The 80's were awesome

[The Wedge]

9 minutes ago, drawkcabi said:

The 80's were Awesome because everything was Awesome in the 80's, not to mention Rad, Outrageous, and Excellent.

You forgot totally tubular.

[drawkcabi]

8 minutes ago, The Wedge said:

You forgot totally tubular.

You know I actually typed it out then deleted it, thought it was too specific to surfer/skater speak.

[Fez]

51 minutes ago, Cubarey said:

Yes the 1980's were so awesome. Ronald Regan was elected and served for 8 years, The AIDS crisis became a worldwide panic and The Soviet Union and the Eastern Block disintegrated to be replaced by crony authoritaarianism and tradionalist conservatiive politics.

 

I think that we can all agree that it was an important decade of change, but to call it "Awesome" is a bit dumbfounding in my eyes. 

As I was trying to say though, for most middle class, white, non-LGBT Americans, and especially their kids, the '80s were pretty awesome.

What was most awesome to me was the lack of cell phones or email or any of that. You said you'd be somewhere and you'd be there, because if you weren't everyone would assume something real bad happened to you. There was no easy way to get out of stuff.

Also awesome, the music. All of it.

[zelticgar]

44 minutes ago, Fez said:

As I was trying to say though, for most middle class, white, non-LGBT Americans, and especially their kids, the '80s were pretty awesome.

What was most awesome to me was the lack of cell phones or email or any of that. You said you'd be somewhere and you'd be there, because if you weren't everyone would assume something real bad happened to you. There was no easy way to get out of stuff.

Also awesome, the music. All of it.

I feel like the music was pretty awesome but something changed later in the decade and it became kind of crappy towards the end. It devolved into hair bands and very commercial pop and nothing in between. The result was it eventually spawned the grunge genre in the early 90's as a counter. 

 

55 minutes ago, Fez said:

As I was trying to say though, for most middle class, white, non-LGBT Americans, and especially their kids, the '80s were pretty awesome.

What was most awesome to me was the lack of cell phones or email or any of that. You said you'd be somewhere and you'd be there, because if you weren't everyone would assume something real bad happened to you. There was no easy way to get out of stuff.

Also awesome, the music. All of it.

I was explaining to my kids that when we had no cell phones most of the moms in the neighborhoods would use a dinner bell or just yell their kids names when they were looking for them. The other moms would hear the mom up the street calling and tell the kid to get home. We also spent a lot of time setting times to check in. Mostly things like "get home by sunset" or "come home by 6pm". My mom and dad could pretty much drive around the neighborhood and find us anywhere within a 3 or 4 block radius. We lived by the schools so if we were not there they could check the school fields and find us. 

One other thing about the 80's that i experienced was the parenting dynamics were very different. Almost all the moms stayed home when we were kids. That dynamic started to change when i hit middle school but most of the moms in the neighborhood knew every kid and every other mom so in some ways you could not get away with a lot of nonsense because someone was always around. As we got older we figured out how to be sneaky but as young kids we knew not to mess around too much. 

[Astromech]

2 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

Then there were a bunch of sitcoms, many of them reboots of former network sitcoms and most sub par even by 80's sitcom standards. There was New Gidget, New WKRP in Cincinnati, What's Happening Now!, Charles in Charge, Small Wonder, and Out of this World.

By then end of the decade Baywatch began it's run and became a behemoth of first run syndication.

By the 90's Hercules and Xena came along.

 

Haha, Small Wonder was great! I watched Charles in Charge solely for Nicole Eggert, what a fox.

Did anyone actually attend mall concerts? I remember those being popular with singers like Tiffany and Debbie Gibson.

[Fez]

2 minutes ago, zelticgar said:

I feel like the music was pretty awesome but something changed later in the decade and it became kind of crappy towards the end. It devolved into hair bands and very commercial pop and nothing in between. The result was it eventually spawned the grunge genre in the early 90's as a counter. 

I was explaining to my kids that when we had no cell phones most of the moms in the neighborhoods would use a dinner bell or just yell their kids names when they were looking for them. The other moms would hear the mom up the street calling and tell the kid to get home. We also spent a lot of time setting times to check in. Mostly things like "get home by sunset" or "come home by 6pm". My mom and dad could pretty much drive around the neighborhood and find us anywhere within a 3 or 4 block radius. We lived by the schools so if we were not there they could check the school fields and find us. 

One other thing about the 80's that i experienced was the parenting dynamics were very different. Almost all the moms stayed home when we were kids. That dynamic started to change when i hit middle school but most of the moms in the neighborhood knew every kid and every other mom so in some ways you could not get away with a lot of nonsense because someone was always around. As we got older we figured out how to be sneaky but as young kids we knew not to mess around too much. 

