MetaChat - So, because of this MeFi post

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31 May 2006

So, because of this MeFi post , I watched some old 80s videos. What I'd sincerely like to know is if there's anyone else about my age that hated and hates that decade as intensely as I did and do? I feel totally alienated from it.→[More:]Watching these videos is a strange mix of a negative nostalgia and being pissed-off.

And this is really sort of weird because for most people I know who are about 40, this was their beloved youth or something. They still listen to that music. But being reminded of that decade just makes me want to break something.

post by: kmellis at: 12:06 | 48 comments

I loathed most of the '80's, but it had it's moments if you know where to look, and it was my youth after all. And things started to pick up around '87. But the whole Thompson Twins/Teen Flick aesthetic can return to whatever hell it sprung from.

posted by jonmc 31 May | 12:10

I know we're almost exactly the same age, but I loved the music and videogames and a lot of other things about the eighties.

The politics and my personal state of mind, not as much, but they seem to have faded a bit in my memory while the good stuff remains.

posted by BoringPostcards 31 May | 12:10

I was born in 74. I go back and forth on the 80s nostalgia, but what really pisses me off is the 80s nostalgia from those too young to remember it.

posted by keswick 31 May | 12:11

More MetaFilter drama. *golf clap*

I just thought I'd do it for him this time, I am a giver.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 31 May | 12:21

women.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 31 May | 12:24

hrmmm. I'm a '75 child and am just ambivalent about the 80s. It's so diverse, and depends entirely on the observer, I think. When I think '80s I think punk/hardcore, and bad fashion. And U2. Because it finished when I was only 15, I don't really think about anything political or such.

posted by gaspode 31 May | 12:26

love bites

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 31 May | 12:27

Any 10 years can suck my dick from 1975.

posted by eatitlive 31 May | 12:29

The 80's, however aesthetically challenged, were less self-conscious, less morose, and less irony-drenched than the 90's, which is why I can work up some nostalgia even though I wasn't thinking how great it all was while I was living through it the first time.

posted by Wolfdog 31 May | 12:29

The 80's were a time of prosperity in the US and the larger world; it's very difficult to make worthwhile art during times of prosperity.

The 90's were the absolute pits. Shitty, shitty, shitty.

posted by Hugh Janus 31 May | 12:34

I dug the 90's dude. For a brief fleeting moment, I was a fashion plate.

posted by jonmc 31 May | 12:38

I don't really have any nostalgia for that time period - it's way long ago!

I have much more fondness for some reason for the 70's, when I was still in single-digits age-wise. I remember the music, the vibe, much more fondly than my teen years.

The 80's for me were all about my silly friends apeing Miami Vice, or other friends apeing Robert Smith. But no outright hatred of anything from that time.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 31 May | 12:38

Plenty of good stuff in the 80's, very little of which was in music videos. Of course it's a situation where those of us who had our formative years there are going to filter for all the things that made it worthwhile, while those who are older are free to remember the pure undiluted Reagany Tedium.

posted by Divine_Wino 31 May | 12:41

I'm 40. There was good stuff, there was bad stuff (including constantly expecting nuclear war). It is what it is.

posted by matildaben 31 May | 12:44

I am probably more nostalgic for the 70s (childhood) than for the 80s (end of high school/college/grad school), but I am fond of them both. One thing I remember very well from the 80s is all my hip college and grad school friends telling me how much the 70s sucked. Heh.

posted by JanetLand 31 May | 12:45

I loved the 90s. The 90s felt "right" to me in a way the 80s never did. Yeah, we (USAians) had a Dem president. That made a difference to me. It was also when I was at St. John's, which was the first place in my life where I truly felt at home.

The 90s felt more real to me. Yeah, there was the irony (I think it's even worse now). But irony is a vice that I can understand. The vice of the 80s was terminal shallowness and just people being generally really fucking dumb. That vice just makes me want to break open heads against chrome nightclub railings.

