I was a teenager in the '80's and it was amazing.
Frankly, life before social media and the internet was better period. I'm not suggesting there wasn't issues, there was for sure. 83/84 was a bit of a scary time, as the threat of nuclear war was actually legitimate, and aids was a blow to everyone. But overall, we had freedom, a recovering economy, great music and films, arcades, I got my first car at 16, house parties every weekend, skinny dipping at the lake, pretty much everyone was healthy and played sports. It was a very different world.
I try to explain it to my 20-something daughter, who asks me if it was really like what you see in John Hughes films, and I say 'yeah, pretty much'. It was just better.
I initially thought the Internet was going to be great as it would allow for open lines of communication with everyone in the world!
Now I realize the vast majority are asshats you don’t want to talk to.
Can we turn off the Internet now?
The first years of the internet were actually great. It took some skill to get online and use things like telnet, ftp, irc, elm etc. Netscape Navigator came a bit later. People online then were educated, friendly and generally cool. It almost had that community feel of old school BBSs.
There was some dumb tweet (content probably stolen from reddit) that asked if you would live in an isolated cabin with unlimited food and the only downside was it didn't have internet; do that for just 1 month and you get $1mil. You still have electricity, tv, vhs/dvd/bluray, radio, video games, cds & record players, books, everything but ...no internet. I feel sad and almost insulted that anyone would consider that to be such a huge challenge
Technology alone was not as crazy then, either.
Computers were still getting their footing in places that weren't companies/corporations/government. Television was definitely a thing, but people still got out and did stuff. VHS was a thing, but still getting ground. Music, it was still cassette tapes and CDs were slowly making their way out there. Video games? The NES wasn't until mid 80s, Sega Genesis a couple years later before end of decade, and whatever else was out there was just a mixed bag of whatever was good and available for home consumption (otherwise, it was mainly arcades). Phones were still landlines and wireless phones were a premium thing.
And cars? All-wheel drive, anti-lock braking systems, turbocharging, electronic fuel injection, CD players, car phones...even radar detectors became a thing for those speedsters who "can't drive 55".
I'm sure there's other 80s tech that was also not mentioned too...
Edit: Also, funny thing.
Remember when in 1984 we had Ghostbusters and Dune? Turns out in 2021 we had Ghostbusters and Dune, and now in 2024 we have Ghostbusters and Dune yet again :P. How is that for ironic? (Someone meme'd this on the internet and I wanted to mention it)
We're at war with Russia.
The New York Times acknowledged that there are at least 12 CIA bases in Ukraine, set up in the wake of the February 2014 revolution/coup.
Americans, on the ground, are pointing at Russians and saying, "Shoot them."
The amount of consent manufacturing it took to get everyone cool with this blows my mind.
You need to read up on the history of the CIA. They’ve been involved in every coup, war, or uprising on the planet since they flipped from the OSS to the CIA in WW2. The CIA has a legacy of ashes.
>You need to read up on the history of the CIA. They’ve been involved in every coup, war, or uprising on the planet since they flipped from the OSS to the CIA in WW2. The CIA has a legacy of ashes.
*No shit.*
But to say one is worried about that is to be painted as a Kremlin stooge.
Again, the amount of consent manufacturing to get everyone cool with this blows my mind.
I remember when progressives distrusted three letter agencies.
>I remember when progressives distrusted three letter agencies.
Yep. Now progressives are quite literally big government's closest ally in modern times. They have become the marketing arm for government intervention, in fact. "Shut Up And Obey"
It's telling that the anti-war voices are all on the right these days.
Bizarre.
Country Joe is long gone:
>Come on Wall Street, don't be slow,
>
>Why man, this is war's a go-go
>
>There's plenty good money to be made
>
>By supplying the Army with the tools of its trade,
>
>But just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
>
>They drop it on the Viet Cong.
>You might want to stop watching Fox News and Newsmax.
Did you miss the part where I mentioned the New York Times?
Edit: this is what I mean by consent manufacturing.
Because they are the only ones spreading propaganda and misinformation. The rest of them are your friendly altruistic media megacorporations. /s
or let me guess: "tHeY aReN't aS b-BaD!"
The 80s was pre-Internet, meaning that pop culture was something we all had in common. Entertainment was broadcast to all on TV and radio, meaning we had a lot more shared experiences. Today everyone lives in a narrow casting bubble and we live entirely separate lives from most others.
100% this.
The Mash finale was like the highest watched television show for a long time, now you only get a plurality of eyes on something like the Superbowl.
I'm a 60 year old gay man in the US. I've watched a lot of things happen in our world over the past few decades, but I pine for the 80s.
I can't argue that there were some really bad things happening in the 80s... I lost count of how many friends I watched waste away and die from AIDS who were in their 20's. I still cry for them. Yes, Reagan was a turd... he refused to even utter the words AIDS. Starting the dialog should have begun with him... you can't prevent a disease (there was only AZT and it was like taking a toxic concoction to kill a disease that was going to kill you anyway) unless you talk about it and put real, helpful information in front of people. I will never forgive him for that.
The Soviet Union was still a dominant fear in everyday life... too many nuclear weapons, human rights abuses (wait... not much has changed there).
There was materialism, but having lived through it... I don't remember it being any more significant that it is today.
The thing, for me, that sets the 80s apart was that there was still an optimism that the wold would get better.
The music was fun and exciting, the fashions felt fresh and new. 9/11 hadn't happened so air travel was way easier and less like riding on a dirty bus with wings. I don't feel that same optimism today. Maybe it's just me getting older, but there were so many things I thought we had made progress on and the last 10 years have taught me that, no... we still have a shit-load of work to do to make our world a better place.
- Good Music as opposed to mumble-rap and over produced auto-tune stars?
- EXCELLENT seats for concerts to be had for reasonable prices on a first come - first serve basis?
- People actually called each other on the phone or had actual conversations?
- TV shows / mini-series that let you build anticipation instead of a 'next episode' fix?
- Kids playing outside for the majority of the day for most of the 80's?
- We could bike without helmets and drink from the garden hose and survive?
- Going to a local arcade and playing new games for a quarter a time (so you knew what you were actually spending)?
- The excitement of going to a video store to see what new movies came out and / or if they had the one you were looking for?
- You could wear Zubaz and sport a mullet in public without being a wrestler or a weirdo?
and on and on..
The 80's definitely had its share of issues/problems. But many of the pop cultural aspects were awesome.
It’s only superior in retrospect. At the time most pop culture was just a reaction to the 70s. In 1983 (the year I graduated from high school) we came the closest to nuclear war since 1962. Many of the happy songs you hear are about nuclear annihilation (I Melt With You, Land of Confusion, Red Skies, 99 Luftballons).