I've got a soft-spot for hair bands, but its true that the early '80s stuff was better. I didn't really experience that first hand though, it was only from going back as an adult that I realized bands like Toto were great.

Since I grew up in a rural area, it was a bit different for me. It was a lot more riding the school bus back to a friend's house and having my mom pick me up on her way home from work (both my parents worked from the moment they each finished law school in the '70s). And on weekends and in the summer I'd get dropped off by my mom or dad somewhere and be told I needed to be at the pickup point at X time. Spent a lot of time just wandering around the forest with friends; but I guess that's something modern rural kids can do too.

[A True Kaniggit]

2 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

The 80's were Awesome because everything was Awesome in the 80's, not to mention Rad, Outrageous, and Excellent.

If the 60's were groovy, the 70's far out, and the 90's Extreme, then the 80's were Awesome.

We're does gnarly fit in the grand scheme of things?

[drawkcabi]

I remember by the time I was 10, 11, 12 the unending freedom I had in the summer.

Mom or Dad would drop me off at the pool at 11am. I'd swim for the rest of the morning and early afternoon. The mall with a movie theater and video arcade was in walking distance from the pool, the mall also had a Blockbuster Video, Crown Books, a People's Drug Store (CVS eventually bought them out) that sold candy at a cheaper price so I could buy more and smuggle it into the movies. I'd go see a movie or two play arcade games, maybe buy a new book, all depending on how much money I had.

(ETA: $2.50 - $3 for a movie ticket btw, paying either matinee or child's price for 12 and under)

My grandmother's condo was also in walking distance in this area so sometimes I'd walk over and crash there for the night. She always had the best Stouffer's frozen meals, chips, soda, cookies, and cakes. So much of that stuff she never ate, she just kept it there for me. I kept my Vectrex at my grandmother's so I even had video games to play. For that I had Minestorm (built in game, Asteroids clone) Spike, Solar Quest, Pole Position, Star Trek, Armor Attack, Bedlam, and the art master cartridge with light pen.

Sometimes I'd go back to the pool, sometimes I'd get a ride home from the pool with a friend. Sometimes I'd be there until closing around 9pm then call a parent to pick me up.

Sometimes I'd go home with a friend and stay at their house, or I'd meet up with my nieces and nephews and their mom and go home with them. It was always an after thought to tell my parents where I was. Sometimes I'd be gone for days, then I'd come home for clean clothes, check on my dog, or whatever then I'd be gone again. If I ran into one or both my parents it'd be a nonchalant "Oh, you're here" situation.

That was awesome times.

[Jaxom 1974]

You're all forgetting what formented the change in music, which I think you can argue had some of the greatest mood swings in the history of music over the course of the decade, was the advent of MTV.  

[KingintheNorth4]

I wish I was alive during the 80s just so I could experience the 85 Bears Super Bowl run in person. Also, the beginning of the Golden Age of Hip Hop was at the end of the 80s, with N.W.A., Public Enemy, Biz Markie, LL Cool J, etc.

[zelticgar]

16 minutes ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

I wish I was alive during the 80s just so I could experience the 85 Bears Super Bowl run in person. Also, the beginning of the Golden Age of Hip Hop was at the end of the 80s, with N.W.A., Public Enemy, Biz Markie, LL Cool J, etc.

Those 85 Bears were awesome. I was a young Patriots fan and even I knew the chances of us winning were slim to none. The Fridge was a beast. 

And don't forget Run DMC. When they did the cover of Walk this Way it was big. Gave them a lot of credibility and opened up Rap to a mainstream audience. Lots of suburban kids ended up jamming to NWA in their parents station wagons. (me included!). 

[TrackerNeil]

42 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

You're all forgetting what formented the change in music, which I think you can argue had some of the greatest mood swings in the history of music over the course of the decade, was the advent of MTV.  

And the rise of the Go-Go's, the first all female-band in history to have a #1 album they'd played and written themselves. Let's not forget the clothes: Members Only, Z Cavaricci, Vivienne Westwood, parachute pants, padded shoulders, Ray-bans. (We won't mention sweater's tied around the neck, though.)

The 80s sucked for gay people, but boy was the music and the fashion fun!

[zelticgar]

20 minutes ago, TrackerNeil said:

And the rise of the Go-Go's, the first all female-band in history to have a #1 album they'd played and written themselves. Let's not forget the clothes: Members Only, Z Cavaricci, Vivienne Westwood, parachute pants, padded shoulders, Ray-bans. (We won't mention sweater's tied around the neck, though.)

The 80s sucked for gay people, but boy was the music and the fashion fun!

Tracker - not sure if it was a regional thing but I remember we had a few totally 80's clothes stores at the Mall. (Malls were huge in the 80's BTW). We had Chess King, Tellos and a few other stores. They were basically where we all went to get the cool pants so we could tight roll them. I remember one of my friends older brothers worked at Chess King and always wore skinny ties even in High School. We used to think he was the coolest dude ever. 

