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What it's like to be an 80s fan... (1 Viewer)

Garrett Lundy

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yachting is more of an old-money sport. Or more specifically, monied people who are too old to be considered Young Urban Professionals.
 

drobbins

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I graduated in 1981 and got married in 1990. I don't remember the 80s being great or sucking. I thought they were boring. In the 70s I didn't like disco so the "new wave" and "alternative rock" was a breath of fresh air. I thought the "big hair" bands were the first step to image & looks being more important than musical talent. I did have an early Atari that I wish I still had.
 

Yee-Ming

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I was 11 to 20 during the 80s, and can quite definitely say I'm a "child of the 80s". I still love 80s music to this day, though I personally do concede some of the fashions were a bit far-out -- but no more so than those of the 70s. Oddly, my wife, who is 4 yrs younger, seems to detest everything about the 80s, music included.

I still remember Arnie Becker on LA Law with all his sharp suits, and thinking that if/when I became a lawyer, I wanted one too :laugh: fortunately (or otherwise), to this day I still haven't bought anything like it...

Holadem, 1986 World Cup? Too bad you were (presumably) too young to see the 1982 World Cup, which was truly something else -- Brazil 1982 are arguably the best ever national team not to win the WC.
 

andrew markworthy

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We share the same graduation and marriage dates. I can't say they were boring for me, but a great deal of the social trends were what happened to other people. At the time I was very envious of college acquaintances less academically gifted [in fact, brain dead would be a more accurate description] who got caught up in the Big Bang in the UK as financial regulations were slackened and the yuppie boom took off. The thought that they earned more in a month than I did in a year (doing socially worthless research on Alzheimer's Disease) didn't exactly make me happy. However, when they were later made redundant because they could only make money during boom periods (when a monkey choosing shares randomly could do the same) and had no other skills to fall back on, I felt sorry for them. [My wife came in the room at this point and looking over my shoulder said 'Don't lie, you couldn't stop laughing when you heard the news'].
 

DaveF

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Excellent! (air-guitars killer riff)
Let's all take a moment to pay respect to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

The Fedora hat had a moment back in the sun when I was in Jr. High, I believe. For a year or too, everyone wanted a Fedora. I had one, too. And guys were getting perms. I had both. Tragic errors, they were.

But I do miss Parachute Pants! All those pockets! That's why I live in Rochester: come Winter time I can wear a monster parka with unending pockets. A man can never have enough pockets!
 

Ruz-El

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The Fedora? I don't think it did in Canada. Joey Jerimiah wore one on "Degrassi Junior High", anyone in school caught wearing one would probably of gotten their ass kicked :P
 

John Kilduff

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Thanks for all of your memories. It's nice to get different takes on the decade.

I've got one up on all of you, though:

I've been talking to 80s singer Stacey Q online for several months now, and I recently gave her my phone number. She called me today...I just got off the phone with her as a matter of fact. She's one of the warmest, most upbeat people you could ever hope to talk to, and it's a great honor to call her a friend of mine.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

Damn, I'm good.
 

DaveF

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Can you remind us who Stacey Q is? (doesn't ring a bell, off hand. too many games of Axis & Allies in the '80s addled my brain :) )
 

John Kilduff

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She was the woman who sang "Two Of Hearts" and "We Connect". I actually write about her in the article...I've been a fan of her work for a long time now, and she's a great woman to talk to.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

She's great.
 

andrew markworthy

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I wasn't exactly the most attentive fan of pop music in the eighties, and I knew who Stacey Q was. She's done some good stuff.
 

Ruz-El

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two of hearts! 2 hearts that beat as one, I NEED YO UI NEED YOUUUUU!!

Something like that, I haven't heard it since the 80's.

What is she doing? Not to sound condecending, but she was kinda a one hit wonder right?
 

Kevin Hewell

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She had a couple of hit singles and was pretty big back in the dance music scene for a while. I used to have a couple of her 12" singles.
 

andrew markworthy

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I've just been reminding myself of the work in question. She is well worth a listen. A high proportion of the songs have stood the test of time (which is more than can be said for a lot of acts that started in the 80s).
 

John Kilduff

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I'm bumping this back up because of something I saw on YouTube. A British man is working on a documentary entitled "Chasing The 80s". The trailer basically said that he's doing the documentary to get the 80s nostalgia out of his system.

At first, I saw this as an attack on people who still love the pop culture of the 80s, but then I remembered that it's just what this person is doing for himself.

Still, I think that many people who saw the 80s first-hand (as opposed to those who were born in the decade and don't remember as much) don't realize how good they had it when it came to pop-culture.

There was great mainstream music, and if you didn't like that, you could go for different stuff like punk music or what would end up becoming grunge music.

There were great mainstream movies and terrific independent movies as well.

You could watch mainstream sitcoms and dramas or venture into the territories of stuff like "Night Flight".

I do like a lot of this decade's items (movies and music, mostly), but I have a tremendous appreciation for the 80s. I know I'm always going on about the 80s, but I'm just so envious of the fact that I didn't see it first-hand.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
 

Kevin Hewell

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While I was off work yesterday I was watching VH1 Classics. Basically, the only time I watch that channel anymore is when they play "We Love The 80s!", which is just videos from that decade. I love it. It brings back some great memories.

