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The late 80's are the best. Why? Because that's when I was born ;)

Some of the music of the late 80s was nail-scratchingly unbearable...

Let's not resurrect memories of those ghosts by listing names...

The fashion, as well, was probably the worst of ANY period in the 20th century.
But then again, I was born in the mid to lateish eighties.

When it comes to pop music, yes... otherwise, I liked the late 80's too.

I loved the Late 80's, but I voted that they were less good.  In the late 80's, rap hip hop, and hair metal were really taking off.  I missed the early 80's days of the AOR and New Wave hits

It was ok....

I think Madonna was at her peak in the late 80s. To me, Like a Prayer is her best album.

And the late 80s were when Guns N' Roses were at their peak, also.

And other people might be embarassed to admit this, but I totally love Belinda Carlisle, Paula Abdul and Roxette!

The whole decade had its high points and low points.

I think Madonna was at her peak in the late 80s. To me, Like a Prayer is her best album.

And the late 80s were when Guns N' Roses were at their peak, also.

And other people might be embarassed to admit this, but I totally love Belinda Carlisle, Paula Abdul and Roxette!


I agree with that, Madonna was at her peak in the late '80s. Also, I love alot of late '80s movies, like Heathers, and Christian Slater was nuts hot. But there was also more hair metal and cheesy ballad stuff in the late '80s, which makes them less cool...they were still pretty cool, though.

I chose that the 80's were fine throughout. I don't remember the early to mid 80's quite as well, as I was just a tot - so I remember the late 80's much better with more fondness.

One of the best and underrated  pop singer/songwriters came "Out of the Blue", though her music has gotten better over time  8)

http://www.80smusiclyrics.com/images/gibson.jpg

When I think of the late '80s, I think of the following things:

-Paula Abdul and Whitney Houston and Selena and Gloria Estefan, and other diva types starting popularity.
-Yuppies and the yuppification of whole areas. Yuppies became totally hated in the late '80s.
-The crack epidemic and severe urban decline, racial unrest.
-College rock: R.E.M, The Pixies, Pavement, etc.
-The very industrial look in interior design.
-The beginning of the rise of hip-hop.
-HAIR METAL.
-"Greed" and a crazy stock market.
-The echo baby boom.
-Dukakis on his tank.
-The end of the Soviet Union.
-Madonna's peak work, 1986-1990 or so.
-The Bangles, Huey Lewis and the News, Duran Duran, Prince.
-Leather jackets.
-Jock dominance in HS.
-Tiffany.
-George Michael.
-'60s Comeback.
-Heathers
-"We Didn't Start the Fire"
-Sunglasses hot.
-Lots of action movies and movies about business/yuppies.
-Lots of period dramas.
-Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams.
-Tom Cruise gets really big.
-Really stupid comedies involving a talking something or other or cops.

When I think of the late '80s, I think of the following things:

-Paula Abdul and Whitney Houston and Selena and Gloria Estefan, and other diva types starting popularity.
-Yuppies and the yuppification of whole areas. Yuppies became totally hated in the late '80s.
-The crack epidemic and severe urban decline, racial unrest.
-College rock: R.E.M, The Pixies, Pavement, etc.
-The very industrial look in interior design.
-The beginning of the rise of hip-hop.
-HAIR METAL.
-"Greed" and a crazy stock market.
-The echo baby boom.
-Dukakis on his tank.
-The end of the Soviet Union.
-Madonna's peak work, 1986-1990 or so.
-The Bangles, Huey Lewis and the News, Duran Duran, Prince.
-Leather jackets.
-Jock dominance in HS.
-Tiffany.
-George Michael.
-'60s Comeback.
-Heathers
-"We Didn't Start the Fire"
-Sunglasses hot.
-Lots of action movies and movies about business/yuppies.
-Lots of period dramas.
-Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams.
-Tom Cruise gets really big.
-Really stupid comedies involving a talking something or other or cops.


