# What was it like to grow up in the '80s?



## goodgracesbadinfluence

That's really self-explanatory but I would like as many details as possible. What did you guys do for fun? What was pop culture like? What was happening in the world? What sort of music was popular? What was elementary school/high school/college like? What did you wear? Did you really love this decade or did you despise it? 

I promise, the smallest detail will interest me. I was born in 1991 so it's like I was so close but so far away, and it really intrigues me. 

Also this is not the place to go "ZOMG MY GENERATION ROX!!!11" 

No. Just no. Please be factual and a little nostalgic. 

Thanks!


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## strawberryLola

What I remember growing up in the 80s was that it was one of the *most* depressing and at the same time heartwarming years of my life. Some of my fondest memories of growing up during that time was that sense of innocence that I felt. 

The depressing part about it was I'd say fashion- that, and my family's lack of income. The 80s was a time where business was still booming in the U.S. Some families progressively got richer, while some much poorer and even more marginalized.

In terms of music, I felt as though there was a lot of heart put into the music/lyrics. There was something about it that could really touch a person's soul, and it literally vibrated- even though the technology was not so great! There was this vibe about that decade that made it so heartfelt.. if I could describe it better- I'd put you in a time capsule and invite you to experience it. Even the cartoons were different.. the culture/atmosphere had a touch of the 60s/70s rawness to it (depending on where a person lived).

I remember Los Angeles in the 80s is totally different compared to how it is now, especially during the Olympics and when Chic Hearn was still alive. Lots of influential old school Hollywood icons back then that really shaped mainstream U.S. culture. Even watching the Oscars/Grammies was a totally different experience. I still remember when they had drive-in movie theatres and people would go roller skating at skate rinks. The 80s was a mish/mash of a bunch of different trends. Vegas was a fraction of the size it is now! There was a fascination with travel and the airline industry seemed more glamorous. 

By depressing fashion, here's what I mean: :crazy:





Semi-equivalent to Tivo back then was somethin called: Tv Guide: (If you were lucky to afford VHS- you would manually press record)









Otter Pops were the bomb!








(I feel like a geezer strolling down memory lane, lol :tongue: flashin' my Pop Rings) Cool topic! *some pop rocks for you!*


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## Longdove

I'll try to be shorter rather than on the lengthier side, otherwise I'd have a lot more to say.

*What did you guys do for fun?*

The 80's for me was the beginning of the introduction of Video Games, so I got hooked right away, and mainly on my hangout days on saturdays, I'd go with my best friend to the local deli store/convenience shop, and spend massive amounts of time in the one to three Arcade Machines they had, and it was also a big time for movies in the theaters, and they too had a selection of Arcade games, and we'd be there wasting quarters till we got hungry, then go eat at the popular 80's fast food restaurants - the big names - McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, and the non-chain local pizza stores, more often it'd be pizza at the Italian place, we'd chomp on lasagna, ziti, and spaghetti.

*What was pop culture like?*

War action movies were the big thing, so Rambo and Arnold Swazza...so and so were a main focus of popular interest. There was a big aura around Saturday Night Live and the comedians who came from it, and celebrities were considered to hit it big once they got the spot to host Saturday Night Live, it meant that they achieved huge recognition as compared to other lesser celebrities.

Music dominated all aspects of life with how every social issue was related to some singer or group band's exposure of a given topic. There was a big sexual movement going on, that had a tremendous controversy surrounding MTV and who they pushed. Madonna, Whitney Houston, Cher, and Tiffany were considered top examples of who women were.

There was a big health craze, so we got bombarded with everyone and their mother trying to sell us cheap-gimmick jumpropes, steppers, workout routines, blenders, frying pans, and Richard Simmons' Deal-A-Meal.

It was a sitcom-crazed populace, and many people also based their attitudes toward life on the big ratings-grabbing sitcoms, which also relied heavily on reruns of by-then already on their way out late 70's/early 80's shows; Three's Company, Family Ties, early seasons of the Wonder Years and Roseanne, Charles in Charge, Full House, Cheers, and Growing Pains really set social norms.

There were also big time productions that had an entire family's focus on them when they came on every week at their time; Dallas, Dynasty, and Miami Vice had extreme influence on the older generation (aka parents at that time in particular).

I can't stress enough how big TV Guide was to set the tone on the bulk of what people considered important in popular culture. It is now an irrelevant publication, but it used to dictate an entire Nation's mentality, even as it related to popular elections.

*What was happening in the world?*

Ronald Reagan was in office, and there was constant phobia of Muslim countries, specifically - Lybia, Iran, Lebanon (with major emphasis on Beirut), Yemen, and Syria, something that has carried over to today. Drugs where everywhere, and they were unavoidable as a factor that popped up in everyone's lives, from rich to poor, famous to unknown, schools were themselves centered heavily on dealing with the drug issue. 

As someone who witnessed this first-hand, of how drugs were so talked against in the entire scope of 80's culture, especially by mainstream celebrities who were the go-to people on how to view anything - it still bewilders me how today's generation has gone from that extreme foundation of anti-drug mentality hyped in the 80's, to where now people openly see it as such an irrelevant thing that it has become a normal topic of conversation for people's introduction about what recreational drugs they like to participate in, and what "new mind-blowing experiences" they need to try out. I still don't know how to take that in from society as a whole, either as extreme hypocrisy or as total confirmity to the norm on an unprecendented and numb scale.

*What sort of music was popular?*

This was a time of big hair bands, and I mentioned some of the top solo-female singers in the earlier question, but in general a lot of women began to break out and reduce the stereotype of a mainly-male dominated entertainment genre. Poison, Megadeth, Bon Jovi, and Van Halen were among the creme-de-la-creme. RAP was still considered garbage at the time, it was still an underground movement that the rest of America pretty much had great fear, repulsion, and were disturbed about. Public Enemy, and 2 Live Crew were considered unapproacheable monsters.