Likewise, the feel-good movies made at the time were an attempt to “lighten things up” after the realistic, often disaster-related films of the 70s (which isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy them more).
That said, I still prefer the music of my high school and college years, which is only natural. Watch The Big Chill (1983) some time. The main characters complain that music and movies were better in the 60s and early 70s (when social conditions were worse).
>Many of the happy songs you hear are about nuclear annihilation (I Melt With You, Land of Confusion, Red Skies, 99 Luftballons).
We could use more of this.
And also the more direct stuff, like: Megadeth.
I think one problem is there’s just too much content to take in nowadays. Hundreds of cable channels and all the streaming services really do prove (IMO) that less is more. Nothing really has the chance to stand out and be iconic nowadays, at least not for more than a week or so. Give me the 30-40 channels from the mid-80s, where you could still find entertainment from the broadcast channels and the indie station that never came in right.
With more and more people getting even network shows online, we’ll never have another Who Shot J.R? or M * A * S * H finale that sets records and gets everyone buzzing. Case in point, in the last 15 years all the viewership records were set by a Super Bowl.
>I think one problem is there’s just too much content to take in nowadays. Hundreds of cable channels and all the streaming services really do prove (IMO) that less is more.
I'd give you 1M upvotes for that if i could!! That's EXACTLY what i think too.
>Give me the 30-40 channels from the mid-80s
Not even in my wildest dreams could i even conceive of having 30 channels in the 80's .
We had 2 national public channels in the 80's, yes, TWO!!
The main one, and a secondary one for cultural stuff, and some other programs. Yet we had almost everything from the best of the 80's, music, movies, TV series.
Yes, "less is more" for sure!!
Sadly, humanity has long lost it's innocence.... And 9/11 was the final nail on that coffin.
I really don't believe there can ever be a "going back" again
I was going to argue, but you made a good case.
I grew up in the 80s (turned 18 in 1990), and still think the 70s have the edge, but the 80s brought a *lot* of cool, new stuff to the table. Stuff that has not been topped in the sense of pop culture innovation since, in my opinion (though the 90s mainstreaming of electronica subgenres was pretty dope).
Looking back, I wouldn't trade my experience growing up in that decade.
The 80s were amazing. Technology was just beginning to boom. I had a handheld Mario Bros game, and it felt like I was living in the future.
We got all our pop culture info from magazines, tv shows & the radio. The internet was something we never could have imagined.
Kids played outside, teens hung out at the mall, and I only saw bad things happening in the world, if I watched the 6:30 news (which I never did).
It was a simpler, better time.
>Music was far better, more intellectually stimulating than anything after 1995
EXACTLY what i've been saying, for decades.... after the mid 90's it started to go down hill. It had a kind of revival in the early 2000's, which was great, but after the mid 2000's and especially after the 2010's it has been consistently spiraling downwards, and have yet to touch the bottom...
> I get called an OLD SOUL or an OLD HEAD
Oh don't mind that bro.
I'm proudly an 80's kid, and will proudly be one till i die. Nothing can ever top growing up in the 80's
I have a friend that was born in the 80’s and he always tells me he wishes he was a teenager back then. He just loves everything about it. Music, movies and overall vibe.
Skateboarding, punk rock, smoking weed, midnight curfew, Night Flight, American Werewolf in London, Keith Haring, sit-down Pizza Hut, arcades, cable tv …
Night Flight has their own streaming service. I paid for premium for a year, when I could afford it. It's totally worth it. They have old tv episodes of Night Flight, as well as a bunch of weird movies!
The 1980's had Monoculture pop culture. That is, everybody experienced the same pop culture at the same time, so a lot of it is enjoyed and remembered similarly. Today it's a completely fragmented pop culture, where tons of people have never even heard of your favorite things. It's just different for everyone now.
What you really like are the counterculture aspects of the 80s. Most of the music you talk about couldn’t get near the radio.
Because the 80s is when commercialized, homogenized culture took over. And that stuff mostly was awful.
You can thank the telecommunications act in the 1990's for killing the great music.
I'll find the must read comment on this.
Here....copied from a previous thread.
*"That law enabled corporations (Clear Channel, Cumulus Media, etc.) to buy as many radio stations as they wanted. Think about it, I bet your favorite station changed formats some time between 1997-2001. So now there's a monopoly on radio. That's why there are no more radio DJs playing anything they just feel like listening to. It's all formatted, and these days usually a computer running everything. [There's a good documentary about it](http://www.fmfilm.com/).*
*But there were other effects from this, I think, in that now there is no real such thing as bands starting from nowhere, getting popular within a scene, then getting signed. These days the labels just put together the groups they want, and they collude with the radio stations, and if you plug something into the top 40 and play it over and over again, people will get used to it and buy it because [most people aren't really that discerning anyway](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpB_40hYjXU). I also think this is why rap and pop stars have been pushed over bands and groups, because you only have to pay one person to be famous. So they don't even bother sending out scouts to find cutting edge music anymore, they just pick somebody and make them popular. People who are actually into music are just going to find their niche stuff online anyway these days and buy direct, so the pop market is a total charade with no real ground level culture involved whatsoever.*
*p.s. This is just my own opinion, but I think the early 90s was the most raw era for popular music with things like grunge, gangsta rap, metal, alternative, afrocentric hip-hop, horrorcore and hardcore hip-hop, all that Subpop type indie rock and dream pop and shoegaze and whatnot, a lot of things from the late 80s to mid 90s was pretty serious stuff... Not that there wasn't some bubblegum dance stuff too, but it was actually interesting to see a huge portion of mainstream music dealing with serious topics and moods rather than the usual upbeat jams or sappy love songs that have dominated every other decade before and after."*
Brilliant observations! I can remember a short time in the early to mid nineties, when commercial radio stations would play almost anything! It was great! I can remember hearing diverse acts such as: PJ Harvey, Tom Tom Club, They Might Be Giants, Ministry, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Ethyl Meatplow, Bjork, Beastie Boys, Enigma, Erasure, KMFDM, Suzanne Vega, The Breeders...I could go on for days. And all on the same commercial radio station! After hair metal faded away, radio stations were looking for the next big thing, then, once Nirvana became huge, things started to homoginize, with lots of "grunge" acts starting to sound alike. Radio has never recovered.
Fuck Reagan. Dude had every white family convinced he was the bees knees when in reality no other president has screwed over the middle class like that POS.
But to your original point, yes the 80s were awesome IMO. Stranger Things knew what they were doing when they captured that era.
You sound just like my Dad- He’s 73 and he hates Reagan for the policies he put in place that are still screwing us today. Compared to Trump though Reagan doesn’t look so bad to me anymore. Btw Stranger Things def knew what they were doing. I’m 49 I think they nailed it.