If I'd ever found any of the truly subversive countercultures that were thriving at the time (like punk), it might have been different for me. But growing up where I grew up, the deck was stacked against me.

But popular culture opened back up for me in the 90s. Music, film, a lot of things.

I don't know. Maybe it's just an accident of my personal history. I wandered through the 80s, discontent and never really fitting in anywhere. Meeting my ex-wife really was a catalyst to moving into a new and different world that shared my values and sensibilities. And that continued all through the 90s into the 00s. In contrast, the 80s are a void.

posted by kmellis 31 May | 12:47

The 80's were a time of prosperity in the US and the larger world; it's very difficult to make worthwhile art during times of prosperity.

I guess that's true, Hugh. But I don't really remember the 80s that way. I remember being terrified by the Cold War and The Day After, pitying the people on the other side of the Berlin Wall and sporting a big Keith Haring "Free South Africa" sticker on my notebook. I wanted to Save The Whales. I wrote letters to free Nelson Mandela and stop seal hunts. My 17 year old sister and her friends, on the other hand, think that Bush is protecting us from terrorists and that the world is basically a bright sunny place. I never felt that way.

But still, I loved the 80s. Not the neon, Michael Mann version, but a time when "alternative" music was something you had to seek out and "independent" films were actually made independently. The whole 90s Seattle scene seemed so manufactured to me.

posted by jrossi4r 31 May | 12:57

In contrast, the 80s are a void.

A void, where like a frozen man consigned to the deepest reaches of the Oort cloud, the light of the sun is a mere baby's breath and loneliness rules with an iron boot, an ALF doll, Don Johnson's sockless ankles, Dan Quayle's forehead and Nikki Sixx's gnarled and pestilent crotch my only reluctant occasional communicants.

posted by Divine_Wino 31 May | 12:58

Yeah, that's about right.

posted by kmellis 31 May | 13:05

but a time when "alternative" music was something you had to seek out

I was one of those people who sought out weird and wild music back in those days (as well as loving plain-old fashioned rock & R&B too), but I never wanted to keep it that way. Whenever I find something I enjoy, I get evangelical about it. I never understood the 'secret club,' approach to cool. (not accusing you jrossi, just using the sentence as a launching pad for thinking out loud).

posted by jonmc 31 May | 13:05

It's a fair accusation, jon. I was all about the secret club. Being the first to find a new band was a big thing back then. We'd have to go to the independent record stores on South Street to find albums we wanted because they weren't mainstream enough to be carried in the big chains. It was sport, man. Sport. Thrill of the hunt.

posted by jrossi4r 31 May | 13:13

Oh, I loved (and still love) hunting for weird wild stuff like that, but then I'd play it for my mullethead parking-lot loadie pals (it was odd what of it they liked and what they didn't), so I guess I was leaking secrets and you guys prolly woulda been baffled by the guy in the Priest shirt and mullet, who also loved REM and the 'Mats. That and the fact that I always had a foot in both of those worlds made me seem odd somehow, but it also gives me perspective I guess.

posted by jonmc 31 May | 13:16

the guy in the Priest shirt and mullet, who also loved REM and the 'Mats.

You just described my boyfriend jr. year of college. Great guy. Still talk to him.

posted by jrossi4r 31 May | 13:23

I think that, for a lot of people in the approximate Mecha age cohort, '80s nostalgia provokes strong reactions because timing and age and distance make the decade very prominent in our memories. And because, as with most decades, the question of exactly how much the '80s sucked depends a great deal on perspective.

posted by box 31 May | 13:29

Heh.

