Nostalgia hits a new low

[thatcrazycajun]

Looking back, most of the decades of the latter half of the 20th century—the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and even the 1990s—all have in common two things: events of historic significance and some truly awesome entertainment. The Forties had World War II and Glenn Miller, Warner Bros. cartoons and radio shows that were a lot more than just music. The Fifties had Elvis, the Red Scare and the blacklist, and MGM musicals in Technicolor. The Sixties had MLK, JFK, Vietnam, the Doors and the Stones. The Seventies had women's lib, the energy crisis, Nixon in China and chop-socky films, the Eagles and the Ramones. (We'll ignore disco for purposes of this discussion.) Hell, even the Nineties had the fall of the Berlin Wall, a Presidential election decided by the Supreme Court and alterna-rock.

But then there's the decade I seem to get most misty-eyed about, when I was in college with my whole life ahead of me and all seemed possible. How sad and pathetic is it to be nostalgic for the 1980s? The Me Decade has absolutely nothing to compare with the others mentioned above. Historic milestones? Reaganomics. AIDS. Cocaine. And, oh, yeah, Challenger blowing up and killing her crew. Entertainment? Michael J. Fox on both large and small screens. The Brat Pack. Full House. Duran Duran, Madonna and Wham! And some of the most atrocious hair and fashion choices ever committed to film.

Why couldn't I have come of age just a few years earlier? I'm just sayin'.

Comments

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I remember when the tv series That 70's Show came on.

And I realized that it was to the kids watching it as Happy Days was for me...

Mind. Still blown.

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

I often wished I could have skipped the 50s altogether on a style basis alone. I wish I could have been a teenager in the 60s though, but only if I could get the long hair and great legs to go with it. But honestly, I think I could have cut straight to 1975 or so and been born a sub-urban brat, just in time for personal computers to be fun by the time I learn to read. I'd have a good career by now and not have to unlearn everything stupid I was taught in the analog age.

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

What, have gays come together as a community, and mobilize to force the government to fight AIDS wasn't good enough for you? Having movie technology change special effects in unimaginable ways? MTV revolutionizing the music business? Some great movies like Indiana Jones, SAY ANYTHING, ET, GHOSTBUSTERS? Serves you right for ignoring disco.

Tiananmen Square took place in the 80s. (And, technically, the Supreme Court picked the President in the 2Ks.)

Every clothing style looks horrible 15-20 years later. In the 30s, we'll be amazed that ponchos came back.

[singingpatient.livejournal.com]

i would cheer you up with the fact that van halen was in their heyday, but the 80s is also when they broke up :(

[singingpatient.livejournal.com]

i love that show!!! i wasn't quite a teen in the 70s but i do remember the music adn i had a pack of friends like that who i hung with. I love the dad (red).

[singingpatient.livejournal.com]

huey lewis!
867-5309!
hot for teacher and panama- 2 funnest videos ever.
the police!
robin williams.

it certainly was a very MEMEME materialistic time though. i was happier in the 70s, but then i was a little kid in the 70s...

[poltr1]

Man, you have GOT to find copies of "Living In Oblivion" -- not the movies, but the 5-CD set. The songs on there will jog your memory quite nicely.

I was in college in the '80s, so I have fond memories of that decade as well. Bloom County, the Breakfast Club (or at least the soundtrack), Night Flight on USA Network, synthpop, the Dream Academy, and so many others.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on. Yes, there was Michael J. Fox, the Anti-Elvis. But the '80s didn't *totally* suck. Billy Joel, The Nylon Curtain. Queen. Pat Benetar. The Indigo Girls. The Princess Bride. Jedi. Stereo TV. The compact disc. The GPL. ROCKAPELLA!!! Top Gun. Alien(s). Ghostbusters. Perestroika and glasnost. Somebody other than Connery or Moore as Bond. Vaclav Havel. And, actually, the fall of the Wall was November, 1989. Oh, and now could we *possibly* forget both the PC and the Macintosh. Garfield! The Miracle on Ice. Larry Bird. Kareem. Michael Jordan. Pete Rose. Rush. The Lost Boys. U2. Bruce Springsteen. Indiana Jones.