On very late Sunday night they also play a lot of alternative videos from that era.
 

JonZ

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The 80s ruled.

Slutty Metal girls. Back when women knew how to dress.




Man those were the days.
 

Philip Hamm

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I graduated High School, went to community college, played in bands; partied a lot in the 80s.

The 80s were awesome.

Some GREAT music -
Psychedelic Furs
DEVO
Peter Gabriel
Bruce Cockburn got political
Laurie Anderson
Kate Bush
T-Bone Burnett
Gary Numan (his new stuff is great, too)
Chick Corea Electrik Band
The whole GRP family of modern Jazz
Christopher Hogwood's movement towards original instruments and historically informed treatments gained momentum and shook the Classical music world.

Some music which is incredibly dated now:
The hair bands - Whitesnake, Ratt, Quiet Riot, etc.

Van Halen got a new singer and got a whole lot better in the process (IMO)

Metallica emerged - I was a fan starting with the independant "Megaforce records" release of "Ride The Lightning"

The cassette Walkman™ and copies thereof

Boom Boxes - I had a Hitachi one that kicked ass

The Rise of the Compact Disc.

Nintendo Entertainment System™

Hughes films: Sixteen Candles is hilarious. Breakfast Club is fun. Teen movies for the most part seemed to be more mature and sophisticated than the "gross-out" dreck teens seem to get these days.

Resurgence of Disney Animation.

Anticipating the next Star Wars or Indiana Jones movie. - Without any being a dissapointment! (I love "Temple of Doom")

Joe Gibbs leads the Redskins to the Super Bowl three times, winning twice with two different quarterbacks, including Doug Williams, the first African American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl. He did well.

Joe Montanna and Bill Walsh led the 49ers to dominance.

The '85 Bears.

The Challenger Disaster - everyone knows where they were when that happened.
 

Chuck Mayer

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I wouldn't say I am a huge fan of the 80's, but I'm very happy I was born in 1974. I turned 6 in 1980 and 16 in 1990. So much of my formative experiences were in that illustrious decade.

We had great music, including MTV when it was really, really SOMETHING. We had great movies to grow up with, we had emerging new technologies that now shape our society (the PC, the VCR, etc), we had Cold War ideology :)

I agree the cars sucked, and there were plenty of groaners in terms of fashion and hairstyles (every decade has those), but I'd argue for the 80's over the 90's or 70's any day of the week. Easily.

It was a good decade to grow up in :)
 

Eric Peterson

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I guess that I'm a person with highly mixed opinions on the 80s. To set the stage, I was 8 in 1980 and graduated high-school in 1990, so I definitely qualify as a child of the era. High School was not one of the highlights of my life (In fact, it was probably the worst 4 years of my life).

I tend to look on the 80s almost as two separate periods. 1980-1986 & 1987-1989, with the first being a very interesting and creative period and the second being a parody of the first.

The first period contained great music that experimented with new technology & blended genres. Artists like The Police, Talking Heads, The Cure, Depeche Mode, and Duran Duran released albums that are still considered masterpieces. This was the definitive period for heavy metal with groups like Iron Maiden, Dio, & Judas Priest reigning supreme while bands like Metallica, Slayer, & Anthrax were waiting in the wings. A new form of music still referred to as rap was beginning with Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC, & LL Cool J. Unfortunately it was also the tail-end of a genre that I feel is in desperate need of a revival - Pop Funk. I loved groups like Kool & The Gang, Earth Wind & Fire, Rick James, Billy Ocean, etc.... This was also a period that saw countless one hit wonders that still hold up today.

Then somewhere around 1986 things changed. Pop Music started drying up and morphed in to teenage acts like Debbie Gibson & The New Kids. Metal turned into a parody with all of the hair bands. Rap started to become popular in the burbs, and got watered down (MC Hammer & The Fat Boys anybody?).

Movies unfortunately followed a similar trend in my opinion. The first part of the decade saw masterpieces like Raging Bull, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, & One Upon a Time in America. This period saw the launch of the slasher film with Friday the 13th & Nightmare on Elm Street. Some great comedies like Revenge of the Nerds & Porkys were popular. Even some kiddie fare became memorable like The Goonies & Gremlins.

I don't remember many films from my High School years that are worth remembering. This is not to say that some great films were not made, but they were not the popular films of the era. My recollections are not all that different of the current era - countless sequels!!!

As for fashion, I was never a trendy person. Probably one of the reasons that High School was such a miserable time period for me. I refused to wear those clothes or wear my hair that way. Long before the mullet had a name, I thought that it was the most absurd sell-out haircut imaginable.

I still love the video games of the era, but like music and movies, they seemed to go stale in the second half of the decade. The first half saw Ms. Pacman, Donkey Kong, Burger-Time, etc.... which are all still classics. Most of the late 80s games are now looked upon as little more than curiosities. I was a Commodore 64 guy, and spent countless hours in front of that computer typing in games using BASIC from the magazine Compute's Gazette.

At the change of the decade, I found myself going through a period where I despised everything about the 80s and it took me a long time to get over that and realize that there really was some great stuff. I've now learned to separte the good from the bad and try not to universally classify the decade as either great or horrible.

Just my two cents!
 

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