Do you think bars and clubs in the 80s were anywhere near as fun as they looked in movies/ on TV?
Posted by Fun-Bunch-4073@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 74 comments
Just about every bar and club in 80s movies looks awesome. Eccentric fashion, loud music, smoke filled rooms, high energy, lots of people. By the time I was drinking age, clubs sucked and bars were more Cheers than Roadhouse.
Fuzzy-Interest-6498@reddit
A lot of responses are 90s and 2000s. To answer your question, yes it was a blast.
Smooth-Incident5839@reddit
actually more fun , we just didnt know it back then . went to Vegas for my youngest sons 21st bday , club was packed but like 80 perecent or more were watching the dj or mostly videoing the Dj from the dance floor it was more of a " watch the dj and lights "floor .
Left_Maize816@reddit
Cocaine is a hell of a drug
Fr4gd0ll@reddit
She don't lie
royheritage@reddit
She dont lie
JPMoney81@reddit
I wouldn't just grind my feet in someones couch like it was something to do! Come on I have a little more sense than that... yeah I remember grinding my feet into Eddie's couch.
psilosophist@reddit
Do I think real life ever matched things we saw on movies or television?
No.
BlueSnaggleTooth359@reddit
the mall though was kinda even bigger than shown on movies and tv
Fun-Bunch-4073@reddit (OP)
Its unusual for something to be spun out of pure fantasy. Its obviously exaggerated, but im trying to figure out if there was a kernel to truth because bars bars werent portrayed nearly as exciting immediately before and immediately after the 80s.
Like, I know saloons in westerns werent as crazy as depicted, but there is something true to the portrayals.
psilosophist@reddit
The kernel of truth about why movies in the 80's were like that is found in one place:
COCAINE.
Cocaine is what helped create the "high concept" movie (Speed is a great example of high concept, even if it's from the 90's). Roadhouse is sort of high concept (what if a redneck bar hired a zen like dude to be a celebrity bouncer, as if that was a thing).
Execs and creatives doing bumps in a shitty Hollywood bar, then they start talking about how to make a crazy movie based on the bar, but turned up to 1000.
Aggravating-Key-8867@reddit
Look up Fern Bars. Basically someone decided to decorate TGI Friday's like it was the 1910s. It's when the term "singles bar" came around too.
Treadingresin@reddit
Every single.New Years eve party i attended confirmed exactly this.
Leilani3317@reddit
Idk about the 80s because I was a child but They def were that fun in the late 90s
mousicle@reddit
I grew up in a medium sized city in Canada that got a lot of americans coming over to drink before they were 21. The clubs here were just like in the movies/tv. If anything clubs on TV were uncrowded compared to what we had in the 90s and early 2000s.
1Frazier@reddit
American here that partied in Canada when I was 19 and 20. Canadian clubs were great! It was so easy to cross the border then...
Exact_Friendship_502@reddit
Me and some friends convinced our parents we were camping in Maine summer of ‘98 and at 15 and 16 drove to Montreal to go to the strip clubs on st. Catherine’s street.
It was epic.
mousicle@reddit
Welcome to Windsor
JWWBurger@reddit
I only went there twice but have fond memories of getting in all sorts of trouble at 19.
1Frazier@reddit
Yep, I somewhat vaguely remember it.
Impressive-Cod-7103@reddit
It almost feels like a fever dream that you didn’t used to need a passport to travel between the US and Canada.
1Frazier@reddit
Now that I think about it I also crossed the border south and partied in Cancun, Mexico. It was pretty wild there with young Americans partying it up in our other neighboring country with a lower drinking age.
ParticularBed6338@reddit
Went to Cancun when I was 19 and asked the bartender at a foam party what the drinking age was. He said “If you can see over the bar” I don’t think he was joking either.
FlatSixFun@reddit
Yeah, I was one of those Americans. Those clubs were amazing, and better than anything I saw on TV or movies. Truly epic times.
mousicle@reddit
Hot body contests at the Reactor
FlatSixFun@reddit
I was typically going to Sona (or others) in Montreal.
ovoid709@reddit
Now there's a name I haven't heard in ages. What a blur of messiness my memories of Sona are...
FlatSixFun@reddit
Yeah, that tracks with my experience. I was in Montreal for the F1 race a couple years back and I looked up where it used to be. Which ended up being half a block from the hotel I was staying at! None of it looks familiar now.
mousicle@reddit
Go to St Catherines Street for a Dance Contact at club SuperSexe afterwards
FlatSixFun@reddit
Hah, yep. That also was frequented.
Various-Side-1305@reddit
Same! We'd squeeze six girls in a hotel room in Montreal and dance all night. Hangover breakfasts at the old Peel Pub. It was pretty wild.