No, the 80's did NOT suck. And they laid the groundwork for a whole bunch of stuff that is really good these days. SpaceShip One. Linux. MP3 players. Personal publication, be it websites, books, art, music, or opinion. Laser eye surgery. Cellphones. Unlimited long distance. Wikipedia. Web comics. Chat rooms. LiveJournal.

I think I hit the tech wave perfectly. I missed punch cards by one quarter, got into dialup just as the speeds were taking off, early-adopted high speed internet, got a cell phone just as GSM was taking off, and now I'm working for a data/voice provider just as that whole industry is morphing again. I got out of rock music just as the bubblegum era hit, and now that it's "classic" and cool again, I can still get it...

I could complain, but I don't have much reason to.

[ericavdg.livejournal.com]

I get nostalgic for the 80s myself sometimes. I had a really great time in the second half, after I left my stick-in-the-mud first husband. Ah, the days of cheap and plentiful local cons and answering the phone, "Pagan Sex Therapy Clinic! May I help you?"

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

Do not ask "why are these days not as good as the days of old? For this question is not prompted by wisdom." Eccl.

Sturgeon's law applies equally well accross all time. Console yourself with what you missed in the 1950s and 1960s:

Racial segregation

A time when it was not merely socially acceptable, but in some quarters expecte to refer to people as "niggers", "kykes", "whops," without it being irnic edgy humor.

Back alley abortions.

As for the 1970s:

Stagflation

Son of Sam

Disco

John Travolta (first coming)

As for me, what do I remember in the 1980s:

BITNET
USENET

Discovering fandom

Discovering the SCA

John Cougar Melloncamp

.38 Special

The Blues Brothers (barely)

Susan Vega

Hill St. Blues

Cheers

It wasn't all bad . . . .

[erinwrites.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with Michael J. Fox? :D

[maugorn.livejournal.com]

While the cinematic and historic have been covered well, I'd like to chime in and agree that the 80's also had some excellent music to redeem them.
The Police and The Indigo Girls have been mentioned (tho I still consider the IG a 90's band as that was when they started to make serious ripples.)

But check these names out:
U2
REM
(I could almost stop right there) but there was ALOT more:
Susan Vega (already mentioned)
Thomas Dolby
Bauhaus
Laurie Anderson (if you like it strange)
XTC
The Dead Kennedys

(and look who were were playing ass-kicking "Retro/Swing Dance" 20 YEARS before it became the Big Cool Thing AGAIN)
The Stray Kats
Dave Edmunds
Nick Lowe
Joe Jackson

And while their fame seemed more fleeting, there was some darn nice, and (IMHO) even intelligent work from:
OMD (tho when their name was "Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark" I thought they were cooler and less "pop"-y)
Modern English
The Psychedelic Furs
Icehouse
Human Sexual Response
The Violent Femmes (I admit it. Their 1st album was a guilty pleasure- the secret is that you just can't take it seriously.)

And even tho these guys really got their starts in the 70s (or 60s), they all put out EXCELLENT, sometimes groundbreaking, or at least career sustaining worthy work in the 80's:

King Crimson (around since the 70's, but they REALLY broke new ground and were a very different band in the 80's)
The Rolling Stones
Peter Gabriel
Rush
Yes
Kraftwerk
Genesis
Eric Clapton
Fleetwood Mac
The Moody Blues
Dire Straits
Jimmy Buffett
Styx
The Grateful Dead
The Who
Pete Townshend (Solo)
Vangelis (the OTHER stuff, not just the music in "Cosmos" or that theme from _Chariots Of Fire_)
"WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC (come on, where would he be if it hadn't been for Michael Jackson?)

