The 1940s retro movement was a retro movement craze started in the late 1980s and lasted up till the late 1990s or early 2000s. Many things associated with this retro movement are associated with the 1940s decade, but can also be associated to pop culture of the late-1930s and early-1950s.

Events related to 1940s nostalgia in the 1990s

Movies based on or in the 1940s were popular, including A League of their Own, My Dog Skip, andThe Iron Giant. Movies such as Dick Tracy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit could be considered early influences of the movement. The trend also continued into the early 2000s with the movie Pearl Harbor, but the 1940s retro movement didn't really continue in the 2000s as strong as it was in the 1990s until about 2006.

The television series Star Trek: The Next Generation often had episodes in the holodeck which reinacted scenes from popular 1940s franchises. Dixon Hill is one of Captain Picard's most favorite holodeck reinactments, the fictional Dixon series is set in San Francisco in the 1940s.

The 1940s music style became popular in the mid to late 1990s and again the late 2000s. Green Day and the Cherry Poppin' Daddies band participated in the movement. Green Day's Hitchin' a Ride was one example of the style of music that became popular in the movement. Much of the music in the movement included music of the saxophone and had a jazz-like beat.

The Flying Toaster screensaver uses 1940s style toasters. This screensaver can be seen on I Love The 90s as a background during interviews

2006 Resurgence

In 2006, artists such as Chris Brown, Keysia Cole, Christina Aguilera, and the Black Eyed Peas uses styles that are a lot similar to 1940s music such as the use of trumpets and saxophones, and an occaisonal trombone. In 2006, jazz music of 1940s style was used in the Jay-Z song, Show Me What You Got. This music was also notated in the music of Christina Aguilera, especially the song Candyman.