 

[Larry of the Lawn]

Fuck the 80s the 90s were rad.  In ten years when I'm more motivated in will start a 90s thread.

[Yukle]

I was born in the 80s. What more proof is needed?  

[The Marquis de Leech]

4 hours ago, larrytheimp said:

Fuck the 80s the 90s were rad.  In ten years when I'm more motivated in will start a 90s thread.

Ah, the 1990s.

Yugoslavia in the news every night (with the western media treating the Muslims as the good guys), Bill Clinton's blow job, handwritten school-essays, a change of electoral system here, and that weird '70s nostalgia thing.

[DireWolfSpirit]

80's  gotta  mention the Breakfast Club 

Break Dancing was a thing in much of urban America 

Madonna impacted Pop music, but maybe fashion to an even greater extent 

 

[drawkcabi]

Movies that I don't think have been mentioned yet, but deserve to be:

The Last Starfighter

Trading Places

Beverly Hills Cop

Coming To America

Big Trouble In Little China

The Thing

Aliens

Dirty Dancing

Roadhouse

This Is Spinal Tap

Caddyshack

Tootsie

Back To School

Stripes

The Secret of Nimh

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Eddie and the Cruisers

Rad

Splash

Fast Times At Ridgemont High

Conan The Barbarian

Red Sonja

The Lost Boys

The Dark Crystal

Labyrinth

Willow

Let It Ride

The Princess Bride

When Harry Met Sally

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Uncle Buck

Pee Wee's Big Adventure

Crocodile Dundee

Spaceballs

The Neverending Story

Wargames

The Beastmaster

Transformers: The Movie

Also, Masters of the Universe the movie. I still maintain that as a stand alone movie not connected to a cartoon and toyline it wouldn't have been that bad. As it was, I can still enjoy it in all it's 80's campy cheesy goodness. Also, at least it was the one toyline-cartoon we got a live-action movie of in the 80's (Turtles didn't come out until 1990). Considering what we got storywise with the Transformers and G.I. Joe movies in the 21st century, I'd say getting He-Man in the 80's was a bit of a bargain.

Also, also, the Fred Savage movie The Wizard. Many people complain about it being a movie-length commercial for Nintendo, and it was, but I liked it. I still like it. I like the story, however stupid it is, I liked all the actors in it Savage, Beau Bridges, Christian Slater, and Jennifer Lewis, and even if it was a piece of junk, Lucas and the power glove scene ruled!

[drawkcabi]

Holy shit! I just came across this and hell yeah it belongs here!

If Ivan Drago was in Punch-Out!

[Ice Queen]

3 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

Movies that I don't think have been mentioned yet, but deserve to be:

The Last Starfighter

Trading Places

Beverly Hills Cop

Coming To America

Big Trouble In Little China

The Thing

Aliens

Dirty Dancing

Roadhouse

This Is Spinal Tap

Caddyshack

Tootsie

Back To School

Stripes

The Secret of Nimh

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Eddie and the Cruisers

Rad

Splash

Fast Times At Ridgemont High

Conan The Barbarian

Red Sonja

The Lost Boys

The Dark Crystal

Labyrinth

Willow

Let It Ride

The Princess Bride

When Harry Met Sally

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Uncle Buck

Pee Wee's Big Adventure

Crocodile Dundee

Spaceballs

The Neverending Story

Wargames

The Beastmaster

Transformers: The Movie

Also, Masters of the Universe the movie. I still maintain that as a stand alone movie not connected to a cartoon and toyline it wouldn't have been that bad. As it was, I can still enjoy it in all it's 80's campy cheesy goodness. Also, at least it was the one toyline-cartoon we got a live-action movie of in the 80's (Turtles didn't come out until 1990). Considering what we got storywise with the Transformers and G.I. Joe movies in the 21st century, I'd say getting He-Man in the 80's was a bit of a bargain.

Also, also, the Fred Savage movie The Wizard. Many people complain about it being a movie-length commercial for Nintendo, and it was, but I liked it. I still like it. I like the story, however stupid it is, I liked all the actors in it Savage, Beau Bridges, Christian Slater, and Jennifer Lewis, and even if it was a piece of junk, Lucas and the power glove scene ruled!

Sorry if these have been mentioned, but...Ladyhawke and The Outsiders. I didn't see Indiana Jones anywhere but I might have missed it.  Predator, Commando, pretty much anything Arnie. Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, I could go on and on.

I read somewhere that whatever you were into at age 14 makes a lifelong impression on you and you carry it with you for the rest of your life, especially music. But there's something about 80's music that even the younger generations like. When Prince died I put on the Purple Rain soundtrack and my kids thought it was fantastic. 

It's pretty horrifying to think that they'll still love rap when they're 50, though!