There was a night-club based music genre that began to develop and take form, it would go on to take the names of House, Techno, and Acid house (yet another name derived from the immense drug influence).

*What was elementary school/high school/college like?*

Completely clique-y, (not that much has changed or that this applies to these years only in general... but) everyone was in competition to see who would top each other off and have the coolest hairstyle, shoes, pants, and who would lose their virginity first and how many bonks they got at the latest party over the weekend (tee-hee-hoo I got laid hee-hee-hoo), AIDS was still considered a joke-insult in relation to this, ie; "Hey Brenda, yu slept with Huge-Bear last night? OMG he so ugly, don't you know yu probably got the AIDS from him?" 

Social-life in all its glory revolved around what party one went to - period, and what cute boy was there who ever got to him first to make out with him and beat all the rest of the "geeks".

Foreign countries in the schools were ridiculed even by teachers, everything was US or it doesn't count, and they are not us, so they are below us, and "you're just a wannabe immigrant that doesn't count if you say anything different SO KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT WHEN I'M TALKING or get the HELL OUT of this school and go back to your NO-GOOD COUNTRY that we've supported for all of these years!"

School was also central around social-sexual issues, so there were constant speakers that came to the auditorium to tell kids about "PEER-PRESSURE" and why your boyfriend doesn't want to make out with you yet.

*What did you wear?*

Not acccording to my will, but big loose shirts, made-for-4 jackets, tight-as-hell jeans, running shoes, and overall things that made me nautious.

*Did you really love this decade or did you despise it? *

Not the 80's, I hated it, and openly goofed on it and was repulsed by it while I yet lived in it, everyone that knew me knew how critical I was of it and how I mocked it any chance I got. I wanted to be out of that decade as soon as possible, it was torture for me to be in it overall, slight positives aside, it was an insult to my human dignity.


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## chrisu

*What was happening in the world?*
living ~1000miles (1500km) from chernobyl we got our iodine tablets at kindergarte and were told not to eat mushrooms and game meat.
*all the rest...* (keep it short as i was too young)
i was 0-8 in the 80s, so i listened to what my dad liked: deep purple, led zeppelin, iron butterfly.
i had my tape recorder to listen to Pumuckl. our tv had 4 channels (up to 10 in the late 80s i think). fun was what fun is for most rural living kids: playing in the woods (=building forts) and creeks (=building dams of course), watching ants and reading.


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## Ash84

I didn't grow up in the 1980s but what I REALLY like about this decase is the music


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## CoopV

I didn't grow up in the 80's but personally I see it as being dark, depressing, and incredibly cheesy. I mean big curly hair, neon colors, football player shoulder pads, hair metal bands... There's only a few things I like about it. ACDC, Metallica, Joan Jett, and Siouxsie and the Banshees come to mind. Pop I think was cheesy as hell too. Like something you'd hear in a super nintendo video game.


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## rickybobby

The 80's... hmm... I'm going to try to recall thru my senses. 
I remember that summers as *feeling* hot. Winters were colder and snowier. Seasons were more distinct, I think. Humidity in the east coast is about the same. The pollen count wasn't as high - at least I never noticed the yellow layer of pollen on cars. Air conditioning was not standard in cars (so that's probably why it felt hotter). Playing outside until dusk was "safer" and bike riding was a daily adventure. I recall riding to the Seven-Eleven just to play Super Mario Bros. on an arcade! 
The *sounds* of music were fun - very experimental. In fact, some sounds are still relevant today as I still hear some songs in current pop stations. Also, some current sounds are very reminiscent of that decade. 
*Visually*, it was painful (in retrospect). There's always the classic look in fashion which was/is always pleasing to me. I'm thinking of oxfords, mocassins, khakis and polo shirts. Then there are the fads which were distincly 80's like big hair, shoulder pads, mullets, a lot of make up that makes really shiny faces, jellies, neons, mis-matched anything, cuffed pants, jean jackets, Michael Jackson jackets, parachute pants, etc...etc... (I'm sure other extensive examples are given elsewhere in this forum). Going to the movies was a treat and the movies themselves were full of adventure. I'm thinking of Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Back to the Future, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, Transformers: The Movie, etc..etc.. Movies were much more unique than they are now. TV selections were much simpler then. Without Cable there were three snowy channels. With Cable there were more channels if you had the black box. With more Cable, two more channels were added like MTV and HBO. MTV played music videos and the VJs were super cool (I'm thinking of you, Martha Quinn). HBO showed Grease 2, Poltergiest, and Porky's all.the.time.

That's about it for now.


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## Sayonara

Heh, growing up in the 80s was fun. The colorful clothing, the big hair. Jelly shoes, oh god the jelly shoes. I had a pair and I just loved them. The funky styles we got away with. Leggings, shiny high tops...<3

It was also the decade of burgeoning political correctness though, which in hindsight really amuses me. The amount of stereotypes in kids cartoons was staggering. Always one token race kid, usually African-American. There was also a lot of stereotyping for gender as well. Cartoons for girls were really...shallow for the most part. Life was supposedly just one big party of happy fuzzy feelings. (My Little Pony, Care Bears) You never saw anyone being 'bad' or 'rebellious' unless it was just to serve a 'moral lesson' Cartoons geared towards guys had a bit more plot, (Transformers, He-man)but for the most part it was another round of "good guys vs the bad guys with lots of explosions and action' 

That being said though, I enjoyed the 80s a lot, cheesy cartoons and all. All hail He-man and My Little Pony (fav shows.)


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## au contraire

I was in my twenties in the 80s, and it was incredibly depressing because the music (and culture) was so awful and shallow. Disco faded early in the decade but the aftershocks lasted till the mid 80s, when a few good new bands out of the west coast emerged and the ones that hadn't OD'ed or died in the 70's got cleaned up and started making comebacks. It was an awful, forgettable decade. Fortunately thats about all I remember because I blocked most of it out, but Longdove well summarized much of what I forgot.


