Does anyone see 1979 as a proto-80's year?
Posted by SuperMintoxNova@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 67 comments
I see 1979 as the start of the 80's, as it had New Wave, Punk, Atari, and the video arcades. My Dad, who technically is a late Joneser, says he saw the beginning of the 80's here, and it didn't feel like a 70's year in his opinion.
CousinBarnabas1967@reddit
At least back then we could feel & sense a difference. The past 25 years since 2001 has felt like one big, long decade.
glaringOwl@reddit
I believe this is how things used to be for most of humanity's existence. We're actually living in a normal, slow moving time again. The late 20th century just happened to be a rare special time of incredibly rapid development and evolvement in everything whether it's fashion, media, tech etc.
snarfer-snarf@reddit
atari? you mean '77?
No-World-2728@reddit
No way. In reality the 70s continued through about 1982.
Thick_Journalist7232@reddit
Realistically, 79-82 were significant transition years. The 80s were beginning around 79, but the 70s influences didn’t really fade out until around 83. Seriously, just go back and play a random AT40 from 1982. Still a lot of disco and the stuff that would be played on adult contemporary channels for the rest of the 80s with a smattering of the iconic 80s early MTV stuff
Fuck_Yeah_Humans@reddit
100%. The eighties didn’t start til Thriller and Tears for Fears
Strangewhine88@reddit
No one remembers Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall LP which was a huge hit and signified a big change for him and where he was going. Not to mention Prince’s I Wanna Be Your Lover off his second LP. Both, 1979.
SuperMintoxNova@reddit (OP)
I feel that 1979-1982 had songs that would fit the core 80’s tho, if you listen to the Cars songs from those years, they sound hella 80’s.
suffaluffapussycat@reddit
B-52s - Rock Lobster (1978), Gary Numan - Cars (1979), DEVO - Satisfaction (1977)
brumac44@reddit
Yep, eighties started in 82. Everybody knows this.
SuperMintoxNova@reddit (OP)
I feel the Cars, Van Halen, Ministry, Blondie, Human League all sounded 80’s before 1982 IMO.
SuperMintoxNova@reddit (OP)
My Dad says it was an overlap period tbh tho, like 79 had some 80’sness to it, while the 70’s was fading away, and he’s kinda gotta point. I mean music was starting to get synthy that year and movies started to become more studio like. I consider 1982 another overlap year but in favour of the 80’s.
squirtloaf@reddit
It's always like that. The sixties in some cultural ways didn't end until about 71-72 when all the sixties rockers died or split up, with elements hanging on until Vit Nam ended.
But you could also argue the seventies started in 68 or 69 when Zeppelin and sabbath came out and the new wave of films started.
So yeah. Gray areas.
FAx32@reddit
There was def crossover though. The seeds of the 80s were sewn deep, some as far back as the 60s. What became the core 80s musical and fashion as well as pop culture was being pioneered as early as 1976, but didn’t become dominant until 1983 or so.
hert0771@reddit
This
T_Noctambulist@reddit
The 80s were from about 78 to 91
BillyOcean8Words@reddit
As an American, I see the start of the 80’s as being January ‘81, when Reagan took his oath of office. ‘79 feels way more like a culmination of the 70’s than a proto anything to me.
charliefoxtrot9@reddit
Probably the origin of the Xennials.
_TallOldOne_@reddit
I entered HS in 1980 and your dad is not wrong. The late 70’s saw the birth of punk rock. Generation X was formed in the 70’s as were The Ramones, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, The Misfits, and so many more. All those iconic 80’s artists like Duran Duran, The Clash, Blondie, hell even The B-52’s, all formed in the 70’s.
80’s culture started in the late 70’s.
SuperMintoxNova@reddit (OP)
Not just bands, but culture of the 80’s was starting to appear in high school and college, as well as computers being in high school, Star Wars’ popularity, New Wave and Punk rising, VHS, video arcades, Blockbuster hits like Alien, The Warriors, Rocky II, Atari etc. 1979 just felt different to the rest of the 70’s IMO.
Electronic_Exam_6452@reddit
Nope, the 80s really started in about ‘81 or ‘82. Late 70s and early 80s are all very similar.
