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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To find the persistent 80s really frightening

126 replies

scaryclown · 26/12/2016 17:36

Its frightening me how stuck our world is in the 80s.. its 40 years ago!. . ie its like in the 80s all commercial radio, tv , shops all being 1940s war songs.. but in the 80s it was mostly 80s music too! ...

AIBU to think that loads of the country are like psycholohically stuck in a scary mental time-fix??? even the christmas songs are the same!!!

OP posts:
Lorelei76 · 26/12/2016 21:42

Hate 70s music
You know Pride is on tonight, amazing soundtrack
Spice Girls, they're okay but if that's the best we can think of for 90s, it can't compete with 80s and now.

pointythings · 26/12/2016 21:55

I love 80s music. I'm nearly 49. My DDs also love 80s music and because they are into post-punk and alternative rock, they recognise that the 80s are the roots of the music they love. Which I also love.

I agree that the fashion was mostly awful, and I say this as someone who used to have a mullet. Blush

If the Spice Girls are being quoted as the best of 90s music then there really is no hope.

PlymouthMaid1 · 26/12/2016 22:47

The eighties were pretty grim including most of the music but the 21st century hasn't offered much to replace it so far.

TinselTwins · 26/12/2016 22:53

YABU because I remember the 80s/90s and guess what? Everyone was REALLY fixated on the 50s/60s :-D

60s music was really cool in the way that 80s music is cool now
I rember 60sish flower-power tat/clothes being in
60s style clothes were in, everyone in my school got flairs, then everyone got layerd maxi skirts etc…
there was bloody incense everywhere and the school halls fucking honked of Patchouli oil
The go-to fancy dress theme was 60s, just like 80s is now

There isn't anything odd/unusual going on right now with the harping back 40 years!

PickledCauliflower · 26/12/2016 22:57

The 80s had such a great mix of music
New wave / punk / cheesy pop / great pop / synth / ska etc.
Some crap - but loads of great stuff too. My kids are in their late teens /20s and listen to loads of 70s and 80s stuff.
My youngest is currently listening to Human Leagues Dare and some early Simple MInds stuff. I think he is a bit disillusioned with current music (hope this lasts while he is still living at home).

PickledCauliflower · 26/12/2016 22:57

And of course we had The Smiths!

TinselTwins · 26/12/2016 22:57

I remember in the 90s, anything 80s was DEEPLY uncool, and people commented about how the 80s would never be back "in" like the 60s or 70s were because nothing good happened in he 80s Grin

nobody gave a fuck about the 40s yet, was all about the 60s/70s and a WEEE bit about 50s rock'n'roll in the 80s/90s

I'm more concerned about the obsession with "being a 40s housewife" at the moment to be honest - cause it was so awesome that marital rape wasn't considered a thing Hmm GEEE I wish I had been a young wife and mother back then, not! By comparisson the 80s thing is harmless

Sunnyfeet · 27/12/2016 00:40

I was born in 1969, and had a ball in my teenage years, during the 80s. Life seemed to revolve around fashion and the music charts, and there was an amazing sense of optimism - life was full of choice and promise. That all seemed to disappear in the 90s.

CasanovaFrankenstein · 27/12/2016 19:08

Maybe you are ...

www.goodreads.com/book/show/28008095-trapped-in-an-80s-teen-movie

Housemum · 27/12/2016 19:47

I hated the 80's - the mainstream music was bright cheery crap and DJd on radio 1 were middle class twats like Mike Read/Steve Wright. The obsession with shallow celebrity and brands was starting, along with the whole greed mentality. Along with that you had the miners striking, house prices spiralling, the real fear of nuclear war. Cheerful stuff :(
Musically the 90s were better - Blur, Oasis, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics etc. But you can keep those cargo pants with all the pockets and strings, and platform trainers.

Touchmybum · 27/12/2016 20:02

I'd happily go back to the 80s. I think the current day has much more scarey goings-on than there were back then. It was a more 'innocent' time I think. And yes, we were much less clones and we didn't have to get our legs and tits out at every opportunity either.We could go out and do whatever the hell we liked and it was over and done with the next day, not stuck on social media. Plus we learned to count properly back then...

woodhill · 27/12/2016 20:08

Love the 80s and I was a teenager/young women. Also happy to listen to 60s and 70s music. Today's music is very bland.

