When I was in highschool in the 1990s, I used to have a Walkman. And on that Walkman I used to play tapes. It was only later – much later – that this turned into a Discman and eventually an iPod.
But for most of my formative adolescence, I used to play tapes. No matter how much my musical taste has changed and evolved over the years, I still have a nostalgic response to that music. But those tapes – like my youth – are gone.
This feeling – that of our complex yet nostalgia-soaked past triggered by the music of our past – is one that the Taiwanese drama Someday or One Day so brilliantly encapsulates. And there’s a reason why the show harks back to the 1990s and why it uses tape.
