Season 1 of Stranger Things was the beginning of Gen X Watch. It presented a compelling thought. Some of our nostalgia and trauma are intertwined in a beautiful dance.
In season one young Will Byers is missing. He is trapped in the Upside Down, a dark and mysterious realm coexisting with our own. It is dark and twisted and filled with monsters. The town of Hawkins, Indiana knows they have a missing child, but not about this supernatural realm intersecting with their own.
His older brother, Jonathan Byers is driving to his dad’s house in the hopes Will might be there. As he drives the radio in his car plays ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ by The Clash. Jonathan’s thoughts wander and the screen fades to a flashback.
Will and Jonathan are in the older brother’s bedroom sitting on the bed, facing the stereo as the same Clash song is playing. They are lost together in the song. Jonathon asks will if he really likes the music and Will says he does. Then the older brother tells him he is going to make Will a mix tape that will include this song.
Jonathon says ,”Joy Division, Bowie, Television, The Smiths. It’ll totally change your life!”
In the background you can hear the parents having an argument in the background. Jonathan sees Will reacting to it so he closes the bedroom door, and briefly turns down the music. He tells young Will that he shouldn’t feel the need to pretend to like things others do if they are not going to accept you for the things you like. Especially their father. He then cranks up the stereo volume.
The song becomes a touch point for the brothers and was instrumental in bringing Will home from the Upside Down
While trying to communicate with his mother while trapped in the Upside Down, Will manipulated the cassette player in his bedroom, which began to play “Should I Stay or Should I Go”.
Eleven later transmitted the sound of Will’s voice via radio as he weakly sang the lyrics of the song.
Will once again gently sang the lyrics of the song while resting just prior to being captured by the Monster.
In season 2 Will would find himself possessed by an entity called the Mind Flayer and was unable to communicate. Jonathan played the song again as he, their mom, and Will’s best friend, Mike, shared their fondest memories with Will to snap him out and bring him back.
This is the beautiful dance of nostalgia and trauma.
Our Nostalgia is Sometimes Found in Pain
Jonathan and Will’s parents are separated at this point. They live in poverty with their mom in a small town. Jonathan sees Will is in pain and wants to share with him the things that gives him peace. Music. The Clash is not just about the music, it is about the moment and the moment amplifies when the music is turned up to escape for just a few moments the arguing of their parents and the emotional and physical absence of their father.
When Will is scared and alone he leans on that moment and that song to find peace and calm in the incomprehensible and surreal fear and danger he is in while trapped in the Upside Down. It is also how his loved ones, knowing the power of this new nostalgia he has, uses it to ‘bring him back’ from a moment he is lost from them.
Figuratively, it brings him back in the first two seasons of the show.
In a prior article I wrote, Surviving the Upside Down: The Enduring Power of Nostalgia, Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ is used powerfully to bring Max back from something analogous of suicide. Max discovered that song in the wake of her step brother’s traumatic death in season 3 that happened right in front of her.
Many of the nostalgic connections we have in pop culture are sublime moments in the midst of life’s storms. And when we encounter future storms, they give us peace and are sometimes the lifeline we need to hang on for another moment or day…to come back from the brink.
Living This Out
Jonathon Made Will two mix tapes. In the Hawkins High Yearbook there is a picture of one of Jonathan’s mixtapes.
It features:
- “This is Radio Clash” by The Clash
- “Girlfriend Is Better” by Talking Heads
- “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” by David Bowie
- “Just Another Day” by Oingo Boingo
- “Can I Do What I Want” by Shock Therapy
- “The Ghost in You” by The Psychedelic Furs
- “Blackout” by Swing Set
- “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash
In the comments of my article, “The Subversive Art of Mixtapes!“, many readers told the stories of the mixtapes memories that gave them peace. And while there is something wondrous about the craft and art of making cassette based mixtapes, it is not as practical today or as immediate.
We have the ability to create playlists for ourselves. There are those songs burning in us that need to be heard. I have been using Amazon Music since it was in Beta in 2007. For 17 years the algorithm has been learning about my tastes and my interests and I have been able to use that to create amazing playlists with titles that I can tell my smart speaker or my phone to play when I am in crisis or just stressed or sad or need some motivation to kick a little ass.
There are some songs that are special. I do not always know the moment in time that I discovered them, but I know that they are special and can reach deep inside me when I need them.
Knowing that our nostalgia sometimes comes from the midst of hard moments where we needed something allows us to use it as a coping skill and bring us back from wherever it is we are trapped in. We all have our Upside Down’s and Vecna lairs we need to escape from sometimes.
Weaponizing Our Peace to Gatekeep Others From Peace
Imagine if when Will was lost or Max was a few steps from death Will’s mother or the older Steve Harrington said, “This is not music. Today’s music is garbage! In my day we had real music!” Max would have died and Will would have been consumed by the Mind Flayer!
Taylor Swift or the Weekend not your thing? Fine. But if it is your kid’s or nephew’s thing, kindly shut the fuck up with your rants about how Madonna and Depeche Mode were so much better! You discovered that music in a time and place and sometimes that music saved your life and gave you a touchpoint when you needed peace in critical moments in your life.
That Gen Z kid blasting the Bad Bunny on their wireless earbuds over and over again may have something more than the song that connects them with the song. We have a choice when other people find music, we can be Jonathan sharing moments of connection and offering a calm in the storm, or we can be the reason they turn up the volume.
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