SuperMintoxNova@reddit (OP)
I’m just going off what people who were there say. My Dad says 79 was different to the rest of the 80’s. New Wave completely took over the music scene where he was at, computers were now in high school, video arcades were common as ever now, the Atari was rising, Star Wars was still popular, etc. He saw the start of the 80’s that year.
Fletch_R@reddit
The 80s started when Howard Devoto left Buzzcocks to form Magazine… so some time in 1977!
SuperMintoxNova@reddit (OP)
I can sort of see 1977 being that, as Star Wars and the Atari were released that year.
HandleAccomplished11@reddit
Look, I love Star Wars, but it was so Disco. 80's Star Wars wasn't until Empire Strikes Back, or maybe even Return of the Jedi.
SuperMintoxNova@reddit (OP)
But Star Wars to me feels proto 80’s IMO. It was different to other Sci fi movies at the time.
FAx32@reddit
I’d argue when Joy Division formed, but potato potato.
Fletch_R@reddit
Buzzcocks = punk, Magazine = post punk. That’s the transition right there.
Nightgasm@reddit
I listen to replays of American top 40 every week and by the music it's pretty obvious that what we think of as the 80s didn't really start til about 1982. Corresponds with the MTV effect. In 1980 and 1981 the charts still had lots of Barry Manilow, country crossovers, and disco holdouts. Then the New Wave invasion happens due to MTV and it all shifts.
SignificantTry4107@reddit
I think 1977 is a better marker because of the Sex Pistols’ “Never Mind the Bullocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols “
viewering@reddit
punk was round before that
?
lewisfairchild@reddit
Yes
Addapost@reddit
I was there. Late 70’s was weird. Definitely neither early-mid 70’s and definitely not 80’s. 78-79 was its own thing.
RCA2CE@reddit
No that was the last year of the 70s
Didn’t need a name for pre-80’s
80’s eve
willing-to-bet-son@reddit
The 1980s started around 1977, and the 1970s lasted until around 1983.
MaximumJones@reddit
On February 10, 1978 Van Halen released their debut album and thus the 80s were born.
David Lee Roth even stated in the press release "This IS the 80s".
Notyerdaddy@reddit
The 80’s was constructed in the late 70’s but didn’t officially launch until the release of the movie Xanadu.
Mike6PackIPA@reddit
To me, the 80’s started when the US hockey team won the Olympic gold medal.
rbrumble@reddit
I experienced the late 70s into the mid 80s as its own thing. In movies, this would be Alien (1979) to The Terminator (1984). In science fiction, this would be Fragments of a Hologram Rose (1977) to Necromancer (1984).
madtownjeff@reddit
It's almost as if time is a continuum and any demarcation is bound to be somewhat arbitrary.
PhiloLibrarian@reddit
Best year ever!!!
spotspam@reddit
The seeds do the 80s was in the 70s. Namely the famous drum with reverb/gate. The developing synthesizers. The new age former punk era outfits. Blondie with rap was showering light on a genre expansion. The backlash against disco was already starting to kill that 70s genre.
I agree with the premise. But until Disco was dead, it was still the 70s
p38-lightning@reddit
I agree. Blondie, Gary Numan, The Police, Dire Straits, The B-52s - change was in the air!
SensitivePotato44@reddit
Something missing from these lists is rap. It’s about that time that I first heard the likes of Grandmaster Flash and the Sugarhill Gang. There was also 2Tone. Can’t think of a five year period that had so many different things going on. Although that might just be nostalgia talking.
Strangewhine88@reddit
Yes. It took a while to build up and filter out to the hinterlands, other than Rapper’s Delight and what us provincial kids heard in the Blondie song that referenced rap. Also the funk and r&b scene was strong.
Strangewhine88@reddit
There were several years of crossover. As I remember there were a few years of Dan Fogelberg type 70’s soft rock bleed in the 80’s, plus Barbara Streisand duet stuff to get through while bands like Elvis costello, Kraftwerk, Blondie, Talking Heads, The Clash and The B52’s were breaking through. Then there’s the Thatcher-Reagan shift in politics. One of my brothers was in France for a year, came back to the US in early 80’s and commented that the US felt very different.
