1980s nostalgia is crazy

I thought the Zoomers moved on to '90s nostalgia some time ago?

What little I recall of that time is the stench of hairspray and dirty petrol on the streets, which lingered deep into the '90s.

Yes, but it also gave us Kylie.

... and Ronald Reagan.

For most people, there is nostalgia for their childhood, not for what was going on geopolitically.

I think the thing with the 80's was that no matter how bad things were there was a sense of optimism and hope that they would get better. Plus, people mobilized and got out in the streets and got things done. ACT UP, GLAAD. People were far more issue oriented and didn't have this culture of politician and celebrity worship that we have now.

We could desperately use a little optimism right now.

When the time comes for early 2000s nostalgia I'm really going to feel old.

[quote] It was tacky, it was homophobic, racist, the grocery stores shut at 5pm.

Right, as opposed to the previous decades which had NONE of these qualities.

R1, they did. A while ago. The 00s were all about 80s nostalgia, the 10s and 20s are all about the 90s (so far).

Yeah - as someone who grew up in the 1980s, I will never understand the love. Dramatic and violent shift to conservativism, homophobia and money - and, oh by the way, possibly the worst horror ever inflicted on gay men, AIDS. Horrible music after the 1970s era of gay dance music and before the 90s resurgence, death of auteur/director-driven films replaced by big budget populist schlock, the elimination of pensions replaced with a 401k (aka, “you’re on your own”) and the resurgence of evangelical religion. So no.

The 1990s are period gay men should appreciate as the era of advancements socially, politically, culturally - and oh yeah, drugs that treated AIDS and stopped us from dying in droves.

R7 Or the current decade, for that matter.

I'm not saying *everything* was great, but I probably had the most fun in the '80s.

I grew up in the 80s and loved it. In the early 80s I was too young to know or care about social or political issues (though I knew enough to hate Reagan because my Dad did.) Even though my family was poor, I still remember it so fondly as wonderful music, fun tv shows, and a world full of vibrant colors. When the 90s hit it was like The Wizard of Oz in reverse, and all the color drained out of the world and we were left with ugly Grunge people and doom and gloom.

I actually liked the return to old Hollywood-style movies in the 80s, with the big orchestral scores returning to a lot of films, and the stories with a beginning, middle, and end. You could at least be more likely to see an entertaining movie on a Saturday night. Yes, there were more "great films" in the '70s but they weren't always a lot of fun (some were).

I liked the expansion of TV with cable. I like having home video and VCRs.

[quote]The 1990s are period gay men should appreciate as the era of advancements socially, politically, culturally - and oh yeah, drugs that treated AIDS and stopped us from dying in droves.

1990's was still very homophobic. You had DADT, the shitstorm over Ellen coming out (even gay organizations would join in on the piling on) and gay advocates like Elton John and Madonna defending gay bashing rap lyrics.

I’m not sure I view it nostalgically. Reagan and the Republicans put us well on the road we’re on now politically, the government’s response to HIV sucked as did all the deaths, and crack cocaine showed up. My grandmother and my dad died, my boss got cancer, and I had a heart attack @ the age of 33.

OTOH, I had a job that paid enough to buy my first house in 1980 and paid to lease me a car. The job ended in 1987 when my boss retired and cashed in the pension plan, putting $50,000 into my retirement plan that’s been growing ever since, I got my MPA, got the job I had for 33 years with an even better pension and met the guy I’ve been with since 1981.

The past is a mixed bag. I’m not that nostalgic for it. It happened, it’s over, and hopefully we learned something from it.

I wish people would try to focus on whats positive in this time period instead of looking back. Its easy to idiolize the past

[quote]I wish people would try to focus on whats positive in this time period instead of looking back.

Exactly what's positive in this time period, r16?

Looking inward, R17, seems like the best thing to do now. There’s plenty of good shit going on all around us 24/7. You don’t hear about it and we don’t focus on it, but it’s there.

Sometimes I’m blinded by the increasingly shitty world we live in. There is a lot of bad stuff to deal with. Some of it is horrific. Meaning more than ever we have to find our own skills that can help us survive and hopefully change it.

[quote] But the 1980s weren’t all that.

I could write a We Didn't Start The Fire-esque song about all the cool things in 80s.

[quote]There’s plenty of good shit going on all around us 24/7

As there was in the '80s, r18.

