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Old school, variously spelled old skool, oldschool or oldskool, is a slang term referring to the subcultures of a school during a retro generation. Rather than carrying the negative connotation of obsolete, it may be used to refer to a time of perceived higher standards or level of craft.

Old school is often interchangeable with the word nostalgic, but practitioners of semantics often define old school as simply something of an earlier period but not necessarily inferior or hopelessly dated. Nostalgia, on the other hand, is often given a negative connotation. For example, as a sentimental attachment to dated works many of which are now considered embarrassingly 'corny' or 'cheesy' in their execution, yet retaining a place in one's sentiments as a guilty pleasure or relic of one's youth. Old school items or concepts, in contrast, are shown to have residual real-world functionality.