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## Sayonara

au contraire said:


> I was in my twenties in the 80s, and it was incredibly depressing because the music (and culture) was so awful and shallow. Disco faded early in the decade but the aftershocks lasted till the mid 80s, when a few good new bands out of the west coast emerged and the ones that hadn't OD'ed or died in the 70's got cleaned up and started making comebacks. It was an awful, forgettable decade. Fortunately thats about all I remember because I blocked most of it out, but Longdove well summarized much of what I forgot.


I guess for an adult, it would be pretty shallow now that I look back on it. I remember a lot of the music lol. It made me want to dance and not much else. 

I guess I enjoyed it a lot, cause I was a child at the time. And a very fun loving one at that. People tend to also romanticize their childhood, you know?


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## au contraire

Yes, that;s probably why I liked the 70s better...and I still had some ideals that fell by the wayside once they met 80's reality.


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## Steel Magnolia

I was an 80s kid. I was being constantly abused by my father during this decade, and being a small child, I didn't understand why the hell he was being so violent towards me (though I often had a sense of him being in the wrong- and he *definitely* was).

Interestingly enough, I became a huge fan of 80s music at the age of 15, and 15 years later, I still am. I sometimes wonder if I developed an affinity for the music because I was looking for *something* that was positive from that decade.


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## Mind Swirl

I was too young to know about politics or adult social aspects of the 80's...but:

-Neon windbreakers (Pretty sure it was also 90's)
-Mom Jeans with pleats
-Shoulder pads
-Big hair that looked like a poodle
-Smoking sections in restaurants 
-Peg leg pants that you could barely fit over your heels
-Stirrup pants and stretch pants in ugly prints
-Acid wash everything
-Fanny packs (LOL)
-My Little Pony 
-Carebears
-Pound Puppies

And to be honest, I never liked most 80's music. I liked my parent's music better (60's and 70's mainly)


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## Nowhere Man

Can't say for sure since I wasn't there. But...






:tongue:


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## FatSpacePenguins

Truely outrageous!


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## Nucky

I'm one of the later Gen-X'ers (born in '75), so I grew up in the 80s.

We had bright, sparkly seizure-inducing cartoons:










Stereotypical 80s music is shallow synthpop, but in truth there was a very eclectic mix of music in the 80s. There was lots of metal, R&B, punk, new wave, modern rock, ambient, rap, and folk rock.

Some of the most extreme junk food was popular with kids in the 80s: pop rocks, red hots, rock candy, etc. There were lots of super-sugary cereals, even more than today.

It was the tail-end of the era before everyone started obsessing about safety. It was still a time when kids routinely took short cuts on private property and rode in the back of pickup trucks. We were all done with car and booster seats by the time we were about 3 or 4, and we were allowed to play outside without adult supervision by about the same age, as long as we were home by dark. NOBODY riding a bike, skateboard, scooter, or roller skates wore a helmet . . . EVER (at least not kids.) I was a rebel and wore one anyway. We got whipped with a belt by our parents.

Saturday mornings were always reserved for watching cartoons that were presented by all of the major networks in a 3 or 4-hour block, interspersed with frequent anti-drug, anti-drink, anti-littering, and other public service announcements.

Rather than file-sharing, we got our free music by taping songs off of the radio.


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## Subtle Murder

I was born in '86, so I only have four years worth of memories to speculate on (and not all four of them were entirely aware). What I remember most has a lot to do with my brothers (who're 10 and 9 years older than me). I remember Freddy Kreuger, The Gremlins, The Lost Boys. I remember KISS, Guns 'n' Roses, Queen. I remember TV shows like Hey Hey it's Saturday. I remember 21 Jump Street, Mulligrubs, the Gobbledok from the Smiths chips commercials. I remember Alf, Aggro's Cartoon Connection (admittedly that was more of a 90's thing). I remember my older cousins crimping their hair, and wearing neon green and pink clothes. I remember the huge-ass shoulder pads in my mother's jackets and tops. I remember my mother sporting an afro and being able to get away with it. I remember being absolutely in love with Prince, despite having no idea what his songs were about.   And yeah, I have pretty much romanticized my childhood like @Sayonara pointed out. I love the 80's and anything that reminds me of it.  I'm still pretty fond of 80's music.


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## petitpèlerin

I was born in the late 70s so I remember most of the 80s. My access to pop culture was very limited, so for me growing up in the 80s was being always a bit bewildered by the trends that other kids were obsessed with, and the TV characters they talked about like they were their best friends.

I liked being allowed to ride my bike anywhere in the neighborhood, no helmet, no supervision. I liked that playgrounds were made of raw materials: wood and steel, not bright-colored plastic and rubber chips, and you had to actually pay attention to what you were doing on them, because you could really get hurt. (But if you can't get hurt, you're not really playing!) I liked that yards were not heavily landscaped and trees just grew wherever they were, without rings of mulch around them. I lived in a suburban town but things were far less artificial than they are in most suburbs now.

I remember the cool cars: Trans Ams and Fieros, Corvettes, etc. I remember certain songs that played everywhere, like "Beat It" and "Summer of '69", even though my parents didn't listen to rock or pop music. I still love those songs and get seriously nostalgic when I hear them. And I remember the clothing styles. I love looking at pictures from the 80s: not so much of celebrities but of real people, especially kids.


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## Stelmaria

I was born in the 80s, so...
I remember:

Big Hair (totally asking for a big-hair revival if you ask me)
Tandy Color Computer
My parents had a Pontiac station wagon with fake wood panelling (lived in the USA for a few years)
I remember my sister had a mini-obsession about the Pontiac Trans-Ams.
Fear of the basement (Australian houses don't have basements)
My little ponies (my ponies ran naked and free and didn't care for brushing their hair LOL)
Fisher price.
Toys R Us (I totally wanted one of those electric cars).
Music: MTV. Pop music was pretty awful, but there are still a few good bands that come to mind, like the Eurhythmics.
Christmas lights (something that took another 10-15 years to catch on in Australia).


