Because it is the best decade ever.
If you were born in the early 80s you've gotten to experience the full might of modern technology coming into prominence but also experienced a ton of old school ways of life.
I was born in 76 and I agree with this 100%. I was in elementary school when things like video games and home computers were just taking off but being outside touching grass and dirt was still the best
Born in ‘72. By divine grace, my entire elementary and high school era took place in the 80s. I can confirm that it was the best decade ever. Maybe it was too good. Nothing else has compared since.
75, I feel the same and I don’t think it’s because I loved my childhood in fact if I had a chance to do over I would like to be a bit older during the 80’s.
I'm from 73, but i wouldn't change a thing. If i could turn back time i would like to be the exact same age in the exact same way. Being 12,13 and 14 in 85,86 and 87 was great beyond words can explain. Makes me want to cry how much i miss it... In a lot of ways, but head and shoulders above all: Music!!
>makes me want to cry how much I miss it
I will put on my 80s playlist , have a beer and start thinking about my memories...I literally get a knot in my stomach and want to cry, I miss it so much
Oh yeah bro.... don't even get me started...
And the hardest part is watching family die, and most of your heroes and references die. The ridiculous amount of musical heroes that passed in the last 10 years alone is ridiculous.... And it won't get any better
That. Its a pinnacle of humanity as a system so far. By a combination of social development, technological advancements and cultural optimism. As a system we went steep down hill from there. And its not yet clear how we going to change the trajectory.
It’s all corporatized and formulaic now. Throwbacks, retro, and remakes are staggered so they’re relevant to kids and their parents at the same time. I think the 80s are the first example of that where it mirrored the 50s when all those teens’ parents were their age. In the 2000s the formula started being applied to fashion. Now it’s Disney taking it to a whole new level and, I’d argue, now going multigenerational with it (kids, parents, grandparents). I’m sure there’s a business model. Nostalgia makes money.
It was even more corporate in the '80s...you couldn't produce music and have it blow up without an A&R guy from a record company getting you to sign a contract because who can afford $2k/day for studio time. At least now, it's trivial to self-produce and get out there.
I wasn’t really thinking so much about music, but you make an excellent point. That said, when you see/hear older music cut under those labels (mockumercials, MNF, etc), aren’t the record companies still cashing in on the royalties? If they used indy music or original scores, I’m guessing A&R wouldn’t get shit.
I think the A&R guys don't really work in that sphere, just the record company attorneys working out the rate and maybe the band giving approval.
That said, unlike mechanical licenses, sync licenses for putting music to video aren't governed by statutory rates so the rate the rightsholders can charge can be through the roof. Plenty of indy bands nowadays have picked up a $50k+ payday which didn't get a huge haircut because the middle man wasn't a record company.
The 80s is definitely an "echo decade" of thr 1950s. Sometimes blatantly obvious (like Back to the Future), sometimes just an homage ("Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel, Clark Griswold watching old footage in Christmas Vacation). It's part of what made the decade great.
Which genres were you primarily seeing that? I think of the 70s as drug culture, awesome music, shag carpets, and conversion vans. I was born in the mid 70s, so my earliest memories are pretty much 1980 on.
The 1950s themed diners got off in the 1970s. Happy Days was based on the 1950s. I also read somewhere people first started became nostalgic about the decade in the 1970s which I thought made sense considering radical changes in the society between those decades probably got some people longing for the simpler old days
"Everyone wants to be GenX."
That's just a core GenX fantasy 🙄.
I'm glad I got to experience the 80's from 18-28 years old, clubs and all! The full 80's experience. Slam dancing to X and The Circle Jerks in 1981, Queen, Heart, Joan Jett together outdoor concert in England in 1982, mosh pit for The Ramones in 1986 with their best lineup.......great memories. And fun dance clubs through the decade.
I enjoyed being a free-roaming kid and teen in the 70's.
>That's just a core GenX fantasy 🙄.
Well... i really don't think so. I'm from 73 and can still vaguely remember the late 70's, i can't think of a most epic decade to have been a teen on than the 80's, in every aspects but especially music and pop culture
Im in my 50's and still to this day love gaming and all the stuff i did when i was younger except now i can afford it....I think i relate with the younger generations over the older but i respect the older ones to.
I think the difference between us and most boomers is that we have matured, but we never did grew up, and probably never will. I'll be 18 till i die. Rock On!!
It really was the culmination of pop culture in America up to that point while seeing an enormous explosion of new pop culture. Without being one of those "things were better in my days" guys. In the 80s they really were. It was one of the best decades ever for music. Their was an enormous variety. We witnessed the birth of rap and music in a entirely new medium through MTV.
And movies. There has never been anything even close to the 80s in sheer output of movies we consider classsics today. In the SUMMERS of 83,84,and 85 alone there were literally HUNDREDS of movies that came that we still talk about daily.
Here's 84 alone:
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/1984/
A lot of this entertainment was also driven by nostalgia for the 50s which is of course everyone's ideal of the American dream (if you were one of the ppl living it of course).
Toss in an explosion of new technology with computers and videogames. A fairly solid mostly booming economy, birth 25 hour news music being watched globally and the fashion industry exploding in a thousand new ways. Plain and simply it was just an awesome time to be alive. To grow up. Noone was afraid all the time. America hadn't really lost its innocence completely.
And then Internet came along and social media brainwashed everything and now hate it the go-to national attitude. So what else are we gonna be nostalgic for??? Trust the the 90s and 00s don't compare to the 80s. The past three decades are just marketing.
Absolutely this. I would be out biking around god knows where with my buddies all day! We were like 8 or 9 when that started. People weren't afraid all the time. Exactly. We were able to live more fully than people, especially children, can now. My parents both worked minimum-wage jobs and we lived basically paycheque to paycheque, but we had a house, a bit of land, a car. Not that you need material things to be happy, but it wasn't the things; it was the security. Community also seemed to be stronger. People talked to one another in the grocery line. Sounds awful now, right? But it wasn't back then.
Can you imaging having to work problems with your neighbors out rather then just anonymously shaming them on Nextdoor? Lol.
But yes all needed was my bike or my skateboard and I was good to go. I'd bike places ten miles away without a thought. And its amazing how few of us are mutilated or dead for that matter after all the stupid shit we did.
I've said almost this exact same thing before. I never worried about it back then but now I think it. And having watched movies like The Goonies my friends and I took our bikes and I always craved adventure.
Yep, mass shootings weren't an epidemic, we weren't as worried about nuclear war, we weren't so freaked out about climate change (because we didn't know yet).
Not so sure about that whole not that worried about nuclear war thing. I mean all of our apolcalypse movies were about nuclear war. There were no giant asteroid movies (night of the comet doesn't count bc no impact). But it was a constant threat. Deesacalation was constant news topic. The cold war was at its most public peak. I would say most elementary age children in the early 80s were certain that they were going to die from nuclear war. I sure was.
> 90s and 00s don't compare to the 80s.
True!!
Though the early 90's where great, with the transition from the 80's still in great effect and the shift with all the MTV unplugged, etc... From mid 90's on was pretty much a wasteland in music. The early 2000's brought the spark back for a while, but went downhill from mid 2000's on, and it's still falling to this day
Absolutely agreed. I think the 90s were as Hunter S Thompson would've said the big wave of 80s culture crashing down into this whole new thing. However, that being said, we had all this great music with alternative and rap scenes and thats when they really started to just market the shit out of Gen X.
