Why do the 1980s feel more alive than ever in 2020s?

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Ecstatic-Skill-4916@reddit

The best year for me was 1982. That was the best year for albums. All my favorite albums came out that year, 1999, h20, Asia, Toto VI, No Fun Out Loud, Get Nervous, and of course, Thriller.

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Ok_Kick6546@reddit

I’m an elderly Gen X but I liked 80-84 and the 90s better. The mid and late 80s? Not so much. I hated hair bands, lol.

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Dry-Friendship-5945@reddit

I didn't like the early '80s as much, too much '70s handover, and the '90s started off well but got progressively more Boomerfied as time went on.

My favorite "decade," the one I would go back and relive if I could, was 1983-1993, encapsulating the best of both decades IMO.

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Ok_Kick6546@reddit

You relive those years and I’ll relive the others. Everyone wins.

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Ecstatic-Skill-4916@reddit

Yes, and it keeps throwing me back to my teenage years, but Richard Marx very absent from most of the playlists. I wonder why?

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knowlessman@reddit

Same reason the 50s felt more alive to the old fucks who were making movies in the 70s and 80s. But now you're old.

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Dry-Friendship-5945@reddit

Lots of people who were too young to experience the '80s nonetheless have a fascination with that decade.

I mean, I've met young Millennials and Zoomers who were more '80s than I was in the '80s!

That's something you hardly see with other decades.

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knowlessman@reddit

Nah mall shops in the 90s sold lots of monroe and dean posters to kids whose parents were too young to remember either of them when they were alive.

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Dry-Friendship-5945@reddit

That's just a aesthetic choice though, I'm talking about people who's whole identity revolves around the '80s.

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knowlessman@reddit

It's common enough to be a cliche that has been around longer than either of us.

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ResponsibleFly9076@reddit

My students listen to Sade who I hadn’t heard mention of since 1989.

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Disastrous-Fly9672@reddit

I really hope Depeche comes back. Such original melodies.

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BradGunnerSGT@reddit

My daughter has some Journey and even the Scorpions in her Spotify playlist. Not even the “hits” from Scorpions but some song I’ve never heard before

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classicsat@reddit

13 year cycle was up the middle part of the decade. Bright, colorful, fairly decent music. Polar opposite the early part of the 1990s.

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egret_society@reddit

Probably because you felt more alive in the 80s than you do in the 20s.

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potlizard@reddit

It’s the same reason we GenXers had to hear about the 50s-60s seemingly every fucking day from our Boomer parents and their cohort.

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egret_society@reddit

No shit. And we have become even worse.

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minimal_spaces@reddit

Nostalgia is a form of grief. We are mourning for the time we can never return to.

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Apprehensive-Cat-421@reddit

The smaller my family gets, the harder this hits.

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Devildog_627@reddit

Yeah, that stopped me cold too.

sigh

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Apprehensive-Cat-421@reddit

People lived in real life, not on screens

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Go watch some of the endless videos about high school life in the 80s. You see people smiling, laughing, interacting, being goofy, and living in the moment. Back then, people actually knew how to smile without worrying about making ducklips for a camera. They were able to just talk with people around them. They did things together.

Here is one example.

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Apprehensive-Cat-421@reddit

Exactly. Exactly this.

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KingPabloo@reddit

Easy, 80’s music is fun. 70’s music was sex, drugs and rock and roll, 90’s was grunge/rap, 2000’s plus - meh.

When playing to crowds you want fun energy, not depressing introspective music. I’m not saying other decades music isn’t great, it is, but you want fun uplifting music with simple rifts everyone knows.

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SheriffBartholomew@reddit

2000’s plus - meh.

I'd argue that Eminem released some of the best rap ever created in the early 2000's.

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SheriffBartholomew@reddit

Because it was unique, and intriguing, and experimental, and original, and full of some really great concepts. It should come as no surprise that nothing inspiring will come from an era determined by maximum profitability algorithms.

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CountHonorius@reddit

They were. You could afford to go to a concert at realistic prices - Clapton at Madison Square Garden or Bowie at the Meadowlands without going into hock. Fashion was great - Cotler, Bugle Boys, etc.

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RepresentativeBarber@reddit

It’s just myopia. My son is at a music festival and having the time of his life. My daughter is traveling around Europe. Both are with good friends and are sending their best photos. It looks VERY alive out there to me. Wish I could be with them, but alas, responsibilities call ☹️.

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ExtraAd7611@reddit

Ask them to mail you a post card.

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monolithforge@reddit

It was the last great decade!

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RezRising@reddit

My kid is 17 and just went to a David Byrne concert, Devo next month. Fav is ELO and I swear I had nothing to do with it.