Whitney came out in 1985 and was popular then, Tom Cruise even earlier than that, Eddie and Robin earlier than Tom, Yuppies mid-80s, and racial unrest and crack mid-80s as well.

The late 80's are the best. Why? Because that's when I was born ;)
Same here.  ;)

Whitney came out in 1985 and was popular then, Tom Cruise even earlier than that, Eddie and Robin earlier than Tom, Yuppies mid-80s, and racial unrest and crack mid-80s as well.


It seems like those things really peaked in the late '80s, though. Like Gordon Gekko and "Greed is Good" were a late '80s thing...

Same here.  ;)


January 16, 1990.  I'm so close!  :\'(

January 16, 1990.  I'm so close!  :\'(


1990 is numerically the 1980s, technically, mathematically, whatever. My theory about the late '80s is that it was when all the ugly lying under the sunnier 82-86 '80s, like the conspicuous consumption and yuppies and corporate greed and excess (represented by hair metal) and urban poverty and strife, started to show.

1990 is numerically the 1980s, technically, mathematically, whatever. My theory about the late '80s is that it was when all the ugly lying under the sunnier 82-86 '80s, like the conspicuous consumption and yuppies and corporate greed and excess (represented by hair metal) and urban poverty and strife, started to show.


Actually, mathematically 1990 is the Nineties, BUT it's also the ninth decade of the twentieh century (1981-1990), which is probably an even better summary of what the "Eighties" is to people.  So yes, it's basically the eighties, 1991 and '92 are the real turn of the '90s.

Actually, mathematically 1990 is the Nineties, BUT it's also the ninth decade of the twentieh century (1981-1990), which is probably an even better summary of what the "Eighties" is to people.  So yes, it's basically the eighties, 1991 and '92 are the real turn of the '90s.


Also, I think we 1990ers fit in a bit better, as a whole, with the mid-late '80s people.

Also, I think we 1990ers fit in a bit better, as a whole, with the mid-late '80s people.


I agree. The 1990ers (well, since school years should be used, Sept 89 - Aug 91) are more part of the main Y, whereas late 1991, '92 and '93 are late Y.

I agree. The 1990ers (well, since school years should be used, Sept 89 - Aug 91) are more part of the main Y, whereas late 1991, '92 and '93 are late Y.


We're more like '91+ than even an '89er, but still fit in better with the core Y people.

Gotta love the late eighties as well, with my best years in preschool (1985/6), kindergarden (1986/7) and early elementary school years. I only wish I could remember those times better though.

When I think of the late '80s, I think of the following things:

-The Bangles, Huey Lewis and the News, Duran Duran, Prince.


Er, Duran Duran belong more in the early to mid 80s. Their biggest album was probably 1983's Rio.

The late 80s were actually a low point for Duran Duran.

Oh, and speaking of more quality music from the late 80s, George Michael released his masterpiece Faith in 1987.

I think Madonna was at her peak in the late 80s. To me, Like a Prayer is her best album.

And the late 80s were when Guns N' Roses were at their peak, also.

And other people might be embarassed to admit this, but I totally love Belinda Carlisle, Paula Abdul and Roxette!


Heh, don't worry I've always liked them too. :)

This era itself has the best personal memories. I was 5 and 6 in 1987, so that's just old enough for me to have a perfect memory of it. Despite my love of the time, I always slightly preferred the 1981-86 '80s for pop culture.

Speaking of which, one thing I do like about the late '80s (say, 1987 to mid 1991) was that, while it felt very "fresh" with different pop culture than earlier in the decade, it still was "early '80s friendly" if you know what I mean. Pac Man was still popular (well, it's always sort of been that way, LOL), John Hughes movies actually peaked around 1987, and some arena rock/new wave stuff was still making hits.

It seems like those things really peaked in the late '80s, though. Like Gordon Gekko and "Greed is Good" were a late '80s thing...