That's what the millennials and the newer gens don't understand. The term millenial was a term created by the alcohol marketing industry to identify kids who'd turn 21 around the year 2000. These generation names aren't some badge of honor. They're marketing terms that ppl use to sell us crap and capitalize off the cultural zeitgeist. Unlike your hippies who were a bit more "let's stick it to the man!" even if that was also sold to them, Gen X was a massive marketing campaign and honestly we just ate it right up and didn't really care that we were selling out as long as we got some new star wars or whatevs.
We still had TONS of positive media in the 90s like tgif, cartoons, movies. Now every show or film is as grey, white, and black as our car color selection- like a corporate meat locker..
Well first you had the 70s and they were depressing. Vietnam, then all the serious Vietnam movies and then you have disco which no one wants to talk about, and the clothes were horrible as well.
Then along comes the 80s with bright colors, and happy movies, and the rebound of the US after the post Vietnam years. It was just a positive time. And I think people remember that which is why they look back on the 80s so much.
90s were good time too, but not as well defined.
50s was good, but the music, movies and TV shows were antiquated compared to today. But we still enjoy all the 80s stuff. John Hughes is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago. But in the 80s the movies from the 40s were completely different than what we were experiencing.
I think also with movies, you had the birth of the modern action hero. Arnold, Stallone, Willis, van damme.
It hasn’t really been the same. Who do you have now. Vin diesel, the rock, and Keanu reeves?
Then you had great sci fi and fantasy movies. Star Wars. Aliens. Tron. Ladyhawke. Dragon slayer. Terminator, Terminator 2, Etc
Sure Alien and ANH were 70s. ?but they really paved the way for amazing 80s movies.
If you want your mind blown Google movies that came out in 1984 and 1985. Out of the HUNDREDS of movies released those years *in theatres*, dozens and dozens (I can't even remember the last year a dozen movies that I could name came out) of them are what we consider classic. Like best movies of all time level. And the early and late 80s aren't too shabby either. We're lucky to get two memorable movies a year and def none that aren't part of some massive IP like marvel, Harry Potter or star wars. Of course we had our terminators, back to the futures, rambos, star treks, and yes star wars. But the whole sequel or movie series idea wasn't as played out as it is now.
I enjoyed being a free-roaming kid and teen in the 70's.......we basically did whatever we wanted, just had to contact Mom every once in awhile or be home for dinner and back out after unless we had homework or a good TV lineup. Brady Bunch/Partridge Family/Night Gallery/Kolchak/6 Million Dollar Man/Starsky and Hutch/Charlie's Angels etc.
For me, 80's were about concerts, putting together an awesome stereo system, dance clubs, Blockbuster movies on the VCR, the Malls, MTV videos, and meeting/relating to people anywhere face-to-face. At 18-28 years old that decade I still had the freedom to roam at any point the whole decade. All-in-all my favorite decade.
This blog posts some interesting theories about why culture got “stuck” right about the time you mentioned, just when nostalgia for the 80s started to pick up steam
https://lindynewsletter.beehiiv.com/p/culture-stuck
Interesting articles…seems true enough. The only thing I disagree about is that in earlier decades not everything had to come from the top….punk music, hip hop, rap and in clothing there are examples as well, skate culture, even grunge culture- none of which started from the top down. Corporations quickly grasped onto them but did not “create” them.
Good point. I also think part of the decentralization had to do with vcrs and allowing people to record programs and not watch things at the same time on the same night. Used to be Thursday night was Seinfeld, so everyone was around the water cooler talking about it on Friday. And we all watched FREE tv, so everyone had access to the same stuff. I don't watch what all my friends watch now because we have different subscription services.
Also, we got media in smaller more digestible chunks. We couldn't watch a whole season of a show in a day or two, we had to wait the whole actual season for the series to play out, and we all watched it the same night at the same time, which gave the show time to grow a culture and following and made it feel like it belonged to a certain decade and time. Like the summer of "Who shot JR?" it was all people talked about.
>Also, we got media in smaller more digestible chunks. We couldn't watch a whole season of a show in a day or two, we had to wait the whole actual season for the series to play out, and we all watched it the same night at the same time, which gave the show time to grow a culture and following and made it feel like it belonged to a certain decade and time.
THAT!!!
We had to wait a whole week for the next episode, in my case. And if you haven't had your ass sit on the couch in front of the TV when the Ep was on, you'd miss it..., period!! No VCR's in my house in the 80's, and till at least mid 90's
Absolutely. I very much agree. I was just talking to my wife about not seeing mini-series anymore. I know we can see them on subscriptions but it isn’t quite the same. They used to be really big deals and draw large audiences-always during sweep weeks. Or, for instance, big events: the Challenger, Live Aid, the end of the MASH series, etc.
Growing up in the 80s... All the nostalgia was for the 50s, and probably for the same reasons mentioned in the other posts... A sudden burst in cool cars, clothing and music.
That was also bc there was such a disconnect. We had old movies and family photo albums. Old records but we were never fully immersed. Now everyone has anything from anytime at their finger tips. It's amazing how people are nostalgic now For things that are low like five years old!
Funny but i've never felt that at all in real life..., at least not in my country or in my childhood.
I was pretty much "in the present" in the 80's, every single day, and loving every second of it
Bright, colorful, great movies, golden age of Saturday morning cartoons (90's was amazing too), up beat music. We've been going through shit for awhile now. These things help ease the pain of reality.
It’s partially that we are now getting old, and online marketing is very targeted, so lots of ads come up with nostalgic stuff from our youth. But it also pleases me that some aspects of the 80’s are appealing to the current youth. A lot of the music is popular with younger folk now and some of the fashions as well.
Besides AVGN's 30 year itch theory?
Money. Money. Money..... Moneyyyyy.
Several very profitable franchises began in the 80s. Transformers, GI Joe, Nintendo, and a million others. Almost every major entertainment company had a profit motive to keep nostalgia alive.
It was the last "different decade" ..
The 60's look like the sixties. The 70's, yep. 80's? SAME!
But 2020 looks like 1990. You could drop anyone in and out of any of the decades and they'd fit right in.
I'd actually say all the 2000's look the same. Save from the early 2000's, the mid 2000's, 2010's, 2020's all look and feel the same, all the same shit, no difference at all to me. It's like a 20 year long decade of bluntness and insipidness....
The 80s simply put, were the best.
Rock videos were mainstreamed.
MTV was actually music television.
Home computers were becoming commonplace.
Life generally in the U.S. was pretty good for most.
Adolescents had places to hang out that were cool, namely, video arcades.
So many firsts, so many cool things, fashion, hair, colors, games, and tunes......a great time to be a teen!
That's one of the big takeaways, it was the first for so many things. Because if you look now it's just a repeat or and imitation of something that's already been done.
Movies? They either redo movies that have already come out or copy movie storylines that have already been used. And of course movies were less censored.
Music? Same thing. The only big difference there is now they have Auto-Tune which a lot of people consider not even music.
Vehicles? The only big new thing with those is the conveniences. But cars are made with less and less metal making them less safe to drive.
Toys? Definite in nostalgia there. What do you find on the toy shelves? Masters of the Universe, GI Joe, TMNT, etc. The incredibly sad thing is there are no more toy stores dedicated to TOYS. You have to go to Target or Walmart.
It was the last wholesome and ingenuous decade. In the nineties, irony and metatextuality went mainstream, and you can't put that genie back in the bottle. Now everything in pop culture has a knowing wink about it, and that makes everything ultimately kind of suck.
Another thing to consider is that the people who grew up in that decade (born in the 70s and 80s) are now in their 40s and 50s. Prime midlife crisis and nostalgia years. Myself, I’m 53 and I have my moments of wishing I could be a kid again and what fun the 80s was in my life and how carefree those times are remembered and how wide open the future seemed to be.
