Face It, The 80s Sucked

[Yavin4]

Music, movies, TV, clothes, everything. It all sucked. It all sucked big time. Oh yeah, Reagan was president.

[grace0418]

1. I'll agree with you on the President sucking but since Crowded House

and the Smiths were both products of the 80s, I totally disagree with you on the music. They are my #1 and #2 favorite bands. And many other 80s bands would make my top 50 list.

[Call Me Wesley]

2. Really?

And I thought the 80's had hair like your avatar ... ;)

[matcom]

3. graduated high school in 87

was a 'metal-head' (Maiden, Priest, etc...) , wore the clothes, did way too many drugs, loved the girls with '80's hair'

i'll take the 80's over the shit today (maybe not the clothes) :D

[mikeytherat]

5. Class of '85, Judas Priest, girls with bike shorts+mini skirts, good bud

Yeah. I kinda liked the 80s

mikey_the_rat

[xmas74]

14. Would you take the hair back?

I've been hoping for a resurrection of the 80's hair. Some of my little Girl Scouts are wearing clothes that were popular then, why not the hair?

I had the perfect 80's hair.

[matcom]

17. 80's hair was friggen HOT

STILL turns me on

[xmas74]

21. I have plenty of thick, frizzy hair.

A can of hairspray w/o combing anything and I was on my way.

I miss the 80's!

[ImNotBuying]

59. Yes

I'd love to sport my old Billy Idol spiked 80's hair do again, but now I've GOT NO HAIR! Growing old and bald has its drawbacks sometimes.

[xmas74]

61. I loved my 80's hair

and I really miss it now. So easy for me to style.

[ET Awful]

24. I would have graduated in '87 if I hadn't dropped out and joined the Army

:P

[no name no slogan]

27. me too-- class o' '87

and yeah, we may have dressed stupid, but at least we didn't look dress like pimps from "Starsky & Hutch" reruns.

[Kat45]

42. Hey Matt, did you wear spandex pants to the metal shows?

Matcom's ass in spandex pants........ :yourock:

[matcom]

46. bet yo ass i did

and studded wrist bands :D

[ProfessorGAC]

62. I Wore Spandex In A Glam Band

Not metal though! Just fey and androgeny.
The Professor

[CBGLuthier]

4. Hmm

Well theres's...


No,

What about...

No.

Cheers was a good show. That's about it though.

[Sequoia]

6. Not the music!!

The music was terrific, at least the music from England sure was. Do I need to name names? Fashion, yes, pretty bad with those rolled up sleeves, half-shaved guys, no socks, (That Miami Vice look), hair styles..crappy, president....crappy, gas prices...good.

[meegbear]

50. Two words. Phil. Collins.

[Sequoia]

57. Okay...I'll allow you that one.

Cringe. But those Thompson Twins, Dephe Mode, Tears of Fears, The Smiths, Sparks (quirky)...well they were damn fine!

[texas1928]

7. Class of 90

Loved the 80's it was fun.

[skygazer]

8. Class of '79 here

Have to agree with you. Disco gave the 70's a bad name but that was a flash in the pan - the 70's were the golden ages of rock and roll. And what else is there, really?

[hfojvt]

12. being from a small western town

I really did not hear alot of the 1970s music until I went to college in the 1980s. The 1980s also gave us the "Miracle on Ice" and Joe Montana. I certainly have not been impressed with the 1990s or 2000s. In the 1980s we had Tip O'Neill, compared to Newt Gingrich in the 1990s and Dennis Hastert in 2000s. Star Trek movies and Back to the Future and the Breakfast Club. I think there are some good 80s movies.

[SLCPUNK]

9. Oh c'mon now.

How bad does music suck today? It is horrible!

How many huge stars came out of that era vs today?

The clothes however.........

[Jamastiene]

10. .

Couldn't agree with you more. Punk fan here. Grew up in that hideous decade. Punk was hard to find then. Graduated in '88 and had zero fun in high school. I was jealous of those who got to graduate in the early 90's because of Nirvana/grunge/punk and the attitudes changed so much in that short amount of time. I thought the kids that were younger than me by about 5 years were fucking great. I barely could stand the ones in my own age group because they were all trying to out-Republican each other. The 80's were waaaaaaay too conservative and icky to me. Hated the clothes except Lip Service jeans. That's about it. I hated the music except what watered down alternative was allowed to get through to mainstream. I did love Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest back in the day, but they weren't quite the same thing as Motley Crue or Cinderella or any of that stuff that was on television ALL THE TIME. That stuff was annoying, not like the good metal. Also, the hair. I spent I don't know how many mornings in school sneezing and trying to catch my breath from the smell of all that hairspray and other hair goo they used to make their hair look all bad like that. I still like punk better, hair or lack of it, and all. Always have, always will. The 80's sucked to me too.

[xmas74]

16. Class of '93.

I had plenty of the 80's in jr high school.