Cautious-Title6306@reddit
fr the vibes were way better back then, now its just boring and same old, ugh
hamburgler26@reddit
I've been to smaller clubs with live music in the past 2-10 years that still have that vibe and energy, and aren't horrifically expensive. They're still out there, but maybe just not as common and not the "place to go" for the cool kids anymore so its a more laid back niche crowd.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
YES.
hamburgler26@reddit
Hahaha this is immediately what I thought of when I read this title. Like that is the most gritty, badass bar to ever exist in the 80s.
Zargoza1@reddit
Cocaine
PlantedinCA@reddit
Wait you didn’t think clubs were fun in the 90s. Because my young adult clubbing experience wasn’t much different other than smoking being not allowed. People went outside to smoke. Which was a plus. Otherwise same vibes, different fashions. 70s clubs looked way more fun. But 90s clubbing was fun.
I remember go go dancers, cage dancers and all kinds of crazy stuff.
Fun-Bunch-4073@reddit (OP)
By the time i grew up,, pretty much the worst people still went to night clubs. It was very "maybe you should go to the China Club."
PlantedinCA@reddit
I had an under 21 club for high school! And college there was an 18 and club we all went to. Born in 78. My peak clubbing time was like 1994-2004 or so. But in the early 2000s I went much less frequently just because of friends being allover the place and then living at home for a bit.
It was much harder to find fun clubs after 2005ish. But that was a local problem and demographic shifts in my area. And as I got older I went way less. Now there are a few niche clubs with fun nights but I am old. 😂
spinereader81@reddit
I'd be shocked if gay bars ever got as insane as the one in the Frankie Loves Hollywood video. Man acting like an emperor and getting shaved? Tiger wrestling on stage? Surely not.
ZaphodBeeblebrahx@reddit
I grew up partying at the Jersey Shore in Seaside Heights. The club scene was depicted perfectly in the MTV show The Jersey Shore. All the cliches are correct and very real.
My crew of friends was a mix of stoners and gym bros in the early 2000s and a typical night involved pregaming at the house with Redbull Vodkas, someone talking about how they wanna start a fight at the club, and a crazy drunk ass scene at any of the clubs.
red286@reddit
For me, it really depended on the club.
The top-40 clubs were pretty much like that. Still are today. Fashion trends changed obviously, no feathered hair or padded shoulders any more by the time I was old enough to drink. I've never been a fan of those sorts of clubs though. Fake plastic people listening to the most inane music imaginable, doing their stupid shuffle-bop dances.
Most of the clubs I went to when I was that age were goth/industrial clubs. Lots of leather, PVC, mesh and lace, hair was either black or brightly dyed. Plenty of spikes to watch out for on the dance floor!
jojotherider@reddit
The clubs always seemed a lot more grimy and dingy in real life. At least the ones i went to. Always had a good time though. I wasn’t into bars all that much. Im still not. Id rather spend that same money on a nice bottle and drink at home with friends.
CheesyRomantic@reddit
I went to clubs and bars/pubs in the 90s to mid 00s and it was still a lot of fun.
They varied from getting really dressed up (full make up, heels, hot outfits etc) to dressy casual (sexy jeans and top with heels) to more casual (jeans and simple top).
The places I went to were always really fun.
I admit that even though I enjoyed getting all dolled up, I preferred pubs. Especially when they had live musicians
thenoid42@reddit
I had a full beard by the time I was 18 in the late 90’s and I always went to the bar with people that were older than me in the U.S. I used the same excuse every time I forgot my ID while my older friends had theirs. Bars were always packed. I think it always worked because there was always a line behind us and they didn’t want to sit there and argue and make people wait.
Sunshinehaiku@reddit
I have had such experiences many times.
1Frazier@reddit
Yes, I would say the main difference is that the people are not as good looking. Even when I went to a club in Miami I was expecting everyone to be a super model there and they were actually pretty average, so I ended up feeling a lot less intimidated lol. I guess IRL not everyone looks like a model with perfect clothes.
chocolatepig214@reddit
In the UK before photo ID was a thing it was fairly easy to get into a club/bar from around 14-15 as long as you had your older sibling’s driving licence and memorised their DOB. Can confirm that clubs and pubs in the mid-late 90s were lots of fun. I went My favourite was going to a nightclub on my 18th and presenting my real driving licence whilst wearing a massive 18th sash and badge. I’d been going there for a couple of years by that point. I suspect it was harder for boys as they didn’t have the benefit of wearing heels/make up.
MonkeyCube@reddit
Probably?
I've been to some amazing clubs & bars on bith sides of the Atlantic, and I've been to some prettuly disappointing ones. Both better and worse than what's shown in media.
The only constant is that clubs are usually more crowded than what's seen in TV/movies on peak nights.