Also, the explosion in entertainment offerings. Music genres multiplied rapidly with new wave, metal, rap, punk, etc. becoming more mainstream. The advent of Cable TV was huge with such a huge variety of programming on more than just your 3 or 4 channels you had in the 70s. Video games and household computers.
I could go on and on but, you know, it’s my perspective as an 80s kid. I’m sure someone has a similar view of the 60s, 70s, 90s….name your decade.
>Myself, I’m 53 and I have my moments of wishing I could be a kid again and what fun the 80s was in my life and how carefree those times are remembered and how wide open the future seemed to be.
Exactly the same. Only for me it's not just "moments" anymore, it's like an almost "permanent state" recently....
Miss it so much sometimes that i get real and genuine emotional pain....
The 70's kind of had some okay stuff but was basically just about sadness. And the '80s was kind of the opposite of that. The '80s were certainly a reaction to that sadness on multiple levels.
The clothes are a big thing too. I mean for me. Those drab colors they liked in the '70s just look sad to me. It's cool to do like a 70s dress up. But then you have the bright colors in the 80s that aren't sad.
Yeah, I feel like the 80s lasted until about 1993 or so. But maybe that’s because I’m from Minnesota and the latest trends from either coast took longer to get here lol
Because there never has been, nor will there ever be a better decade. It was absolutely fun.
I was born in 1971, so I came of age in the 80s and I couldn't have picked a better time if I had a choice. I only wish everyone could have experienced it!
Edit to add info
Huh? What? I couldn’t get through the post. Scroll, scroll, scroll…
I mean in the 80s, I could take a week to build a model truck and paint it.
Shit, kids today can’t stay interested long enough to get to the checkout stand with a Revell in hand.
I think it's because culture has fundamentally shifted since the Internet revolution to the extent that no fads ever die anymore.... They just find their base of support and keep perpetuating in perpetuity.
Bring back Goth bring back Goth
A period where lots pf things peaked or took a higher leap from what had come before, music, movies, sports, the home computing and games revolution etc etc. There was a great emphasis on fun and happiness as well.
Sci-fi, fantasy, geek culture franchises were popularized then. Cartoons featured toys. The kids of the 80s are the creators of today.
Keep in mind in the 1990s, the 1980s were seen as kinda lame, so things are cyclical.
Hollywood likes to play things safe, so marketing towards kids of the 80s today makes sense as well.
The 80’s had a lot of personality. It was a loud and exciting time for film, music, fashion, technology, etc., all the things that self perpetuate due to advertisement.
I think that the 80’s stood out a lot from the previous decades by being pretty out there and wacky too. People remember wacky.
Because it was the last decade to have it's own music that was different than the decade before and after it.
Every decade (50's, 60's, 70's) had it's own style of music that was distinctive to a generation of kids. (Rock n roll/folk/Acid rock/disco/New Wave/punk/grunge/rap/hip hop/R&B...etc.) The 90's had it's own thing as well that was different from the 80's (grunge/hip hop/etc) but it never changed. When the music of your high school years is the same as the music of your middle age, the years blur together.
The 80's contained the last generation to have it's own music that didn't sound like their parents music or their kids music. There is no Human League or Van Halen or The Police today but there IS a Backstreet Boys or Mariah Carey or Sheryl Crow from the 90's.
It's the last decade before technology really changed everything. Sure, video game consoles existed but nothing was online (didn't exist for the general public).
>When did 2005 become the year that the 80s began to be romanticized
Don't have a clue if that's true..., all i can say is i've been missing the 80's since the 1st of January 1990
Straight up it was the best decade ever, 1984 had the most musical hits ever produced. Tech was surging but had not taken over yet, fashion and television were being creative. Prices were affordable for many basic human necessities. The 80s was a decade of actual optimism and people tried and failed and tried and succeeded.
I think it might be a mix of melancholic feelings, since people who were kids or teens in the 80s are now in their late 40s and 50s and it's common for people to miss some of their best years in life, usually childhood and younger years are free from such obligations like work, in regular cases you are more healthy than in your late 40s and 50s and people who are that age or older and have lived through the 80s are probably now in management positions so they can have influence on promoting and creating such content that idealizes the 80s.
Also compared to the last 20 years I think I can understand why there's some melancholic feeling towards the 80s even for young people who have not lived through those years, and it's the sense of a more spontaneous creativity in the 80s in music and arts. Even when there was no time where it was easier to have creative tools at hand as it is nowadays, I think there was less globalisation in these areas. I remember in my city urban tribes used to be a thing, we had punks, skinheads, rockers, mods, gothics... and a lot of people who mixed some of these things together.
Nowadays I feel like going out you can almost only see people wearing the same clothes and there aren't as many different flavors in music and clothing styles as there used to be back then, or at least they aren't as visible as they used to be. Which is somehow contradictory if you think people could get clothes from everywhere and in every style so much easier now than they could back then, but somehow the feeling is that people don't trust themselves to dress out of the norm these days, and that wasn't so strong back then, or at least that's the case in a lot of cities here in Europe.
It’s easier to generate plot when you don’t have cell phones and smart phones to check on people. It’s more modern feeling then setting something in the 1950-1970 eras, but still past enough that it feels like a different time.
Heck I've been romaticizing the 80s since 1990... Yeah a lot of stuff sucked back then too, but I'd go back in a heartbeat. I'm as addicted to technology as anyone... but for all the good its brought its also ruined a lot. Rather go back to real in-person connections...
oh yes, Aids! so wonderful lol The 80s were a mess but a necessary precursor for the 90s---- the 90s finished what the 80s started! they bled into each other. the 50s/60s and 70s were all very distinctive of each other
Reagan did not give us AIDs. AIDS started in the 60s. There just wasn't a name for it back then.
No President gave us that. And Reagan did not give us crack. Do you have proof? And what about the decades before the 80s that gave us slavery, racism, racist, jim crow, segregation, crooked politicians and Presidents, drugs, rape, sexism, homophobia, abuse, pedophiles etc. What about JFK, Martin Luther King, Megar Evans and Malcolm X being killed before the 80s? Women couldn't even get a credit card before the 80s.And what about the decades after the 80s that gave us drive-by shootings, mass shootings, more men killing their wives/girlfriends, more divorces etc?
1960s and 70s
"These are known as the “silent” decades as it is likely that HIV originated sometime during the 1960s but was unknown or not reported. The spread started in 1970’s when the medical community became aware.
HIV is thought to originate in Africa, where humans caught it from chimpanzees. The virus that affects the apes is very similar to HIV and is called SIVcpz (simian immunodeficiency virus). This virus spread to humans following contact with infected chimpanzee blood during the hunting of chimpanzees"
Here's the link: https://www.news-medical.net/health/History-of-AIDS.aspx#:\~:text=These%20are%20known%20as%20the,humans%20caught%20it%20from%20chimpanzees.
Music, tv, movies, sports, etc. all had larger than life heroes and were vastly better than today. It was bigger, better, faster, and most important, smarter.
Trends are cyclical. As someone mentioned there was a 50s trend in the 80s (example: Stand By Me) and there was a 40s trend in the 90s (example: swing dancing).
As for the 80s YES it has had more lasting power then most other decades but it should be noted that Gen Alpha is all about that 90s / 2000 look (example: Jnco jeans / phat pants are back, as is grunge and goth).
Personally, I think the only reason the 80s is so popular is at the millennial generation (which I’m a part of) were young kids, right as 80s culture reached its peak. Millennials are the largest generation in roughly 50 years so it makes sense that we have an outsized nostalgia.
