There is an obsession and it has a name: memory fever. It refers to the penchant for arousing memories of everything, and I really mean everything.

In popular culture the nostalgic backward look has become a clichéd, predetermined way of viewing the past, no longer anchored in a particular personal memory. What exactly is the current state of nostalgia in pop music and art? Sven Lütticken argues for an active and critical approach to the past.