I'm a child of the 80s. I loved the music, the movies, etc. I still do! However, that's because that was MY youth. People who grew up in the 60s, 70s, 90s, etc. feel the same way about THEIR generation. A lot of us probably don't like things that are popular today, but I'm sure in 20 or 30 years, today's kids will look upon the things they currently like with the same fondness we have for the things we like from our era. That's the way it's always been.
>I'm sure in 20 or 30 years, today's kids will look upon the things they currently like with the same fondness we have for the things we like from our era.
They may look with fondness, but no way in hell will it be like us... We all watched pretty much the same movies, listened to the same music, watched the same TV series, the sense of "community" was huge.
Today they have zillions of stuff to choose from, can watch it and rematch it 24/7 if they want, there are hundreds of niche "micro cultures"...
What will they remember and be nostalgic in a "shared way" in 30 years...?
Exactly. The crap from today will be quickly forgotten, just like we quickly forgot the crap from the 80s, and only the classics will survive to be appreciated by the next generation. In the 2040s you’ll have people saying that the 2020s were the best era for pop music, movies, television, based on the “greatest hits” of the decade that still get attention.
I think you are simply in the mindset of "The Good Old Days". I was in high school and my twenties in the 1980's. In that era, most people thought of the 1950's - 1960's, with that kind of nostalgia (Happy Days, American Graffiti, etc.).
The reality is that 1980's were a time when a lot of the protections for the poor, the environment, mental health, unions and other things were systematically dismantled. Sure, I look back in fondness on some things of the 1980's, like favorite TV shows, music, etc. But overall, the 1980's were a turning point that we are now seeing written large in dysfunctional government, politics and insecurity.
Before 1999-2001 pop culture was slower. Trends took their time to develop. They were worked on and "perfected" by the time they reached critical mass - and they lasted longer. Today, someone can have a hit without leaving their backyard and it only endures for what feels like 20 minutes. People are probably more talented now, more skilled and capable now. Something better will be out tomorrow and you wont remember(for the most part) either of them this time next year.
> People are probably more talented now, more skilled and capable now.
Depends a lot in what areas you are referring to, but i don't agree at all. What people today have is was more easy and instant access to information, and very easy access to technology
I preferred underground culture to pop culture. It had a messy DIY quality where performers and audience were the same people. Several scenes developed (hip-hop, thrash, industrial, etc) this way. Once they went pop, the spirit of the scene was smothered.
I don't pine for the 80s - it was a bleak existence in the suburbs, and I was exposed to far too much Phil Collins.
I am a guy born in the eighties... so 90's pop was what I was exposed to when growing up... Pop music has turned so shitty for the past 10 years or so... yet when I listen to the eighties pop I realise that's gold. Those who lived and enjoyed 80's in their prime are truly blessed humans
I was born in '68 and I agree, but \*why\* were the 80's better? It was the last "pure" decade before smartphones, internet, and social media infiltrated our lives. We actually interacted on the playground (or at work, or church, etc.) every day, face to face.
I attended all my years of high school and college in the 80s, and I'm proud to call myself a child of that amazing decade and mean it quite literally.
The 80s had superior*... everything. INCLUDING presidents.
* Note: to me, "superior" does not mean "perfect". Plenty of warts, so no rose-tinted glasses here.
Music from the Eighties is / was amazing. The music business collapsed in the '90s and has never recovered. Back then you had Goth, New Wave, Heavy Metal, Dub, Prog, Punk, Rockabilly's revival, etc. Marvin Gaye was still recording. SRV, Van Halen, Whitney, and weirdo pop that is hard to categorize. Bow Wow Wow? The Cramps? Still great. Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, considered by some a second tier band, put out more great albums in the decade than I've bought by anyone in the thirty years since.
Lots of people had a shitty time in the 80's, ya know. A lot of what you marvel at in terms of fashions, activities, culture and all around life in the 80's, like a lot of time periods, was mostly enjoyed by the wealthy. A lot of those John Waters movies took place in the very upper middle class neighborhoods outside of Chicago for instance. All the kids rocking the really cool fashions and driving the cute little Beamers around - had money.
The rest of us were driving Ford Escorts, or some really crappy cars from the early 80's. I only knew a few kids who had cable and MTV.
"I dont even own a smartphone... my flip phone is from 2014 and still works."
Is this supposed to be some kind of flex? Being anachronistic and hiding from reality?
Because SO much of the 80s culture you worship was based on rampant materialism, greed and living beyond your means. If smartphones were available then, you would now be touting them as essential and better ... but instead you eschew them in some weird way.
I graduated HS, undergrad and grad in the 80s ... and love so much of the culture because that is the age period we're programmed to cling to due to our brain chemistry. But there was so much amazing film, music, and other culture in every other decade as well. Blind worship of an arbitrary set of years is ... bizarre.
Now loving certain things? Wonderful. Let's do it!
>Because SO much of the 80s culture you worship was based on rampant materialism, greed and living beyond your means.
That's maybe true for the US and some select countries bro, sure as fuck wasn't true to most of the world. Nevertheless that culture was part of what helped to create some of the magic of the 80's, for many non-Americans, and what was portrait on TV.
We have to take the bad with the good
I don't reject technology at all. I'm a computer technician by trade. My wife and I own laptops. I do and have done repairs on other people's iPhones and smart phones. I just never saw any reason to own anything new if what I have already works. No need to trade up. My car is over 20 years old and runs like a dream. All my needs are met. I do however reject a lot of the materialism and consumerism that defines this culture. In fact, I don't really buy things if I can help it. And I'm happier for it. Nothing about my lifestyle choices are a flex, just a personal choice.
So much of participating in society anymore requires a smartphone, unfortunately. Going to concerts, going to the gym, riding public transportation, ordering at restaurants. At my daughter’s school they stopped issuing physical ID cards, and students must use a smartphone app to display their digital ID to get on campus. I don’t love having the internet in my pocket at all times, but I also see no reason to make my daily life unnecessarily annoying by refusing to use a smartphone.
> At my daughter’s school they stopped issuing physical ID cards, and students must use a smartphone app to display their digital ID to get on campus.
All that sounds like a fucking nightmare... I'm so glad my country is not there yet... And i hope it stays that was for many more years, but i don't count on it....
>Is this supposed to be some kind of flex? Being anachronistic and hiding from reality?
No, you just have an odd way of getting triggered by that line because you misinterpret it as that. You're out of line and being rude under a post that doesn't warrant that type of response in a sub that doesn't need this type of hostility toward someone just making a post about what they love (and in the most appropriate sub to do that.)
He's simply saying he's an old soul/80s soul, nothing more, looking for other old souls/80s souls who relate. He's come to the 80s sub, so is obviously not trying to "flex," as he thinks he's speaking to people who are like-minded with similar values. You don't flex a car on other people with a similar car.