And I believe a special mention needs to go to David Bowie.
Why? Well, he seems to have a knack for re-inventing himself as others pick up where he left off in his last incarnation. He'll spot some new thing, make himself into an Icon of it, and then when the "New" Icons show up, find something to move on to.
So in the early 70's he did the whole Glam-Rock/Rock Theatre thing, and then he did disco before disco was cool, and then in the late 70's he started doing alot of weird "Future Shock" things, which kind of wrapped up the 80's (Remember "Major Tom" from _Scary Monsters_- HUGE hit in 1981?) And then there was that whole "Let's Dance" thing- the sound of which a whole lot of people went on to cop.

So, out of the glam-rock phase where he also came out as a bisexual, we got:
Prince-... Who spent the 80's trotting out one recycled David Bowie bit after another. I never bought into his whole schtick, and wasn't nearly as impressed as others at him "daring" to do what Bowie had done 5-10 years earlier, BUT
I had to admit that "Purple Rain" was a pretty good song after all and the guy really could play a mean guitar too.

But the guy who picked up one of Bowie's torches that I REALLY enjoyed was:
Gary Numan
His big hit was "Cars", which, truth to be told was one of his less ambitious and weaker works. Numan had a REAL handle on "Future Shock" and his songs could be cool, wry, funny as hell, or downright creepy (as in "OMG what if this isn't just angsty poetry, but PROPHECY?")

And a brief cinematic digression:
three movies with soundtracks that went RIGHT into my record collection:
_The Blues Brothers_ _Repo Man_ and _Liquid Sky_.

Everything that was the best (and worst!) about what was cool in the 80's oozed out of those soundtracks, and alot of it was weird, and hard to swallow, but GOOOOD.

At the time, the 80's often felt like a wasteland to me too. But I suspect I was taking an awful lot of good things for granted, because I bought an awful lot of new records and saw an awful lot of my favorite movies.
And I saw an awful lot of really fine concerts.

Remember that it was in the 1980's that the Grateful Dead's following swelled to the point where they could throw a dart at a map of the US, play at the largest, nearest stadium or concert hall and sell it completely out for days at a time.

[maugorn.livejournal.com]

I totally forgot
Tracy Chapman.

A whole lot of excellent younger lady singer/songwriters have built up from the musical and lyrical foundations she layed and the barriers that she broke down.
It was so so AWESOME to hear someone that honest and real coming out of that radio.

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

If you catch an episode of VH1's "I Love the 70s," you'll be treated to nostalgia for "Happy Days," itself a show devoted to nostalgia for the 50s (as they never really were).

Eventually, VH1 will run out of topics for their list shows, and start running the 100 Best VH1 List Shows," wherein we'll be treated to nostalgia for the "I Love the 70s" episode that covered "Happy Days," and, probably, the universe will implode and be reduced to a quantum singularity, drawn in by the inexorable force of American pop culture disappearing up its own ass.

Why yes, I _am_ writing this instead of working. What's your point?

Re: the 80s -- about the same, Sturgeon's law bell curve as any other decade, in the long view. The main thing _I_ remember is that they descovered AIDS on the exact day I hit puberty (give or take a month).

This is, of course, why I shrewdly failed to get laid - or a date - until I was 20.

And not, I hasten to add, for any other reason.

(Sometimes, history _is_ written by the losers.)

[dsthomas.livejournal.com]

Was a teen in the 80's and I loved the music, movies and general attitude of the 80's. Would love to have the 'carefree' days back.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

He's the Anti-Elvis. Didn't you hear?

Besides, the movie studios spent way too much time back then trying to turn him into the next teen idol. And his right-wing yuppoid TV character got on my nerves. And as for what acting talent he had/has, Chris Lloyd acted rings around him in all three Back to the Future films.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

The 80's were the last era when there was a lot of good diverse music that wasn't isolated by station format. We'll just forget the hair bands.