I have promised for about 8 months now to do a piece on the 80s. Here goes.
the style
i love their graphic, strong but not overdone makeup.
Don't even get me started on 80s movies. I ADORE John Hughes, love the Brat Pack, and those non-Brat Packer teens who only I seem to know from the 80s - James Spader is so talented, I'm appalled John Cusack hasn't once hosted SNL, Alan Ruck is hilarious, Eric Stoltz is gorgeous and Robert Downey Junior was really something back then. I'm pretty sure no one shares my appreciation for Kevin Bacon.
the breakfast club - best teen movie EVER
Ferris Bueller - the coolest teen ever
cheesiest, most 80s movie ever
the movie that changed my life
music
80s music - how do I even begin to describe it. The 80s was the last time we heard true metal, saw the demise of great rock. Bon Jovi. Guns N Roses. Def Leppard. Van Halen. The Police. Metallica. AC/DC. The Clash. Journey. Iron Maiden. And it was the beginning of indie/alternative music. Great British artists dominated. The Cure, which has been around since the 60s, released some of their best work. More of a landmark - THE SMITHS BEGAN.
I ADORE The Queen Is Dead
Johnny Marr has such talent. His harmonies are spooky and heavenly and raucous all at the same time. I felt so proud to learn that he played some of the music in Inception.
80s pop just radiates this cheesiness, this feeling of "everything will be alright" - Wham! and their success being the classic example. The whole attitude of the decade, really, is what I love. The 80s have this reputation for tackiness and flashiness, and even though I long to live in the elegant and clean-lined 50s I love the 80s just as much in a different way.
DISINTEGRATION
The Cure. I used to recoil from the Gothic image Robert Smith projected. But their music is SO alternative, a mix of pop and rock and strings and brass...I, the girl who will sing to anything, anywhere and has a knack for getting songs stuck in other people's heads, CANNOT sing to The Cure. Their music is contemplative. Shallow. Happy. Weepy but not depressing - more restorative. It's music for being alone - music not for a party or car ride but for just YOU.
Jolly ol' Reagan was president,
we were afraid of the Soviets - see any parallels to the 50s, mm?
How many times I wished I went to Bayside
and dated Zack Morris...I don't even know
Ah, the last of the old times. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and virtual eradication of communism, the world grew ever more centralized with many thanks to technology. The 80s were the last of the good old days before we all got caught in the Web.