MundaneHuckleberry58@reddit
Until River Phoenix died in one. I bet they were epic until that wake up call. I remember all the magazines talking about all the cool celebrities who had been there and/or were there with him that night.
stormer1_1@reddit
Places like Danceteria probably were.
earfeater13@reddit
Yes. Probably more fun than they made it seem.
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
Bars and clubs no where and at no time matched how they are portrayed in movies and television. On movies and TV, people have nice, audible conversations despite the music playing, everybody can see what's happening in the sufficient lighting, they don't reek like smoke when they leave, they always get the attention of bartenders, everybody is dancing very well, and no one is half deaf when they leave.
That's not to say there aren't fun clubs and bars. But in movies and tv they are generally used as backdrops for scenes, often delivering understandable information to the viewer. In real life bars and clubs are rather bad at that.
SilverAsparagus2985@reddit
Idk my parents took me with them to the bar and I played the arcade there. Oh the 80s were a time.
SubstanceFearless348@reddit
Do you know how good the coke was in the 80’s!?
lsp2005@reddit
I spent my early 20s in NYC, Boston, and DC. The clubs were very much like what you saw in movies even in 2001. I stopped going to that scene right after 9/11. I have no idea if it changed afterwards. But from 17-22, the club scene was epic back in the day.
SweetCosmicPope@reddit
I've been to several clubs and bars in the 2000s, and they were just as wild and crazy as the movies. Had some good times.
I was also that kid whose parents had no problem taking them to the bar with them if they didn't have a sitter, and I can remember my mom and dad going out and letting me drink an IBC root beer and throw darts while they got sloshed with their friends. That bar was very much like Urban Cowboy.
Shington501@reddit
I can tell you bars were more fun 20 years ago vs today. So probably.
lakatos_intolerant@reddit
A little bit of yes and a lot of no is my guess.
Whenever I see a dive bar or tavern in an '80s film or television show, I have to imagine that's probably more realistic than a fictional club.
Appropriate-Food1757@reddit
I’m sure it was rad, but so were clubs and bars circa 2000
Mike__O@reddit
I went to college in Miami. The clubs were pretty much like what you saw on TV and movies, but skankier and sweatier
lakatos_intolerant@reddit
An older friend from Miami once told me the same.
nochumplovesucka__@reddit
Yeah, they had ecstacy when it first came out in the mid 80s.
Top-Sleep-4669@reddit
Everything is fun with cocaine. I’ve played Yahtzee on the booger sugar and had the fucking time of my life.
1Frazier@reddit
I went to clubs in the late 90's and the 2000's. I think they were more fun than what we have now so I would guess if we go further back to the 80's they were even better - but maybe not quite like TV. And it will depend on the city. Vegas probably still delivers. In my day I did most of my clubbing in Pittsburgh so a mid-size US city. We had one club with a jungle theme and IIRC it had a waterfall. It was visually a very large and cool place. We also had the chain Have a Nice Day Cafe. I loved the 70's theme there. It was visually fun and gave people common ground -- you like country and I like hard rock? Let's dance together to some disco. I've been in old churches that were converted to clubs. Places that had the warehouse feel and played techno. There were a lot of fun options.
PetSoundsSucks@reddit
I’d love to go to a club if there could be a “WOOOO” followed by a screen wipe, a party montage, cut to commercial and then I’m home without having to deal with prep, parking, getting home etc.
thewalruscandyman@reddit
No. Bars always sucked.
Geoff-Vader@reddit
There's not many around anymore but I always felt pool halls of the 90s and 00s in particular usually came the closest to that 70s/80s grimy bar vibe. But most of the ones (at least where I live) are much more sterile.
Greedy_Street_891@reddit
Was pretty good in 99-2000’s in my experience. Could only imagine it was even better back in the day in the 80’s. Not that care anymore lol.
DankRoughly@reddit
Depends where you were.
Big cities had plenty of wild parties catering to each subculture.
Et_Crudites@reddit
Still do
unlovelyladybartleby@reddit
It's almost as though film and television try to make things look fun and appealing
LastCallKillIt@reddit
Depends on the bar. 2000's Ernie's outside Ft Hood was a fucking BLAST before it got blacklisted. By the end of the night if it was karaoke night the whole damn bar was singing a long. Some of the best times I have no memory of in there haha
Daylight-Silence@reddit
Probably not, much as no (or at least very few) actual teen bedrooms lived up to Ferris Bueller's, or even to Kenny's from Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's dead
supergooduser@reddit
The closest I got... In 1996 I was 18 and got snuck into a bar, played pool, watched sports, drank scotch and sodas.
Honestly it wasn't that different than going to bars in the 00s when I was legal. I think bars just sort of have a timeless quality to them, like a diner.