Nostalgic use of music from Final Fantasy in different contexts.
What is it about?
This paper looks at the way music from the Final Fantasy video game series is used in other contexts like fans learning to play the music on their own instruments, or as part of the soundtrack to Netflix show Dad of Light. It argues that when people get together to share new ways of interacting with this music, they aren’t being nostalgic for the game itself or trying to get back to the past. Instead, they are taking a feeling they associate with a time in their life when the music was meaningful to them, and they are using the music to link that feeling with something that’s happening in their lives now. So, winning a boss fight in Final Fantasy might have a similar feeling of success to completing a difficult work project. Playing the victory music from the game is a way of linking those two moments of feeling successful together.
Why is it important?
This is a new and different way of thinking about media and nostalgia.