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## Owfin

This is all very weird for me, seeing as I'm a generation Zer, so I basically have no 80s nostagia.



Nucky said:


>


Thanks for that, I found a new random TV show.


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## ilphithra

eros5th said:


> Pop I think was cheesy as hell too. Like something you'd hear in a super nintendo video game.


That was because everything and their moms were punching synthesizers around while in anger over the clown clothes and stupid hairdos.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

But the 1980s were the golden years for the hairspray industry.


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## LadyO.W.BernieBro

Were you guys taunted for not having crazy hair?


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## Sybok

I grow up in the 80s (born 1977) in the former GDR (eastern germany). 
western music was seldom, I have a few songs still in my mind^^ kindergarden was nice; school was, well, in GDR we had socialism^^ so there were often meetings of the "youth pioneers" (roughly translated -.-), much recycling... I had many hours of learning piano (hated it)... we had 2 official and 3 in-official(secret, because west-german) tv-channels^^ 
thursday was the 1st time, I listened to Debbie Gibson and I am sad, I missed she because of our isolated geopolitical existence in the world


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## CoopV

Nucky said:


> Rather than file-sharing, we got our free music by taping songs off of the radio.


Omg lol... I kind of barely remember that from the early 90s when I was a kid. I can't believe email and internet didn't exist until the 90s too. Damn... lol


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## goodgracesbadinfluence

I'm sorry I neglected this thread; I didn't realize it had this many responses. Thank you for all of them. 

I was born in 1991 and I remember some of these things as well, like Fisher Price and the smoking sections in restaurants and I do remember the tail-end of the shoulder pad trend. I even remember playing outside a lot and stuff, and people were less concerned about safety when I was growing up too. 

If anyone is reading... were 8-tracks from the 80s? I have never seen an 8-track player and I don't know anything about those and I'm curious. I only remember cassettes. 

And about teasing your hair... how did LITERALLY everyone get such HUGE hair? Like, how did people with super thick hair make it tease properly? 

And like, what did people do after school? Like in high school? Like when you got your first car... what would you do? Is it the same as now where you'd usually just go chill at someone's house or go to work or did you go out and go do... awesome 80s stuff? 

I dunno, for some reason I have this... perception that everything cool "died" in like 1995.


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## bunnyhugger

I think it was a great time to be a kid, possibly not so great if you were older?

Very warm memories of the 80s, my childhood:
Cartons of milk in playschool
able to play in the playground without pesky health and safety rules getting in the way!
Great cartoons and toys - he-man, care bears, my little pony, Sindy (yay), muppet babies and Pole position on a saturday morning, 
Saturday Superstore on saturday morning
Jellybean shoes (as said above) - all good foreign hols were made of these
dodgy perms
John Hughes films - Breakfast club et al
Back to the Future
General Michael J Fox stuff
white drainpipe jeans
New romantics
Margaret Thatcher
Spit the dog
Rod Hull and Emu

and on and on..


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## Jade99

It felt a bit more calmer (if that's the right word) compare to now. It was more safer and less chaotic in my opinion. Then again I only experienced the 80s from conception to age 8 so, somethings I remember but it's from that very naive pov. Other than that, I miss Jem and the Holograms and my grandpa was still alive.


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## bunnyhugger

Mix tapes!
Taping the charts on Sunday evening
Roller skates that you strapped to your shoes and which barely moved...


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## petite libellule

goodgracesbadinfluence said:


> No. Just no. Please be factual and a little nostalgic.
> Thanks!


1. you were allowed to run around and play outside with no supervision as early as 5. 
The whole neighborhood was filled with children and their siblings and you always had something fun to do. Climbing trees, forts, neighborhood snow ball fights, trading baseball cards with shitty gum.

2. When it was time to go home for dinner, your parents opened the door and hollered your name. If you couldn't hear it, you went too far. You were not allowed to talk to strangers, and you knew this from a talking dog in a detective jacket and hat.

3. People ate dinner together. And talked. No TV. If you didn't want what was made, you were not hungry. If you were being a little shit at the kitchen table, you were sent to your room.

People spanked their children. (not talking about abuse - only when needed, discipline) 

4. Brothers looked after their little sisters and sisters pulled each others hair. Kids didn't get past 2nd base till they were out of grade school. And the prom dresses weren't so short: it didn't show the crack of ur ... Instead, it was lots of ruffles and crazy hair with lots of hairspray and glittery blue eye shadow. Boys wore leopard and cavaricci's at some point in their lives and tried to be rock stars, like the Koool kids. 

5. block parties existed where the whole block was closed off and everyone knew everyone and the fire dept. would open the hydrants for fun so the kids would play and their was lots of barbequing and beer. 

6. Before long TV shows turned into the highlights of dysfunctional and we all laughed. We laughed and laughed until the seeds of it set into the standards of what was "normal" or rather acceptable. 
Parents were no longer allowed to parent without fear, children now had to get together by way of "play dates" to eliminate the fear of frivolous kidnappings and crazy people shooting up schools etc. Cell phones in the car with cords turned into giant blocks cord free. Someone though it might be nice to lighten the load and created the beeper. Games were in 2D and so very few people had the internet. People became more knowledgeable and stupider all at once ... 
quite an amazing feat for one generation really. 

7. Early 80's: People still owned vinyl and shook hands, wiped their shoes off at the door, no shoes in the house - people seemed to care more about the home (in more than one way) - you hugged your friends and laughed and smiled and went on whatever adventures you enjoyed and were interested in above and beyond sharing you tube clips, gifs, and emoticons.

