Just thinking about El Mariachi Loco’s comments regarding people posting snapshots rather than complete memories or anecdotes.
It’s certainly very true. For me personally I think the reason that the memories seem that way is that the 80s was kin of like that. I think it was for a lot of people. (I was born in 71 BTW).
Most of the time the 80s was fairly bland for teenagers. And particularly one that grew up in a small town. Weekdays consisted of school, nights consisted of TV. Weekends were spent at organised parties or just hanging out. The 80s were perceived as dangerous enough that young teenagers didn’t have what seems like the huge amount of freedom the 70s generation had. No one I knew was locked inside, but parents always wanted to know where you were. At the same time it lacked any sense of rebellion.
’Family Ties’ and ‘The Cosby Show’ were watched by just about every teenager. ‘Back to The Future’ really was considered cool. Everyone watched ‘Miami Vice’ almost as their token nod towards rebellion. ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ caused a controversy because of the language for crying out loud. I knew a lot of 14 year olds who were initially forbidden from seeing it and who had to do a lot of begging to get permission. (I wasn’t one, my parents were pretty realistic about swearing and knew I’d heard it all before). ‘Rambo’ was also condemned as being violent, and was accused of driving people nuts. Every week saw some lowlife or other claiming that it was watching ‘Rambo’ that caused him to commit a crime.
‘Live Aid/USA For Africa’ really was considered cool by your average teenager. We made plans and got together over the weekend and watched the damn thing. Musically Madonna caused a hubbub with her terrible songs such as ‘Like a Virgin’. I admit that’s a terrible song, but not for the reasons given in the 80s. The average kid genuinely had to work against a degree of parental resentment if they liked Billy Idol and Madonna. Not that any parent ever stoped kids listening to these songs I don’t think, but these two vanilla clowns were the rebellion markers for an awful lot of kids.
I didn’t know anyone who had had sex before they turned 16. A few people were having sex before they left high school, but that was almost always long term couples. Casual sex was all but unheard of at high school. Fashion went from the end of the safari suit to the Don Johnson suits and bad trousers. Torn jeans were as out there as most teen fashion got.
That was my 80s. Not bad, but very non-controversial A time when a charity concert was the defining cultural event. A time when squeaky clean TV and movies were the common cultural currency for teenagers. The economy varied from great to pretty good for most of the 80s, although unemployment was a rising problem. There were no major wars or even controversies much. Drug use was a rising problem, but it was so hidden that it could be largely ignored by those not involved in it, while at the same time no big deal to those who were involved. There were a lot of half-arsed ‘Just say no’ style of messages directed at drugs that everyone knew were a joke, but they gave people something to feel good about.
There was a real homogeneity amongst 80s kids. Yeah there were the usual ‘jocks and nerds’ type cliques, but even they tended to blur. Computers and “Steve Jackson’s Fighting Fantasy” were cool enough that even the jocks knew a little about slaying goblins and how to program in BASIC, while sport was just something everyone did. Beyond that the racial divisions of previous generations were gone. Economic divisions had all but vanished. There were rich kids and poor kids, but no-one cared much and everyone wore the basically same clothes and ate the same food and so forth. Religion had by this stage become a non-issue. Teenagers really did seem to be one big amorphous blob of people with very little to separate them. I could be freinds with anyone because we had things in common, not because of our social group.
Because of that I suspect most people don’t have strong memories of the 80s. I know I don’t. I have very strong snapshots of important life events, but nothing I ever did seems particularly defining. We were just like teenagers always had bee. A bit of sly alcohol use. A lot of finding out about girls. A lot less sex than we wanted. But I couldn’t say that I remember with any great fondness the day to day existence the way the 70s crowd remembers cruising or getting wasted at someone’s house.
Watching videos with bowls of chips and what seems like 100 gallons of Coke.
Afternoons playing “Green Beret” and “Gunsmoke” at the local arcade (actually part of the bowling alley).
In senior high spending nights ‘camping’ at the weir with 6 car-load of kids, quantities of spirits stolen from someone’s parents and as much cheap wine as we could pool together and buy.
Swapping tapes of songs and asking about who had bought the latest record or single or who was going to buy it. Spending ages making tapes when you were the one who bought it.
These were ways of marking time. I think we knew that. We weren’t growing up and learning about life. The 80s were so bland we knew there wasn’t much we could learn that didn’t basically involve growing up. So instead we just lived.
Remembering the 80s produces a kind of nostalgia, but I don’t remember it particularly fondly, or even with any great interest.
The things I associate with the 80’s:
Heavily synthesised music with lots of echo effects
.
The very public anti-drug messages.
The AIDS warnings (including a guest speaker at senior high school).
Nuclear paranoia complete with nightmares and low-grade depression.
The dual (and often confused) environmental hysteria concerning the greenhouse effect. and CFCs/the hole in the ozone layer and
Video libraries popping up on every street corner and even the dusty storerooms of corner stores and bookshops.
A growing awareness of ‘the economy’ and ‘the stock market’. In 1984 most people wouldn’t have known would have asked who “Dow Jones” was. By 1989 every TV news broadcast ended with stockmarket report and the latest ‘balance of payments’ figures or similar economic esoterics.
