# If you could have grown up in any decade...



## Catenaccio

which would you choose?

The 50's have a lot of charm, but I'll go with the 80's, for the optimism and unashamed yuppy lifestyle, which are now considered faux pax by postmodern society.

Vote away PCers!


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

Way in the past, before the invention of cars!


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## whist

I've always kind of wanted to be an 80's child. I really love the weird fantasy movies like _The Neverending Story_ and _Labyrinth._

Any decade before that, though, I'd might have issues with racism...being Asian and all. XD I suppose the 60's and 70's might be pretty liberal though?


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## topgun31

walking tourist said:


> Way in the past, before the invention of cars!


LOL i'd definitely bike/walk everywhere if given a reasonable choice. 

I'd grow up in the decade I grew up in, the 90s. 

I'm not a fan of idolizing the past. There were many triumphs in the past, but they pale in comparison to the hardships. For instance, Americans often idolize the 50s as a post-WWII feel good era. Keep in mind the 50s in the US was the decade that contained McCarthyism, the threat of nuclear war, racism, sexism, homophobia, rampant cigarette usage, unawareness of poor diet choice, a host of diseases that are unheard of today, and much more. I also have a long list for the 60s, 70s, and 80s, (and 90s too) but i'll keep them at bay.

It's more beneficial to learn from the mistakes (and triumphs) of the past in order to make better decisions in the present for a better future.

Here's an interesting article: 
The Good Old Days Were Awful | Psychology Today


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## Mulberries

I'd like to have been in my late teens to early 20s in the 1970s. It would have sucked to have been a child through the 50s and 60s though. 

It also would have been nice to live my entire youth pre-internet days, so 80s or 90s wouldn't have been so bad either.


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## Catenaccio

topgun31 said:


> LOL i'd definitely bike/walk everywhere if given a reasonable choice.
> 
> I'd grow up in the decade I grew up in, the 90s.
> 
> I'm not a fan of idolizing the past. There were many triumphs in the past, but they pale in comparison to the hardships. For instance, Americans often idolize the 50s as a post-WWII feel good era. Keep in mind the 50s in the US was the decade that contained McCarthyism, the threat of nuclear war, racism, sexism, homophobia, rampant cigarette usage, unawareness of poor diet choice, a host of diseases that are unheard of today, and much more. I also have a long list for the 60s, 70s, and 80s, (and 90s too) but i'll keep them at bay.
> 
> It's more beneficial to learn from the mistakes (and triumphs) of the past in order to make better decisions in the present for a better future.
> 
> Here's an interesting article:
> The Good Old Days Were Awful | Psychology Today


We should neither idolize the past and imagine that today is the worst period ever, nor on the other hand assume that a later decade is necessarilly an improvement on the one before it.

In line with my preferences, I prefer the values of the 1950's or 80's, to today. Other people, may prefer the 1960's or 70's.


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## FreeSpirit

A decade in the distant future.
I apologize for cheating.
I'm not trying to be smart-alecky.
I really would like to see the distant future.


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## Fleetfoot

Oh....no freaking doubt the 60s. I would LALALOVE to go to Woodstock. Just living it up in the 70s era where people seemed much more chill would be awesome instead of this uptight whatever...holy shit I'm supposed to be at work!


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## Shadeow

I've always wondered what it would have been like to live in the roman society or in the medieval era.


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## heartturnedtoporcelain

The early 19th century. A Jane Austen heroine's life would suit me _immensely_.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

You're right about that. Being a child during the 1960s did kind of suck!!!
:^)



Mulberries said:


> I'd like to have been in my late teens to early 20s in the 1970s. It would have sucked to have been a child through the 50s and 60s though.
> 
> It also would have been nice to live my entire youth pre-internet days, so 80s or 90s wouldn't have been so bad either.


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## OrangeAppled

Of the modern decades, I'll go with the 80s also. I partially did grow up on the 80s (being born in '83), but I was very small then. I suppose being born about 10 years earlier would be good (hey, I'd be the same age as my bf then, haha). I relate more to GenX in some ways more than GenY.