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wmnoe@reddit

its a cycle of Nostalgia and every generation as they are fully in mid life or approaching 60 the cohort revitalizes their youth culture. Boomers did it in the 90s with the 60s.

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Maliluma@reddit

Except for Disco. Nobody wanted to relive Disco.

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Tommy_Vercetti-4406@reddit

So I hear, but I'm not convinced.

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Maliluma@reddit

gif

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Quick-Reputation9040@reddit

meh…even then 90s hip-hop sounded a lot like disco, slightly updated

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common_sense_canada@reddit

Reagan, wrestling and Van Halen. Oh, and lots of sugary cereal.

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HumbleFarm@reddit

The 80s were souch fun... Hard times too but great parties

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anki_steve@reddit

That’s called nostalgia. Happens to old fucks.

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NihilsitcTruth@reddit

Cause they were you physically interacted with the world, bikes everywhere, made forts, fished, swam, had to find friends irl, was out side, played games that tou had to be at not online. No supervising either we were our own guides, we learned to find ways to be entertained. Boredom meant doing house chores" OH your bored clean the kitchen then". You were free like no one will ever know again.

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PairPrestigious7452@reddit

Because it lives on only in memory......

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creeva@reddit

Do you remember the strong resurgence of the 60s in the 90s - heck we had reinvent Woodstock. It’s the same thing.

Look forward to Woodstock 2039

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No_Process2443@reddit

Because we were young, dumb, and full of...

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catbosspgh@reddit

… sugar.

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Mysterions@reddit

That's because it's just the classic rock of contemporary times. In our day didn't you listen to Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead? Same shit; different generation.

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Zapp_Rowsdower_@reddit

The 80’s was pretty outrageous…remember going to a Junior HS dance, white pants, tucked blue t-shirt, white oversized linen jacket with ‘Frankie Say Relax’ printed in 10,000 font on the back in big block letters, pony tail, folding sunglasses….

No cell cameras of social media…made things more…well…real. I didn’t have a hundred strangers telling me I looked like an idiot…I had about ten people I had to weather in person. I don’t know. I think it was easier..maybe freer…without the threat of something going ‘viral.’

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Seachica@reddit

The 80s had a strong sense of style, similar to the 50s.

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Cps12345@reddit

Stranger Things effect

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v4por@reddit

It's this. Not just Stranger Things, 80s themes made a comeback this decade in a lot of movies, shows and video games.

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thisoldguy74@reddit

Yeah, it's like the 50's were huge in the 80's. And the 60's was huge in the 90's.

Weirdly enough, someday, someone is gonna be real nostalgic about right now.

gif

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hells_cowbells@reddit

Exactly. When I was in college in the 90s, tie dyed shirts got popular for a while, and people loved the Beatles, the Doors, and the Grateful Dead.

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AuNaturellee@reddit

The 1970s were nostalgic for the 1950s (see: Happy Days) and the 1980s were nostalgic for the 1960s (see: The Big Chill, The Wonder Years) but 1980s nostalgia started by the early 1990s, with retro revival nights at clubs - even though the decade had just ended. It does seem like they never stopped playing some 1980s songs

The Onion warned of this years ago. The Dept of Retro cautioned that we are running out of things to be nostalgic about.

https://theonion.com/u-s-dept-of-retro-warns-we-may-be-running-out-of-pas-1819564513/

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helpcomputah94@reddit

I'm just old enough to remember all of the 50's nostalgia that was rampant in the mid 80's when I was a little kid. You could probably make the case that it went all the way back to the mid 70's with stuff like Happy Days. The late 80's and early to mid 90's definitely had a lot of heavy 60's nostalgia in film and TV.

I feel like pop culture had unique identities each decade throughout the second half of the 20th century. That started to unravel in the early 2000's with the internet and the immediate access to media from all eras. Nowadays, a whole lot of kids (my son included) are wearing the same clothes and listening to the same music that I did growing up in the 80's and 90's. As such, I struggle to picture what "nostalgia" will look like to them in 20 years.

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mldyfox@reddit

Reading your post, OP, my first thought was that the 80s was a time when there was a lot of hope. Hope that the world was changing for the better. There were so many innovations, in so many fields, that young people coming out of school, either high school or college, would find good jobs so they could fund their lifestyles.

I think the 80s "revival" we're seeing is an attempt to get some of that spirit back.

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mouseat9@reddit

It was. Around 89-90 you began to see the apathy rise and the exuberance and creativity evaporate.

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81FXB@reddit

So true. Don’t know why people love ‘m but the decline started in the 90ies.

