Does Anyone Here Remember The 80s

[DannyHale09]

You think the 80's trends were ugly?
Have you seen the fucking morons walking around with the sides of their head shaved and their skinny little chicken legs squeezed into skinny jeans these days?

 

[Kyrian007]

I remember the 80's and WORE parachute pants. I also had a perm-ed, super curly, mullet. That's right, a full on Tennessee mudflap. Party in the back, yeah. I'm pretty much bald now, but I STILL think I looked like an idiot in the 80's.

Still, I get what the OP is saying. Being a high-schooler and starting college in the late 90's I remember hating the 80's, its iffy fashion sense, its movies, and its music. But now... I remember it more fondly. I remember popping in GTA: Vice City for the first time and thinking that the soundtrack would make me put my brains on the wall in about 30 minutes of gameplay or so. But 30 minutes later, I was totally back. It fit so well and gave the game that serious "Miami Vice" sort of feel to the city... I remember being shocked I was sooooo immersed in the game. Every once in a while I pop in VC and just cruise around to listen to that soundtrack, of course I do the same thing with the early 90's soundtrack of GTA: San Andreas.

And the gaming... I remember having so much more fun than I seem to now. Games now are all samey-samey shooters, lame story and unoriginal survival horror sequels, and grindfest sandwich RPG's. All trying to cross-breed with one another and actually just becoming more and more bland. I loved "Yar's Revenge," I owned "ET" for the Atari, I grew up slamming quarter after quarter into a machine at an arcade to pretend just for a few minutes that the plywood-framed box I was sitting in was an X-Wing and I just blew up the Death Star. Sure it was vector graphics, but fueled by the imagination of a 10 year old it seemed like a holodeck. Current generation resoulution and 3d effects aren't even a tenth as good as that seemed back then.

So I do like the 80's, it just took me a long time to admit it. I enjoy seeing "Fall Guy" and "A-Team" re-runs. I enjoy seeing the occasional Genesis, Duran Duran, or Cindi Lauper music video (especially the ones with the pro-wrestlers... freakin' classic.) And one of my local theaters does what it calls a "Flashback Series" of movies over the summer. Midnight runs of older films on Fridays and Saturdays. Goonies, Red Dawn, Gremlins, whatever it is it's a blast and usually a very fun loving and energetic crowd. I'm not ashamed anymore to say I liked the 80's.

Except for the fashion sense. There exists a photo of me in a tank-top and parachute pants. With the freaky curly mullet (if you want to imagine the hairstyle, look up Jean-Claude Van Damme in "Hard Target.") Don't bother asking for the post, that photo will never... NEVERRRRRRRRRRRR see internet.

I'm thinking of burning it.

"Who the F#@% BUILT this Police Station"
-Leon Kennedy

 

[bjj hero]

as someone who was a teenager during the 80's .. (yes im that old) id like to invite you all back for a tribute

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3dTkv60h-A

but seriously for all the colour blind fashion desingers and rubicks cubes we all remember from then it did have a darkside, it was the last decade of the cold war. no one growing up now can really understand what it was like knowing at any moment someone somewhere would press a red button and world war 3 started.

so yes i still remember the 80's, the last decade of the cold war, and the decade the berlin wall came down. still to this day 21 years later there has not been a single moment of global hope as that

for anyone looking at 80's teen culture.. look to the movies
Heathers as mentioned earlier, and the breakfast club still to this day one of the best movies ive seen)

Being an 80s child I would like to add the AIDs thing, terrifying advertisements containing tomb stones warning people about it, AIDs seeming like a horrible death sentence that could be caught almost anywhere. Oh and waiting for the IRA to blow something else up, when America was happy to fund terrorists before they realised that bombing civilians is not cool.

What else? Ignorance was bliss in the early 80s. Cocaine wasn't addictive and there was no such thing as alcoholism, just some people were wasters who drank too much. Drink driving wasn't seen as a big deal and I always carried change for the pay phone when out.

Finally I can remember that I was the remote control for the TV. "Just go and put channel 1 on for me..."

 

[bjj hero]

I don't remember the 80s considering my age. The only good things that came out of the 1980s were The Breakfast Club and Ferri Bueller's Day Off.

I beg to differ:

John Carpenter's "The Thing"
The "Back to the Future" series
Indiana Jones
Empire Strikes Back
Metallica
Mercyful Fate
Megadeth
Jim Henson films (The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth)

I believe you missed out Blade Runner.

 

[Mxrz]

In terms of entertainment, the 80s cannot be topped. Music, movies, tv, and fashion were on another level. Even the porn was better. The global threat of communism, and MAD gave the government some leverage over corporations and the wealthy elite still. Even the public demanded quality over what would later be charitably referred to as 'affordability.'

