What was life like in the 1980's?

Post Reply New Topic

in America that is still the case, on all but the premium channels.

Was partially the same in Sweden, some channels were co-broadcasted in both Sweden and Norway, and in Norway pornography was heavily censored, so they edited the movies, ran them in slow motion or looped scenes to stretch them out and cover the audio "noises", it was really pathetic to watch. On other nights there was the regular uncensored hardcore pr0n, eventually Norway got their movie channels and we got our own.

Nowadays, with the internet and all - there isn't much of a pr0n shortage...

I was born in 76, so I thankfully don't remember much of the 70s. I think the "fashion" of the period was gd awful though.

What were some popular brands during the 1980's?

Swatch

Guess Jeans.
Converse shoes. They hit a popularity peak in the 80s and were available in every color you can imagine.

Everything came in glass bottles and jars. Soda, condiments, etc., almost everything. Ketchup was the worst. I will never forget dropping and breaking my bottle of Tahitian Treat in the driveway when I was little. I don't remember much coming in plastic bottles, maybe just dish soap and milk. Two-litre bottles?

Maybe peanut butter? I can't recall.

This continued into the 90s for a little bit.

When I was a kid in the 60s and 70s, milk was delivered in glass bottles.

Jordache and Sassoon jeans were very popular in the early 1980s---but they faded later in the decade. 1980 was the date when "dungarees" seemingly stopped meaning "jeans."

Puma was a very popular sneaker early in the decade. Later in the decade, all the "modern" sneaker companies came to the fore. Like Nike, Asics, New Balance, etc. We didn't have those in the 1970s.

A lot of the bands popular and artists in the 80s were also popular in the 70s. There were a lot of heavy metal and punk bands that had cult followings. A lot of bands never became very famous but were one hit wonders or put out a few songs before fading and a lot of music was from solo recording artists.

Bands and artists that come to mind are...

Queen, KISS, Led Zepplin, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, INXS, Genesis, Guns N Roses, ZZ Top, Tears for Fears, Wham!, Duran Duran, REO Speed Wagon, Jefferson Starship (formerly Jefferson Airplane), Blondie, U2,The B52s (and Australian band), The Bangles, Huey Lewis and the News, Ah-ha, The New Kids on the Block (late 80s), When in Rome, Eurythmics, Dream Academy, Bruce Springsteen, John Cougar Melloncamp, Debbie Gibson, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Boy George, George Michael, Tina Turner, and of course Michael Jackson and Madonna who were the superstars, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul, Whitney Houston, Bryan Adams, Phil Colins, Cyndi Lauper, The Thompson Twins, David Lee Roth, Eddie Money...

You can get a good idea from the Billboard year end hot 100 singles lists for the 80s

1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989

Much Music (which is like MTV in Canada) actually had music.

In the late 80's we got a paid movie network similar to HBO at the time. It also had no ads, usually only animated or live-action shorts between them.

Cartoon characters were never shown swearing, farting, puking, having sexual intercourse, or being graphically killed.

Garbage Pail Kids cards pretty much made up for the lack of grossout humor in kid's cartoons. They once came out with an animated series, but it flopped. And it wasn't really gross at all although the Moral Guardians thought otherwise.

I had a collection of Alf cards. They usually had a picture taken from the show with a funny caption (that wasn't said in the show). The back would have some information about Alf and a Melmac Fact. They also had Bouliabaisseball cards. Bouliabaisseball was a popular sport on Melmac which was a similar to Earth baseball except you used seafood instead of baseballs. It was kind of smelly and messy.


Thanks to TV and pop culture in the 80's living in the country with my parents felt a little less like the 1940's. I even went to an elementary school that was built sometime in the 30's or 40's. My mom went to the same school when she was a kid, and told me they actually had a bomb shelter in the school. The school was closed and torn down years ago. All I have now are memories.

I think that was before my time...though I do remember glass baby bottles.

Funny that everyone switched over to plastic ones, and then decided that the plastic ones ones all had dangerous chemicals in them. Go figure...


I think technically, dungaree is a slightly different fabric from denim.

Don't forget acid wash/stone wash/bleached jeans! I actually have a pair of cutoffs, and I am not ashamed to wear them.


He said "brands"

...unless he made a typo and you just happened to read his mind...


Didn't Fritz the Cat come out in the '70s?

^ That was the exception, not the rule.

A flat screen was something you put on your window to keep the flies out.

Everything we wore was neon splashed or pastel colored.

Adults said video games were a waste of time and would rot our brains (some things never change)

Some even people thought the Sony Walkman would make everyone antisocial because they'd be too busy listening to their *gasp* music!

It was still perfectly acceptable for parents to give syrup of ipecac to a child who had ingested something poisonous.

Phones, TV sets, and most household appliances were actually built to last more than a few years.

Photo cameras were HUGE. I still remember the Polaroid camera my parents once had where you could see the photo slowly develop after it was taken. It must have weighed 10 pounds. The camera, I mean.

When we got our first VCR it came with a remote attached with a cord and it would make all kinds of weird grinding and clicking sounds.

You didn't have to use self-service at the gas station, there were actually people who would do it for you.

It depends on the state. I had an Internet girlfriend once who lived in Long Island and didn't even know how to pump her own gas.

I heard one state recently made self-service legal, and there was a bit of a commotion over it. Was it Oregon?

Oregon it was but it is not widespread so far. anyways, PG-13 got its start at the suggestion of producer Steven Spielberg, in 1984. a side-node, Spielberg was doing his own voluntary for of pg-13 as early as 1975, with his movie "jaws" where he persuaded the CARA of MPAA to add a note to its PG rating, saying "may be too intense for pre-teenagers."

Apparently pumping your own gas and paying first are very divisive issues in the U.S. When I was a kid, most gas stations in my state still had full serve and they would pump you gas, check your tire pressure, check your oil, and clean your windshield. Then it was reduced to pumping the gas and cleaning the windshield. These days, at most gas stations in my area, full serve has disappeared completely. All of the gas stations in my area are pay first...I don't recall if they were ever pump first during my lifetime. I recall in one state a few years back, when gas prices started rising, they switched from pump first to pay first and it caused a big uproar. I thought that was silly because for most of the goods people buy, they pay first. Why should gasoline be any different?

I do know in some states it's illegal to pump your own gas.

Yes, it was. The reasons given for the outrage were quite humorous and probably in jest, with the exception of those concerned about being attacked by transients.