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MaximumJones@reddit

Because we were all much younger.

That's it. No mystery.

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Ceased2Be@reddit

Because of a lot of people who experienced the 80s are now making films, series, games and music?

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lovebeinganasshole@reddit

Simply because the people controlling, running, managing, etc the programs dispensing these things are our age. I’d say it always happens. How long did we have to put up with them shoving the 60s down our throats, or the 40s. I remember in the 80s there was a whole thing for wearing poodle skirts like in the 50s. We aren’t special just unimaginative.

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Mindless-Employment@reddit

I used to joke that we thought the Vietnam War didn't end until 1990 because half the male characters in the movies and TV shows we grew up on were Vietnam vets or the show/movie itself took place during the war. When I got older I realized that it was because Boomers were making or starring in all the entertainment industry output back then.

Before that, there was all that 50s/60s nostalgia entertainment, which must have been the Silent Gen reliving and idealizing their youth. So between GenX and the older Millennials, we're in for probably at least another decade of 80s/90s nostalgia.

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Crivens999@reddit

Because everything since about 95 has been grey and shite pretty much

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Diasies_inMyHair@reddit

Have you listened to modern pop? It's crap.

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inthecity206@reddit

This. I can't stand it.

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fridayimatwork@reddit

We had a monoculture

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Mill-Work-Freedom@reddit

Everything seemed to be moving along at a steady pace up until 1980. The music, The movies, TV shows. Granted there was progression in the late 70's but....

All of a sudden there were completely new and different things exploding on the planet. MTV was introduced and it was a paradigm shift in how humans would consume music and video, TY Buggles. The movies changed, ( still wondering if there any Ninjas left on the planet), The fashions, so new and bizarre. Where is my skinny leather tie? Rolling your jeans, the sun in spray to get that blonde streak in your Ah Ha look with suspenders.

Cocaine was not considered harmful...not that I would know. The Idea of a computer in your home...Tandy 1000SX anyone? Just to look at Britannica encyclopedia and play pango on a 5.25 floppy disc. Don't forget dying on the Oregon Trail from dysentery.

So many different sub cultures emerged, punk, rock, new wave, a decade of seemingly innocent gluttony, yet it was peaceful and light hearted.

Take me back for a hot tub time machine week.

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WolfThick@reddit

Because it was really think about what's changed in the last 25 years . The clothes we wear are pretty much the same thing just open one of your drawers and you'll see clothes you bought 20 years ago that you're willing to wear today. They're repeating or redoing all of the old movies trying to bring back things.

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fuzzimus@reddit

Kids tend to shun their parents culture but more so embrace their grandparents’. It means we’re old now.

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No_Ability1548@reddit

I must be on another planet, because I haven't felt this way about the 80's in modern culture or seen any examples. The only people I hear talking about it are our age (hehehehehe). Which, is fine, really.

Most kids I know might know some of it through their parents (e.g. mine; I had kids late in life), but they've moved on completely, and that's good. They need their own music, their own culture, their own expression. My oldest kid really only knows it musically because I've been playing it in the car all her life (along with newer stuff). It's sort of like my parents record collection (late 50's, all 60's, some 70's) got drilled into me because there was nothing else to listen to other than the radio- which was always tuned to whatever they liked, as it should.

I don't need the 80's to come back or stay alive. I just need today to be a lot cooler. I mean, some new things are cool, but it's a sea of music and entertainment where I can't find my cove and caves often enough.

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_ism_@reddit

i noticed it when shopping for coloring books and a zillion of them were 1980's fashion/aesthetic coloring books.... using clearly modern details, so it stood out to my eyes

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_ism_@reddit

it was a decade of optimism for the youth of the time. i remember. i'm jaded now, but it started out really cool and forward thinking. we thought we were gonna solve all the problems and do all the things and have all the stuff and our generation was just gonna make everything right... oops. jaded now. know better. am an adult in the world now, sadly, seeing how things really were all along. but the optimism captured in the nostalgia is powerful

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No-Economics-8239@reddit

What makes a decade 'feel alive'? Is it the amount of life in the decade? Or just the amount of life you experienced during the decade?

Our early life was full of first times. Moments of wonder and exploration and fear of the unknown and awkward moments of uncertainty or miscommunication. How many new first moments have you experienced recently? How much life are we living today?

Of course, a cozy night reading on the couch with the wife might not rival the excitement of some of those first times. But that doesn't mean there is much I'd be willing to trade it for.

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TMBActualSize@reddit

I wonder what the silent generation thought of the 80s. Were things better during their youth?

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Quick-Reputation9040@reddit

Confirmation bias and groupthink.