The problem with much older times is that women had little rights, and most people were poor & had bad nutrition, etc. Novels & movies tend to depict the few, wealthy elite of those times. As much as people like to hate on the middle class, I'd rather live in a time where it flourished, as it gives me a better chance of a quality life.



Mulberries said:


> It also would have been nice to live my entire youth pre-internet days, so 80s or 90s wouldn't have been so bad either.


The 90s was pre-internet? :laughing: :tongue:

My family got AOL sometime in the mid-late 90s ('96-97 or so)....the same time many other average people seemed to be getting it. So most of my teens included internet use, and I consider myself to have grown up in the 90s.


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## Mulberries

OrangeAppled said:


> Of the modern decades, I'll go with the 80s also. I partially did grow up on the 80s (being born in '83), but I was very small then. I suppose being born about 10 years earlier would be good (hey, I'd be the same age as my bf then, haha). I relate more to GenX in some ways more than GenY.
> 
> The problem with much older times is that women had little rights, and most people were poor & had bad nutrition, etc. Novels & movies tend to depict the few, wealthy elite of those times. As much as people like to hate on the middle class, I'd rather live in a time where it flourished, as it gives me a better chance of a quality life.
> 
> 
> 
> The 90s was pre-internet? :laughing: :tongue:
> 
> My family got AOL sometime in the mid-late 90s ('96-97 or so)....the same time many other average people seemed to be getting it. So most of my teens included internet use, and I consider myself to have grown up in the 90s.


We got internet in about 95-96, so I was about 9 or 10. I barely remember not having it. Being born in 1970 or so would have let me completely grow up without it, which I think would have been awesome for an internet addict like me. Sure, we would have had to have gone to the library or *gasp* ask someone if we wanted some particular piece of information, but I think it would have been worth it. Hehe, imagine having to wait by the house phone if someone was going to call! People must have been so much more reliable. I wonder if they went outside more.


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## OrangeAppled

Mulberries said:


> We got internet in about 95-96, so I was about 9 or 10. I barely remember not having it. Being born in 1970 or so would have let me completely grow up without it, which I think would have been awesome for an internet addict like me. Sure, *we would have had to have gone to the library or *gasp* ask someone if we wanted some particular piece of information*, but I think it would have been worth it. Hehe, imagine having to *wait by the house phone if someone was going to call*! People must have been so much more reliable. I wonder if they went outside more.


Yes, my bf was born in '73 and didn't seem to use the internet until he was well into his 20s. He still doesn't use it much now (what a weirdo! :tongue. But I know much older people who are total internet addicts & who jumped on the bandwagon right from the start.

I do remember those things though....and I still check books out from the library :tongue:.


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## chill.take.over

1987 - Just so I could grown up during all of the nineties and remember it (born in 1990, don't remember those first two years)

1960 - So I could experience all of the seventies...and I love me some disco music.


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## Ubuntu

I choose the future.


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## mushr00m

I would have liked to have hit adulthood in the late 80's, just as social norms were going through major transitions like when XTC was introduced, it broke social barriers and the music at that time and the early 90's was sooooo good! It was like a hippie revival.
My partner was born in 74 and he remember how truly a special time it was to be a part of.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

Well... maybe the 1920s would have been good... lots of great jazz...
... but that was followed by the Great Depression and World War II...
... that doesn't sound so good.


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## benfoldsfive dude

I'd love to have been a young adult in the late 1970s; I'd be Discoing my ass off (one of my favorite genres of music). I'd love to have been a kid in the 1980s, as there were so many TV shows and toy lines based off of TV shows for kids (as well as the music; I love New Wave). It would have been fun being an adult in the 1990s (a lot of music from many genres were pumping out into stores).


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## Dashing

I wish Michael Knight was my dad.


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## goodgracesbadinfluence

I would like to have been born in the early/mid seventies and been a teenager in the eighties.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

I think that I'd like to have been around to swoon over Frederick Chopin or met the Bronte sisters... Jane Austen was pretty cool, too... or Laura Ingalls Wilder... or maybe a life near the sea with Herman Melville...



heartturnedtoporcelain said:


> The early 19th century. A Jane Austen heroine's life would suit me _immensely_.