* We had cable for one week before it was outlawed after my mom caught us watching Airplane and walked right @ the moment of that infamous boobie scene she always had a knack for that stuff. made it kinda hard for any of us to be too too bad :/

* Everyone's account of the 80's is gonna be different. But the one super cool thing is I can smile knowing that I was one of the last generations to know the freedoms and feelings of ... 
Being a Kid.

Definitely feels like younger generations kinda got the short end of the stick.
They grow up so fast ... and I'm not sure they would if they knew otherwise.


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## Jennywocky

I was born in 1968 and graduated high school in 1986, so the 80's were my "prime years" of teenager-dom.

Video arcades (remember what those were?) -- such a shame they barely exist anymore.
Dungeons and Dragons
Rubik's Cube
MTV
The British Invasion
John Hughes movies
Atari and Super-Nintendo
Laserdiscs, ha ha!
Apple IIe computers
STAR WARS! (The original star wars trilogy!)
Pop Rocks
Bottled Pepsi and Coke (in the TALL glass bottles)
Bicycles with tall orange flags (gross)
Big flat plastic combs in the back pocket
Neon colors
Leg warmers
Duran Duran
Sledding
Tree houses
Snow forts
Superfriends!
Back to the Future!
Different Strokes and Family Ties and Cheers
Nightmare on Elm Street
Polo Shirts
Izods
Penny loafers (with pennies in the slots!)
Zork 1-3
Ultima 1-4
Madonna's career started (Lucky Star)
Arnold Schwartzenegger's movie career started (Terminator and Commando)
Journey and Air Supply rocked the airwaves (well, Air Supply never really "rocked")
Stephen King published IT.

We still had dial phones for part of the 80's. We also didn't get microwaves until the 80's, and probably VCRs got prominent in the mid-80s, along with mom and pop video rental units. Then Blockbuster came through in the 90's and ran them out of business before putting the hurt on the industry.

The Berlin Wall came down in 1989. That was a BIG day, after the cold war had been such a reality. Nuclear Armageddon was a big deal while we were growing up. Which reminds me, Three Mile Island in Harrisburg PA almost went up in 1979, I think; there were people sleeping in our gymnasiums 2 hours away from the epicenter, and later I ended up living near there and driving past the facility a number of times; my father-in-law at the time, I found out, was actually sent into three mile island to inspect the facility, as he was a boiler engineer for nuclear power plants. Anyway, nuclear energy doesn't seem to be discussed much nowadays but was a HUGE deal back then. Same thing with abortion, which is still discussed, but back then I felt a lot of pressure in the religious community to go out and join picket lines.


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## Dolorous Haze

I wasn't born until 1995 but from what I hear, the 80s were fairly depressing. Sure it had it's good qualities (there were some amazing bands) ...but there were a ton of bad aspects. High unemployment, recession, Thatcher, the Cold War, no internet, poorer medical care etc. etc.


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## ljroth

Growing up in the 80's prepared us for the 90's. Everything kinda sucked in the 80's: Duran Duran, Big Hair, Reagan. So we had to rise up and revolt in our own 90's underground way: Nirvana, Dredlocks, Clinton. It was fun


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## Sweetish

It was bad @$$.

Seriously, just the line up of children and young adult programming on T.V.;

the MTV channel hosting music vids all day long;

HBO showing R-rated movies;

Big Wheel tricycles;

80s (now retro) music including industrial, emo, punk rock, new wave /new age, alternative rock;

Don Bluth animated films;

Jim Henson films made with muppets;

creature effects instead of fake, unbelieveable C.G.I.;

epic James Cameron and Ridley Scott sci-fi /fantasy films;

Star Trek - The Next Generation;

people getting into the habit of actually wearing their seat belt when in a car;

cheap automotive fuel;

Billy Joel "We Didn't Start The Fire";

Dr. f*cking Pepper.

I really got sick of being afraid of this thing called A.I.D.S. though and crying over Magic Johnson.


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## Flash FM

Ah, the 1980's! A time in which Margaret Thatcher sold off everything that wasn't bolted down, when mobile phones were the size of a briefcase and when everyone east of the River Oder wore red pyjamas and wanted to crush you. It was a magical time, all right. Let's have a dig around in the old noggin and see what I can remember. 

As I was but a small boy during this decade, my socialising options were rather limited, but that did not stop me from enjoying myself on occasion. I spent a lot of my down time surrounded by Lego bricks. You see, back then we didn't have cynical corporate tie-ins like Lego Harry Potter, Lego Twilight or Lego Jersey Shore, so we had to actually use our imaginations and build something. When I wasn't constructing castles or torturing small animals, I could often be found playing on my ZX Spectrum 128. Primitive by today's standards, the Spectrum took about half an hour to load a game, all the while making an awful screeching sound that brought to mind the paroxysms of an asthmatic cat trying to pass a kidney stone. The games themselves were usually insanely difficult and crashed three times out of five. Back then, there were many more independent games publishers – indeed, any spotty Herbert could design a game from the comfort of his bedroom. Nowadays, you can't get a foot in the door unless you're under the yoke of those crypto-fascists at Electronic Arts.


Each generation looks to its heroes for guidance and inspiration and the Eighties were no exception. Our icons were, in no particular order: Mr. T, Grace Jones, Ken Hom, The Fonz, Max Headroom, Gordon Gecko and Roland Rat. Every Eighties movie worth its salt had to include some sort of montage, whereby the protagonist turns from zero to hero accompanied by motivational music from Kenny Loggins. Thirty years ago, no woman would dare be seen in public without an outrageous perm, shoulder pads and perfume strong enough to wilt flowers 30 metres away. We males could also affect the poodle look, but a simple mullet 'n' moustache combo was more common. Truly, we were living Adonises back then. 