AZPeakBagger@reddit
I was in junior high in 1979 and started high school in 1981. What most people think of the 80's didn't in reality start until 1983 in the Midwest. May have been faster on the coasts, but in places like Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland it was early 1983. For my cousins that lived in rural Michigan on farms, the 80's showed up almost a year later. But when the 80's showed up, it was like someone flipped a switch. Literally overnight we went from long feathered back hair to spiky haircuts and neon just appeared.
Trolkarlen@reddit
The world doesn’t change at the stroke of midnight. All human created categories are flawed and messy.
Maximum-Tomatillo743@reddit
According to the folks on the Chart Music podcast, 1979-1982 is known as the Eighventies.
SuperMintoxNova@reddit (OP)
Seighties is a better name IMO.
LomentMomentum@reddit
I’d call it a transitional year. Music videos became more common prior to MTV going online in 1981.
SoundMedal@reddit
The golden age of hitchhiker murderings
DiogenesXenos@reddit
I don’t know. I was born in 79 and can’t remember any of it.
RetrogrouchCargonaut@reddit
There was a lot of overlap, many things more associated with the 80's like you mentioned began in the late 70's, while a lot of 70's things lingered on into the early 80's, like feathered hair, down vests, moustaches, etc., esp depending on what part of the country you lived in. Look at all the 70's bands that changed their style when the 80's rolled around and tried to stay relevant, a few made it, but most did not, much like when the hair metal dudes when grunge happened.
ranchoparksteve@reddit
This is a very good point. There was definitely a smooth transition to the 80’s rather than a Big Bang sorta start.
FAx32@reddit
Yep. Love them or hate them, Nirvana and Pearl Jam led an end of the 80s revolution almost overnight. The 80s were not a monolith like the early 90s quickly became. Disco transformed into something different, but there was still 80s dance club music. Metal, Punk, synth pop all had their origins well before 1980 as did 80s top 40 (was really mostly middle of the road stuff that was toned down dance, metal/rock, a dash of punk and synth pop - though those were more dominant in the UK.
Billy Idol may be a perfect example. Generation X was formed in London in 1976 and believed they were a punk band (many would now call them pop punk because they could play instruments and carry a tune). He went solo and was considered more pop or rock, but you could always see and hear the punk influences. Many other punk bands owed their origins to the 60s and 70s. Metal the same. Dance to the 70s even if the style evolved to synth pop.
FAx32@reddit
I feel like the real 80s didn’t start until 83 (there was still a lot of feeling of the 70s until then), however the building blocks of the 80s had started in the 70s for sure.
SuperMintoxNova@reddit (OP)
Yeah, Dad says 1979-1984 was a smooth transitional era from 70’s to 80’s culture.
SubatomicGoblin@reddit
I'm inclined to see things in sort of opposite terms in that I don't believe the '80s really became the '80s until about 1983 or so. That being said, I don't necessarily disagree with your (or your father's) perspective the way you've described it.
Human_Suggestion7373@reddit
79 is a proto-80s year
rogun64@reddit
I feel like 1979 showed all the promise of the 80s and then it all died in 1983.
Expat111@reddit
1979 was definitely a turning point. I was 14 and remember it pretty well. Specifically the music changed (for the better!) and the vibe changed to a degree. I’m talking about bands like Blondie, B52s, Devo, Talking Heads, The Clash, Gary Numan, The Cars and many others were the new sound. Kids in my HS started dressing differently and it felt different like it was our music.
Artistic_Half_8301@reddit
1979-1982 seemed like its own pocket in time.
Johnnyhellhole@reddit
Video Killed the Radio Star. That's pure 80s, baby!
Stayvein@reddit
Man, numbers don’t define culture. Why does a 79 or 80 even matter? (80 is technically the last year of the 70s anyway). It’s not like there was a big meeting somewhere and a bunch of people voted to start behaving differently when the ball dropped.
OpeningFuture6799@reddit
I really feel that 1981 was more the beginning of the 80s than 1979. Disco died in 1980. Many of the acts that defined early 80s music started in 1981 or released their biggest albums, like Men at Work, Phil Collins solo music, AC/DC Back in Black, Journey Escape.
Gadshill@reddit
1979 saw the rise of Thatcher, the fall of Disco, and the debut of the Walkman and major synth-pop acts like Gary Numan.