Uggghhhhhh, the '80s.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

It's '80s Day at school, and to beat the freshmen's collective scrawny ass, I have donned the side pony with scrunchy, heinously overdone eyemakeup (shadow in bright blue, of course), high tops, tacky off-one-should shirt, and jean shorts. I am proud to say there was not a PAIR of legwarmers or even tight leggings in this house, and I had to scrounge to find the bright blue eyeshadow. Mi madre and I don't do '80s, glam or punk or New Wave or anything.

[Kutjara]

1. But what about the fingerless lace gloves!?!

No '80s ensemble is complete without them!

[DarkTirade]

2. Uh, like, omigosh! That is so totally out there.

[Omphaloskepsis]

3. Spray paint your clothes and go as the Berlin Wall.

Or go as Zelda, whatever.

[Deep13]

4. Remember in 1984 when everything went fluorescent? nt

[RoyGBiv]

5. My vision has been altered ...

I'm almost certain staring at all those fluorescent pinks and greens burned my retina. I'm suing.

[swag]

6. Be grateful you weren't around for them.

No really, I had a great time.

[Hugin]

11. I had a great time too...

After spending the entire Disco era hiding in a locked closet wearing my COTTON jeans and with my stash of actual
music... It was nice to have some sunlight and fresh air.

[driver8]

16. I was in college from 1981-1985 -- the 80's rocked!!

Oh, for life to be so simple again...

[MorningGlow]

31. Seconded, Driver8!

I graduated from high school in '83 and college in '87, and I LOVED the '80s--the music was incredible. I even enjoyed the fashions--nothing wrong with a bit of sartorial silliness. I am a proud '80s baby! :P

[fudge stripe cookays]

50. I'm with you guys.

Life seemed to be simpler then, even if the clothes were sillier!

[Taverner]

75. I was in HS from 84-86 and college from 87-92. I hated the 80's

Mindless conformity, praise of might over right, Christianity starting to run amok, war on drugs goes into overkill.

I miss the 90's.

[mitchum]

59. Absolutely! Mainstream 80s was wretched, but the underground was great

[johnnie]

7. I try very hard to forget the 80s

There were some cool things, but what that decade stood for and many of the styles and music was worth forgetting to me.

[Deep13]

8. bingo. nt

[Sequoia]

25. What, some of the music was great!

All those bands from England anyway...Thompson Twins, Depche Mode...etc. I listend to KROQ all the time, they had the cool music. But other music like Hall and Oats, Huey Lewis were terrible.some of

[Hugin]

9. Don't forget the humongous shoulder pads!

Stuffing a Queen sized sleeping pillow on each side should be sufficient.

Gads, don't you watch 'Dallas'? :eyes:

[AlCzervik]

10. hey at least for you it's only a day, some of us were in high school during the 80's.

[AllegroRondo]

12. and the poofy hair and bangs

even the guys had poofy hair.

[Hugin]

14. Feathered hair...

It was the 'dry' look. Sort've like the portrait of Jefferson on the 'new' money.

[AlCzervik]

39. "Mall hair" brought to you by Aqua-net.

[Aristus]

13. We had an '80's day a couple of years ago.

I wore a fluorescent-blue t-shirt, a sport coat with the sleeves rolled up, mirror Lennon sunglasses and a Walkman with earphones. I rocked! B-)

[Patiod]

15. I saw pictures of an "80's Day" and it was painful

because it looked like actual pictures in my photo album (well - that right there just dated me -- who has a hard copy "photo album" anymore?)

Also, the huge horn-rimmed glasses. And bad perms.

[RandomKoolzip]

17. Some of the best underground music ever came out of the 80's.

A truly comprehensive collection of rock music would be woefully incomplete without the works of Black Flag, Husker Du, Mission of Burma, the Minutemen, Squirrel Bait, Government Issue, Big Boys, The Embarrassment, Green, Dinosaur, Chain Gang, Half Japanese, Minor THreat, NoMeansNo, Glenn Branca, X, Saccharine Trust, Universal Congress Of, Descendents, Lydia Lunch, Dead Kennedys, Butthole Surfers, Alice Donut, The Misfits, Elliot Sharp, Bad Brains, The Dicks, thousands of others....etc.

Ever since the late 70's, the mainstream culture in America has produced mostly dross - but the 80's were a rich, varied, glorious time for music, if you weren't too lazy to go digging. You had to WORK to find this stuff back then, and the power of this music made it worth the effort.