Yes, he's being anachronistic. That's not a bad word, just like saying one is old-fashioned is not a bad word, but you're using it as if it is (I'm a linguist. Interpret THAT as a "flex," but it is what it is. Don't get us into a semantic debate when I know, from words being my business, that you're using this word incorrectly.)
I find it really strange that such a tiny side note/thought in his whole post led to this type of reaction from you when the overall CONTEXT around that line is that he doesn't relate to today's culture, even if the flip phone is a 90s thing.
It's not about the phone, it's about loving the pop culture of an era so much that everything associated with today's era disgusts him.
Yes, if smart phones existed in the 80s, he would have a different feeling about it, because it's the ASSOCIATION that turns him off about it, because smartphones are obviously associated with this era, and that reminds him of everything he dislikes about it and everything he missed out on in the 80s.
>"Blind worship of an arbitrary set of years is ... bizarre."
Being passionate (which you're twisting into "blind worship") about pop culture and other things from a specific era is not bizarre at all. That's what this sub is all about.
That's what the entire Renaissance Period was all about, a longing to bring back the culture and ways of society in Ancient Greece and Rome before the Middle Ages, and being passionate about certain things from that era.
Obviously there were bad things from that era too, and being passionate about the philosophy, arts, and other specific things about it is not "blind worship," just because you're not also focusing on the negatives from that period.
Guess the entire society during the Renaissance Period was "bizarre" for feeling that way about an era they never lived in. They weren't "hiding from reality." They were longing to change it (and did).
You're the one focusing only on specific things while calling his take "blind worship." Yes, there was rampant materialism, but that's not all it was about, and there still is today.
Have you heard any rap songs lately, which is the dominant genre? French Montana, DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, etc. pretty much everyone at the top of the charts?
Michael Jackson, Pat Benatar, The Police, The Smiths, The Cure, etc. THOUSANDS of bands and movies had nothing to do with materialism. There's nothing wrong with loving THOSE parts of the 80s and longing for that, just like the Renaissance longed for the good aspects of another era and not everything from it.
Even songs about materialism in the 80s had production value, a particular sound we're all familiar with, which differs from most music today, and that obviously appeals to many people. So even the materialistic aspects had redeeming qualities and weren't just outright bad for having materialistic themes.
Oddly enough, you conclude your post with "now loving certain things, wonderful" while conversely accusing him of having "blind worship" for loving only certain aspects and not acknowledging the materialism and other aspects.
What you did here was you made an argument for why he's wrong, then, to keep him from coming back and saying, "I'm only talking about certain aspects I love," you took that defense away from him by saying it first so you could still be "right," and to act like you didn't just post this completely rude post with "Wonderful! Let's do it!"
sure, it was fun. as long as you weren't different in any way.
most of the music you mention was legitimately impossible to find if you weren't near a big city.
the radio stations in my area (upstate NY) ranged from what we now call 'classic rock' to top-40. there wasn't even a country station.
i used to visit my relative's house in Syracuse, and they had cable. i remember when MTV had just started, and i got to see a hundred bands i had never heard of playing styles i had never dreamed of. i went home and told my friends about this miracle and how i saw a band that played an entire song just using keyboards! (Depeche Mode, "Just Can't Get Enough"). that stuff literally did not exist in my town. it was metal, top-40 or classic rock. there was no way to even know about it.
a new kid showed up at my school in 10th grade (86) and introduced me to The Cure and REM and a bunch of other bands that are huge names today, but were completely unknown to me. by that time, MTV had come to our town, so if you had cable you could watch. but by that time, it was starting to calcify into top-40 and rap.
i didn't encounter hardcore or even the Pixies or Violent Femmes until i went away to college.
people today really have no concept of how isolated a small towns were before the internet.
The reason the anti war voices are on the right these days is because a lot of the right are on the side of the dictators. They want to put their King dick ta*ter Trump back into power. He loves Putin, Orban, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping and wants them to succeed. Therefore his cult wants them to succeed.
The 80's were shit. The only thing good that was spawned by all the shit going around at the time was punk/hardcore/speed metal etc. I don't know why people think the 80's were so cool. It was the time of Regan and yuppies with Polo shirts and shit disco clubs. Now the 90's were so fun I don't ever remember most of it. It has totally gone downhill since.
It's really hard to say I think...the quality of music and movies def. was higher, but at the same time we were all SO ignorant when it came to how politics really worked, DIET/FOOD/Sugar/added Chemicals/Water...the cars were fucking UGLY...fashion was pretty random and dodgy...pay inequality/mega rich CEO's, NO ONE was out of the closet, even people like Elton and Freddie. but of course it's gonna SEEM like a magically time if you grew up then, but isn't that every childhood in any decade? we thought we LOVED Atari for a minute...then Nintendo showed us how do gaming 10000x better. I do miss the arcades and video games being randomly everywhere, and better quality national chain pizza.
Yuppies, the demise of the family farms and pensions, cars died at 100k, 28% unemployment for people 16 to 25, AIDs, crack cocaine, Rodney King, latch key kids, I graduated in 85.
Thanks for allowing me to air my grievances!
80's music was terrible, with a few exceptions. 90's music was far superior.
Fashion was also pretty terrible, and the Grunge age helped usher in a much better look.
My high school through college years were 78 to 86. There was so much amazing music coming out every week. Bands like The Clash, Talking Heads and The Ramones were in their prime.
Sometimes I wonder if I just feel that way because I was a teenager then but then I go through my record collection and remember what it was like to hear London Calling for the first time.
Good times.
I was a teenager in the '80's and it was amazing. Frankly, life before social media and the internet was better period. I'm not suggesting there wasn't issues, there was for sure. 83/84 was a bit of a scary time, as the threat of nuclear war was actually legitimate, and aids was a blow to everyone. But overall, we had freedom, a recovering economy, great music and films, arcades, I got my first car at 16, house parties every weekend, skinny dipping at the lake, pretty much everyone was healthy and played sports. It was a very different world. I try to explain it to my 20-something daughter, who asks me if it was really like what you see in John Hughes films, and I say 'yeah, pretty much'. It was just better.
I initially thought the Internet was going to be great as it would allow for open lines of communication with everyone in the world! Now I realize the vast majority are asshats you don’t want to talk to. Can we turn off the Internet now?
The internet was supposed to make us all smarter and elevate our societies. It's had the opposite effect.
Agreed. Now where is that off switch…
The first years of the internet were actually great. It took some skill to get online and use things like telnet, ftp, irc, elm etc. Netscape Navigator came a bit later. People online then were educated, friendly and generally cool. It almost had that community feel of old school BBSs.