She is right though.  Robin Williams became a star in 1978 with Mork & Mindy.  Eddie Murphy became a star in the early 80s on SNL and his raunchy HBO stand up routines.  Murphy became a superstar in 1984 with Beverly Hills Cop.  Whitney Houston came out in the mid 80s. 

Tom Cruise became a star in the early 80s, he then shot to SUPERSTARDOM in the mid 80s with Top Gun.  If anything he sorta went slightly underground in the late 80s, transfoming himself from a teen idol into a more serious actor.  Top Gun, Risky Buisness, Loisn' It, and Labyrinth were all kinda like youthful kid movies.  So he tried to get away from that in the late 80s.  Cocktail was a box office bomb, he got overshadowed by Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man and Born on the 4th of July was an often overlooked film.  It was still hard to take him seriously in the late 80s, it wasn't until 1992 with  A Few Good Men, did the more adult Tom Cruise (now married to Nicole Kidman) really arrive.

Wall Street did come out in 1987, but it was more reflective of an early and mid 80s mentality.  Crack came out in the mid 80s too.


No matter how much research you do on the 80s, people like Tanya1976 and I were still there.  We know the details.   ;)     

She is right though.  Robin Williams became a star in 1978 with Mork & Mindy.  Eddie Murphy became a star in the early 80s on SNL and his raunchy HBO stand up routines.  Murphy became a superstar in 1984 with Beverly Hills Cop.  Whitney Houston came out in the mid 80s. 

Tom Cruise became a star in the early 80s, he then shot to SUPERSTARDOM in the mid 80s with Top Gun.  If anything he sorta went slightly underground in the late 80s, transfoming himself from a teen idol into a more serious actor.  Top Gun, Risky Buisness, Loisn' It, and Labyrinth were all kinda like youthful kid movies.  So he tried to get away from that in the late 80s.  Cocktail was a box office bomb, he got overshadowed by Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man and Born on the 4th of July was an often overlooked film.  It was still hard to take him seriously in the late 80s, it wasn't until 1992 with  A Few Good Men, did the more adult Tom Cruise (now married to Nicole Kidman) really arrive.

Wall Street did come out in 1987, but it was more reflective of an early and mid 80s mentality.  Crack came out in the mid 80s too.


No matter how much research you do on the 80s, people like Tanya1976 and I were still there.  We know the details.  ;)     


Sorry...

At least looking at it musically, the late 80's weren't better or worse than the early years(as long as you discount hair metal), just a little different.
just looking at the last 3 years of the 80's, I can still point out an abundance of great (if not excellent) albums:

1987: The Joshua Tree, Fore!, Invisible Touch, Let It Loose, Kouhept, Tango In The Night, Nothing Like The Sun, Escape From Television
1988: Roll With It, Out Of Order, Kick, Naked, Soul Searchin', New Jersey
1989: Storm Front, But Seriously, Cuts Both Ways, Small World, End Of The Innocence, Scenes From The Southside

Feel free to add some of your own!

Your Pal,
Doc
8)

No matter how much research you do on the 80s, people like Tanya1976 and I were still there.  We know the details.   ;)     


You were there, but I give them credit for wanting to be so interested in OUR decade :0) I never, ever thought people would yearn to go back to the 80's. As a kid, I turned my back on the 80's. I wasn't fond of the decade at all. But now because my childhood was partially based there, I look back at that time with more appreciation.

The '90s were my decade  ::)

The '90s were my decade  ::)


lol, well, someday you'll reflect on it the same way I'm reflecting on the 80's. The 90's just need another 10 years to settle and you'll start missing it and appreciating it more..  8)

lol, well, someday you'll reflect on it the same way I'm reflecting on the 80's. The 90's just need another 10 years to settle and you'll start missing it and appreciating it more..  8)


Yup.

Plus, at least they were the same century as the '80s.  By 2040, I'll be able to pretend I was around for the '80s, since nobody would know the difference between them and the '90s by then.  :)  ;D

You were there, but I give them credit for wanting to be so interested in OUR decade :0) I never, ever thought people would yearn to go back to the 80's. As a kid, I turned my back on the 80's. I wasn't fond of the decade at all. But now because my childhood was partially based there, I look back at that time with more appreciation.