We see what reminds us of our youth, and ignore newer things. And we tell ourselves the 80s are still the dominant culture, and our kids/grandkids roll their eyes and go back to playing Roblox or whatever.

Apart from that, though, I think it has a lot to do with the idea that the 80s and 90s were sort of the end of a shared mass media culture, where everyone had at least heard of the most popular things, even if they hated it. But now, with technology only delivering what you want to see (and increasingly, pay for), we may not even be aware of things happening culturally for younger people.

It’s odd that the technology that we thought we would bring the world together instead makes so many new micro-fractures…

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Oldjamesdean@reddit

Constipation Bias, can't let that old shit go...

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Quick-Reputation9040@reddit

you have a point…

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blackcurrents78@reddit

I was invited to a friends house a couple years back. His living room was just two recliners. One for him and one for his wife. Hung out in the kitchen all night. Was pretty weird honestly.

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TMBActualSize@reddit

Was it Joey and Chandler?

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Terptoy24@reddit

Cause we were the shit🤷‍♂️😜
But didn’t know it

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Beneficial_Pea_520@reddit

And we bluffed the hell out of it!

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Street_Barracuda1657@reddit

The 60s/70s have already been relived a 1000x, the 80s are just trying to catch up.

Gotta say, I can’t think of a better stretch than the mid 60s, to the early 00s. The oldest of us lived all of it. What an honor.

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Ineffable7980x@reddit

We are at that age where nostalgia rolls in like a wave. Plus, modern kids seemed enamored with the 80s, and I'm not really sure why, even though I think it's cool.

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SoCal7s@reddit

I hate to be that guy but back then we truly enjoyed the present (thank god it’s Friday, working for the weekend- not your 401k - ha ha) AND we looked forward to OUR FUTURE. We’re gonna party in 1999!!! Futures so bright, I gotta wear shades. I wasn’t worried about regular life - my blueprint since 9th grade - get grade/play sports THEN go to college & repeat THEN who cares what the actual job is just make enough to be able to party all weekend! Life had simple goals - fun and more fun - and the goals seemed obtainable.

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BperrHawaii@reddit

Because we're old now…

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2oothDK@reddit

Exactly! We are now reliving our glory days.

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Perplexio76@reddit

I'd argue to some extent it's cultural memory. CNN first broadcast in 1980. So the 80s were literally the beginning of the 24 hour news cycle. So there was/is a giant surge in a cultural memory of the 80s vs. the 70s.

Also VCRs were only first introduced in the mid-70s. They didn't really catch on until the 80s. So in the 70s if there was a movie you wanted to see you had to either go see it in the theater or hope that it would eventually start broadcasting on TV and it could take years for that. I mean even HBO was in its infancy in the late 70s.

So with VCRs, suddenly we were able to access, rent/purchase and watch and rewatch our favorite media pretty much whenever we wanted. So a lot of the movies, TV shows, etc. STAYED in the cultural memory a lot longer and a lot deeper than it had in prior generations.

I think that's a big part of it. The 80s were also the era of music videos. Those music videos are time capsules of the 1980s.

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yurinator71@reddit

It is like we have just been cycling the last half of the last century.

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OldBanjoFrog@reddit

In a few years, the 90’s will have a revival

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Tommy_Vercetti-4406@reddit

Because the 80s were "strong like bull!"

But seriously... I remember the 70s making as resurgence in the 90s. We were listening to Led Zeppelin and the Doors while wearing bell bottoms and tie-dye shirts. Granted, there is more time between the 80s and today but whats old is new again?

And, the 80s were just a great decade for film, TV, and music. My Gen Z/Alpha kids know a lot of 80s media through me and they love it. They often say they wish there were kids in the 80s.

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Jason_TheMagnificent@reddit

Going outside to play until dark, sometimes after dark, going to the arcade, going to the library, those were the good old days for sure.

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BigRefrigerator9783@reddit

For me, it feels like the trends are forever 1990s. I wonder if we all see the decade we were teens/early 20s in?

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LastNightOsiris@reddit

Because it’s nostalgia for older millennials

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phtcmp@reddit

You issued the resurgence of the mullet. And mustaches from the 70s. Retro nostalgia and resurgence is typical in every generation. The youth of a current generation looks back to what their parents and grandparents may have had in their youth, and pick the items that seem cool, or that will be strategically annoying. And they roll them back out. In the late 80s, my musical taste was strictly late 60s/early 70s rock.

And the 80s aren’t the only decade with that power. “Classic rock” stations are pervasive, and only gradually opened up to music from the 80s, 90s, and now a little into the 00s. They still play a foundation of 60s and 70s music, although the 60s is gradually thinning.

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