In other words, don't discount an entire era because the conventional wisdom is simplistic and incomplete. For your 80's day, you could have gone dressed as Mike Watt (flannel shirt, jeans).

[Fire Walk With Me]

38. Gang of Four, Yello, Killing Joke, Skinny Puppy, Bauhaus...

The 80s were a mandatory explosion of art and subcultures. These are indeed about the only things from that time which remain of value to this day.

[ghostsofgiants]

43. Word.

[snailly]

82. Dammit, I can't believe I just swatted my monitor.

Freaking gnats and mosquitoes are making me crazy.

[tigereye]

76. and Mike Watt is still cool!

I only wore the spandex get-up once, for Halloween.

[MissMillie]

18. oh, I don't think any of that is any more painful than some of the other past fashions

and even some of the stuff they try to pass of as fashionable today.

I've seen some pics here at DU of celebrities wearing pants w/ such a low rise you begin to wonder why they bothered w/ pants at all.

it's all relative.

[driver8]

19. Some of the best music came from the 80's -- REM, the Replacements, U2,

the dB's. My brain is foggy right now, but the list is endless!

[SoxFan]

20. Echo & the Bunnymen, Translator,

Jason & the Scorchers, The Alarm, Waterboys, Hoodoo Gurus, Winter Hours, Midnight Oil, Connells, English Beat, Guadalcanal Diary, Long Ryders, Del Fuegos, X, Red Rockers, Sidewinders...

[driver8]

22. Oh yeah -- you mentioned a bunch of my favorites!! n/t

[Arugula Latte]

32. Oh yeah -- great list!

:toast:

I'm going to see the Waterboys in concert in November ... Can't wait! :woohoo:

[SoxFan]

73. H2Obhoys

I'm hoping to see them at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston, but the show is a couple of days before the local elections, which might present a problem!

[devilgrrl]

26. Agreed but everything else was stupid!

Ronald Reagan, the Brat Pack, Michael Jackson, MTV etc... Ugh! :eyes:

[Arugula Latte]

34. I guess you could say that about any time period. Like today.

BushII, Britney, Lindsay, "reality" shows, etc. :)

[devilgrrl]

62. The 80's started it.

Ronald Reagan - George H. Bush - George H.W. Bush

[Ishoutandscream2]

21. Worst Decade Ever

Music, politics, everything. Just the thought of that decade makes my stomach churn.

[sasquatch]

27. Agreed

:thumbsup:

[SoxFan]

29. No, that would be the Seventies

Watergate
Disco
Leisure Suits
Bucky F*****g Dent
Steely Dan
Peter Frampton
The Love Boat

A true kidney stone of a decade.

[Gormy Cuss]

35. The '80s had

Reagan. That alone made it worse than the '70s.
And it's brave of you to diss Steely Dan in a WIMR thread. Her user name could be SteelyDanIsMyReligion.

[Hugin]

37. The '70s had Nixon and the Viet Nam war.

[Gormy Cuss]

41. Yes, and both were ended in the '70s.

That's a plus.
The '80s and Reagan set the stage for the rise of the Bush clan.

[Jamastiene]

84. Ding Ding Ding Ding. We have a winner.

I wouldn't want to relive that decade for all the money in the world. I'm not even sure I'd want to relive that decade to get my dream girl. It was THAT bad.

[Maestro]

23. The early 80's was my teenage decade.

parachute pants, bandanas, skin tight jeans that gave way to pleated jeans :wow: gaudy bright colors, super baggy pants a la MC Hammer, upturned collared shirts, Member's Only jackets....ah yes, what a fashion decade!

[devilgrrl]

24. Blazers with shoulder pads - BIG hair

What a stupid decade that was.

[sasquatch]

28. Everytime I think of the 80's I remember one thing: Cocaine is one helluva drug

Henceforth that summons up everything that happened in the 1980's.

[IntravenousDemilo]

30. Worst. Decade. In. Music. Ever...

Shallow, vapid, immature, just like the times -- all style, no substance. Not even a patch on the psychedelic '60s and granola '70s.

[Arugula Latte]

36. You are wrong, Nostalgia Breath. There was great, innovative music being made in the 80s.

May a bloated yak change the temperature of your jacuzzi.



;)

[IntravenousDemilo]

44. I am so fucking old...!

...but I suspect that I'm not wrong.