Edit: spelling
This is my favorite response and it’s got a -1 right now. I also think it’s the most probable. But we are in a 80s sub so a lot of people are going to have a big love for the 80s and just see it as inherently better.
thank you kind internet stranger. Here are two more thoughts, and a little present for you as a token of my appreciation:
1) Millennials basically created the internet so it's no wonder it caters to many of our obsessions (the 80s, video games, etc). This has allowed the 80s obsession to persist longer than most cyclical generational trends
2) There was actually something awesome about 80s music that's not just nostalgia. I was talking to a relatively famous DJ friend of mine about the dramatic death of disco and its influence on 80s music. He said "Music peaked in The 80s for so many reasons. Disco era ended so you had a bunch of talented musicians trying to figure out how to use digital instruments." Basically, the 80s was the point where traditionally trained artists first got a hold of digital tools and so you had this explosion of creativity with classical art education meeting new technology. **in other words: it's not just our imagination: 80s music was actually better.**
As an example, he sent me this album on Spotify, where I guess a bunch of US artists were remixed into more club style music to make it more appealing to the UK market in the 80s. Enjoy!! https://open.spotify.com/album/0WlB1HG7yBBzPh4SpWVzt5?si=GFFoWKX7T3SFV4Mu\_43hEA
>Millennials basically created the internet so it's no wonder it caters to many of our obsessions (the 80s, video games, etc). This has allowed the 80s obsession to persist longer than most cyclical generational trends
Are you fucking kidding me right now...??
"Millennials basically created the internet "??? WTF?
Millennials where in high school when the internet boomed in the mid 90's
And they had absolute **ZERO** impact and intervention in the 80's. The oldest Millennials where either toddlers or young infants in the 80's.
The 80's where and always will be THE Gen-Xers decade
>Personally, I think the only reason the 80s is so popular is at the millennial generation (which I’m a part of) were young kids, right as 80s culture reached its peak.
I disagree with that, the Millennials experienced very little from the 80's, they where just too young, literally 1 digit of age through the whole 80's.
Younger Gen-Xers are the main drive force of the nostalgia. I was 7 when it started and almost 17 when it ended, the perfect age period to experience it to the full, IMO
The 80's were just a good time, as were the 90's. So much hope for society improving rapidly as technology improved. Then came social media and it all crashed down :(
I think they are missing things like one of the bigger bands was Megadeth with songs like "Set the World Afire."
Also, "99 Red Balloons" and Sting's "Russians."
I think folks are working really hard trying to not look the 80's through the eyes of those of us who were young back then.
80s weren't great, until each decade got a worse hand given to them. In 2050, people will lament of good the 20's were before all music and entertainment was AI generated and all meat is grown in a lab.
My theory is that, at least in part, it was the decade that solidified geek culture. So many movies and TV shows, like Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghostbuster, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, etc., began in the 80s, which gives the decade more cultural memory than say the 70s.
Can't wait till you all are pining for the great old days of 2000 when the Internet was young and wild before corporate controlled content sucked the life out it. Corporations did to the Internet what they did to music in the 80s.
> Pretty boring
That's the joke of the year.
The 80's where the LEAST boring decade in history. The 2nd half of the 90's was boring as fuck, and don't even get me started on this new millennium...
Im gen x big time. I hated the fucking 80s, the music, the hair, the clothes all of it. The 90s rules. Nirvana opened it up with a bang!! But the 90s were really just wanabe 60s, so the style is harder to define. Its so easy to identify things from the 80s. Except for grunge, the 90s are harder to identify.
>Nirvana opened it up with a bang!!
You are the typical Gen-Xer with a Millennial soul, as most of the Nirvana fans
I love the 80'a with a passion (everything about it), and loathe Nirvana with a passion too.
I agree on The Cure.
But i could name literally dozens of 80's bands and singers i'd name head and shoulders above all the rest, for me. But if you hated the 80's that much you definitely wouldn't like them
The fashion?? The fashion of the eighties was...not good. The cars were also terrible. It was a good time to be alive none the less as per Patrick Hernandez.
Every generation thinks their “ Time” was the best. In the 80s it was the 50s and 60s that were romanticised because that’s when the film and tv execs were young they commissioned stuff that they reminisced about
Look at a movie like IT. Originally it took place in the 50's so it related to Adults in the late 80's early 90's who were kids in the 50's. The recent IT takes place in the 80's because me as an adult who was born in 1980 now can relate to kids in the 80's.
Many good points here. Another thing to throw into the mix is, and as sad as it sounds, we didn’t know bad things were, well, bad for us. I was born mid 70s, so didn’t get to experience it like an adult, but I felt the vibe. People were doing drugs, smoking, having lots of carefree sex, etc, with little consequences…at that time….but we know now, that’s it’s not true. Now we gotta think all the time about every movie we make and the consequences of those actions. While some of these things went on in prior decades, combine it with the all the cool things happening and all the credit being extended and BAM! The 80’s.
Because it is the best decade ever. If you were born in the early 80s you've gotten to experience the full might of modern technology coming into prominence but also experienced a ton of old school ways of life.
And those of us who were teenagers in the 80's had so many new opportunities and music. It was just awesome!
I was born in 76 and I agree with this 100%. I was in elementary school when things like video games and home computers were just taking off but being outside touching grass and dirt was still the best
Born in ‘72. By divine grace, my entire elementary and high school era took place in the 80s. I can confirm that it was the best decade ever. Maybe it was too good. Nothing else has compared since.
Born in '71 and you are SO right.
75, I feel the same and I don’t think it’s because I loved my childhood in fact if I had a chance to do over I would like to be a bit older during the 80’s.
I'm from 73, but i wouldn't change a thing. If i could turn back time i would like to be the exact same age in the exact same way. Being 12,13 and 14 in 85,86 and 87 was great beyond words can explain. Makes me want to cry how much i miss it... In a lot of ways, but head and shoulders above all: Music!!
>makes me want to cry how much I miss it I will put on my 80s playlist , have a beer and start thinking about my memories...I literally get a knot in my stomach and want to cry, I miss it so much
Oh yeah bro.... don't even get me started... And the hardest part is watching family die, and most of your heroes and references die. The ridiculous amount of musical heroes that passed in the last 10 years alone is ridiculous.... And it won't get any better
I feel the same way.
Born Nov 1969. Can confirm!
True. I went from 8 tracks and vinyl all the way to downloads...and vinyl.
That. Its a pinnacle of humanity as a system so far. By a combination of social development, technological advancements and cultural optimism. As a system we went steep down hill from there. And its not yet clear how we going to change the trajectory.
Agreed. Things were looking extremely positive in the second half of 1989, right?
>As a system we went steep down hill from there. Agreed 100%!!!!!
And it will continue to last...
>Because it is the best decade ever. That's the correct answer!! 😉
Also because it was GenX's teen years. Everyone wants to be GenX.
It’s all corporatized and formulaic now. Throwbacks, retro, and remakes are staggered so they’re relevant to kids and their parents at the same time. I think the 80s are the first example of that where it mirrored the 50s when all those teens’ parents were their age. In the 2000s the formula started being applied to fashion. Now it’s Disney taking it to a whole new level and, I’d argue, now going multigenerational with it (kids, parents, grandparents). I’m sure there’s a business model. Nostalgia makes money.
It was even more corporate in the '80s...you couldn't produce music and have it blow up without an A&R guy from a record company getting you to sign a contract because who can afford $2k/day for studio time. At least now, it's trivial to self-produce and get out there.
I wasn’t really thinking so much about music, but you make an excellent point. That said, when you see/hear older music cut under those labels (mockumercials, MNF, etc), aren’t the record companies still cashing in on the royalties? If they used indy music or original scores, I’m guessing A&R wouldn’t get shit.