Fartleks · 27/12/2016 20:12

Fashion has always looked back in time for inspiration. The 60's and 70's had a second wind. Now it's the 80's turn. Next I predict a return of the 1990's

BlossomHillOne · 27/12/2016 20:37

Should have said late and early 80s...

Galdos · 27/12/2016 21:47

The 1970s had a revival? Thank God I was asleep or something! OK, joke over: every decade produces stuff which is worth keeping. Much of each decade is transient, not because it is crap (although it may be) but because it doesn't strike a chord with later generations. It applies to other fields too, like literature: with a few exceptions (Dickens, mainly) there are few authors who were lionised in the 19th century who are rated today. Marie Corelli anyone?

Personally I am a bit sniffy about anything post 1790, but there is some stuff later that I really really enjoy: Queen Bitch, I don't care if it's Monday, Simon & Garfunkel, etc etc. Oh and folksongs, like the Innocent Hare. But then, I was known at work for not having a clue who Duran Duran were (still a bit vague, but less important now).

Purplealienpuke · 27/12/2016 22:43

I was lucky enough to see Gary numan & dexys a few short yrs ago! Gary did a set of new music which was not much like his 70/80s but great and Kevin was performing a concept piece that was entertaining if a little egotistical!
I was a teen in the 80s and didn't enjoy too much of the pop stuff! I loved bowie & the rolling Stones along side punk and sabbath!
Hearing dated music makes me feel old but definitely doesn't frighten me 😊

mummydawn07 · 27/12/2016 22:55

80's were brill.. I wouldn't mind living in the 80's a simpler time no facebook ( can't stand facebook ) people weren't slaves to their phones, I am sick of seeing people walking along not looking where they are going because they are too into looking at their phone screen, music these day is absolutely crap.... ( well most of it anyway )

oldsilver · 28/12/2016 00:55

I see a similarity now between the 80s and now. Politically, talk of another cold qar/fear of nuclear, haves and have nots. There are a lot of what was happening in the 80s emerging again. I am not surprised that we are stuck in the 80s musically quite love it myself being 50 the escapism then is relevant today.

Says she having spent the day watching 80s films and now watching Best Of.

Middleoftheroad · 28/12/2016 01:18

Yeh in the 80s it was all.about the 60s..

I'll take The Smiths, The Cure and The Stone Roses any day of the week over today's faceless shite.

I don't think there is enough 80s so please tell me where you're hearing/seeing this.

I do get irked by Radio 2 though. Steve Wright and Ken Bruce love their disco and that station feels like a time warp. But I do like Simon Mayo and Sara Cox. Mayo plays Depeche Mode too Smile

Sparklingbrook · 28/12/2016 08:37

I don't remember the 80s being all about the 60s. My 80s was all about the 80s. Grin

SomeonesRealName · 28/12/2016 09:02

Yes I hope it ends soon and we can have a 90's revival which seems long, long overdue. There are loads of 80's events which my slightly older friends go to but it's not my era so even though I've developed a taste for a lot of the music they don't create any nostalgia for me.

TinselTwins · 28/12/2016 13:06

Things like Jive Bunny (50s music) were huge in the 80s - everyone had that cassette, the 60s theme got bigger in the 90s but there were definite "flower power" trends in the 80s

TinselTwins · 28/12/2016 13:12

The similarity I see between the 80s and now is that there was less of an 'ordinary' middle class and social mobility was a bit halted

in the 80s there were poor families and rich families.
In the 90s and 00s most families managed to hang somewhere in the middle, if not rich then getting by and working towards improving their situation. Now we're back to a more polarised society, and it's hard to dig yourself out of a hole if you're poor.

That was the theme of so many songs and movies in the 80s, which may be why we relate?

Hulababy · 28/12/2016 13:24

It'll be just the same for our teens in another 20-30 years time. They'll be whining about modern music and fashions, and their kids will be complaining about why we have to listen to that music from 2010s which their parents seem to love so much and sniggering about the old fashions. And the 80s will be a staggering lifetime ago to them.

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