ETA: On reflection, there was some innovative music in the '80s, after all -- the decade did give us Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and March of the Falsettos on Broadway, but on the other hand it also gave us Cats and Phantom of the Opera, which are typical overblown '80s dreck.

And as for '80s pop, meh...

[ghostsofgiants]

87. No, you're definitely wrong.

Husker Du, Rites of Spring, Public Image Ltd., Gang of Four, X, Bad Brains, Mission of Burma, Psychedelic Furs, The Smiths, Joy Division (well, kind of, Ian died in '80 but they released music after his death), Killing Joke, assloads of other bands mentioned elsewhere in the thread.

[IntravenousDemilo]

92. OK, if you say so.

You realize of course that, in time, Pop Will Eat Itself just as hardcore punk eventually (and thankfully) did.

I just happen to think that compared with the decade before and after, the 1980s were a kind of musical black hole. Yes, I prefer the music of my 30s to that of my 20s. Don't laugh, now...

[LanternWaste]

40. Hey-- that's how I feel about all the music post-80's

Hey-- that's how I feel about all the post-80's music.

:evilgrin:

[SteppingRazor]

47. Yeah, you're right. Nothing innovative or substantive about Sonic Youth...

or Pixies, or Beastie Boys, or Talking Heads, or The Smiths, or early R.E.M., or (have I made my point yet? No? All right then...) Tom Waits, or Public Enemy, or New Order, or The Replacements, or Elvis Costello, or Jesus and Mary Chain, or My Bloody Valentine, or (Still need more? All right...) The Pogues, or Dinosaur Jr., or NWA, or The Violent Femmes, or The Cure

pant, pant, pant.

Well, I think the point's made. I can give you another few dozen examples if you really need them though.

My basic point is this: Yes, some 80s music sucked. A lot of it was brilliant. The same can be said for any decade.

[IntravenousDemilo]

48. I'll give you Talking Heads, early REM, and Tom Waits. And MAYBE The Pogues.

The rest either bore me silly or turn me right off for various reasons, because the music is either derivative or overhyped or tuneless.

[fudge stripe cookays]

52. You weren't...

listening to the right thing then, hun.

There was more to the 80s than Madonna and Mr. Mister.

[IntravenousDemilo]

53. Nah, I heard it all. In the 1980s I was a) in my 20s, and b) a music student. n/m

[fudge stripe cookays]

56. That's impossible

I'm STILL finding stuff I didn't hear at the time, and think "That's brilliant. Why wasn't I listening to these guys, then?"

:P

[IntravenousDemilo]

57. Nothing's impossible...

...for a music student with a voracious appetite for songs. As a composer, I can't afford to be unfamiliar with any artist or style, because I don't know what I'll be called upon to write next.

[fudge stripe cookays]

60. Ooh! Ooh!

:bounce:

Write me a song! Write me a song!

[IntravenousDemilo]

61. Ah, Mr... Horshack... is it?

You'll have to gimme a topic and some particulars you want worked into the lyric -- something to go on.

[fudge stripe cookays]

64. That's MS Horshack to you, buddy.

:D

Write me a song about poutine. Yeah! That's it! A poutine song!

When ya coming down to visit terry again so we can meetcha? I'm up in the Midwest now, so wanna hang out next time. Then you can sing me my poutine song in person.

[IntravenousDemilo]

67. "Oh, sorry, I have a cold..." (guess the TV show and you'll get the reference)

I've never eaten poutine, and the thought of it is really off-putting, but I'll try.

I was just down in Chicago during Labour Day week, and the two of us met up with a whole bunch of DUers. We should have called you, too. Dang...

[fudge stripe cookays]

72. I wasn't up yet.

Moved up here a couple days after Labor Day (sorry "Labour Day") :D

So ya'll will have to give me a shout next time. :hi:

[IntravenousDemilo]

74. Missed it by THAT MUCH!

Sorry about that, Chief.

[fudge stripe cookays]

81. No worries, eh?

Now you go run along and get musical. ;-)

[driver8]

80. Ha Ha -- Mr Horseshack!! Now that's funny!! n/t

[Yavin4]

33. The 80s Sucked. Why? Three Words

President Ronald Reagan.

[Ishoutandscream2]

49. Yep. I hated the 80's in so many ways

But those three words sum it up quite nicely.