 

[kwydjebo]

I was born in '75, so spending age 5 to 15 in the go go 80s I will share the following comments.
1) GET OFF MY LAWN, TURN THAT BLASTED NOISE YOU CALL MUSIC DOWN, AND PULL YOUR PANTS UP!!! (I'm old now)

2) You think fashions from the 80s look bad now, that's what we thought of stuff from the 70s. My point, wait 10, 20 years, you'll look back and say the same thing. 80s had big hair, in the 90s I had an awesome mullet when I wasn't wearing it in a pony tail...all photo evidence has been burned.

3) The Cartoons were the coolest. GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, all TOTALLY awesome....at least that's how I remember it. Oddly enough I've seen these all on TV recently and concluded that either they were incredibly altered from what I was shown back then, or I was a moron (22 minute toy commercials). In fact I dare say it was the 80s that started the trend of making cartoons out of toys, or things that could be toys.

4) NO INTERNET. The mere notion of such a think was the most fantastic of fantasy....now I can't imagine how we ever managed it. Research was done at the library. Spell checker was unheard of. I had bad hand writing and my gr 6 teacher told me I'd either have to improve or plan to carry a typewritter with me once I got a job because my horrid handwriting would be a detriment to notes, memos, reports etc.

5) As mentioned by other posters, the Cold war. When you're young and you watch one or two of them movies about WWIII that you really aren't ready for, its pretty scary stuff. There was one tv special that did a war of the worlds fake out (Like a live news feed of war starting) that no adult fell for, but as a kid I found it real (and my Dad, being the tease he was told me "Yeah, its really happening")

6) Gaming was amazingly different. Home consoles were rare because they were expensive (at first) and their quality was low compared to the arcade. The Arcade was king, great games, Intellivision or Atari ports just couldn't compete (I once heard that they were intentionally lower quality because of fears it would kill the arcade business)

7) Only poncy pricks who wanted to look important had mobile phones, and then they pretended to be on them all the time to show off that they were important and had them...so no change really

8) MTV actually played music videos. Remember the music video started in the 80s (Well technically the Beatles did them in the 60s, as did a few other bands, but the 80s was when you HAD to do them). My god I rremember coming home from school and watching shows dedicated to the top videos. Sure now everyone does them, its pretty much a given, and they seem more like background, but then.....also Micheal Jackson started the decade pretty normal.

9)Merchindicing. The 80s saw huge merchindicing tie ins to danged near everything, especially films. You want proof, go to a sport card shop and look at how many trading card sets were made based on 80s movies and other properties, and compare that to any time prior. The 80s was heavily characterized by being a consumer culture, and any property that had any value or brand recognitions was sqeezed like an orange until every last drop was out.

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of fond memories of my 80s childhood, and I'm sure those who grew up in the 70s, 90s, or 00s feel the same about their decade. To the OP, I say appreciate what you had, and look forward to what's ahead, and remember if you were a teen in the 80s, you'd be damned old now....imagine what you'd be missing out on?

 

[Dark Knifer]

No because I wasn't even conceived then.

 

[ExileNZ]

I was born in February of 1988 and my very first memory is being in a movie theater with Mom and Dad and having them cover my eyes. The movie were were watching was Batman. So I do have one vague little 80's memory. I kinda wish I was born a little bit earlier though so I could have had a better appreciation of the 80's. Also...Jurassic Park was animatronic robots/puppets wasn't it? I didn't think they got CGI heavy until the second or third one.

No no, Jurassic Park was CGI, fear not. They may have used physical props now and then, but the vast majority of the dinosaurs were CGI.

OT: For my part, I was born in '82, which in the history books was a pretty horrible year (lots of famous people dying and military coups) but to be honest the '80s weren't a bad time to live in, at least in colonial white suburbia. A bit politically fired up (my entire country was divided in two over a rugby game in '89), but relatively stable and our prime minister didn't suck (in fact he was something of a genius).

 

[Blow_Pop]

I was born 85 and remember bits and pieces. And I still have my boom box btw *ahem* as well as some 8 tracks

 

[Stealthygamer]

I remember what I've seen in 80's movies. Cause I was born in 1990.

I, for one, am happy I grew up in the 2000's. We have nifty things like internet and (actually fun) video games.

Super Fucking Mario Bros.

I rest my case.

 

[deckai]

I was born 85, don't remember much of the 80's. I have a lot memories of me being young, but nothing that I would consider being typical 80's ... ok, maybe one thing, giving soviet-soldiers plums as they passed our house (was born in a polish city with a big soviet garrison, moved later to Germany).

But I still love the 80's for all the awesome movies they produced.