2016 Music Is Having a Major Moment on TikTok—Here’s Why These 6 Songs Still Hit Different in 2026

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Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment. If you’re reading this, there’s a solid chance you’ve recently found yourself down a Spotify rabbit hole, streaming songs from a decade ago and wondering where the time went. You’re not alone. You’re not even close to alone.

The internet’s collective obsession with 2016 has reached a fever pitch, and now that we’re firmly planted in 2026, the nostalgia has only intensified. That year—when your biggest concern might have been whether your phone battery would last through brunch—feels impossibly distant and achingly close all at once.

The Science Behind Why This Hits Different

Here’s the thing: there’s an actual psychological reason why you can’t stop romanticizing 2016, and it’s not just because you had better knees back then.

“It’s 2026, people are feeling nostalgic for 2016 (because) enough time has passed to have those warm feelings for that time,” Clay Routledge, an existential psychologist who’s a leading expert in the science of nostalgia, Read Entire Article