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## skycloud86

If I could, I probably would choose to have been born thirty or forty years after my real birth year, because this century is supposed to bring about great advances in science, medicine, technology as well as social changes for the better. Although if I live to be seventy I'll still see much of the century as that would mean dying in 2056, although I hope to live for a century.


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## Empress Appleia Cattius XII

skycloud86 said:


> If I could, I probably would choose to have been born thirty or forty years after my real birth year, because this century is supposed to bring about great advances in science, medicine, technology as well as social changes for the better. Although if I live to be seventy I'll still see much of the century as that would mean dying in 2056, although I hope to live for a century.


I agree with this completely.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

I agree, too.


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## Boxter9

skycloud86 said:


> If I could, I probably would choose to have been born thirty or forty years after my real birth year, because this century is supposed to bring about great advances in science, medicine, technology as well as social changes for the better.


If you were born thirty or forty years _before_ your real birth year, wouldn't you say exactly the same thing?

Don't worry, be happy :kitteh:


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## skycloud86

Boxter9 said:


> If you were born thirty or forty years _before_ your real birth year, wouldn't you say exactly the same thing?
> 
> Don't worry, be happy :kitteh:


Probably would yes, and I don't worry. Even if I don't see much past the 2050s, I'll still see a lot of this century.


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## geekofalltrades

Whichever decade would have allowed me to see Led Zeppelin on tour.


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## Solitude315

The mid '40s, so I could be a teenager/young adult in the '60s and '70s. The racism and conservativeness of the '50s probably would annoy me.


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## paper lilies

I would have grown up in the 70's. 
Preferably being in my late teens or a young adult in the 80's.
I definitely think it was a generation that I would have fit into rather wonderfully.


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## MyName

I voted the 90's; essentially being born ten years earlier so I would've spent my formative years in that decade. The new technology would've been even more exciting then than it was growing up in the 2000's. And the 90's have the best movies and music. Plus, it was cool to be a slacker, and thus easy to be cool.


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## Ash84

I'm happy with the decade I grew in... I'd definitely wouldn't like growing up between the World Wars or as a member of the 'Lost generation'.

And it also quite depends on whether you talk about USA or Europe or some other part of the world


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

When I'm not totally anti-car, I am thinking that I would have liked to have grown up ten years after I did. I would have gladly missed the Vietnam War. Quite honestly, the 1960s were a traumatic time to be a child. I still can't believe that those horrific scenes of war were shown at a time of day when small children could watch.
On the other hand, it made me the pacifist that I am today. 
sigh.


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## Gabrielle Johnson

Im fascinated with ancient Greece and Rome. So probably sometime during the rise of Greece and Rome.


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## OrdinarinessIsAFWTD

Voted naughties, if only to be able to experience more of the technological wonders promised by guys like Kaku and Kurzweil... :S


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## JungyesMBTIno

The early 70s particularly - also, the 60s or the 50s.


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## Ikari_T

I LOVE technology. So I'd go as far into the future as possible...while the earth is still here and not suffering in some kind of war, famine, etc.


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## 2ndIINone

1960's

So I could be around for the golden age of Heavyweight Boxing, and be around to fight the fabulous four of Boxing (Leonard, Hearns, Duran, and Hagler) plus Wilfred Benitez.


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## Persephone

If a man, then probably in the 70s. If a woman, now. The past was not good for women. Of course, it also depends on the country and socioeconomic status.


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## Sayonara

60s.

Would have loved to be a part of the hippie generation. Im' not for drugs and sex all that much, but the love and tolerance back then...<3


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## voicetrocity

I know I'd be relinquishing a lot, but there's just something that seems magical about the 1920's. 
I'd love to be a flapper. Go into the underground, dance my heart out and wear cute clothing.


