The 1980s in general

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I felt I had to do it. Given that I am a 1980s fanboy (centering around pop culture, sports and msuic), I am going to post this here, since there is no forum here specifically for history.

What did the 1980s tell us? It was a crazy time. Crazy hair, movies, music....... it was when everyone went nuts at the same time. It was also when the Cold War was at its height, and when sports stars were larger than life. Anyone wanted to be somebody in pop culture then.

Who here has memories of this decade, and what can ya tell me about this decade?

Wow, the 1980's.

I loved the decade so, so much.

I went from aged ten, to twenty, during the 80's & I loved every minute of it.

The music was excellent the fashion was eclectic ( white toweling headband, anyone? Perhaps that was just me. Whoops! ), it was a crazy time, and the last decade before health & safety went overboard ( I'm specifically looking at Britain with that one ).

I, personally, did and wore, things that I should regret. Thankfully the evidence seems to have disappeared. It was such a fresh, modern and electric, time. I wish that it could have lasted forever.

I still listen to the music, wear the fashions ( some of 'em ) & watch the films, while reliving the personal memories of those days in my head.

And Group B Rally cars roamed the earth, before getting banned for killing people.

They were incredible cars. Wow! I rewatch their footage on Youtube almost daily.

In summary, the 80's were INCREDIBLE!

Wow, what do you want to know about the 1980s? People who lived in the 80s like me will have more personal memories than anything - whatever you think of the decade while looking back at the 80s, for us it was like a fish not knowing it is wet because we just lived our lives. What people think is important now didn't seem particularly important then.

I have all kinds of random memories about places I went, things that happened, new Frank Herbert books, encountering string theory, amber monitors with Word Perfect 5, music I liked (cassettes! LPs!), and so on - probably doesn't mean all that much to anyone else.

Although people talk about "80s Music" as if it was some sort of monolith, people liked different things and there was a ton of music, little of which is remembered today. What you get on 80s compilation albums are usually the absolute dregs of pop music, the stuff no one can get anyone to pay for any other way.

I myself am a fan of the 80's. Especially when it comes to media as the 80's was a pretty revolutionary time for that. Particularly for gaming, its crazy to think that during the video game crash of the early 80's some thought it was considered a non viable market. 27 years on, its one of the biggest media markets there is. A lot of my favorite music and movies also originate from the 80's. Back in a time were movies weren't saturated by garbage, non plot movies with some special effects and CGI slapped on.

I never lived in the 80s, but it seems the best time in the world. Especially in Japan.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeHMx93RMzI[/youtube]

You can't get a car that looks that cool anymore. (I own one, US Celica Supra, not a Japanese Celica XX.)

Hmm let me think, it's very hard for me to remember as the majority of the last part of the 80's for me was spent as a toddler.

-watching You Can't Do That On Television and The Muppet Show every Sunday night
-quality children's programming
-Cabbage Patch Kids
-Care Bears
-view masters
-VCR's
-big hair
-tapes
-bright colored clothing

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WDjJOSCxyw[/youtube]

The 80's was the best decade of the twentieth century.

Cyndi Lauper
Dallas
Duran Duran
Power suits
Hostile takeovers
Reagan
Thatcher
Miami Vice
Thomas Dolby
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
Newhart
Frankie goes to hollywood
Nintendo entertainment system
Pac Man
Short Circuit (Movie)

- Daley Thompson

- ZX Spectrum

- Tony Pond

- Ian Rush

- Those massive Nike socks that breakdancers used to wear over their trousers!

- Thrust II

- Ferris Bueller

- Rubik's Cube

- And how my friends & I were absolutely convinced that we would be killed by Russian nuclear bomb's.

The Kinks on Arista
Pac Man
The Dukes of Hazard
The WWF with Hulk Hogan
Care Bears
Cabbage Patch Kids
Transformers
Rubix cubes
Atari
MTV when it was good
Video Hits
Wayne Gretzky
The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles
The 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary
Punky Brewster
TGIF
Entertainment Tonight
The Minipops
Expo 86 in Vancouver
Bright colours
Quality shows for kids
Amazing Stories
Great sitcoms

I was working in the 80's.

I remember we had some good shows on in the 80's we had "A Country Practice" and "Sons and Daughters"

With news issues there was the Barlow and Chambers case, they were smuggling drugs in Malaysia and then they ended up getting hanged it was a huge story at the time.

When the Olympics were in Los Angelas in 1984 there was an athlete "Zola Budd" who ran barefoot and she tripped another athlete over that caused people to argue about if it was done on purpose or not.

Bullies
Detentions
WarGames
The Day After
impending Armageddon
feeling like my family was going to be evicted
school-wide humiliations
hospitalization
parents divorcing

but also
Capri Sun
"You Can't"
CHiPs
dirt bikes (in a Tears For Fears video even!)
'Nellie The Elephant'
Vision, Powell-Peralta and Santa Cruz
checkered Vans slip-ons
NWOBHM
Pirate 100.3, Pure Rock 105.5 and the Mighty Met 94.7
AM radio that would play Prince, then Van Halen, then Culture Club, then Ozzy
Dr. Demento
portable synths
The original Farrell's restaurants (though they have a new one nearby that is almost spot-on)
cheap guitars that now get 10x the MSRP

A t-shirt being worn by Daley Thompson on his victory lap after winning gold, asking - "Is the worlds second greatest athlete gay?"

Which was clearly aimed at Carl Lewis.

You couldn't get away with that today.

Hair products like gel and mousse. Eww. Too much makeup. Reaganomics, "Trickle-down" theory, shoulder pads. I hated the '80s.

How did I forget to mention Ben Johnson?

What a massive story that was in '88, all over the world.

I wasn't alive in the '80s, but the decade has appealed to me. I like the music and some styles from that period. It just seems very fun and bubbly to me.

A semi-related note: I love Hot Tub Time Machine.