We differ on one thing-I do miss the hair!

[LeftofU]

29. Um....what about the dead kennedys, black flag, the circle jerks...

naked raygun, jodie fosters army, flipper, bad brains,ect....
yeah,the eighties had no punk music.

[AngryAmish]

56. X

Husker Du.....

[RetroLounge]

11. Since I was pretty much drunk and stoned

from 1979 until 1990, I can't really say.

But I believe I really enjoyed most of the 80's...

RL

[taterguy]

13. Loosen up, Sandy baby, you're too tight

Name another decade where someone got away with saying that to a Supreme Court Justice and I might reconsider my opinion that you're just someone who doesn't know where to look for the glimmers of greatness that always exist.

[Cannikin]

15. The 80s pop MTV culture was great

[Deja Q]

19. Style over substance. And the effects are only worse today.

:(

[azmouse]

18. I got married in '87.

So for me, overall the 80's weren't so bad... except for the president.

[CanuckAmok]

20. two words: Span dex.

.

[tuvor]

35. Where the hell have YOU been?

Nice to see you back, CA! :hi:

[CanuckAmok]

22. .

[xmas74]

28. But I loved my Aquanet!

How else could I get my bangs to stand so damn high?

[OhioBlue]

36. lol

loved my Aquanet too! I think I can still smell it.

[xmas74]

38. I do believe there is a hole in the ozone over

my former home. Aquanet was a godsend.

[trof]

23. I think the 70s blew so bad

it made the 80s look like they sucked.

[CanuckAmok]

25. yeah, the 70s were way worse.

Macrame. Apathy. Hands Across America. Horrible, horrible fashions and architecture. OPEC.

Why is 70s nostalgia still so big?! It's been over fifteen years and no sign of stopping.

[Hissyspit]

54. But the '70s had an excuse. The '80s should have known better.

[Orsino]

26. Beats the Bush II era.

It takes a real screw-up to make me nostalgic for Reagan.

[LostinVA]

30. I smoked lots of good pot and had lots of good sex in dorm rooms

to lots of good Billy Idol and U2 during the 80's...

[JitterbugPerfume]

31. everything about that stupid decade sucked

'cept the rock'n roll

[Ariana Celeste]

32. I beg to differ.

Primus. That is all.

[tuvor]

33. All decades suck.

If you don't know where to look.

[ChoralScholar]

34. Hey!!! without the 80's, I'd only be 18, instead of 28.

Maybe that'd be a good thing.

[GirlinContempt]

37. Face It, You're Wrong

[Yavin4]

39. Here Are Some Other 80s Gifts

Crack cocaine, skyrocketing homicides, and the birth of AIDs.

[GirlinContempt]

40. Three of the earliest known instances of HIV infection are as follows:

A plasma sample taken in 1959 from an adult male living in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo <72>.
HIV found in tissue samples from an American teenager who died in St. Louis in 1969.
HIV found in tissue samples from a Norwegian sailor who died around 1976.

[Left Is Write]

41. No, I don't have to face it, because I disagree.

I came of age in the 80s, and I graduated high school in 1984. I loved a lot of the clothes (certainly there were a lot of fashion mistakes in the 80s, but that's true of any decade). Loved much of the music. Two of my favorite movies ever came out in the 80s: Fast Times At Ridgemont High and The Breakfast Club. I had my first child in 1987.

[RevolutionaryActs]

43. I was born in the 80's, so therefore the 80's were fantastic!

:7 :silly:


Actually I think there was some really great music, movies and TV during the 80s. Sure there was a lot of crap, but that can be said about any decade.


Although, I will admit the cloths were pretty bad. :P

[carpetbagger]

44. Early 80s good, late 80s bad.

While I'm partial to early 70s and early 90s, the music scene from 1980-85 or so was pretty good. Disco was dead, and like mammals after the comet, new wave/punk-influenced bands put out some decent stuff, and radio playlists were still generalized enough to have a rich depth of crossovers from what are now walled-off genres. It was after about '86 or so that the older rock stars faded away, rock and metal got shunted away from the pop scene, and dance music infested what was left.

TV and movies were much better earlier in the decade. The SNL casts, both from the Martin-Chase-Murray and Murphy-Piscapo days, were in their prime movie-making years, and there were still a good number of 70s sitcoms left.

The preppy thing was annoying, but the greed factor, oddly enough, wasn't as bad as it is now. TV preachers were still marginalized characters on the scene, and Reagan was hemmed in by congressional democrats.

[Richard Steele]

45. Back in the 80s, MUSIC ROCKED!!!!!!!!

If you were some spaz who only listened to commercial radio,
then you missed some of the greatest shit ever recorded.
The greatest flowering of musical genius since the 60s.

And, as the 70s followed the 60s,
so the 90s repeated history AGAIN.