I remember my headbanger buddies liked stuff like Suicidal Tendencies, Black Flag, and some of the 'Mats when it was played for them, and some of the guys (the musicians especially) expanded their palettes as they grew up. But they were great to hang and party with and had a group loyalty that was great. I guess both camps satisfied something in me, although seeing the occasional hostility between the two (by some members) has always baffled and irritated me.

posted by jonmc 31 May | 13:32

Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Public Enemy, Metallica, Gary Numan, Adam Ant, Duran Duran, Swans, Test Dept., Einstuerzende Neubauten, The Cure, REM, Butthole Surfers, Voilent Femmes, bauhaus, Spacemen 3, New Order, The Smiths, The Descendents, Black Flag, Judas Priest, ACDC, The Misfits, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Faith No More, Venom, Jane's Addiction, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Bowie, Eric B. and Rakim, Love and Rockets, LL Cool J, EPMD, Grandmaster Flash, Boogie Down Productions, Ice-T, NWA, Beastie Boys, Fugazi, Rites of Spring, The Cramps, Big Black, Nick Cave, Scratch Acid, Young Gods, ZZ Top, PIL, Killing Joke, The Birthday Party, Sonic Youth, The Replacements, The Fall, Praxis...

I'm getting nostalgic...

posted by Hellbient 31 May | 13:42

the guy in the Priest shirt and mullet, who also loved REM and the 'Mats.

weird, that was totally me too.

posted by Hellbient 31 May | 13:44

Quit cataloging my record collection, hellbient. And why'd you slip in that Cure record. Get it out before it infects the whole shelf!

the guy in the Priest shirt and mullet, who also loved REM and the 'Mats.

weird, that was totally me too.

well, metal culture satisfied our stoopid delinquent side, 'alternative,' the budding intellects in us. Occasionally, the twains would meet.

posted by jonmc 31 May | 13:45

80's? Was in high-school. Given the (then) time-delay for all things trendy to occur in Greece, for me 80's is punk years. Tight jeans and loathing the late 70's (early 70's for the rest of you!)

posted by carmina 31 May | 13:49

Hellbient,

FUCKYEEAAAAAAAAAAHHARRRRFGGGGGGH!

Love,
Wino-amillie-onit!

posted by Divine_Wino 31 May | 13:54

I believe you forgot Elvis Costello and Echo and the Bunnymen, hellbient.

posted by jrossi4r 31 May | 14:01

and Raven, and Jason & The Scorchers, the Young Fresh Fellows, E*I*E*I*O, Anthrax, Husker Du, and Biohazard.

posted by jonmc 31 May | 14:04

The eighties, particularly from '84 onwards, were just hideous. As far as things like music, movies and fashion goes it seemed that they were afraid of upsetting anyone, it was like everything just blanded out completely.

Like kmellis I just couldn't relate to it at all. Once the nineties came along then everything started to fall into place.

posted by dodgygeezer 31 May | 14:19

I agree, the latter half of the 80s was atrocious, and I thought I was just me because of personal circumstances, but research has proved it did much sucking.
A large part of my liking the early 80's was my relief it was no longer the 70's, but I did like the music then, and the hunting for music, and the community feeling of hunting for stuff that was not mainstream then.
And the drugs were better.
And cheaper.

posted by ethylene 31 May | 14:27

kmellis: Were you doing massive amounts of cocaine? because I think that is the only lens that put the 80s in focus.

(I wanted to type thats with an apostrophe, but firefox wont let me use apostophes now. If I do it pops me to the search window)

posted by StickyCarpet 31 May | 14:29

My husband and I both think most of the '80s was crap, and I am guessing that the trend here is that if you are *cough* old enough to have been an adult (more or less) in the '80s, your view of it is much more cynical.

It was Reagan and Thatcher, and the major wave of young people were just totally into money and materialism and "marketing" was the red hot course of study. It was the "Me" generation, and I was aghast at how greedy and shallow and conformist it was (no decade has a lock on conformity, but gaah - the '80s!).

Except for the drugs (*on preview, waves at s. carpet!*), I found that period pretty much useless. In comparison, the '90s were like coming home to a place I'd never been before. The "information age" versus "the Me generation"? Hell, yeah!

posted by taz 31 May | 14:38

hallbient reminds me of a thread from the SA Forums that I read this morning. Some damned kid was bitching about a NIN show, particularly the opening band.