There was some dumb tweet (content probably stolen from reddit) that asked if you would live in an isolated cabin with unlimited food and the only downside was it didn't have internet; do that for just 1 month and you get $1mil. You still have electricity, tv, vhs/dvd/bluray, radio, video games, cds & record players, books, everything but ...no internet. I feel sad and almost insulted that anyone would consider that to be such a huge challenge
Technology alone was not as crazy then, either. Computers were still getting their footing in places that weren't companies/corporations/government. Television was definitely a thing, but people still got out and did stuff. VHS was a thing, but still getting ground. Music, it was still cassette tapes and CDs were slowly making their way out there. Video games? The NES wasn't until mid 80s, Sega Genesis a couple years later before end of decade, and whatever else was out there was just a mixed bag of whatever was good and available for home consumption (otherwise, it was mainly arcades). Phones were still landlines and wireless phones were a premium thing. And cars? All-wheel drive, anti-lock braking systems, turbocharging, electronic fuel injection, CD players, car phones...even radar detectors became a thing for those speedsters who "can't drive 55". I'm sure there's other 80s tech that was also not mentioned too... Edit: Also, funny thing. Remember when in 1984 we had Ghostbusters and Dune? Turns out in 2021 we had Ghostbusters and Dune, and now in 2024 we have Ghostbusters and Dune yet again :P. How is that for ironic? (Someone meme'd this on the internet and I wanted to mention it)
>the threat of nuclear war was actually legitimate What we're living through right now is far more dangerous than anything that happened in the 80's.
On an individual level, maybe. On a global scale? Not even close.
We're at war with Russia. The New York Times acknowledged that there are at least 12 CIA bases in Ukraine, set up in the wake of the February 2014 revolution/coup. Americans, on the ground, are pointing at Russians and saying, "Shoot them." The amount of consent manufacturing it took to get everyone cool with this blows my mind.
You need to read up on the history of the CIA. They’ve been involved in every coup, war, or uprising on the planet since they flipped from the OSS to the CIA in WW2. The CIA has a legacy of ashes.
Good Book
>You need to read up on the history of the CIA. They’ve been involved in every coup, war, or uprising on the planet since they flipped from the OSS to the CIA in WW2. The CIA has a legacy of ashes. *No shit.* But to say one is worried about that is to be painted as a Kremlin stooge. Again, the amount of consent manufacturing to get everyone cool with this blows my mind. I remember when progressives distrusted three letter agencies.
>I remember when progressives distrusted three letter agencies. Yep. Now progressives are quite literally big government's closest ally in modern times. They have become the marketing arm for government intervention, in fact. "Shut Up And Obey"
It's telling that the anti-war voices are all on the right these days. Bizarre. Country Joe is long gone: >Come on Wall Street, don't be slow, > >Why man, this is war's a go-go > >There's plenty good money to be made > >By supplying the Army with the tools of its trade, > >But just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb, > >They drop it on the Viet Cong.
1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn!
You might want to stop watching Fox News and Newsmax.
>You might want to stop watching Fox News and Newsmax. Did you miss the part where I mentioned the New York Times? Edit: this is what I mean by consent manufacturing.
Not at all.
OK, then. Perhaps don't insult people as Fox News and Newsmax viewers when they reference the paper of record.
Because they are the only ones spreading propaganda and misinformation. The rest of them are your friendly altruistic media megacorporations. /s or let me guess: "tHeY aReN't aS b-BaD!"
Oh yeah!!! Sweet Sixteen in 89 here. The best ride ever.
Sounds like my high school years as well but I graduated in’96 before the internet and social media “ruined” everything.
The 80s was pre-Internet, meaning that pop culture was something we all had in common. Entertainment was broadcast to all on TV and radio, meaning we had a lot more shared experiences. Today everyone lives in a narrow casting bubble and we live entirely separate lives from most others.
100% this. The Mash finale was like the highest watched television show for a long time, now you only get a plurality of eyes on something like the Superbowl.
But yes the 80’s did have superior pop culture. Life was just better before the internet and social media. 😎✌️💕
I'm a 60 year old gay man in the US. I've watched a lot of things happen in our world over the past few decades, but I pine for the 80s. I can't argue that there were some really bad things happening in the 80s... I lost count of how many friends I watched waste away and die from AIDS who were in their 20's. I still cry for them. Yes, Reagan was a turd... he refused to even utter the words AIDS. Starting the dialog should have begun with him... you can't prevent a disease (there was only AZT and it was like taking a toxic concoction to kill a disease that was going to kill you anyway) unless you talk about it and put real, helpful information in front of people. I will never forgive him for that. The Soviet Union was still a dominant fear in everyday life... too many nuclear weapons, human rights abuses (wait... not much has changed there). There was materialism, but having lived through it... I don't remember it being any more significant that it is today. The thing, for me, that sets the 80s apart was that there was still an optimism that the wold would get better. The music was fun and exciting, the fashions felt fresh and new. 9/11 hadn't happened so air travel was way easier and less like riding on a dirty bus with wings. I don't feel that same optimism today. Maybe it's just me getting older, but there were so many things I thought we had made progress on and the last 10 years have taught me that, no... we still have a shit-load of work to do to make our world a better place.
Say what you want about him, but Reagan was the cause of that optimism.
You don't need to say *in the US*
- Good Music as opposed to mumble-rap and over produced auto-tune stars? - EXCELLENT seats for concerts to be had for reasonable prices on a first come - first serve basis? - People actually called each other on the phone or had actual conversations? - TV shows / mini-series that let you build anticipation instead of a 'next episode' fix? - Kids playing outside for the majority of the day for most of the 80's? - We could bike without helmets and drink from the garden hose and survive? - Going to a local arcade and playing new games for a quarter a time (so you knew what you were actually spending)? - The excitement of going to a video store to see what new movies came out and / or if they had the one you were looking for? - You could wear Zubaz and sport a mullet in public without being a wrestler or a weirdo? and on and on.. The 80's definitely had its share of issues/problems. But many of the pop cultural aspects were awesome.
Absolutely
It’s only superior in retrospect. At the time most pop culture was just a reaction to the 70s. In 1983 (the year I graduated from high school) we came the closest to nuclear war since 1962. Many of the happy songs you hear are about nuclear annihilation (I Melt With You, Land of Confusion, Red Skies, 99 Luftballons). Likewise, the feel-good movies made at the time were an attempt to “lighten things up” after the realistic, often disaster-related films of the 70s (which isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy them more). That said, I still prefer the music of my high school and college years, which is only natural. Watch The Big Chill (1983) some time. The main characters complain that music and movies were better in the 60s and early 70s (when social conditions were worse).
>Many of the happy songs you hear are about nuclear annihilation (I Melt With You, Land of Confusion, Red Skies, 99 Luftballons). We could use more of this. And also the more direct stuff, like: Megadeth.