The 90s music is what SUCKED; just a sanitized rehash of all
that was great but unknown in the 80s.

[Clintmax]

47. Ummm...NO THEY DIDN'T!

:spank:
I freakin' LOVED the 80's...with the sole exception of Reagan. The music rocked! Still does!

[hyphenate]

48. I wouldn't say it was horrible

so much. Anything (musically) had to be better than Disco. I pretty much spent the 70s listening to fading 60s bands, John Denver and other socially relevant artists and the beginnings of a solid affection for classical music. TV introduced us to many long lasting shows that had good messages--MacGyver, of course was my favorite, but ST:TNG was another.

The music of the 80s brought some light back into my life--Rock/pop suddenly was halfway decent for me.

Government was fucked up, yes--but not more so than today. It's sometimes difficult to sense the "good things" when we're living through so many "bad things" but to be honest, the 80s had the last vestiges of limited communication--we should have relished some of those last days when personal computers still only existed in the minds of programmers, geeks and nerds.

[HughBeaumont]

49. The clothes, TV and Politics sucked. But the music . . .

See, the music was bad if you listened to the mainstream and MTV, which paraded bands like Roxette, Cameo, post-rehab Aerosmith, Starship, Bon Jovi and Warrant around. What also happened in the 80s were bands like Husker Du, Soundgarden, the Swans, Black Flag, DOA, Helmet, Voivod, The Melvins, Scratch Acid, Run-DMC, Bongwater, Godflesh, St Vitus, Fishbone, the entire underground thrash/hardcore scene, Wax Trax in Chicago, Einsturzende Neubaten, The Butthole Surfers, Dead Kennedys, Urban Dance Squad, etc.

[aquaman]

51. No shit.....

You must look beyond the surface of "popular" style and music to appreciate the era.

[dr.strangelove]

52. Like, gag me with a fork, The 80s didn't always suck

The 80s. Pop culture has killed all that was great in the 80s and reminds us only of the shit. That VH1 I love the 80s crapfest only highlights the bad. The 80s were mostly a fine time to grow up. I was young and in high school and had a great time.

As for music, much of it sucked, but there were some good tunes. The 80s gave us great sounds from U2, Springsteen, Metallica, R.E.M., The Cure, Tom Petty, Dire Straits, Blondie, Iron Maiden, some Billy Idol was pretty good and The Chili Peppers and Nirvana started a new wave of rock in the late 80s. True we had to deal with the likes of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Survivor, Loverboy, and Culture Club, but please don't put all the 80s music together with that shit. There were some good tunes in the decade.

While there was the whole John Hughes thing and Howard the Duck, the 80s gave us some incredible films. For action there was the Terminator, Raiders and Empire. The decade started with Raging Bull (which ranks in my top 5 of all time) and other good films were The World According to Garp, My Left Foot, Born on the Fourth of July, The Killing Fields, the Natural, Mississippi Burning, Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Platoon, Dead Poets Society and too many Woody Allen films to mention, but I loved Crimes and Misdemeanors (I think the best of his work in the 80s).

As for TV, well The A-Team and RipTide were the only thing I remember watching during the decade, so you may have a point.

Clothes, well, you got me there. Although the 80s wasn't just Members Only and Bugle Boy jeans, the clothes kinda sucked.

Politics sucked with the ass kicking Reagan served up in 1984 and the layoffs his economic plan caused at the end of the decade (my dad was one of his victims).

Overall, I enjoyed college in the early 90s more than the 80s, but there were some good times.

[Hissyspit]

53. R.E.M.'s Murmur came out in the '80s.

But, yeah, in retrospect, most of it sucked.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

55. Thank you!

[TheBaldyMan]

58. didn't suck as bad as the 70's

bad hair, bad music, bad food.

[baby_mouse]

60. I loved them. And Still Do...

The Passions, the Cure, the Banshees, the Sugar Cubes, Sisters of Mercy, Dr Ruth, Ben Elton, Eurythmics, all the best U2 tracks, PIXIES, Live Aid, THE BIRTH OF RAP, DUDE, the f'in birth of the music video, and christ, the birth of VIDEO, the resurgence in movie theatre attendance, sorry, WHAT were you talking about? Your statement is simply not TRUE.

We had a trannie at No.1 in the UK. More than once! This decade was also the blossoming of the gay civil rights movement in the UK. So much good stuff started in the 80s!

In Short, I Disagree!

[LSdemocrat]

63. 1980s were perhaps the greatest decade ever for pop music

Only the 1960's come close

[Radical Activist]

64. ugly as fuck clothes. Bad music. What the hell were people thinking?

I can't believe some of the 80's "fashions" are coming back in with students born in the 80's. ugh Yes, the "Decade of Greed" blowed chunks. I vote it the worst decade of the 20th century.

[anarch]

65. Suck It, The 80s Faced

What? I don't have to make sense...it's not my job to make sense.