I don't see anyone here Idolizing the decade as that poster claimed.

I didn’t particularly like a lot of “classic 80s” stuff as a small child:

Back The Future, Gremlins, John Hughes movies, The Dark Crystal, Chris De Burgh, Tiffany.

Of course there is a whole lot of stuff I did love - Ring Pops included.

I was a kid in the 80s and a teen and young adult in the 90s and I remember the 80s being much more depressing and dark than the 90s despite it being my childhood. Everything scared me as a kid, the homelessness/crack epidemic, AIDS, drugs...adulthood seemed so freaking scary. It's the 90s that I remember being more of the "good old days" than the 80s. The 80s were dark.

R22 here and had the exact opposite experience as R12.

The 80s color was a distraction from alot of really shitty things happening.

Tears for Fears

OP, you give love a bad name.

We are all of our time and many of us enjoy remembering those times fondly. Of course they appear more perfect in hindsight and of course you can find something political from any decade that wasn't good. Don't overthink it, my friend. The 80s were awesome for many of us. Nothing you can point out is going to change that for a second.

R1, how could they have nostalgia for a decade they can't remember?

The 90s were the last great decade. I found the 80s grim. Great music in the early 80s though.

At this point, I’m nostalgic for any decade other than the one I’m currently in.

Yeah, I'd even take the 2010s.

[quote]Horrible music

How very dare you!

I loved this video, Harden My Heart by Quarterflash

[quote] Yeah, I'd even take the 2010s.

Oof. Bit harsh, r30.

OK. Only white people and most blond in the 80s.

The 80s was the last decade with a distinctive look and sound. Fashion and design were wild and often crossed the boundaries of good taste, but it was all fun and memorable. The influence on popular music is still felt today, too. The many forms of alternative, hip hop and electronic/dance that we all know today largely "gelled" in the 80s. Also, heavy metal had an influence that outlasted its lifespan.

It was also an insanely optimistic time. It was a bit delusional and largely rooted in forms of privilege and injustice that we couldn't understand, but I miss that so much. We believed America was the shining light of freedom and all forms of injustice were vanquished, even as the CIA was propping up horrific regimes and racism, sexism and homophobia were as strong as ever.

Still, everything wasn't so fucking GLOOMY. And it felt like more people cared and more people looked out for each other. People really were nicer and friendlier, generally, compared to now. Everyone is so mean and self-absorbed now. Everything is fractured, and, yes, everyone is glued to their phones and it's rotting our brains and ruining our world.

It's all unrecognizable to those of us who remember what it was like, back in the day.

There were a lot of terrible things about the 80s, many of which also outlasted the decade and persist until today. The lineage from Reaganism to Trumpism is direct and undeniable. The hysteria over trans people has all of the hallmarks of classic 80s social panics like AIDS and Satanism, ditto the fixation on "grooming" and its thinly veiled homophobia.

We will never escape the 80s, in all its glory and heartbreak.

Few people in authority were nice, kind and generous and helpful when my friends were losing their jobs, homes, lives, from AIDS!!!

I understand people from the 80s being nostalgic for the 80s.

But Gen Z thinks of it as a wonderland of bike rides, mixtapes, double denim, Aqua Net and sharing a malt at the diner before the big game.

R37 It was. Maybe not a malt though. More like Nachos Bellgrande from the Bell

R37 that's how young people in the '70s viewed the '50s, which was having a revival that decade via "American Graffiti," "Happy Days," "Laverne & Shirley," "Grease," etc. which were all big hits, but not many of them were alive during that decade.

Uh huh.

They don’t seem to realise that the women’s movement erupted from the stifling 1950s. That women were drugged up to the eyeballs trying to keep it altogether and their children rebelled 10 years later.

I knew Aussies were slow, but really?

I was a teen in the ‘70s who watched Happy Days every week but never thought the ‘50s culture was some “wonderland.”

…known to anyone who watched reruns and old movies in tv in the 80s…

Or 70s, or 60s. The 50s were pretty well understood before Happy Days. And American Graffiti. That’s why they were created as derivative faux nostalgia.

I was a teen in the 70s with older cousins who were teens in the 50s. I thought it was pure cheese but many of my classmates were big Fonz fans. We had a few 50s themed dances. One was "Happy Days Hop" I had to design the posters. I went for the easy weed. We called it grass or pot back then.

Big hair was definitely a trend.