It was the age of the Power Ballad, when bouffant pop stars would tug at our heart strings in soft focus and, at some point during their videos, a glass goblet would fall down and shatter in slow motion. After Live Aid, everyone had to pretend to feel guilty about starving Ethiopians between mid-December and early January. The government made terrifying public information films warning children not to trust strangers/play near rivers/touch stray dogs/leave the house, so we're now safe from harm but allergic to fresh air. Special needs people were known as 'spastics' (no, really). The World Wide Web hadn't been invented, so nobody knew anything. It was possible to get one's money for nothing and cheques for free. Young boys everywhere tuned into _He-Man_, a TV show in which a tanned, half-naked hero showed off his muscles and winked at the camera. Made me into the man I am today.



So there you have it: the Eighties. I daresay we won't see the like of that decade again for at least another 68 years.


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## GenXer

eros5th said:


> I didn't grow up in the 80's but personally I see it as being dark, depressing, and incredibly cheesy. I mean big curly hair, neon colors, football player shoulder pads, hair metal bands... There's only a few things I like about it. ACDC, Metallica, Joan Jett, and Siouxsie and the Banshees come to mind. Pop I think was cheesy as hell too. Like something you'd hear in a super nintendo video game.


You didn't grow up in the 1980s, I did. The 1980s wasn't dark , depressing, and cheesy. Where did you get that from? You wanna know what's dark and depressing? How about the Columbine shootings (your era) to the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacres of just days ago? We didn't have 9/11 either when I was pre-teen/teenager of the 1980s. The 1980s were the Yuppy years, bright neon colors, ultra-patriotism under Ronald Reagan (that's why Red Dawn, Firefox, Rambo, Top Gun, and etc were box office hits), and we had jobs back then. Nobody talked about fiscal cliffs and we didn't have a GREAT RECESSION either (1981 and 1987 were nothing compared to what happened from 2007 to now). Depressing? Really? The 1980s were a golden age for a lot of us. We had MTV, the Atari 2600, Nintendo, hung out with friends at the mall (no Facebook then), we enjoyed the Lakers vs. Celtics, my 49ers were dominating, Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson entertained us (nobody was depressed watching Motown 25 and the birth of the Moonwalk), all the teenagers wanted to be like the "Material Girl", the boys wanted to be break dancers, head bangers, or rap artists, and lastly , we saw the beginning of the collapse of the U.S.S.R in the late 80s and into the early 1990s. The Cold War ended there. That's depressing? We didn't have an obesity problem like we do now. Kids then were active and not blogging on the computer or twitting like we do now. People then didn't walk around staring at their phones. We weren't zombies like folks today. Look around you now? That's depressing!!! Maybe we should have started taking prozac then as kids like in your generation along with Ritalin since we grew up in a "depressing" time.


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## GenXer

ljroth said:


> Growing up in the 80's prepared us for the 90's. Everything kinda sucked in the 80's: Duran Duran, Big Hair, Reagan. So we had to rise up and revolt in our own 90's underground way: Nirvana, Dredlocks, Clinton. It was fun


I beg to differ. I had fun in the 1980s and RONALD REAGAN TRUMPS Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush W, and Obama. Reagan ended the Cold War and ended the 1970s economic funk! Clinton benefited from what Reagan completed back in the 1980s. What? You weren't into the 1980s pop culture like the rest of us Gen X kids? Clinton cheating on his wife by getting head job from an intern is something your proud of from a POTUS? No wonder the future is bleak for future generations. Clinton should have hunted the Taliban down after the 1993 WTC attacks. He didn't do squat and let Osama orchestrate the 9/11 attacks even though Bush was president by then. Also, please don't use the stereotype that all Generation Xers wore flannel and listened to The Pixies or Nirvana (A lot of Generation Xers grew up with break dancing, Rap, Hip Hop, and New Jack Swing. That's Gen X for this city kid.) and we were all depressed, angry, cynical, and out of luck because of the 1991 recession. I had a job then , served my country, didn't whine, and I made do with what was presented to me.


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## spfrss2

The music says a lot about it. It reflects, what is to me, the idea that the 80's were something of a diversion from the counter-culture movement by which our current culture has been profoundly affected and which began in the 60's and - to some extent - picked back up in the 90's. Spend some time listening to some Stones, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, etc. Then - as best you can - try to endure some Phil Collins, Kajagoogoo, Bon Jovi and Ratt. Then maybe some Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana & Pearl Jam. These might not be the best suggestions, but they should give you an idea. We didn't have a lot in common with the previous or latter generations, both of which seem to have much more in common with one another. Looking back, it feels like we were somewhat isolated, which could be positive or negative, depending on one's perspective.


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## All in Twilight

I think this explains it all...coking with Maradona and cooking programs were nowhere to be seen on TV...unless you consider this to be a cooking program...






Ben Elton and MTV ftw.


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## All in Twilight

Ningsta Kitty said:


> 1. you were allowed to run around and play outside with no supervision as early as 5.
> The whole neighborhood was filled with children and their siblings and you always had something fun to do. Climbing trees, forts, neighborhood snow ball fights, trading baseball cards with shitty gum....
> 
> 
> ...Definitely feels like younger generations kinda got the short end of the stick.
> They grow up so fast ... and I'm not sure they would if they knew otherwise.


This made me smile today. Thanks.


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## CoopV

GenXer said:


> You didn't grow up in the 1980s, I did. The 1980s wasn't dark , depressing, and cheesy. Where did you get that from? You wanna know what's dark and depressing? How about the Columbine shootings (your era) to the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacres of just days ago? We didn't have 9/11 either when I was pre-teen/teenager of the 1980s. The 1980s were the Yuppy years, bright neon colors, ultra-patriotism under Ronald Reagan (that's why Red Dawn, Firefox, Rambo, Top Gun, and etc were box office hits), and we had jobs back then. Nobody talked about fiscal cliffs and we didn't have a GREAT RECESSION either (1981 and 1987 were nothing compared to what happened from 2007 to now). Depressing? Really? The 1980s were a golden age for a lot of us. We had MTV, the Atari 2600, Nintendo, hung out with friends at the mall (no Facebook then), we enjoyed the Lakers vs. Celtics, my 49ers were dominating, Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson entertained us (nobody was depressed watching Motown 25 and the birth of the Moonwalk), all the teenagers wanted to be like the "Material Girl", the boys wanted to be break dancers, head bangers, or rap artists, and lastly , we saw the beginning of the collapse of the U.S.S.R in the late 80s and into the early 1990s. The Cold War ended there. That's depressing? We didn't have an obesity problem like we do now. Kids then were active and not blogging on the computer or twitting like we do now. People then didn't walk around staring at their phones. We weren't zombies like folks today. Look around you now? That's depressing!!! Maybe we should have started taking prozac then as kids like in your generation along with Ritalin since we grew up in a "depressing" time.