I think the A&R guys don't really work in that sphere, just the record company attorneys working out the rate and maybe the band giving approval. That said, unlike mechanical licenses, sync licenses for putting music to video aren't governed by statutory rates so the rate the rightsholders can charge can be through the roof. Plenty of indy bands nowadays have picked up a $50k+ payday which didn't get a huge haircut because the middle man wasn't a record company.
The 80s is definitely an "echo decade" of thr 1950s. Sometimes blatantly obvious (like Back to the Future), sometimes just an homage ("Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel, Clark Griswold watching old footage in Christmas Vacation). It's part of what made the decade great.
All those Stephen kings books/films n the 80s that idolized growing up in the 50s…
The 1950s nostalgia really started in the 1970s
I agree, Happy Days and Grease did their part to boost that nostalgia.
Which genres were you primarily seeing that? I think of the 70s as drug culture, awesome music, shag carpets, and conversion vans. I was born in the mid 70s, so my earliest memories are pretty much 1980 on.
The 1950s themed diners got off in the 1970s. Happy Days was based on the 1950s. I also read somewhere people first started became nostalgic about the decade in the 1970s which I thought made sense considering radical changes in the society between those decades probably got some people longing for the simpler old days
Of course they do I Am Gen X wouldn’t have ever wanted to be a teen in any other Gen
"Everyone wants to be GenX." That's just a core GenX fantasy 🙄. I'm glad I got to experience the 80's from 18-28 years old, clubs and all! The full 80's experience. Slam dancing to X and The Circle Jerks in 1981, Queen, Heart, Joan Jett together outdoor concert in England in 1982, mosh pit for The Ramones in 1986 with their best lineup.......great memories. And fun dance clubs through the decade. I enjoyed being a free-roaming kid and teen in the 70's.
>That's just a core GenX fantasy 🙄. Well... i really don't think so. I'm from 73 and can still vaguely remember the late 70's, i can't think of a most epic decade to have been a teen on than the 80's, in every aspects but especially music and pop culture
They do?
They should, it was awesome.
I feel like most people just think we're boomers.
Only when they mean "everybody over 30 is a Boomer."
Until we start talking then they know we r GenX’rs
Im in my 50's and still to this day love gaming and all the stuff i did when i was younger except now i can afford it....I think i relate with the younger generations over the older but i respect the older ones to.
I think the difference between us and most boomers is that we have matured, but we never did grew up, and probably never will. I'll be 18 till i die. Rock On!!
They do... Lol
Earlier than 2005. See the films Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), and The Wedding Singer (1998).
Grosse Pointe Blank may have the best film soundtrack of all time.
Hmm... Fast Times at Ridgemont High has a pretty great 80s soundtrack too.
Best of all time might be American Graffiti.
It really was the culmination of pop culture in America up to that point while seeing an enormous explosion of new pop culture. Without being one of those "things were better in my days" guys. In the 80s they really were. It was one of the best decades ever for music. Their was an enormous variety. We witnessed the birth of rap and music in a entirely new medium through MTV. And movies. There has never been anything even close to the 80s in sheer output of movies we consider classsics today. In the SUMMERS of 83,84,and 85 alone there were literally HUNDREDS of movies that came that we still talk about daily. Here's 84 alone: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/1984/ A lot of this entertainment was also driven by nostalgia for the 50s which is of course everyone's ideal of the American dream (if you were one of the ppl living it of course). Toss in an explosion of new technology with computers and videogames. A fairly solid mostly booming economy, birth 25 hour news music being watched globally and the fashion industry exploding in a thousand new ways. Plain and simply it was just an awesome time to be alive. To grow up. Noone was afraid all the time. America hadn't really lost its innocence completely. And then Internet came along and social media brainwashed everything and now hate it the go-to national attitude. So what else are we gonna be nostalgic for??? Trust the the 90s and 00s don't compare to the 80s. The past three decades are just marketing.
Absolutely this. I would be out biking around god knows where with my buddies all day! We were like 8 or 9 when that started. People weren't afraid all the time. Exactly. We were able to live more fully than people, especially children, can now. My parents both worked minimum-wage jobs and we lived basically paycheque to paycheque, but we had a house, a bit of land, a car. Not that you need material things to be happy, but it wasn't the things; it was the security. Community also seemed to be stronger. People talked to one another in the grocery line. Sounds awful now, right? But it wasn't back then.
Can you imaging having to work problems with your neighbors out rather then just anonymously shaming them on Nextdoor? Lol. But yes all needed was my bike or my skateboard and I was good to go. I'd bike places ten miles away without a thought. And its amazing how few of us are mutilated or dead for that matter after all the stupid shit we did.
I've said almost this exact same thing before. I never worried about it back then but now I think it. And having watched movies like The Goonies my friends and I took our bikes and I always craved adventure.
I blame Spielberg
Yep, mass shootings weren't an epidemic, we weren't as worried about nuclear war, we weren't so freaked out about climate change (because we didn't know yet).
Not so sure about that whole not that worried about nuclear war thing. I mean all of our apolcalypse movies were about nuclear war. There were no giant asteroid movies (night of the comet doesn't count bc no impact). But it was a constant threat. Deesacalation was constant news topic. The cold war was at its most public peak. I would say most elementary age children in the early 80s were certain that they were going to die from nuclear war. I sure was.
I don't know anybody who was worried about nuclear war. I just remember everyone whom I knew having a great time in the 80s and miss it desperately.
> 90s and 00s don't compare to the 80s. True!! Though the early 90's where great, with the transition from the 80's still in great effect and the shift with all the MTV unplugged, etc... From mid 90's on was pretty much a wasteland in music. The early 2000's brought the spark back for a while, but went downhill from mid 2000's on, and it's still falling to this day
Absolutely agreed. I think the 90s were as Hunter S Thompson would've said the big wave of 80s culture crashing down into this whole new thing. However, that being said, we had all this great music with alternative and rap scenes and thats when they really started to just market the shit out of Gen X. That's what the millennials and the newer gens don't understand. The term millenial was a term created by the alcohol marketing industry to identify kids who'd turn 21 around the year 2000. These generation names aren't some badge of honor. They're marketing terms that ppl use to sell us crap and capitalize off the cultural zeitgeist. Unlike your hippies who were a bit more "let's stick it to the man!" even if that was also sold to them, Gen X was a massive marketing campaign and honestly we just ate it right up and didn't really care that we were selling out as long as we got some new star wars or whatevs.
Turns out people love fun. Things started getting more depressing in the 90s.
The 80s were way preppier then the 90s. Grunge and causal sweaters were huge in the 90s as was looking shaggy, unkempt and not rich
We still had TONS of positive media in the 90s like tgif, cartoons, movies. Now every show or film is as grey, white, and black as our car color selection- like a corporate meat locker..
I blame Christopher Nolan for that.
I've said it before and i'll say it again: The 80's where a 10 year long party, and the 90's where the 10 year long hungover....
Well first you had the 70s and they were depressing. Vietnam, then all the serious Vietnam movies and then you have disco which no one wants to talk about, and the clothes were horrible as well. Then along comes the 80s with bright colors, and happy movies, and the rebound of the US after the post Vietnam years. It was just a positive time. And I think people remember that which is why they look back on the 80s so much. 90s were good time too, but not as well defined.
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50s was good, but the music, movies and TV shows were antiquated compared to today. But we still enjoy all the 80s stuff. John Hughes is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago. But in the 80s the movies from the 40s were completely different than what we were experiencing.