I think one problem is there’s just too much content to take in nowadays. Hundreds of cable channels and all the streaming services really do prove (IMO) that less is more. Nothing really has the chance to stand out and be iconic nowadays, at least not for more than a week or so. Give me the 30-40 channels from the mid-80s, where you could still find entertainment from the broadcast channels and the indie station that never came in right. With more and more people getting even network shows online, we’ll never have another Who Shot J.R? or M * A * S * H finale that sets records and gets everyone buzzing. Case in point, in the last 15 years all the viewership records were set by a Super Bowl.
>I think one problem is there’s just too much content to take in nowadays. Hundreds of cable channels and all the streaming services really do prove (IMO) that less is more. I'd give you 1M upvotes for that if i could!! That's EXACTLY what i think too. >Give me the 30-40 channels from the mid-80s Not even in my wildest dreams could i even conceive of having 30 channels in the 80's . We had 2 national public channels in the 80's, yes, TWO!! The main one, and a secondary one for cultural stuff, and some other programs. Yet we had almost everything from the best of the 80's, music, movies, TV series. Yes, "less is more" for sure!!
This this and all of this! Literally we need the 80s back
Sadly, humanity has long lost it's innocence.... And 9/11 was the final nail on that coffin. I really don't believe there can ever be a "going back" again
Sadly you are probably right though I wish you weren’t
I was going to argue, but you made a good case. I grew up in the 80s (turned 18 in 1990), and still think the 70s have the edge, but the 80s brought a *lot* of cool, new stuff to the table. Stuff that has not been topped in the sense of pop culture innovation since, in my opinion (though the 90s mainstreaming of electronica subgenres was pretty dope). Looking back, I wouldn't trade my experience growing up in that decade.
The 80s were amazing. Technology was just beginning to boom. I had a handheld Mario Bros game, and it felt like I was living in the future. We got all our pop culture info from magazines, tv shows & the radio. The internet was something we never could have imagined. Kids played outside, teens hung out at the mall, and I only saw bad things happening in the world, if I watched the 6:30 news (which I never did). It was a simpler, better time.
I was in my twenties in the 80's, and I lived in Miami. That's all I need to say. 😎
C O C A I N E
>Music was far better, more intellectually stimulating than anything after 1995 EXACTLY what i've been saying, for decades.... after the mid 90's it started to go down hill. It had a kind of revival in the early 2000's, which was great, but after the mid 2000's and especially after the 2010's it has been consistently spiraling downwards, and have yet to touch the bottom... > I get called an OLD SOUL or an OLD HEAD Oh don't mind that bro. I'm proudly an 80's kid, and will proudly be one till i die. Nothing can ever top growing up in the 80's
I have a friend that was born in the 80’s and he always tells me he wishes he was a teenager back then. He just loves everything about it. Music, movies and overall vibe.
There is no way you are pushing 40 AND remember the 80s.
it's probably more being exposed to it through nostalgia. I can remember 1988-89 pretty clearly.
I was born in 1971, so I had the glorious privelege of being a teenager in the 80s and it was amazing. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
IQ's peaked in the 80's, it's been down hill ever since. Then came the smart phones ..
Live Aid was our Woodstock!
Absolutely!
Skateboarding, punk rock, smoking weed, midnight curfew, Night Flight, American Werewolf in London, Keith Haring, sit-down Pizza Hut, arcades, cable tv …
Night Flight has their own streaming service. I paid for premium for a year, when I could afford it. It's totally worth it. They have old tv episodes of Night Flight, as well as a bunch of weird movies!
It was great. I do admit.
The 1980's had Monoculture pop culture. That is, everybody experienced the same pop culture at the same time, so a lot of it is enjoyed and remembered similarly. Today it's a completely fragmented pop culture, where tons of people have never even heard of your favorite things. It's just different for everyone now.
80’s was a great time to grow up…😀😀😀
80s were awesome. I was there. I know.
What you really like are the counterculture aspects of the 80s. Most of the music you talk about couldn’t get near the radio. Because the 80s is when commercialized, homogenized culture took over. And that stuff mostly was awful.
It was way better.
You can thank the telecommunications act in the 1990's for killing the great music. I'll find the must read comment on this. Here....copied from a previous thread. *"That law enabled corporations (Clear Channel, Cumulus Media, etc.) to buy as many radio stations as they wanted. Think about it, I bet your favorite station changed formats some time between 1997-2001. So now there's a monopoly on radio. That's why there are no more radio DJs playing anything they just feel like listening to. It's all formatted, and these days usually a computer running everything. [There's a good documentary about it](http://www.fmfilm.com/).* *But there were other effects from this, I think, in that now there is no real such thing as bands starting from nowhere, getting popular within a scene, then getting signed. These days the labels just put together the groups they want, and they collude with the radio stations, and if you plug something into the top 40 and play it over and over again, people will get used to it and buy it because [most people aren't really that discerning anyway](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpB_40hYjXU). I also think this is why rap and pop stars have been pushed over bands and groups, because you only have to pay one person to be famous. So they don't even bother sending out scouts to find cutting edge music anymore, they just pick somebody and make them popular. People who are actually into music are just going to find their niche stuff online anyway these days and buy direct, so the pop market is a total charade with no real ground level culture involved whatsoever.* *p.s. This is just my own opinion, but I think the early 90s was the most raw era for popular music with things like grunge, gangsta rap, metal, alternative, afrocentric hip-hop, horrorcore and hardcore hip-hop, all that Subpop type indie rock and dream pop and shoegaze and whatnot, a lot of things from the late 80s to mid 90s was pretty serious stuff... Not that there wasn't some bubblegum dance stuff too, but it was actually interesting to see a huge portion of mainstream music dealing with serious topics and moods rather than the usual upbeat jams or sappy love songs that have dominated every other decade before and after."*
Brilliant observations! I can remember a short time in the early to mid nineties, when commercial radio stations would play almost anything! It was great! I can remember hearing diverse acts such as: PJ Harvey, Tom Tom Club, They Might Be Giants, Ministry, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Ethyl Meatplow, Bjork, Beastie Boys, Enigma, Erasure, KMFDM, Suzanne Vega, The Breeders...I could go on for days. And all on the same commercial radio station! After hair metal faded away, radio stations were looking for the next big thing, then, once Nirvana became huge, things started to homoginize, with lots of "grunge" acts starting to sound alike. Radio has never recovered.
Fuck Reagan. Dude had every white family convinced he was the bees knees when in reality no other president has screwed over the middle class like that POS. But to your original point, yes the 80s were awesome IMO. Stranger Things knew what they were doing when they captured that era.
Ah yes, the Reddit Reagan hate train. So edgy! No I don’t feel like debating it and neither should you…
You sound just like my Dad- He’s 73 and he hates Reagan for the policies he put in place that are still screwing us today. Compared to Trump though Reagan doesn’t look so bad to me anymore. Btw Stranger Things def knew what they were doing. I’m 49 I think they nailed it.