Why did they have such dark themes then? Like "Like a Virgin" and "Thriller." I just see ALOT of dark themes when I watch music videos from the 80s.


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## GenXer

eros5th said:


> Why did they have such dark themes then? Like "Like a Virgin" and "Thriller." I just see ALOT of dark themes when I watch music videos from the 80s.


????



Okay, so I guess the B-52's singing "love shack" is dark?

Is Cyndi Lauper's "Girls just want to have fun" considered dark?

Is Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" dark?

Is Billy Joel's "Uptown girl" dark?

Is Whitney Houston's "I wanna dance with somebody" dark?

Is Quiet Riot's "Cum on feel the noize" dark?

Is that song from the Go-Gos "Head over heels" dark?

Is Joan Jett's "I love rock & roll" dark?

Is Salt N Pepa's "Push it" dark?

Is Motley Crue's "Girl, girls, girls," dark?

Robert Palmer's "Simply irresistible" considred dark?

Van Halen's "Jump" a dark music?

Pointer Sister's "I'm so excited" dark?

Pointer Sister's "Jump (for my love)" dark?

Cool and the gang's "celebration" considered dark as well?

Marvin Gaye's "Sexual healing" dark?

New Edition's "Cool it now" dark?

Michael Jackson's "Rock with you" dark?

You're just cherry picking songs to support your argument. Sure, the 1980s had dark times. Heck, I'll even give you an example. Back in 1983, the whole country was riveted and moved by the movie "The Day After." A movie about a nuclear holocaust caused by the U.S. and USSR finally pushing that button despite "MAD." We also had AIDS and crack cocaine epidemics to deal with, but for the most part, the 1980s was about having fun. You also have to remember that during this period, children were being coddled vs the 1970s when all of us Gen X kids were the satan's offsprings. That's dark? What? You watched "Nighmare on Elm Street" and you think that's the 1980s? lol. I personally think "Footloose" reflected the 1980s. What about Pee-Wee Herman ?


Check out the polls. Most people voted to have lived in the 1980s if they could have lived in any decade. That should tell you something.


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## CoopV

GenXer said:


> ????
> 
> 
> 
> Okay, so I guess the B-52's singing "love shack" is dark?
> 
> Is Cyndi Lauper's "Girls just want to have fun" considered dark?
> 
> Is Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" dark?
> 
> Is Billy Joel's "Uptown girl" dark?
> 
> Is Whitney Houston's "I wanna dance with somebody" dark?
> 
> Is Quiet Riot's "Cum on feel the noize" dark?
> 
> Is that song from the Go-Gos "Head over heels" dark?
> 
> Is Joan Jett's "I love rock & roll" dark?
> 
> Is Salt N Pepa's "Push it" dark?
> 
> Is Motley Crue's "Girl, girls, girls," dark?
> 
> Robert Palmer's "Simply irresistible" considred dark?
> 
> Van Halen's "Jump" a dark music?
> 
> Pointer Sister's "I'm so excited" dark?
> 
> Pointer Sister's "Jump (for my love)" dark?
> 
> Cool and the gang's "celebration" considered dark as well?
> 
> Marvin Gaye's "Sexual healing" dark?
> 
> New Edition's "Cool it now" dark?
> 
> Michael Jackson's "Rock with you" dark?
> 
> You're just cherry picking songs to support your argument. Sure, the 1980s had dark times. Heck, I'll even give you an example. Back in 1983, the whole country was riveted and moved by the movie "The Day After." A movie about a nuclear holocaust caused by the U.S. and USSR finally pushing that button despite "MAD." We also had AIDS and crack cocaine epidemics to deal with, but for the most part, the 1980s was about having fun. You also have to remember that during this period, children were being coddled vs the 1970s when all of us Gen X kids were the satan's offsprings. That's dark? What? You watched "Nighmare on Elm Street" and you think that's the 1980s? lol. I personally think "Footloose" reflected the 1980s. What about Pee-Wee Herman ?
> 
> 
> Check out the polls. Most people voted to have lived in the 1980s if they could have lived in any decade. That should tell you something.


Oh that reminds me.. Joan Jett was totally dark too and the hair metal bands too. Pointer Sisters also remind me of night time and neon lights. 

Honestly the 80s to me remind me of darkness, neon lights and colors, and cheesy big hair. I don't see sunlight very often when I see videos from the 80s.


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## GenXer

eros5th said:


> Oh that reminds me.. Joan Jett was totally dark too and the hair metal bands too. Pointer Sisters also remind me of night time and neon lights.
> 
> Honestly the 80s to me remind me of darkness, neon lights and colors, and cheesy big hair. I don't see sunlight very often when I see videos from the 80s.


Yeah, well, since you never lived in the 1980s, all I can tell you is that the 1980s wasn't dark. That was my favorite decade and I wasn't some toddler in diapers who barely remembers the 1980s. I was a pre-teen/ teenager back in the 1980s, so I remember 1980 to 1989 fondly and clearly.


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## CoopV

GenXer said:


> That was my favorite decade and I wasn't some toddler in diapers who barely remembers the 1980s.


Actually I didn't exist in the 80s lol

But I have fond memories of the 90s so it's all good. 1998-2000 was amazing..