[otherlander]

55. *shudder*

Indeed. Even the incredible awesomeness of the Clash and the Dead Kennedys only begins to redeem that decade...:scared:

[NewWaveChick1981]

42. Heyyyy....don't trash the 80s....

Yeah, there was all kinds of crap, like the Reagan era, but I enjoyed the 80s. :) I had big 80s hair and wore Spandex to concerts and all that....but it was a lot of fun. :P My user name should tell you a lot. :rofl:

[LanternWaste]

45. I can't help myself--

I can't help myself-- I thought the girls wearing Gloria Vanderbilts and fuzzy pink sweaters were the best. :P

I still have my Members Only jacket hanging in my closet. Although I haven't the courage yet to wear it in public, I'm working on it; and when I do muster the heroic pluck for my fashion faux-pas, I'll show up at your door, with a serious scent of Polo going on... :evilgrin:

[Hugin]

46. MembersOnly!

:thumbsup:

[RubyDuby in GA]

51. All I have to say is: Hypercolor!

http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/pop/hypercolor.htm

I totally had a t-shirt (and a pair of socks...weird item)

[DarkTirade]

94. I had one of those...

when I got it, kids would make excuses to go wash their hands in class, then not dry them so they could flick water at me as they passed by and see the shirt change color. Got kind of annoying. :)

[Oeditpus Rex]

54. What?

No pics? :shrug:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

65. I wrote that 3 minutes before my bus came.

:P :P

[Oeditpus Rex]

66. So what's your excuse now?

:shrug:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

68. I'm not wearing it anymore?

I don't stay in that stuff very long.

[Oeditpus Rex]

70. Oh, you're no fun anymore!

[Mythsaje]

58. Hah...

In the eighties I wore VERY long hair, combat boots, and camo jacket over jeans.

There were a few advantages to being a metalhead (obviously not avoiding the police).

[BlooInBloo]

63. She's a manic, MANIAC - and she dances like she's never danced before!

:rofl:

[idgiehkt]

85. that's exactly the earworm I got when I read this OP

I despised that song with every fiber of my being and all I could think about was the painful shin splints she must have gotten from jogging in place like that in ballet shoes

[mentalsolstice]

69. That decade had no redeeming qualities, whatsoever! eom

[Mythsaje]

71. Queensryche

Megadeth
Metallica
Savatage
Judas Priest
Iron Maiden
The Clash
The Police
Concrete Blonde


Shall I continue?

[mentalsolstice]

77. Exactly, you made my point! n/t

[Hawaii Hiker]

88. How about "The Fixx"

of "One Thing Leads to Another" & my favorite song you never heard of from the 1980's, "Saved By Zero"....

[Cabcere]

83. I would have to disagree with you, there -

*I* was born in 1986. ;) :evilgrin:

(I'm not really that full of myself - just being a smartass.) :hi: Peace.

[ghostsofgiants]

86. I was born in the 80s.

Therefore the 80s win.

[Jade Fox]

78. Great music, (some) great clothes...

Even the tacky 1980s clothes were interesting and imaginative. Today's fashions are so bland I can't even figure out what they are!

Politically, even tho the decade was dominated by Reagan, the resistance to him was in many ways far better than we've seen with Bush. People took the Iran/Contra scandal seriously, and supported the people's movements in Central America.

Sorry, I kind of liked the 80s!

[triguy46]

79. Me too.

[MiniMe]

89. I caught a showing of Working Girl on cable

I had forgotten about the HUGE hair and the HUGE shoulder pads.

[Awsi Dooger]

90. I loved the '80s

In fact, I still have feathered hair (what's left of it) and wear pleated jeans. I even have some Members Only jackets somewhere that I wear occasionally in winter. To hell with so-called contemporary fashion. I don't want to be a clone. Insecure morons make sure they are always in style. I like what I like and it's more '80s than anything else. Reagan was the horror of that decade and he's unavailable.

[annonymous]

91. I have mixed feelings about the 80's.

There was some great music but the clothes were awful. Anyone remember the businesswoman's power suit with the bow blouse and the linebacker shoulder pads or the "Flashdance" look of ripped sweatshirts and leggings?

The Religeous Right started influencing politics in the 80's, much to the detriment of the nation. I wasn't all that politically aware during the 80's because I was working and going to school part time, but Jerry Falwell really creeped me out.

[alphafemale]

93. The 80's were Fun. It was pretty much a free-for-all as far as fashion was concerned.

That was reflected in some of the off-the-rack stuff that became outlandish.

But there was great acceptance for people experimenting with their looks.

And guys had much more leeway with androgenous looks I think.