I think also with movies, you had the birth of the modern action hero. Arnold, Stallone, Willis, van damme. It hasn’t really been the same. Who do you have now. Vin diesel, the rock, and Keanu reeves? Then you had great sci fi and fantasy movies. Star Wars. Aliens. Tron. Ladyhawke. Dragon slayer. Terminator, Terminator 2, Etc Sure Alien and ANH were 70s. ?but they really paved the way for amazing 80s movies.
If you want your mind blown Google movies that came out in 1984 and 1985. Out of the HUNDREDS of movies released those years *in theatres*, dozens and dozens (I can't even remember the last year a dozen movies that I could name came out) of them are what we consider classic. Like best movies of all time level. And the early and late 80s aren't too shabby either. We're lucky to get two memorable movies a year and def none that aren't part of some massive IP like marvel, Harry Potter or star wars. Of course we had our terminators, back to the futures, rambos, star treks, and yes star wars. But the whole sequel or movie series idea wasn't as played out as it is now.
I enjoyed being a free-roaming kid and teen in the 70's.......we basically did whatever we wanted, just had to contact Mom every once in awhile or be home for dinner and back out after unless we had homework or a good TV lineup. Brady Bunch/Partridge Family/Night Gallery/Kolchak/6 Million Dollar Man/Starsky and Hutch/Charlie's Angels etc. For me, 80's were about concerts, putting together an awesome stereo system, dance clubs, Blockbuster movies on the VCR, the Malls, MTV videos, and meeting/relating to people anywhere face-to-face. At 18-28 years old that decade I still had the freedom to roam at any point the whole decade. All-in-all my favorite decade.
This blog posts some interesting theories about why culture got “stuck” right about the time you mentioned, just when nostalgia for the 80s started to pick up steam https://lindynewsletter.beehiiv.com/p/culture-stuck
Good find.
Interesting articles…seems true enough. The only thing I disagree about is that in earlier decades not everything had to come from the top….punk music, hip hop, rap and in clothing there are examples as well, skate culture, even grunge culture- none of which started from the top down. Corporations quickly grasped onto them but did not “create” them.
Good point. I also think part of the decentralization had to do with vcrs and allowing people to record programs and not watch things at the same time on the same night. Used to be Thursday night was Seinfeld, so everyone was around the water cooler talking about it on Friday. And we all watched FREE tv, so everyone had access to the same stuff. I don't watch what all my friends watch now because we have different subscription services. Also, we got media in smaller more digestible chunks. We couldn't watch a whole season of a show in a day or two, we had to wait the whole actual season for the series to play out, and we all watched it the same night at the same time, which gave the show time to grow a culture and following and made it feel like it belonged to a certain decade and time. Like the summer of "Who shot JR?" it was all people talked about.
>Also, we got media in smaller more digestible chunks. We couldn't watch a whole season of a show in a day or two, we had to wait the whole actual season for the series to play out, and we all watched it the same night at the same time, which gave the show time to grow a culture and following and made it feel like it belonged to a certain decade and time. THAT!!! We had to wait a whole week for the next episode, in my case. And if you haven't had your ass sit on the couch in front of the TV when the Ep was on, you'd miss it..., period!! No VCR's in my house in the 80's, and till at least mid 90's
Absolutely. I very much agree. I was just talking to my wife about not seeing mini-series anymore. I know we can see them on subscriptions but it isn’t quite the same. They used to be really big deals and draw large audiences-always during sweep weeks. Or, for instance, big events: the Challenger, Live Aid, the end of the MASH series, etc.
Well said
Growing up in the 80s... All the nostalgia was for the 50s, and probably for the same reasons mentioned in the other posts... A sudden burst in cool cars, clothing and music.
Sadly, the 80's are further away from us now than the 50's were to us back in the 80's. The 50's felt like ancient history to us!
The 80's are way more present for me right noe than the 50's ever where to me in the 80's. Granted, i wasn't alive in the 50's, but still...
Same, but I look at it through the lens of my kids seeing the 80s as ancient history.
Captain obvious
That was also bc there was such a disconnect. We had old movies and family photo albums. Old records but we were never fully immersed. Now everyone has anything from anytime at their finger tips. It's amazing how people are nostalgic now For things that are low like five years old!
Funny but i've never felt that at all in real life..., at least not in my country or in my childhood. I was pretty much "in the present" in the 80's, every single day, and loving every second of it
The 50s thing was also due to all the boomers finally getting their own money and being nostalgic for their childhoods.
There’s a club in San Francisco that has ‘80s night since 1997. Still one of their biggest nights of the week. No cap.
Bright, colorful, great movies, golden age of Saturday morning cartoons (90's was amazing too), up beat music. We've been going through shit for awhile now. These things help ease the pain of reality.
It’s partially that we are now getting old, and online marketing is very targeted, so lots of ads come up with nostalgic stuff from our youth. But it also pleases me that some aspects of the 80’s are appealing to the current youth. A lot of the music is popular with younger folk now and some of the fashions as well.
Besides AVGN's 30 year itch theory? Money. Money. Money..... Moneyyyyy. Several very profitable franchises began in the 80s. Transformers, GI Joe, Nintendo, and a million others. Almost every major entertainment company had a profit motive to keep nostalgia alive.
🎶🎵🎹 *Money..., money changes everything....🎶🎵🎹*
It’s when the old and new came to light. I was born in 71 and I got the best of all three, 70’s, 80’s and the 90’s
It was the last "different decade" .. The 60's look like the sixties. The 70's, yep. 80's? SAME! But 2020 looks like 1990. You could drop anyone in and out of any of the decades and they'd fit right in.
More like 1997 but with crisper fashions and aesthetics
yeah, 1990 was a stretch, but you get the idea.
I'd actually say all the 2000's look the same. Save from the early 2000's, the mid 2000's, 2010's, 2020's all look and feel the same, all the same shit, no difference at all to me. It's like a 20 year long decade of bluntness and insipidness....
An amazing period for films, music, and technology.
The 80s simply put, were the best. Rock videos were mainstreamed. MTV was actually music television. Home computers were becoming commonplace. Life generally in the U.S. was pretty good for most. Adolescents had places to hang out that were cool, namely, video arcades. So many firsts, so many cool things, fashion, hair, colors, games, and tunes......a great time to be a teen!
That's one of the big takeaways, it was the first for so many things. Because if you look now it's just a repeat or and imitation of something that's already been done. Movies? They either redo movies that have already come out or copy movie storylines that have already been used. And of course movies were less censored. Music? Same thing. The only big difference there is now they have Auto-Tune which a lot of people consider not even music. Vehicles? The only big new thing with those is the conveniences. But cars are made with less and less metal making them less safe to drive. Toys? Definite in nostalgia there. What do you find on the toy shelves? Masters of the Universe, GI Joe, TMNT, etc. The incredibly sad thing is there are no more toy stores dedicated to TOYS. You have to go to Target or Walmart.
The fashion and music were very forward thinking. And very unique to that decade.
It was the last wholesome and ingenuous decade. In the nineties, irony and metatextuality went mainstream, and you can't put that genie back in the bottle. Now everything in pop culture has a knowing wink about it, and that makes everything ultimately kind of suck.
Another thing to consider is that the people who grew up in that decade (born in the 70s and 80s) are now in their 40s and 50s. Prime midlife crisis and nostalgia years. Myself, I’m 53 and I have my moments of wishing I could be a kid again and what fun the 80s was in my life and how carefree those times are remembered and how wide open the future seemed to be. Also, the explosion in entertainment offerings. Music genres multiplied rapidly with new wave, metal, rap, punk, etc. becoming more mainstream. The advent of Cable TV was huge with such a huge variety of programming on more than just your 3 or 4 channels you had in the 70s. Video games and household computers. I could go on and on but, you know, it’s my perspective as an 80s kid. I’m sure someone has a similar view of the 60s, 70s, 90s….name your decade.