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## magi83

I was born in '83 so my memories of the 80s are through young kid rose tinted spectacles...so to me it still seems like this mystical time.

Some of the films I watched as a kid during this era are still great to watch today - The Princess Bride, The Goonies, Labyrinth.

I still have a load of great toys from this era in a box somewhere including a large number of G1 Transformers. I also still have a Sega Master System lying around somewhere too.

I generally think the music from this era is fantastic - the pop and the alternative. There are loads of great one hit wonders but also a large number of fantastic rock albums. Bands like R.E.M., Sonic Youth and the Pixies produced their best stuff in this decade. There was an explosion of creativity in Heavy Metal (ignoring the hair bands) that lasted all the way through til the early 90s.


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## Thalassa

I can't wait to respond to this thread. Space held for meeeee.


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## Type B

eros5th said:


> Why did they have such dark themes then? Like "Like a Virgin" and "Thriller." I just see ALOT of dark themes when I watch music videos from the 80s.


Like there were no dark themed videos in the 90's? Please. Or were you just not old enough to remember those either?

Besides, people should never look to music videos of all things to dictate to others what an entire decade was like. Especially if they weren't even around during said decade.


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## Type B

goodgracesbadinfluence said:


> That's really self-explanatory but I would like as many details as possible. What did you guys do for fun? What was pop culture like? What was happening in the world? What sort of music was popular? What was elementary school/high school/college like? What did you wear? Did you really love this decade or did you despise it?
> 
> I promise, the smallest detail will interest me. I was born in 1991 so it's like I was so close but so far away, and it really intrigues me.
> 
> Also this is not the place to go "ZOMG MY GENERATION ROX!!!11"
> 
> No. Just no. Please be factual and a little nostalgic.
> 
> Thanks!


One of the things we did for fun was play video games, just like you kids do today. Except we were playing them when video gaming was new to the world. There was an entire generation of children who grew up playing video games back then, and today, we're all in our 30's and 40's. And video games were simple back then. Just pop in a cartridge and push the POWER button. Hell, games were even simple back in 2000. Now you have to put in a game, and wait to download updates and shit before you can play it. Wait for a game to load. It reminds me so much of computer gaming. If I wanted to play a game on a computer, I'd buy it for the computer. 

Today, popular games are all about how many graphics can be shoved down your throat, and first person shooting. Run, shoot, rinse repeat. 

And the arcades. Man, I loved arcades. Now they're all but dead. Back in the 80's, you'd play a game in an arcade and wait for it to come out for the Nintendo or Sega later on. The ports sometimes sucked, but you learned to live with it. These days, a home console port could be so true to it's arcade original, but it's something that isn't done. Sucks.

We also played outside and used our imaginations. And we watched t.v. during the daytime when there was children's programming on. You could come home from school and watch cartoons at 3, 4 and 5 pm, and you didn't need cable to do that!

We also didn't wait around to be entertained. I see a lot of children today complaining of boredom, expecting the adults to give them something *fun* to do. When my brothers kids do that, I shove them outside and tell them to *play*. I point to shovels, rocks, bushes, and then I close the door and tell them to stay out until dinner time. 

Music that was popular..... New Wave, Alternative, rap. If you can find it, look on youtube for clips from a show called Friday Night Videos. It debuted in 1983 and stayed on for many years. This will give you an idea of songs that were popular back then. And as far as listening to music, you either heard a song on the radio or by watching a music video on t.v. Or you bought the cassette. Or vinyl (CD's were too expensive). No iTunes or youtube back then.

Oh yeah, we also wrote words and love letters with pencil and paper. We didn't have email and texting back then. We also had to memorize phone numbers because we didn't have cell phones to store them on.


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## GenXer

Type B said:


> Like there were no dark themed videos in the 90's? Please. Or were you just not old enough to remember those either?
> 
> Besides, people should never look to music videos of all things to dictate to others what an entire decade was like. Especially if they weren't even around during said decade.


Exactly. When 1991 rolled around, that was the beginning Grunge and Rap artist like 2pac and Biggie Smalls. They weren't exactly musicians blowing sunshine up people's you know what. Read the lyrics of Greenday's "Dokie" album. They were pretty depressing.


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## GenXer

magi83 said:


> I was born in '83 so my memories of the 80s are through young kid rose tinted spectacles...so to me it still seems like this mystical time.
> 
> Some of the films I watched as a kid during this era are still great to watch today - The Princess Bride, The Goonies, Labyrinth.
> 
> I still have a load of great toys from this era in a box somewhere including a large number of G1 Transformers. I also still have a Sega Master System lying around somewhere too.
> 
> I generally think the music from this era is fantastic - the pop and the alternative. There are loads of great one hit wonders but also a large number of fantastic rock albums. Bands like R.E.M., Sonic Youth and the Pixies produced their best stuff in this decade. There was an explosion of creativity in Heavy Metal (ignoring the hair bands) that lasted all the way through til the early 90s.


You can't beat the variety of music genres of the 1980s. If you like rock, the 1980s had that. If you like rap, break dancing, and hip-hop, the 1980s had that. If you like R&B, the 1980s had that. If you like punk, the 1980s had that. If you like metal, the 80s had that. If you like New Wave, only the 1980s had that. Heck, country artist like Garth Brooks started off in the late 1980s. When it comes to the 1980s, what decade except maybe the 1960s and 1970s can beat artist like Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Elton John, George Michael, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Marvin Gaye, U2, INXS, and etc? The "Thriller" album by MJ is the best selling album of all time. 

If you ask me, the peak of music shot up from the 1950s with the boppers and peaked in the 1980s. It then plateaued in the early 1990s and mid 1990s and went to hell with Britney Spears (think Madonna and Janet Jackson) and all that non-sense autotune crap. Katy Perry, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Justin Beaver, Alicia keys, Beyonce, Little Wayne, Soulja boy, Usher, and etc aren't that original to me.


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