"The second band was Bauhaus. These guys just sounded like an emo fag goth band, complete with roses the singer danced around with at different times. The bassist and drummer seemed pretty cool and were pretty good musicians. The guitarist was dressed up like Lenny Kravitz in a sheep skin vest and matching white sunglasses. The singer was a prancing fool that you couldn't understand except for "ultraviolet violence" he repeated a couple times at the beginning of a song."

I wept. DAMN KIDS

Also, Nine Inch Nails is rapidly closing on the 20 year anniversary. old... so very old....

posted by keswick 31 May | 14:38

FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 31 May | 15:15

and THIS is just good

and this.... is absolutely mindblowingly good

if I had a time machine, that is the first trip I would take. live aid, here i come.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 31 May | 15:21

What dodgygeezer and taz said.

(Note: my time/age -frame easy to figure out, but: 1970, six years old. 1980, sixteen years old. 1990, twenty-six years old.)

When I was in high school, I hated the late 70s and, for a short while, was happy to be in the 80s. But today I certainly feel postively nostalgic about the early 70s and feel much more tolerant of the late 70s and the disco era than I did at the time.

That makes me think that how I feel about the 70s might be comparable to how people 10 years younger than me might feel about the 80s. I don't really have a frame of reference or experience for understanding how people in their early 20s today think of the 80s; but I know a number of 30-35 year olds and they seem to generally see the 80s much more positively than I do.

I also think, too, that a lot is dependent upon how much one's experience in the 80s was in the dominant culture or in one of the much better subcultures. I pretty much couldn't escape the dominant culture in the 80s, for whatever combination of reasons, and so that's what those years mean to me.

And there's the politics. Today, in 2006, the 80s and the 00s seem very similar, while the 90s seem quite different and much better.

On Preview: I watched almost all of the broadcast of LiveAid and I used to have tapes of it.

posted by kmellis 31 May | 15:34

We went on stage
at live aid
the people gave
and the poor got paid!

/rundmc

It seems to be an age/mindset thing, I'm starting to think I am fond of the 80's in spite of the 80's and fond of the 90's in spite of myself.

posted by Divine_Wino 31 May | 15:43

There were good things, there were bad things.
What I dislike is nostalgia.
It's always some weird warped candy ass version of history.

posted by ethylene 31 May | 15:48

Other than the music, the '80s sucked. It was an awful decade for me and music (yes, what most of you would deem "crap") was one of my few pleasures.

posted by deborah 31 May | 15:50

SHA NA NA NANNY BOO-BOO!

posted by Hugh Janus 31 May | 15:51

music (yes, what most of you would deem "crap") was one of my few pleasures.
posted by deborah 31 May | 15:50

Word. One of the good things (there were a few) about growing up in a small rural town was that I didn't have to worry about labels and "coolness," leaving me free to just like what I liked. Which is why I still like Wire AND Duran Duran from that era, and don't feel conflicted about it.

As I always say, categories suck, music rocks. :)

posted by BoringPostcards 31 May | 16:05

What I dislike is nostalgia.

I agree. Nostalgia is fer suckers. I subscribe to the adage "if you can't find any new music you like, you're not looking hard enough". True or not, I'm sticking with it.

posted by Hellbient 31 May | 16:09

"One of the good things (there were a few) about growing up in a small rural town was that I didn't have to worry about labels and 'coolness,' leaving me free to just like what I liked."

You must mean "really small, rural town". 'Cause in my small, rural town of 12,000 people, "cool" was as important yet much more narrowly restricted as any urban school.

posted by kmellis 31 May | 16:20

In my town in the early to mid 80s, anything stranger (or newer) than Pink Floyd or Skynyrd was so alien to young people that they didn't have ANY opinion on it- they'd just never heard of it.

So the gradations of all the various levels of "cool" never came into play- I was just that weird kid who liked the weird music, and was pretty much left alone for it. It was only after I got out on my own in college that I discovered which current bands were cool and which weren't, and by then my tastes were too wide open to narrow them down again. :)

posted by BoringPostcards 31 May | 16:48

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