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## CURLY

As much as I would love to relive the 90s with its great music, horrible clothes, and not so terrible government, I would still choose to live today. Shitty it may be but come on we have the webbernet! I remember working on projects and looking from book to book just to get some research on a topic eh you know, it was fine then I had really no problem with it but now, go to google and viola, everything is in there. I honestly think that the internet is probably the best thing that ever happened in this world. The world may be smaller today but I honestly prefer that. It's much easier to communicate with people from other countries and learn things about the world today than the past. Yeah, we had books but come on, its the INTERNET. And it's just much easier to keep up with what's going on with the world. The media is just shit so anything they put out I really don't believe so I do my own research and I find that more fulfilling and I do learn more that way than watching news. Well anyway that's my 2 cents.


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## Lisa Jane

Curly - I get totally what your saying. sometimes I wonder if we have lost the power to source information without the internet though - but then i think its not like that matters as the internet isnt going anywhere. I love the internent for the info it brings me but mainly I wanted to reply to say that I agree that Mainstream media is so heavily biased that you can not rely on them for virtually any accurate information and you have to do your own research which is impowering more people and more small countrys like mine. it really is shocking to see the difference between the truth and what is published.


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## .30691

I would like to to grow up in 2020 - 2030.


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## Redworah

I would have loved to have grown up in the 1910's just as world war one ended, and being able to expierience world war 2, and be remembered for being in the "greatest generation".


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## Redworah

That or I would have loved to live in the early 1000's during the Byzantine Empire, and be a scholar and explorer and cartographer


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## castigat

If I wasn't born in the decade I was born in, I wouldn't be the age I am in the present. 
That sounded really stupid, but I'm generally glad I was born in '92. Nothing is stopping me from loving everything old, and the only thing stopping me from loving the future is death.
Really, I'm looking forward to see how badly the future turns out.
/a joke

edit: If anything, I wish I could at the very least be frozen and wake up in the future, so I don't have to be an old fart just to see it.


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## SQarlettK

I'd prefer to be born in the Garden of Eden. I could tell Eve what happens when she reaches the fruit of the forbidden tree. 


A woman is able to explain things to another woman. Especially when she is INFP.


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## KateMarie999

I picked the 50s. I think it's an interesting era. I'd get to see technology go quite a long way. I think that would be fascinating.


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## Aeloria

I love having grown up in the 90s. It's my favorite decade, and I'm happy to be a product of it. But if I had to choose another, I'd like to jump forward a bit (or a lot), to an era when we have a comprehensive understanding of the human brain and nervous system, and can interface with technology on cognitive and neurosensory levels. It's lamentable how much of our potential is ready to be realized but is kept latent because trivial factors keep it a hair's width out of our reach.

But there's no guarantee that will happen, so I guess it's up to all us superfriends to save the day for the sake of posterity.
Also space. I want to look at planets in other galaxies in HD. And be able to zoom in and spy on them. :kitteh:


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## Coyote

I'd want to grow up in the 50s, so I could be a teenager in the 60s. I'd wanna be a hippie.


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## Sollertis

I'm going to go with 430 B.C. so I can see the Peloponnesian war.


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## Owfin

Sollertis said:


> I'm going to go with 430 B.C. so I can see the Peloponnesian war.


For me, it's the glory of Rome. I'd love to see the great empire and get to practice my Latin skills!


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## Carmine Ermine

Glad I grew up in the 90s. The future might be dystopian, for all I know. Also I think there were some things in the 90s that I really wouldn't want to have missed.


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## A Little Bit of Cheeze

18th or 19th centuries. That was time for me. Or maybe medieval.


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## OldManRivers

The 1990's. Then i would be in my 30's and not my 70's.
With age comes wisdom - one knows what one should have done, but too late, too late!


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## OldManRivers

Redworah said:


> I would have loved to have grown up in the 1910's just as world war one ended, and being able to expierience world war 2, and be remembered for being in the "greatest generation".


World War I started 1914, ended 1919 - as i remember. And too, too many of the Greatest Generation died on the battlefield. They never thought it was so great. War never is. War is hell, even for the victors. Always was, always will be.


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## Redworah

That is a decent point, maybe it is just fascination and nostalgia, my great-grandfather, like many people's parents and grandparents fought in that war, but then again he died before I was born, well in any case I would love to have lived in the Byzantine Empire in it's height .


