I was reading recently in Psychology Today (don’t laugh) that people tend to carry a torch for the aesthetics that were popular (fashion, music, cars, etc.) when they were in their early 20s. There was a little chart underneath the article that basically told you where you fit into that scheme based on when you were born.
I found that I did not agree with this assessment at all. I still carry a huge torch for the aesthetics of the mid-70s, when I was around five! I still harbor a secret desire to be Cher (then, I mean, with the big nose, crooked teeth, long long hair, and Bob Mackie wardrobe–not NOW, Lord hammercy), I drool every time I see an early to mid-70s model Cadillac, and love me some Earth, Wind, and Fire.
If the Psychology Today claim were true about me, I’d have a special place in my heart for . . . grunge. :eek:
Honey, give me a Charlie’s Angel over Courtney Love any day!
So am I an anomaly, here? Where do you fit in this scheme?
I’m 28, but I can’t say that my 20’s were particularly memorable… I like 70s music (funk, soul, etc.) and 80’s fashion (on women - tight jeans, big hair, etc.)
The logic behind the theory is that a person’s 20s are when he/she first becomes an independent consumer, buying his/her own clothes, car, etc.
Maybe I was born at the wrong time, then.
Actually, I guess I’ve developed a fondness for the return to 80s fashion myself, because a few weeks ago I bought the last shirt on this page (the horsey one), and my husband keeps telling me it makes me look like Olivia Newton John “getting physical”
I’m in my early twenties now, and hate most of the music, fashion, etc around today. Most of my favorite albums come from the mid-nineties. I guess I dress more “grunge” than anything else insofar that I don’t really care how I dress and assemble outfits based on what I find lying on the floor that’s not that dirty. I don’t have a car, but if I did it would probably be used and covered with stickers. So yeah, grunge, whatever.
I’m 25, and the “formative” culture that impacted me was the late 1980s, when I was in elementary school. I don’t particularly like it, but I identify it as mine. Punk, boy bands, tight jeans, big sweaters, hair bands, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Kirstie Alley.
My favorite decade to study/indulge in is the 1970s. My favorite decade for nostalgia is the Pax Clintona.
auntie em, that’s a fine shirt! And per the theory, I don’t spend my money on clothes or music, so those things don’t impact me, except for being dimly aware Paris Hilton and Avril Lavigne exist. I don’t want to claim them, even if the alternative is claiming Dirty Dancing. While a critical analysis of the cultural relevance of Law and Order: SVU (my current obsession) might be applicable to the years in which it’s filmed, not to mention the sociopolitical motivations for me watching at this particular moment in history, I won’t know that for at least 20 years.
Then again, if I apply these questions to people of my parents’ generation, they do indeed point to the 20s as formative years, and define themselves by the cultural icons (in my mother’s case, ironed hair and Carole King). So perhaps a critical distance is necessary. RealityChuck and twickster might focusing on their parents’ aesthetics as well. Possibility?
It’s true when I think “glamorous grown-up lady,” I think of the symbols from my childhood: Jackie Kennedy, Laura Petrie, Donna Reed, Marilyn Monroe (in her later years).
But from an aesthetic standpoint, I love La Belle Epoch: c1905–1915. The clothes, the architecture, the music.
Nah, I think I continue to resonate to what I consider “grown-up” aesthetics, as suggested by the OP, but instead of resonating with the era when I reached young adulthood myself (I was born in '54, so that would be, late '70s? Early '80s? Disco and shoulder pads shudder), I’m responding to the movies I watched growing up – which were heavy on '30s musicals (Fred and Ginger, Fred and Ginger, Fred and Ginger). So it’s more an model based on what I thought being a grownup would be like when I was a kid, despite the fact that even while I was a kid that model was anachronistic, rather than what actually being a grownup was like as I was becoming one.
I’m off by a few years – I’m a huge fan of the mid 80s, when I was in my teens. But I can see how that vibes with the theory that there’s a relationship to the years when you become a consumer. Not as if I was throwing money around when I was in high school, but it was when I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wished I could buy.
Seriously, it’s pretty bad. When 80s fashions come up, and everyone laughs at them, I’m secretly still thinking that I like how they look. Bubble skirts over bicycle shorts? Sounds great to me! I do a pretty aggressive self-evaluation, so I know not to leave the house wearing this. I was pleased to see the return of leg-warmers, though.
Musically, I’m a child of the early eighties, and my tastes (what was then called alternative, and also what is now called electronica, for instance) developed on from there.
In terms of design, though, I am having an increasing attachment to the cool Modern look of the early sixties. I attribute this to my earliest memories of 1960s suburbia, where I was born. For example, I can’t stand the fake-Victorian traditional houses they build around here now. Give me a 1950s or 1960s style house. (Or, ironically, an actual Victorian. Much better built.)
Though I was in my early 20s in the late-'90s, I’m more attached to the grunge days of my teen years. What I wouldn’t give to bring back those dirty jeans, flannel shirts, and grungy tennis shoes! Oh, and the music, too. I’d sacrifice Britney Spears a thousand times over (quite willingly) to have that music back.
I belonged in the eighties. Those were my teen years, but things made sense to me at that point. By the time I was twenty it was the nineties and I thought culture was going in the toilet. Still do!
I’m 20. I loathe current pop culture with a vehemence matched only by my hatred for the Beatles. I doubt if that is likely to change in the next five years. My favorite band is Tears For Fears, followed by Radiohead. I also enjoy Cat Stevens as something of a guilty pleasure. TFF aside, I am not fond of 80s music, though it is better than the tripe that gets airplay today (of course, the question is largely academic; whether “Tainted love, whoooooaoa, tainted love,” is better than “my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard and they’re like…,” is a debate I’ll not engage in). I enjoy anime; my favorite is Cowboy Bebop, though I also have a soft spot for overly goofy romantic comedies such as Love Hina or Ranma 1/2. My sense of casual fashion be described as subdued 80s, with sharp color contrasts but nothing shocking. For formal occasions, I wear the standard black-and-white suit, with subtle customizations because I hate looking exactly like everyone else. I used to have big, poofy hair; now it’s short and spiky. I enjoy ecclectic movies such as Waking Life and Gerry, or straightforward genre pieces (provided they’re competently presented) like The Ring or The Bourne Supremacy.
So, where does that place me? The best I can come up with is “refugee from the 80s reluctantly adopting elements of modern culture yet simultaneously rejecting most of that of the present and his native era, who also has a flair for the eccentric”. Not exactly your everyday category.
Same here. The eighties had fun music and fun fashion. And punk hit the US. I was so incredibly thrilled when pointy toed stillettos finally came back and clunky loafers went out.
I think the OP’s article is wrong. In my experience, most people tend to get set in the decade they were in during high school. That’s when you first start to notice fashion and get really into music. My friends who are only four or five years older than me have much more of a seventies vibe.
Beyond the affection I feel for the eightie’s due to nostalgia, I love the music of the forties (big band) and the fashions of the fifties: pencile skirts and and pointy toed shoes…
