Did you grow up in 70s/80s?

[WomanBornNotWorn]

I was born in 63 so have no memory of the Beatles / hippies etc. But at around ten years old I started to become aware of and adored glam rock, Marc Bolan, Freddie Mercury, the guys from Sweet - long hair, Spandex, tons of makeup, platform heels and all. That morphed into disco - flares, more makeup, more platforms - and punk - leather, short hair, even more makeup - and New Romantics - lace, frilly shirts, still more makeup ... it all went on like fireworks over only about ten years or so.

I feel sorry for kids & teens now, there just doesn't seem to be the flamboyance and fun and freedom to dress up, without a heavy drag and gender identity boxing-up and labelling.

Maybe I'm misreading and it was there all along. But it does seem that there is less freedom, more narrow definitions now.

Anyone here young enough or have kids and able to say if there's anything similar happening, now that isn't all about gender?

I'm a tad younger than you, op (just ) and you are absolutely right. My older brother loved glam and punk. He used to try and nick my clothes (which were much cooler obviously). We trawled charity shops in competition with each other .
I loved Marc.
We need more Marc and Bowie and less "TWAW".

I was born in 1971 and my first crush was Adam Ant.

Not going to divulge but am some years older than posters so far.

So can confirm that starting from the late 60s fashion (bur probably more common in cities that in rural areas) men did start to breakout of the stiff male stereotypes of suits etc.. This was in parralel to women starting to wear (shock horror) trousers.

Mick Jagger wore a dress and nobody thought it was about him abadoning being male.

But somewhere in the 80s, although women's styles continued to be open to adopting what had previously been seen as men's clothes, male fashion retreated into masculine styles. (This is were hippie based feminism failed as it relied on men willing challenging their stereotype roles and behaviour in the same way as women were doing).

But maybe this rigidity about male style is somehow part of this younger generation thinking that you change your sex / gender just by the style of clothes.

The challenging of sex stereotypes that were enforced in the 50s (part of getting women back into the home after their freedom of the war years) in the 60s and 70s were something that I niavely thought would just continue. Just feel I should add that many people dont acknowledge the challenge that the "beat generation" was to the establishment, whose style if anything was androgynous and as a young country girl I thought they were extremely brave and rebellious!!

But agree that the 60s and 70s in style seemed much freer but the overt sexism, racism wasn't challenged by it.

How is it that what is essentially so superficial (style) be now used as a yard stick to not be gender non conforming, but to actually mean you have changed your biological sex!

I must say I was scrolling through my suggested on Google and this chat appeared, I've created an account specially to comment, I'm in my teens and am not a mum nor want to be one at my age, but I've grown up with the pop culture of 70/80s as my mum was born in the 60s. I'm an 80s New romantic enthusiast and some may say I have an obsession with Duran Duran. I'm referred to as weird a lot but at least my teachers tend to think more of me because of my music taste. I've tried to explain to my friends how amazing the music of the 80s was but they immediately presume that anything old is bad. Music today is so manufactured and misses the flamboyancy and expression that it did in 70s/80s. Very few artists write their own songs, and everything is very sexualized, with most songs following the same narrative of a broken relationship. You think of Karma chameleon by Culture club or Planet earth by Duran Duran, and there is no swearing or sexual references in the lyrics, everyone is fully clothed(if you ignore girls on film), it is just pure talent, it wasn't made on a computer like today's music, there were amazing base lines, drum rolls and guitar riffs. There is no creativity in today's music and it's such a shame.

Welcome Tely - I hope you’ll stick around, as the breadth of posters’ perspectives is one of MN’s strengths. Even people that we vehemently disagree with are given fair hearing & debated with (unless they are seeking to disrupt)

My 11 year old has discovered 70s & 80s music and prefers it to modern stuff too.

Hi Tely04

You're quite right. Music isn't what it used to be, but then it never was.

Pop songs today seem to be all in the first and second person, nothing but me and you. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing. "Walk On By" is all first and second person, and is perhaps the greatest pop song ever written.

You might like to check out the new Who album. Pete Townshend is one of the great songwriters and he's still got it; "All this music will fade. Just like the edge of a blade...."

My teen daughter listens to a lot of rubbish (ex rock photographer here). All canned music written by those Scandinavian men. Taylor Swift only needs to write one line of the lyrics and she's "co-written" the song. Even electronica (which I these days listen to most of) seems to have lost the grit it used to (in the early halcyon days of Warp, Ninjatune record labels etc). The whole Seattle grunge movement was an incredible time for teenagers - lots of music to vent teenage angst to. I think though that the canned music is worse so in the UK, Australia for example does have its pockets of the most excellent indie pop.
Kid does like the Pet Shop Boys though, when she was 10 she had a poster on her bedroom wall.

We have the same music memories OP. And actually I’ve been feeling dreadfully nostalgic for the bombastic fun of glam rock. Adoring Marc Bolan, singing along to Bay City Rollers in the car ... (It’s been hard finding a way to separate my innocent memories from all the Bad Stuff we later learned about.).

Possibly the nostalgia is related to the accompanying memory of how drab life in England was generally then - before we joined the EU. Music was the one bright spot.

I can’t bear the thought that we may revert to drabness when all our chic European neighbours pack their bags and leave. But perhaps isolation will perk up our musical output?