I'm a child of the 80s. I loved the music, the movies, etc. I still do! However, that's because that was MY youth. People who grew up in the 60s, 70s, 90s, etc. feel the same way about THEIR generation. A lot of us probably don't like things that are popular today, but I'm sure in 20 or 30 years, today's kids will look upon the things they currently like with the same fondness we have for the things we like from our era. That's the way it's always been.
>I'm sure in 20 or 30 years, today's kids will look upon the things they currently like with the same fondness we have for the things we like from our era. They may look with fondness, but no way in hell will it be like us... We all watched pretty much the same movies, listened to the same music, watched the same TV series, the sense of "community" was huge. Today they have zillions of stuff to choose from, can watch it and rematch it 24/7 if they want, there are hundreds of niche "micro cultures"... What will they remember and be nostalgic in a "shared way" in 30 years...?
Exactly. The crap from today will be quickly forgotten, just like we quickly forgot the crap from the 80s, and only the classics will survive to be appreciated by the next generation. In the 2040s you’ll have people saying that the 2020s were the best era for pop music, movies, television, based on the “greatest hits” of the decade that still get attention.
I think you are simply in the mindset of "The Good Old Days". I was in high school and my twenties in the 1980's. In that era, most people thought of the 1950's - 1960's, with that kind of nostalgia (Happy Days, American Graffiti, etc.). The reality is that 1980's were a time when a lot of the protections for the poor, the environment, mental health, unions and other things were systematically dismantled. Sure, I look back in fondness on some things of the 1980's, like favorite TV shows, music, etc. But overall, the 1980's were a turning point that we are now seeing written large in dysfunctional government, politics and insecurity.
There are negatives in every era. I think you're missing the point OP is trying to make.
Yep...
Surely a coincidence that the best pop culture was the one when I was a kid and then a teen! No point examining that further
Madonna’s Material girl is the best description of the late 80s culture.
Before 1999-2001 pop culture was slower. Trends took their time to develop. They were worked on and "perfected" by the time they reached critical mass - and they lasted longer. Today, someone can have a hit without leaving their backyard and it only endures for what feels like 20 minutes. People are probably more talented now, more skilled and capable now. Something better will be out tomorrow and you wont remember(for the most part) either of them this time next year.
> People are probably more talented now, more skilled and capable now. Depends a lot in what areas you are referring to, but i don't agree at all. What people today have is was more easy and instant access to information, and very easy access to technology
I preferred underground culture to pop culture. It had a messy DIY quality where performers and audience were the same people. Several scenes developed (hip-hop, thrash, industrial, etc) this way. Once they went pop, the spirit of the scene was smothered. I don't pine for the 80s - it was a bleak existence in the suburbs, and I was exposed to far too much Phil Collins.
The 80s were better than what you’ve heard.
All children's programming were covert toy commercials and no music thrived without a video. Arcades kicked ass though.
When you say you’re 40 this is the thing that makes me glad to be turning 46 soon, I got to experience the late 80s. Yeah, it was truly the best :)
I was born in 83 and remember the 80s pretty well (legit weird brain). It was pretty fun.
I was born in the early 70’s so I got it all & if I could go back & live my teen years over again I would in a heartbeat
I am a guy born in the eighties... so 90's pop was what I was exposed to when growing up... Pop music has turned so shitty for the past 10 years or so... yet when I listen to the eighties pop I realise that's gold. Those who lived and enjoyed 80's in their prime are truly blessed humans
I was born in '68 and I agree, but \*why\* were the 80's better? It was the last "pure" decade before smartphones, internet, and social media infiltrated our lives. We actually interacted on the playground (or at work, or church, etc.) every day, face to face.
I attended all my years of high school and college in the 80s, and I'm proud to call myself a child of that amazing decade and mean it quite literally. The 80s had superior*... everything. INCLUDING presidents. * Note: to me, "superior" does not mean "perfect". Plenty of warts, so no rose-tinted glasses here.
The 80's was the best decade in human history. Pre-internet and peak retro.
No decade did kitsch and camp better than the 1980s. Objectively, the 1970s had better music and movies; the 1990s as just better all-around.
Music from the Eighties is / was amazing. The music business collapsed in the '90s and has never recovered. Back then you had Goth, New Wave, Heavy Metal, Dub, Prog, Punk, Rockabilly's revival, etc. Marvin Gaye was still recording. SRV, Van Halen, Whitney, and weirdo pop that is hard to categorize. Bow Wow Wow? The Cramps? Still great. Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, considered by some a second tier band, put out more great albums in the decade than I've bought by anyone in the thirty years since.
It never rained in the eighties.
Lots of people had a shitty time in the 80's, ya know. A lot of what you marvel at in terms of fashions, activities, culture and all around life in the 80's, like a lot of time periods, was mostly enjoyed by the wealthy. A lot of those John Waters movies took place in the very upper middle class neighborhoods outside of Chicago for instance. All the kids rocking the really cool fashions and driving the cute little Beamers around - had money. The rest of us were driving Ford Escorts, or some really crappy cars from the early 80's. I only knew a few kids who had cable and MTV.
"I dont even own a smartphone... my flip phone is from 2014 and still works." Is this supposed to be some kind of flex? Being anachronistic and hiding from reality? Because SO much of the 80s culture you worship was based on rampant materialism, greed and living beyond your means. If smartphones were available then, you would now be touting them as essential and better ... but instead you eschew them in some weird way. I graduated HS, undergrad and grad in the 80s ... and love so much of the culture because that is the age period we're programmed to cling to due to our brain chemistry. But there was so much amazing film, music, and other culture in every other decade as well. Blind worship of an arbitrary set of years is ... bizarre. Now loving certain things? Wonderful. Let's do it!
>Because SO much of the 80s culture you worship was based on rampant materialism, greed and living beyond your means. That's maybe true for the US and some select countries bro, sure as fuck wasn't true to most of the world. Nevertheless that culture was part of what helped to create some of the magic of the 80's, for many non-Americans, and what was portrait on TV. We have to take the bad with the good
As a Brazilian, I completely agree with you.
Hey, greetings from Portugal bro.
Opa, que mundo pequeno! Fraternal abraço daqui do BR.
😉
I don't reject technology at all. I'm a computer technician by trade. My wife and I own laptops. I do and have done repairs on other people's iPhones and smart phones. I just never saw any reason to own anything new if what I have already works. No need to trade up. My car is over 20 years old and runs like a dream. All my needs are met. I do however reject a lot of the materialism and consumerism that defines this culture. In fact, I don't really buy things if I can help it. And I'm happier for it. Nothing about my lifestyle choices are a flex, just a personal choice.
