

Gremlin: Twitter 〰 Instagram

Vivian: Twitter 〰 Instagram

Connect with Nic
TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack

Special Thanks 💖
Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_
Theme Music by @egmusicnyc
Intro Video by @valentinareyes9

YouTube CC available in English and Español
Episode Transcript

Nikki Pebbles is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. Can the conversation about thongs ever really end??? No. Talking ~in depth~ about hiding your bedazzled and embellished Mandee’s, Weathervane, Wet Seal, Rave, and Rave Girl thongs from your mom. Did Nikki have her first kiss at a Harry Potter movie, wearing Jessica Simpson’s edible dessert line? Yes, of course she did. (Lorraine just knew.) Shout out to Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

We talk about AIM away message/bio drama, dating someone in 8th grade and not only not talking to them but actively avoiding them in the hallway, school locker anxiety, and dealing with being cyber-bullied as the first generation of kids on the internet.

We play “Shake It Fast, Watch Yourself” (inspired by the Mystikal song, naturally), where Nikki picks between two songs from my Middle School Dance Spotify playlist. Nikki and I share our favorite high school prom songs and the synchronicities between our childhood selves.

Middle School Dance Playlist on Spotify
Middle School Dance Culture Nicstalgia episode with Nicole & Nikki on YouTube

Connect with Nikki
TikTok 〰 Instagram

Connect with Nic
TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack

Special Thanks 💖
Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_
Theme Music by @egmusicnyc
Intro Video by @valentinareyes9

YouTube CC available in English and Español
Episode Transcript