To wish I had been old enough to enjoy the 80s?

[CJ2010]

Just listening to some brilliant 80s songs on my iPod and was just thinking that I would have loved to have been in my teens/ twenties to have been able to enjoy the music, fashion, movies etc. I think the music especially, was brilliant, such a great mix of everything to suit all tastes. I was born in the eighties, so I can sort of remember the 90s, which were also fab, but the last decade I think, has been crap, music wise. AIBU?

Another 80s teen here - yes, it was a lovely decade.

I'm going to the Rewind Festival in August for an overdose of 80s music. Dressing up 80s-stylee will be easy - have you seen what Primark are selling at the moment?! Neon lace, tight lycra skirts, CND logos.....

Perfume: anais anais. I remember really wanting that in my teens. I was lucky enough to get a bottle for my birthday.

My boyfriend was the lead singer in a band and he played the saxophone. We had identical big hair perms. I had giant shoulder pads which I wore with everything.

The 80s was an amazing journey. I started off listening to copied casettes of OMD and early Spandau Ballet. Went through the phase of giant permed hair, pastel coloured 'tube skirts', lace fingerless gloves, blizzard wash skinny jeans with ankle zips, Wham, etc... Ended the decade wearing brogues with 501s, listening to acid house, and had my hair put in dreadlocks - blonde, but I was convinced I looked like Caron Wheeler from Soul II Soul! Somehow managed to also go through a Smiths and Cure phase in the middle of all that!

Ahh, they just don't make decades like they used to...

The sex was awful in the 80's though - if you were a young teenager all anyone could talk about was getting 'fingered'

If older it was all AIDS and terrifying adverts.

Oh I dunno...I remember having amazing sex in the 80's... and Ford Capris were very comfortable too...

DSIS and I went to see Duran Duran last year. It was brilliant and my DSIS said she'd wanted to see them for 30 years.

She was the music mad one, first record she ever bought was Queen, she was 4.

I used to tape all her stuff and she'd moan it was fair and demand o paid my share of the LP budget.

I think I need to go to sleep. That turned into gibberish.

the 80's rocked

Did anyone else tape the Top 40 with a small transistor radio propped up next to a tape recorder? The sound quality......a special kind of crackle (with the DJ's voice just cutting in before you pressed stop).

When I got my first radio cassette recorder I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

Squeaky I did I did I did (watch Rita Sue and Bob too that is!)

In fact, I watched it again only last week. Utter utter class :o

We fucking invented sex in the 80s. Well, I did!

I had a radio/cassette... no need for two bits of machinery!!!

I had a little red one, but I also got this...

<a class="break-all" href="//tp://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=sharp+radio+cassette+player&um=1&hl=en&biw=1680&bih=848&tbm=isch&tbnid=ETQgmVz-FD14bM:&imgrefurl=www.silvertv.co.uk/new/vintage&docid=vv1dkQQS9-YRmM&imgurl=www.silvertv.co.uk/new/sites/default/files/images/Sharp%252520GF-8989%252520Radio%252520Cassette.JPG&w=600&h=450&ei=0PCqT4qfLoHN0QWGqJXXDw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=222&sig=116974175394906893736&page=1&tbnh=146&tbnw=201&start=0&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:33,s:0,i:78&tx=126&ty=102" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">my treasured possession

Curry... I so fucking love that film!!! I used to live in that area and my accent was so similar, but 15 years of being in London and I now have a very odd hybrid accent that only a few people can ever pick out the northern in..

I can never watch Benidorm without thinking about the actress who played Rita, as she looks older but still sounds just the same as she did then!

Shakey, I had a very similar outfit, 1984?

Loved the 80's, would have loved the 60's too I think

Speak for yourself laurie I had great sex in the eighties

Would you like to borrow my copy squeaky? Happy to post it to you!

I have got it thanks

Husband (southerner) used to say he needed subtitles, but has got used to it now... lol!!!

Now, if anyone has a dvd of Breaking Glass, I would pay good money for it, but I dont think it exists. I know there were copyright issues, and the video sells for a lot of money too.

Another "80s kid here (i was born in "73 so i was 12 in "85. For my 12 birthday my parents bought me the very first Now Dance album on cassette. It was a double album of 12 inch versions. There was a song on there called Kiss Me by Stephen Tin Tin Duffy which i loved and wore the tape out playing it over and over. In 2005 a triple cd came out called 12" of the "80s. Guess what one of the songs on there is ......yep Kiss Me. So the song now gets played quite a bit on my mp3. The late "80s was a serious let down though all that SAW shite.

Thatcher, huge unemployment, US misiles at Greenham Common, no national curriculum so if you were a girl you had to do 'girls' subjects at school, shoulder pads, shops all closed on Sundays, only three TV channels, only 1 TV in the house, no internet, few computers, AIDS - which was a death penalty, the cold war, pubs that closed for 3 hours in the afternoon, the miner's strike, rape within marriage was legal, Stomach ulcer = big operation - now it is a course of antibiotics, nurses strike, NHS cleaners all sacked, central heating was a luxury item, the majority of kids left school with no qualifications, most make up not only tested on animals but lipstick made out of whale blubber ...........................

You can enjoy the music ow OP, wihtout the crap, be thankful you were not there.

Being a teenager in the 70s was better !

no national curriculum so if you were a girl you had to do 'girls' subjects at school

Not true in my school which was a standard comp (very much like Grange Hill), as I did woodwork, metalwork and also took GCSE Technical Drawing. The boys at my school did sewing, typing and home ec.

Pubs closing in the afternoons was hardly a bad thing in my opinion.

Loved the 80's - loved the music... I was so lucky I worked for a company that managed Wham! - I was the office junior - the best time of my life!

I'm going to list my fab 80's childhood experiences. I am 39 years old.

Saw Howard Jones, Erasure, Eric Clapton, Five Star, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman Live in concert.

Everyones birthday party was about the disco and the music was so so good!

On a school trip to the Houses of Parliment we walked past Authur Scargill deep in animated conversation in the corridors of power!

Saw ET, Star Wars, Indy Jones, Back to the future, Ghostbusters all at the cinema. Big films, happy memories.

Watched Lost Boys on VHS on my 16th birthday after seeing the trailer for it at the cinema. Later 80's after seeing Dirty Dancing I wore white Keds with capri Jeans.

However, when I read one of my diarys from the 80's recently I was complaining about the 80's wishing it was "the 60's as there is no youth culture today"

What you need to do is get out there and enjoy whats going on today.

Nobody had mentioned the other music genre that was big in the 1980's Glam rock/metal with bands such as Twisted Sister, Poison, Quiet Riot and Motley Crew.
Other bands such as Guns and Roses and Bon Jovi started out in the 80's.
Also late 70's early 80's was the beginings of hip hop and rap.

Now could be a good time to say RIP Adam Yauch (MCA)

Some of the music was great, 2-Tone, Madness, The Jam (first band I ever went to see), Queen, The Clash, James, The Smiths. I could never for the life of me see what anyone saw in Duran Duran or Spandau Ballet though. Carer - pretty sure I've got the 12" of Kiss Me in the loft still, along with all my old picture discs. I was obsessed by music in the 80s, rapidly lost interest during the 90s. Most of what I listen to now is 80s or earlier.

No girls and boys subjects at our school we all did cookery and woodwork etc. The political side of things however - Thatcher, miners strike, Greenham Common, Cold War, riots, it's easy to forget what it was like. I drive past the peace memorial at Greenham Common fairly regularly and it makes me think about it, it all seems like a lifetime ago. As for the pubs closing early, limited TV etc, well, it was all we knew, so in that sense it was fine.