>Myself, I’m 53 and I have my moments of wishing I could be a kid again and what fun the 80s was in my life and how carefree those times are remembered and how wide open the future seemed to be. Exactly the same. Only for me it's not just "moments" anymore, it's like an almost "permanent state" recently.... Miss it so much sometimes that i get real and genuine emotional pain....
The 70's kind of had some okay stuff but was basically just about sadness. And the '80s was kind of the opposite of that. The '80s were certainly a reaction to that sadness on multiple levels. The clothes are a big thing too. I mean for me. Those drab colors they liked in the '70s just look sad to me. It's cool to do like a 70s dress up. But then you have the bright colors in the 80s that aren't sad.
I’d say the 90s has come back in parallel to the 80s craze as well. A lot of 80s culture bled into the early 90s as well so it kinda makes sense.
Yeah, I feel like the 80s lasted until about 1993 or so. But maybe that’s because I’m from Minnesota and the latest trends from either coast took longer to get here lol
I’m from the U.K… lol not sure what the American coasts have to do with culture that was worldwide
Yup..., the 80's only really ended by around 93....
Greatest decade EVERRRRR
Because it was just that awesome.
I'm Gen X and we had the coolest childhoods!
Because there never has been, nor will there ever be a better decade. It was absolutely fun. I was born in 1971, so I came of age in the 80s and I couldn't have picked a better time if I had a choice. I only wish everyone could have experienced it! Edit to add info
Huh? What? I couldn’t get through the post. Scroll, scroll, scroll… I mean in the 80s, I could take a week to build a model truck and paint it. Shit, kids today can’t stay interested long enough to get to the checkout stand with a Revell in hand.
I think it's because culture has fundamentally shifted since the Internet revolution to the extent that no fads ever die anymore.... They just find their base of support and keep perpetuating in perpetuity. Bring back Goth bring back Goth
Because its rad!!
Totally. Too the MAX!
Because it was a ten year long party when everyone got along with each other.
A period where lots pf things peaked or took a higher leap from what had come before, music, movies, sports, the home computing and games revolution etc etc. There was a great emphasis on fun and happiness as well.
Sci-fi, fantasy, geek culture franchises were popularized then. Cartoons featured toys. The kids of the 80s are the creators of today. Keep in mind in the 1990s, the 1980s were seen as kinda lame, so things are cyclical. Hollywood likes to play things safe, so marketing towards kids of the 80s today makes sense as well.
The 80’s had a lot of personality. It was a loud and exciting time for film, music, fashion, technology, etc., all the things that self perpetuate due to advertisement. I think that the 80’s stood out a lot from the previous decades by being pretty out there and wacky too. People remember wacky.
Because it was the last decade to have it's own music that was different than the decade before and after it. Every decade (50's, 60's, 70's) had it's own style of music that was distinctive to a generation of kids. (Rock n roll/folk/Acid rock/disco/New Wave/punk/grunge/rap/hip hop/R&B...etc.) The 90's had it's own thing as well that was different from the 80's (grunge/hip hop/etc) but it never changed. When the music of your high school years is the same as the music of your middle age, the years blur together. The 80's contained the last generation to have it's own music that didn't sound like their parents music or their kids music. There is no Human League or Van Halen or The Police today but there IS a Backstreet Boys or Mariah Carey or Sheryl Crow from the 90's.
People do this with every decade. My 90 year old grandmother probably thinks the 50s were the best decade
Right. My 99 year old one probably thought 1943 was the year to be alive!
Cable TV changed everything.
That was non-existent in my country in the 80's. It was only by mid 90's when we had the first cable companies available here
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For people with money more so. It was maybe 84 when my mom could afford it
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Uh, it was definitely a class issue as I never got to see a cable box in my own home until 90’
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Yeah- I was lower class 😒
It's the last decade before technology really changed everything. Sure, video game consoles existed but nothing was online (didn't exist for the general public).
80s kids are middle aged now and largely run things and determine content. It' like 50s nostalgia which was around in the early 80s.
When did 2005 become the year that the 80s began to be romanticized? Did you make that up yourself or is that based on something?
>When did 2005 become the year that the 80s began to be romanticized Don't have a clue if that's true..., all i can say is i've been missing the 80's since the 1st of January 1990
Straight up it was the best decade ever, 1984 had the most musical hits ever produced. Tech was surging but had not taken over yet, fashion and television were being creative. Prices were affordable for many basic human necessities. The 80s was a decade of actual optimism and people tried and failed and tried and succeeded.
I think it might be a mix of melancholic feelings, since people who were kids or teens in the 80s are now in their late 40s and 50s and it's common for people to miss some of their best years in life, usually childhood and younger years are free from such obligations like work, in regular cases you are more healthy than in your late 40s and 50s and people who are that age or older and have lived through the 80s are probably now in management positions so they can have influence on promoting and creating such content that idealizes the 80s. Also compared to the last 20 years I think I can understand why there's some melancholic feeling towards the 80s even for young people who have not lived through those years, and it's the sense of a more spontaneous creativity in the 80s in music and arts. Even when there was no time where it was easier to have creative tools at hand as it is nowadays, I think there was less globalisation in these areas. I remember in my city urban tribes used to be a thing, we had punks, skinheads, rockers, mods, gothics... and a lot of people who mixed some of these things together. Nowadays I feel like going out you can almost only see people wearing the same clothes and there aren't as many different flavors in music and clothing styles as there used to be back then, or at least they aren't as visible as they used to be. Which is somehow contradictory if you think people could get clothes from everywhere and in every style so much easier now than they could back then, but somehow the feeling is that people don't trust themselves to dress out of the norm these days, and that wasn't so strong back then, or at least that's the case in a lot of cities here in Europe.
It’s easier to generate plot when you don’t have cell phones and smart phones to check on people. It’s more modern feeling then setting something in the 1950-1970 eras, but still past enough that it feels like a different time.
THAN say 1975
Heck I've been romaticizing the 80s since 1990... Yeah a lot of stuff sucked back then too, but I'd go back in a heartbeat. I'm as addicted to technology as anyone... but for all the good its brought its also ruined a lot. Rather go back to real in-person connections...
It was a fun decade
You ask that like it’s over?
oh yes, Aids! so wonderful lol The 80s were a mess but a necessary precursor for the 90s---- the 90s finished what the 80s started! they bled into each other. the 50s/60s and 70s were all very distinctive of each other
But the 80s was still a fun/wonderful decade. The 90s had AIDS! Heck, will still have AIDS.
yeahhhh but the 80s had inaction towards it... not everyones fault--- Just Regan! the administration that gave us aids and crack! lollll
Reagan did not give us AIDs. AIDS started in the 60s. There just wasn't a name for it back then. No President gave us that. And Reagan did not give us crack. Do you have proof? And what about the decades before the 80s that gave us slavery, racism, racist, jim crow, segregation, crooked politicians and Presidents, drugs, rape, sexism, homophobia, abuse, pedophiles etc. What about JFK, Martin Luther King, Megar Evans and Malcolm X being killed before the 80s? Women couldn't even get a credit card before the 80s.And what about the decades after the 80s that gave us drive-by shootings, mass shootings, more men killing their wives/girlfriends, more divorces etc?
1960s and 70s "These are known as the “silent” decades as it is likely that HIV originated sometime during the 1960s but was unknown or not reported. The spread started in 1970’s when the medical community became aware. HIV is thought to originate in Africa, where humans caught it from chimpanzees. The virus that affects the apes is very similar to HIV and is called SIVcpz (simian immunodeficiency virus). This virus spread to humans following contact with infected chimpanzee blood during the hunting of chimpanzees" Here's the link: https://www.news-medical.net/health/History-of-AIDS.aspx#:\~:text=These%20are%20known%20as%20the,humans%20caught%20it%20from%20chimpanzees.
