Pandemic Nostalgia: Reduced Social Contact Predicts Consumption of Nostalgic Music During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Some scholars observed a “nostalgia bump” during the COVID-19 pandemic, where people compensated for social isolation by engaging with products and experiences evoking nostalgia. To further explore this effect and its underlying mechanism, the authors tested the hypothesis that reduced social contact during lockdown conditions would lead people to feel lonely and bored and, in turn, increase their consumption of nostalgic music. Study 1 ( Nsong = 213,464) established the temporal relationships between social contact and nostalgia by analyzing mobility data and daily listening patterns of top songs on the music platform Spotify from 2019 to 2021. Study 2 ( N = 525) was a retrospective survey of individual experiences during the lockdown period. Results showed that reduced social contact had an indirect positive effect on consumption of nostalgic songs through loneliness, but not boredom. These findings shed light on the use of nostalgia as a coping strategy during times of isolation.