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## Sollertis

Owfin said:


> For me, it's the glory of Rome. I'd love to see the great empire and get to practice my Latin skills!


What era? When you say the empire, I'm assuming you actually mean the imperial era? I think I'd enjoy the Punic wars, bonus points if you can name my avatar.


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## Owfin

Sollertis said:


> What era? When you say the empire, I'm assuming you actually mean the imperial era? I think I'd enjoy the Punic wars, bonus points if you can name my avatar.


Yes, I do. The Punic Wars would have also been interesting, but the technology and power of the Principate (not particularly interested in the Dominate period) attracts me. 

*wrings hands* Uh, Hannibal? That helmet looks familiar. *checks Wikipedia* Woah, I was right!


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## Kiyohime

Why not 2020s +?


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## FakeLefty

I like the technology of today, but it would have been interesting to live in any time between 1900 and 1980. Maybe even in late 19th century France.


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## Pennyroyal Tea

I would have loved to have grown up in the 90s. Maybe see some Grunge gigs. Meet Kurt Cobain (he inspires me a lot and is one of many whose stories have caused me to believe that I can succeed with music and to follow it).

Something tells me that I would never feel out of place hanging out with Grungers and that I'd be welcomed.


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## Tranquility

1920's. I would have loved to see Europe during this time period, regardless of the pollution and grime. The architecture was interesting, the stories great, and the minds famous.


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## tobrien5

While I wouldn't mind biking everywhere, I would have loved to be in the decades of inventions like the auto, assembly lines, and planes. So much incredible advancements to witness.


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## letter_to_dana

I would've loved to be born in the 70's to be able to listen in my teen years to all the great music of the 90's.


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## JoanCrawford

whist said:


> I've always kind of wanted to be an 80's child. I really love the weird fantasy movies like _The Neverending Story_ and _Labyrinth._
> 
> Any decade before that, though, I'd might have issues with racism...being Asian and all. XD I suppose the 60's and 70's might be pretty liberal though?


In my opinion:

60's- Conservative during the first half, very liberal in the end. (Vietnam, anti-war)
70's- Moderate overall.
80's- Very conservative, corporate.
90's- Liberal. Anti-establishment (grunge-era) Conservative towards the end.
00's- Conservative (9/11, Invasion of Iraq) became liberal when president Obama was elected.
10's- Liberal beginning, seems to be becoming more conservative now.



EthereaEthos said:


> 1920's. I would have loved to see Europe during this time period, regardless of the pollution and grime. The architecture was interesting, the stories great, and the minds famous.


I agree. Can you imagine Paris and London in the 1920's? They were probably stunning, and the fashion would be amazing.


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## Tranquility

JoanCrawford said:


> In my opinion:
> 
> 60's- Conservative during the first half, very liberal in the end. (Vietnam, anti-war)
> 70's- Moderate overall.
> 80's- Very conservative, corporate.
> 90's- Liberal. Anti-establishment (grunge-era) Conservative towards the end.
> 00's- Conservative (9/11, Invasion of Iraq) became liberal when president Obama was elected.
> 10's- Liberal beginning, seems to be becoming more conservative now.
> 
> 
> 
> I agree. Can you imagine Paris and London in the 1920's? They were probably stunning, and the fashion would be amazing.


Ooh, yes! I love 1920's hats and dresses!


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## SouthernSaxon

Probably the early-mid 19th century, which was a very exciting time musically. Maybe born around 1820, so I would've grown up in the 1830s.


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## Psychophant

SouthernSaxon said:


> Probably the early-mid 19th century, which was a very exciting time musically. Maybe born around 1820, so I would've grown up in the 1830s.


Yes, but today we still have that music preserved and easily accessible via the internet or CDs or just about any medium you could want, plus tons of great new music. It seems like today, with professional quality composing/mastering software available to just about everyone, you're in a better place than ever to be a musician.


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## ghostgirl

I think I'd have wanted to grow up in the 90s because then I could appreciate the early 2000s music which is what I listen to most now, and it's annoying that I missed out on it

x


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