The teen choz awards?

MANILA, Philippines - We’re quick to sniff out and pounce on the latest everything, but it’s the past that we’re in love with. It’s the past we can’t say goodbye to. Like Ross and Rachel, it’s a love affair that just can’t seem to end, no matter how hard we try. It’s no wonder why the Twitter hashtag, #sentisabados was so popular, or why for about a week Penelope Pitstop, Dexter and the Powerpuff Girls made repeat appearances in people’s Facebook profile photos, or why tickets to the Spice Girls reunion sold out in a matter of seconds.

This tendency for nostalgia is something that producers, directors, even rising stars have caught on to. Now, they’re riding the wave of tears that we shed for the childhood icons that we still love and so dearly miss. Nicki Minaj channels Jem (of the Holograms) on Good Morning, America! Beavis and Butthead are brought back to life and given a modern-day spin. Cult classic Planet of the Apes hits big at the box office. Blink 182 came out of hiding (and in our opinion, they should’ve stayed that way ever since Tom DeLonge decided that he was too mature for his The Mark, Tom and Travis Show antics and came out with Angels and Airwaves).

Teen Titan: Taylor Swift sweeps the TCAs

Teen Supremacy

Interestingly enough, at the most recent Teen’s Choice Awards, it wasn’t the ’90s throwbacks or retro revivals that took home all the surfboards, with the exception of There’s Something About Mary relic, Cameron Diaz (sorry, Cammie), who won Choice Movie Actress for her role in Bad Teacher and The Tourist actors Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Apart from her, all the big winners were icons that belong exclusively to the here and now.

 Taylor Swift, for example, who took home awards for Ultimate Choice, Choice Break-up Song, and Choice Female Red Carpet Fashion Icon among others, has created a fresh brand of music that blurs the lines between country and bubblegum pop in a way that hasn’t yet been done before. Her albums have been certified multi-platinum, and her songs have won multiple Grammys. Also, unlike most teen singer/songwriters, Taylor actually provides sound advice for her peers, putting to shame inane choruses like “Hi-See Ya! Hold Tight!” and the hackneyed, yet entirely memorable lyrics of BSB.

Harry Potter Hotties Tom Felton and Rupert Grint take two for the team

Another example would be Justin Bieber, who went home with the title of choice Male Hottie (a questionable choice, but that’s a whole ‘nother article), and who created a new niche for himself as a one-man boy band. His lady love Selena Gomez, who broke the mold of misbehaving Disney diva and showed the world how cool wholesome can be, also took home awards for Choice TV Comedy Actress (for her role as Alex in Wizards of Waverly Place) and Choice Female Hottie, to name a few.

 Harry Potter, arguably the biggest epic of our time, brought fantasy fiction out of its murky, nerd-exclusive obscurity and made an entire generation believe in, and fall in love with magic. The books somehow managed to make a TV-and-video game generation put down the remote controls and Game Boys for a second and read an actual piece of literature. The films introduced us to an incredible group of actors that feel more like childhood friends, no matter how glamorous they got. The stories even gave birth to a new drink, Butterbeer, and the most amazing sport in the world, Quidditch.

Vampires do sparkle! RPatz wins one for Twilight

If you think about it, we should congratulate our little brothers and sisters, the salingkitkits we once rejected from our little bubble on the grounds that they were born a little bit later and therefore did not have claim to our beloved TV shows and songs. We should be proud of them because they clearly are not plagued by the same predisposition to nostalgia that we clearly suffer from.

The Youth In Revolt

Going back to this theme of nostalgia, grunge rock heiress Frances Bean Cobain, 18 years old, stands on the precipice of greatness. Recently photographed by noir photographer and fashion designer Hedi Slimane, the hauntingly beautiful Frances is the genetic byproduct of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love — everything that was astig, and not astig, about the 90s. As she starts to make her way in the world, it brings to mind Kurt’s suicide note that Courtney read aloud to the press after his death:

Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun: notorious Youtube starlet, Rebecca Black

I have ... a daughter who reminds me too much of what I used to be, full of love and joy, kissing every person she meets because everyone is good and will do her no harm. And that terrifies me to the point where I can barely function. I can’t stand the thought of Frances becoming the miserable, self-destructive death rocker that I’ve become.

Like the rest of today’s teens, Frances will no doubt discover the masterpieces of her father and his generation, take inspiration from it, and hopefully, create even better and more memorable touchstones in culture. However, Frances is also still a teen and we’ll just have to wait and be patient to see what she, and the rest of today’s teens, are really capable of. We sincerely hope for their sake that apart from our triumphs, they also take note of our mistakes and for the love of all that is good, leave Twilight and Jersey Shore behind.