“The eighties” are all those years with ‘eighty’ in the name. Nineteen-eighty, nineteen eighty-one, … , nineteen eighty-nine.
Unlike “the twentieth century” it’s strictly a colloquialism, and also unlike “the twentieth century” it’s unaffected by the absence of a Year Zero way back when.
Guadalcanal Diary was a great band. I was a really big fan during college.
“Vista”
I just realized that two of my all-time favorite songs, which I think of as 90s songs, actually came out in 1989.
One is “Closer to Fine,” by the Indigo Girls. The day of my college graduation, I woke up at 7am to find it raining in sheets. The ceremony was outside. So I went back to bed, got up again at 11, made a pot of tea, and drank it by myself, while listening to that song over and over on my cheap stereo.
The other is “I Spent My Last $10 on Birth Control and Beer,” by the 2 Nice Girls.
But it’s not. You’d have an argument for “199th decade,” but not “the 80s.” Just like the last year of the 1900s was 1999, but the last year of the 20th century was technically (and accurately, if not a bit pedantically) 2000.
I can see that…
80’s songs that make you happy and we don’t have Don’t Worry be Happy by Bobby McFerrin yet?
Yeah, that one’s a real downer.