It's normally economic recession that inspires great music: Did in the 30s and the 70s/80s, but seems to have gone missing of late.

Indeed!

Interesting Tely04.

My own children are a little older than you, 20 and 24, and 80s music is very popular amongst their age group. My daughter's favourite nightclub is 80s themed.

I was under the impression that younger people had fairly catholic tastes in music (my daughter loves everything from Vera Lynn to Disturbed) so I'm saddened to learn that isn't your experience.

Isn't it down to rebellion, though?

70s/80s: "Sit up straight, do up your tie, get your hair tied back/cut/plaited, clean your shoes!"
= Flamboyance, gender-bender, pushing the boundaries

Modern day: "You can be what you want to be, dress how you like, express yourself!"
= straight-laced, conforming to gender, pink/blue, long hair for women and beards for men.

Definitely.

The smiley-face T-Shirt brigade were the last ones to rebel. Now it's all just a choice you can buy off the peg.

I'm not sure we Generation Xers were rebelling hugely.

My mum used to sing along to Talk Dirty To Me in the car. Kind of hard to rebel against that.

Raves were more of a rebellion in my view. Our parents' generation didn't 'get' rave music in the way they 'got' glam rock or new romantic styles. And of course the drug culture around it made it more concerning for them.

I think streaming services have a lot to do with the limited musical range of many young people. It's like there is so much, it is difficult to find anything.

Bowie fan.

One can imagine what I think about 2020 and 'gender'.

I think streaming services have a lot to do with the limited musical range of many young people. It's like there is so much, it is difficult to find anything.

OTOH, DH has extended his Apple Music to the rest of the family and my 11 year old is working his way through The Beatles back catalogue. He also loves Kate Bush. 🤷‍♂️

That's really interesting Tely04. When I was in my early teens Duran Duran and Adam and the Ants and the rest of the New Romantics were the kinds of bands that mainstream teens like me listened to. We were looked down upon by those into punk and ska, although some bands like Madness, crossed the divide. I stopped listening to new music in the late 80s because I thought it lost its soul - it was just flat and boring, There were exceptions, kd lang, Annie Lennox and a few others. I quite like Amy Winehouse and also Elle King now. I'm also a little unusual because of older siblings I distinctly remember the Beatles and the psychedelic era as well. The band that everyone thought was 'twee' and awful in the early 80s was Abba! But listening to them now I think they are wonderful at the time I preferred the Bay City Rollers.

Born in 73.

The 80s...
Chrissie Hynde sticking two fingers up to conformity.

Gillian from Joy Division and New Order being cool.

Massive Depeche Mode fan - Mr Martin Lee Gore in a black leather skirt and nail polish.

Erasure, Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys. All fronted by flamboyant gay men.

In the 90s

PJ Harvey being unique,
REM and James - Michael Stipe experimenting with makeup. Tim Booth 'playing around with 'gender roles'

And The League of Gentlemen, with Babs "I'm a martyr to my monthlies" Cabs, Pauline and her Pink Pentel and Ollie Plimsolls with his plays about "issues and stuff."

I watched the Pussycat Dolls cavorting around (finally got to use that phrase, last heard on Points of View) on stage on X-Factor last week and part of me just died. I was watching with my sons and went off on one about why we never see the likes of 'boy bands' promoting their comeback in their underwear.
I'm sure it was empowering and women should wear what we want BUT why don't we see Robbie or Gary or Ronan or any other of those talentless vanilla flavours writhing around in body stockings while being doused by a hose?

Now that I have filled your heads with such a fragrant image, I will go have a soothing tea to contain my inexplicable outburst

Hello Tely04! We used to envy our mums who were 50s teens because they could jive, and we also liked rock n roll - not what you'd call a gender critical decade though!

SurpriseSparDay I find my way to extraordinary stuff via you tube suggestions now - Faroese Vikings, Mongolian rock (soooooo much long hair. So much. 💞🤗😋), Siberian shaman lady making horse sounds ... Things a middle aged menopausal angry woman might not automatically be connected with, but hey we all have our journeys. And they're all pretty isolated cultures, so having chopped ourselves adrift into the Atlantic with the sharks circling the NHS, music might be one bright possibility for us.

I was born in 1980. I was a pony club kid so I mixed across a wider age range than most. I can't remember not being into rock/ heavy metal/ grunge and the odd bit of indie/ dance.

Few of whom conformed to dress codes, at the least they were alternative. Off the top of my head Marilyn Manson stands out as the most obvious example of not conforming to gender stereotypes, but I don't remember anyone giving it a second thought. Alice Cooper is similar.

I do wish posters who trot Bowie out as some sort of gender critical hero would stop it.

This is the man who had had sex with a star struck 14 year old girl.

Born mid sixties. The difference to me, is the lack of variety. Growing up, we had tribes, usually connected to different music - New Romantic, Rock, Trendies, Goths, punks, hippies through the 70s and 80s. Lots of non gender conforming. At school I remember for girls, lots of short hair cuts, long hair more unusual. Now round here at throwing out time for schools, there are streams of girls with long hair, mostly straight and sleek, lots of make up, hitched up skirts. Image and music culture now seems derived from social media. My friends and I would trawl charity shops for clothes, often altering them in some way. I remember a friend making some of her own clothes.

Mongolian rock (soooooo much long hair. So much. 💞🤗😋)

The Hu!