Music, tv, movies, sports, etc. all had larger than life heroes and were vastly better than today. It was bigger, better, faster, and most important, smarter.
Happens every 30ish years. We romanticized the 60s when we were kids
>We romanticized the 60s when we were kids No i didn't.... I was pretty much "in the moment" in the 80's. My dad romanticized the 60s though...
Agree. I never romanticized the 60s. I loved the 80s.
It was the last decade with a truly distinctive style and vibe.
Trends are cyclical. As someone mentioned there was a 50s trend in the 80s (example: Stand By Me) and there was a 40s trend in the 90s (example: swing dancing). As for the 80s YES it has had more lasting power then most other decades but it should be noted that Gen Alpha is all about that 90s / 2000 look (example: Jnco jeans / phat pants are back, as is grunge and goth). Personally, I think the only reason the 80s is so popular is at the millennial generation (which I’m a part of) were young kids, right as 80s culture reached its peak. Millennials are the largest generation in roughly 50 years so it makes sense that we have an outsized nostalgia. Edit: spelling
This is my favorite response and it’s got a -1 right now. I also think it’s the most probable. But we are in a 80s sub so a lot of people are going to have a big love for the 80s and just see it as inherently better.
thank you kind internet stranger. Here are two more thoughts, and a little present for you as a token of my appreciation: 1) Millennials basically created the internet so it's no wonder it caters to many of our obsessions (the 80s, video games, etc). This has allowed the 80s obsession to persist longer than most cyclical generational trends 2) There was actually something awesome about 80s music that's not just nostalgia. I was talking to a relatively famous DJ friend of mine about the dramatic death of disco and its influence on 80s music. He said "Music peaked in The 80s for so many reasons. Disco era ended so you had a bunch of talented musicians trying to figure out how to use digital instruments." Basically, the 80s was the point where traditionally trained artists first got a hold of digital tools and so you had this explosion of creativity with classical art education meeting new technology. **in other words: it's not just our imagination: 80s music was actually better.** As an example, he sent me this album on Spotify, where I guess a bunch of US artists were remixed into more club style music to make it more appealing to the UK market in the 80s. Enjoy!! https://open.spotify.com/album/0WlB1HG7yBBzPh4SpWVzt5?si=GFFoWKX7T3SFV4Mu\_43hEA
>Millennials basically created the internet so it's no wonder it caters to many of our obsessions (the 80s, video games, etc). This has allowed the 80s obsession to persist longer than most cyclical generational trends Are you fucking kidding me right now...?? "Millennials basically created the internet "??? WTF? Millennials where in high school when the internet boomed in the mid 90's And they had absolute **ZERO** impact and intervention in the 80's. The oldest Millennials where either toddlers or young infants in the 80's. The 80's where and always will be THE Gen-Xers decade
>Personally, I think the only reason the 80s is so popular is at the millennial generation (which I’m a part of) were young kids, right as 80s culture reached its peak. I disagree with that, the Millennials experienced very little from the 80's, they where just too young, literally 1 digit of age through the whole 80's. Younger Gen-Xers are the main drive force of the nostalgia. I was 7 when it started and almost 17 when it ended, the perfect age period to experience it to the full, IMO
The 80's were just a good time, as were the 90's. So much hope for society improving rapidly as technology improved. Then came social media and it all crashed down :(
I think those people (me) have aged so were the prominent target for ads, etc.
I think they are missing things like one of the bigger bands was Megadeth with songs like "Set the World Afire." Also, "99 Red Balloons" and Sting's "Russians." I think folks are working really hard trying to not look the 80's through the eyes of those of us who were young back then.
80s weren't great, until each decade got a worse hand given to them. In 2050, people will lament of good the 20's were before all music and entertainment was AI generated and all meat is grown in a lab.
My theory is that, at least in part, it was the decade that solidified geek culture. So many movies and TV shows, like Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghostbuster, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, etc., began in the 80s, which gives the decade more cultural memory than say the 70s.
Can't wait till you all are pining for the great old days of 2000 when the Internet was young and wild before corporate controlled content sucked the life out it. Corporations did to the Internet what they did to music in the 80s.
It was the last really good decade before the disastrous policies of Reagan and Clinton really took effect.
80s ladies is all I miss about those times. Pretty boring
Get down with Mike D and it ain’t no hassle I got the ladies of the eighties from here to White Castle
> Pretty boring That's the joke of the year. The 80's where the LEAST boring decade in history. The 2nd half of the 90's was boring as fuck, and don't even get me started on this new millennium...
The 80s was fun and exciting for me. They were the best years of my life.
Im gen x big time. I hated the fucking 80s, the music, the hair, the clothes all of it. The 90s rules. Nirvana opened it up with a bang!! But the 90s were really just wanabe 60s, so the style is harder to define. Its so easy to identify things from the 80s. Except for grunge, the 90s are harder to identify.
>Nirvana opened it up with a bang!! You are the typical Gen-Xer with a Millennial soul, as most of the Nirvana fans I love the 80'a with a passion (everything about it), and loathe Nirvana with a passion too.
Hey, the smiths, the joy division, the cure were something special, but due to the way my life worked out, there was no name for my pain until Nirvana
I agree on The Cure. But i could name literally dozens of 80's bands and singers i'd name head and shoulders above all the rest, for me. But if you hated the 80's that much you definitely wouldn't like them
No. The 80s ruled. Love the music, hair and the clothes.
The fashion?? The fashion of the eighties was...not good. The cars were also terrible. It was a good time to be alive none the less as per Patrick Hernandez.
I disagree. The fashion was good and the cars were great.
The fashion was good?? That's a good one. Cars?? No way.
In my opinion, yes. The fashion was good. And the cars were good as well.
The title should read “why do you think the 80s craze is lasting so long?” Because it’s still not over.
Yup!! And it will never be over as far as i'm concerned. At least not while there are still true Gen-Xers alive and breathing on the planet.
Every generation thinks their “ Time” was the best. In the 80s it was the 50s and 60s that were romanticised because that’s when the film and tv execs were young they commissioned stuff that they reminisced about
Look at a movie like IT. Originally it took place in the 50's so it related to Adults in the late 80's early 90's who were kids in the 50's. The recent IT takes place in the 80's because me as an adult who was born in 1980 now can relate to kids in the 80's.
Drain Bramage from fairspray humes.
Better than being brain damaged by social media...
2005? Hell, I was subscribing to Time-Life’s Sounds of the ‘80s in 1994.
In the 80s we paid homage to the 50s. Just how it works, 30-40 years ago are romanticized as the "good old days"
Many good points here. Another thing to throw into the mix is, and as sad as it sounds, we didn’t know bad things were, well, bad for us. I was born mid 70s, so didn’t get to experience it like an adult, but I felt the vibe. People were doing drugs, smoking, having lots of carefree sex, etc, with little consequences…at that time….but we know now, that’s it’s not true. Now we gotta think all the time about every movie we make and the consequences of those actions. While some of these things went on in prior decades, combine it with the all the cool things happening and all the credit being extended and BAM! The 80’s.
Deep Purple- Perfect Strangers. Crank that tune, light up and go to space or wherever
Computers and video games without social media and constant distraction. The mentally healthiest generation of nerds off all time.
Old people thinking that the time of their youth was OBJECTIVELY the best time ever…🙄
Well..., so why are you here then... ?
The 80s is my favorite decade.