In Mad Men, good ol' Don Draper says, "Nostalgia: it's delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, 'nostalgia' literally means 'the pain from an old wound.' It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn't a spaceship; it's a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards... it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the wheel; it's called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels: around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved."
This piece of omgwtfbbq (Urban Dictionary defines this as "The only kind of BBQ that's worthy of God") brilliance describes the power of nostalgia with just 2 key concepts. First, that it is delicate but potent. Nostalgia doesn't need to hit us on the head repeatedly to make its point. No. It just needs a little whiff, a little crack to seep in and just take over our mind. Second, nostalgia reminds us of a place where we ache (key word here being 'ache') to go again. Look, I'm all for moving forward and looking to the future and all that. But I think a person is lying if that person says that he or she does not have a place and time in the past that he or she would like to visit again.
Take, for instance, this NBA commercial - possibly the greatest TV commercial in the history of TV commercials.
What makes it so awesome? Well, it plays on this feeling of nostalgia. It blends the legends of the past with the stars of today. And when you add Drew Holcomb's "Live Forever", you get a timeless classic. From Patrick Ewing and Amar'e Stoudemire bumping chests to Magic dishing to Kobe for the dunk to Wilt Chamberlain rejecting Dwight Howard's skyhook to Derrick Rose and Michael Jordan sharing a fist bump.
And, see, it doesn't have to go back that far. This clip of the NBA in the early 2000s was enough for me to feel all, "I wanna go back to the good ol' days".
Again, nostalgia is delicate but potent. And it is a twinge in the heart more powerful than memory alone. And it does take us to a place where we ache to go again.
The key thing, I think, to keep in mind is that, this isn't such a bad thing? What's wrong with escaping, once in a while, to places where we want to go in the depths of our memories, if only to try and feel how we felt when we were actually experiencing that memory? Sure, it's dangerous to always live in the past, but I don't think it's that bad to make occasional visits.
So, when I heard the Power Rangers theme at dinner recently, I glanced up at my friend who also heard it and we both agreed, "That was awesome." Following that, a picture came to mind. Or rather some sounds came to mind. What were some of the cartoon theme songs from my childhood that are instantly recognisable? Or at least, cartoons that I watched. For something to be instantly recognisable, they're clearly classics. So here's what I came up with, in no particular order.
The Flintstones
So good it got parodied on The Simpsons - "Simpson, Homer Simpson, He's the greatest guy in history, From the town of Springfield, he's about to hit a chestnut tree."
Mighty Morphing Power Rangers
Go, go, Power Rangers! What a classic. The spark that lit the fire for this post. Btw, notice how the Yellow Ranger is Asian and the Black Ranger is, well, Black.
Scooby Doo
If you watch this, it will be all you hum all day. I promise. I LOVE SCOOBY DOO. We can count on you, Scooby Doo, I know you'll catch that villain.
The X-Men
From the Marvel or DC Universe, I think the X-Men was the best cartoon out there. Spidey was okay, but X-Men blows it out the window. Also, with just 5 notes, it becomes instantly recognisable. Also wins the "Most pump up motivational theme" award I created 2 seconds ago.
The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog
It has "Flight of the Bumblebee." As a commenter says, "F**king epic."
Captain Planet
Granted, the theme is all hippy environmentalist. But if there was a hippy environmentalist I could support, it'd be old Captain Planet. "We're the Planet-ers, You can be one too, Cos saving our planet is the thing to do."
Duck Tales
One of the greatest cartoons ever and seriously underrated. This theme made me go into serious introspection for at least two days. Seriously. I bought the DVDs of all the episodes. Fricking legendary.
CyberCops
I bet you all forgot about this one, didn't you? For the record, my favourite character of them all is Lucifer. The dude was just OP-ed.
And, of course, did anyone seriously think I would miss THIS theme? The one that's my current ringtone?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The greatest cartoon theme song of all-time. Heroes in a half-shell forever.
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