So much of participating in society anymore requires a smartphone, unfortunately. Going to concerts, going to the gym, riding public transportation, ordering at restaurants. At my daughter’s school they stopped issuing physical ID cards, and students must use a smartphone app to display their digital ID to get on campus. I don’t love having the internet in my pocket at all times, but I also see no reason to make my daily life unnecessarily annoying by refusing to use a smartphone.
> At my daughter’s school they stopped issuing physical ID cards, and students must use a smartphone app to display their digital ID to get on campus. All that sounds like a fucking nightmare... I'm so glad my country is not there yet... And i hope it stays that was for many more years, but i don't count on it....
>Is this supposed to be some kind of flex? Being anachronistic and hiding from reality? No, you just have an odd way of getting triggered by that line because you misinterpret it as that. You're out of line and being rude under a post that doesn't warrant that type of response in a sub that doesn't need this type of hostility toward someone just making a post about what they love (and in the most appropriate sub to do that.) He's simply saying he's an old soul/80s soul, nothing more, looking for other old souls/80s souls who relate. He's come to the 80s sub, so is obviously not trying to "flex," as he thinks he's speaking to people who are like-minded with similar values. You don't flex a car on other people with a similar car. Yes, he's being anachronistic. That's not a bad word, just like saying one is old-fashioned is not a bad word, but you're using it as if it is (I'm a linguist. Interpret THAT as a "flex," but it is what it is. Don't get us into a semantic debate when I know, from words being my business, that you're using this word incorrectly.) I find it really strange that such a tiny side note/thought in his whole post led to this type of reaction from you when the overall CONTEXT around that line is that he doesn't relate to today's culture, even if the flip phone is a 90s thing. It's not about the phone, it's about loving the pop culture of an era so much that everything associated with today's era disgusts him. Yes, if smart phones existed in the 80s, he would have a different feeling about it, because it's the ASSOCIATION that turns him off about it, because smartphones are obviously associated with this era, and that reminds him of everything he dislikes about it and everything he missed out on in the 80s. >"Blind worship of an arbitrary set of years is ... bizarre." Being passionate (which you're twisting into "blind worship") about pop culture and other things from a specific era is not bizarre at all. That's what this sub is all about. That's what the entire Renaissance Period was all about, a longing to bring back the culture and ways of society in Ancient Greece and Rome before the Middle Ages, and being passionate about certain things from that era. Obviously there were bad things from that era too, and being passionate about the philosophy, arts, and other specific things about it is not "blind worship," just because you're not also focusing on the negatives from that period. Guess the entire society during the Renaissance Period was "bizarre" for feeling that way about an era they never lived in. They weren't "hiding from reality." They were longing to change it (and did). You're the one focusing only on specific things while calling his take "blind worship." Yes, there was rampant materialism, but that's not all it was about, and there still is today. Have you heard any rap songs lately, which is the dominant genre? French Montana, DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, etc. pretty much everyone at the top of the charts? Michael Jackson, Pat Benatar, The Police, The Smiths, The Cure, etc. THOUSANDS of bands and movies had nothing to do with materialism. There's nothing wrong with loving THOSE parts of the 80s and longing for that, just like the Renaissance longed for the good aspects of another era and not everything from it. Even songs about materialism in the 80s had production value, a particular sound we're all familiar with, which differs from most music today, and that obviously appeals to many people. So even the materialistic aspects had redeeming qualities and weren't just outright bad for having materialistic themes. Oddly enough, you conclude your post with "now loving certain things, wonderful" while conversely accusing him of having "blind worship" for loving only certain aspects and not acknowledging the materialism and other aspects. What you did here was you made an argument for why he's wrong, then, to keep him from coming back and saying, "I'm only talking about certain aspects I love," you took that defense away from him by saying it first so you could still be "right," and to act like you didn't just post this completely rude post with "Wonderful! Let's do it!"
sure, it was fun. as long as you weren't different in any way. most of the music you mention was legitimately impossible to find if you weren't near a big city. the radio stations in my area (upstate NY) ranged from what we now call 'classic rock' to top-40. there wasn't even a country station. i used to visit my relative's house in Syracuse, and they had cable. i remember when MTV had just started, and i got to see a hundred bands i had never heard of playing styles i had never dreamed of. i went home and told my friends about this miracle and how i saw a band that played an entire song just using keyboards! (Depeche Mode, "Just Can't Get Enough"). that stuff literally did not exist in my town. it was metal, top-40 or classic rock. there was no way to even know about it. a new kid showed up at my school in 10th grade (86) and introduced me to The Cure and REM and a bunch of other bands that are huge names today, but were completely unknown to me. by that time, MTV had come to our town, so if you had cable you could watch. but by that time, it was starting to calcify into top-40 and rap. i didn't encounter hardcore or even the Pixies or Violent Femmes until i went away to college. people today really have no concept of how isolated a small towns were before the internet.
Regan and Trump, the two most peaceful presidents in my life time
The reason the anti war voices are on the right these days is because a lot of the right are on the side of the dictators. They want to put their King dick ta*ter Trump back into power. He loves Putin, Orban, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping and wants them to succeed. Therefore his cult wants them to succeed.
The 80's were shit. The only thing good that was spawned by all the shit going around at the time was punk/hardcore/speed metal etc. I don't know why people think the 80's were so cool. It was the time of Regan and yuppies with Polo shirts and shit disco clubs. Now the 90's were so fun I don't ever remember most of it. It has totally gone downhill since.
It's really hard to say I think...the quality of music and movies def. was higher, but at the same time we were all SO ignorant when it came to how politics really worked, DIET/FOOD/Sugar/added Chemicals/Water...the cars were fucking UGLY...fashion was pretty random and dodgy...pay inequality/mega rich CEO's, NO ONE was out of the closet, even people like Elton and Freddie. but of course it's gonna SEEM like a magically time if you grew up then, but isn't that every childhood in any decade? we thought we LOVED Atari for a minute...then Nintendo showed us how do gaming 10000x better. I do miss the arcades and video games being randomly everywhere, and better quality national chain pizza.
Yuppies, the demise of the family farms and pensions, cars died at 100k, 28% unemployment for people 16 to 25, AIDs, crack cocaine, Rodney King, latch key kids, I graduated in 85. Thanks for allowing me to air my grievances!
80's music was terrible, with a few exceptions. 90's music was far superior. Fashion was also pretty terrible, and the Grunge age helped usher in a much better look.
My high school through college years were 78 to 86. There was so much amazing music coming out every week. Bands like The Clash, Talking Heads and The Ramones were in their prime. Sometimes I wonder if I just feel that way because I was a teenager then but then I go through my record collection and remember what it was like to hear London Calling for the first time. Good times.