Hey, I think I remember you saying you actually like the '70s a bit more than the '80s, was this part of the reason? Even though I always loved everything '80s, you know, I also went though a time in the mid '90s when I started really liking the '70s (especially 1976+).

I think it started with films from that era. My parents showed me one of the Pink Panther movies when I was about 11 or 12, and while it may've not been something I would've picked out on my own, I soon got into all of them. Same with Steve Martin's first big comedy, The Jerk from '79 (I always quoted the "phonebook" and "he hates these cans" lines). ;D

Plus, there was some "mystique" in them being slightly before my time, but not before my realm, if that makes any sense? Like, when I was 12-13 in 1994, I was thinking, Hey, this time is pretty cool. 1974 is still only twenty years ago, so it's pretty similar and recent overall, but also far enough away to be interesting.

This is also, to a lesser extent, why I always preferred the pop culture of the early '80s (up to early '86 or so). Even if I may have been playing NES games from 1989, I always really dug it when VH1 played a video block from 1983. ;)

Hey, I think I remember you saying you actually like the '70s a bit more than the '80s, was this part of the reason? Even though I always loved everything '80s, you know, I also went though a time in the mid '90s when I started really liking the '70s (especially 1976+).

I think it started with films from that era. My parents showed me one of the Pink Panther movies when I was about 11 or 12, and while it may've not been something I would've picked out on my own, I soon got into all of them. Same with Steve Martin's first big comedy, The Jerk from '79 (I always quoted the "phonebook" and "he hates these cans" lines). ;D

Plus, there was some "mystique" in them being slightly before my time, but not before my realm, if that makes any sense? Like, when I was 12-13 in 1994, I was thinking, Hey, this time is pretty cool. 1974 is still only twenty years ago, so it's pretty similar and recent overall, but also far enough away to be interesting.

This is also, to a lesser extent, why I always preferred the pop culture of the early '80s (up to early '86 or so). Even if I may have been playing NES games from 1989, I always really dug it when VH1 played a video block from 1983. ;)


That's the same way I feel about the '80s, it has alot of mystique in being "pretty similar and recent overall, but also far enough away to be interesting." Not to say I haven't also had more interest in things from the '90s I remember but was too young to appreciate when they were around, and things in the '70s, like disco and Joni Mitchell, that are a bit farther away but strike my fancy.

I find myself liking the early 80's and the late 80's more than the mid-80's.  I think it's because i like early 80's pop and I like late 80's alternative... but I'm not too crazy about the Madonnas, Cyndi Laupers, Stacey Q's, El Debarges, etc. that dominated the mid-80's.  I did like New Wave though, that was one good thing about the mid-80's...

That's the same way I feel about the '80s, it has alot of mystique in being "pretty similar and recent overall, but also far enough away to be interesting." Not to say I haven't also had more interest in things from the '90s I remember but was too young to appreciate when they were around, and things in the '70s, like disco and Joni Mitchell, that are a bit farther away but strike my fancy.



I feel the exact same way about the 80's. I was just too young to remember them so they have a certain mystique to them to me. Again not that the 90's dont but I can still remember them pretty well.

I feel the exact same way about the 80's. I was just too young to remember them so they have a certain mystique to them to me. Again not that the 90's dont but I can still remember them pretty well.


Yeah, even if there were alot of '90s things that I was too young to appreciate, nothing from the '90s has that same mystique to me. I mean, I remember the peak '90s feel very well, since I remember alot of stuff from 93+ and 94+ in detail, so I had a few years of "real '90s" cred...the '90s are of my time, unlike the '80s, which are of my "pre-time."

Hey, I think I remember you saying you actually like the '70s a bit more than the '80s, was this part of the reason? Even though I always loved everything '80s, you know, I also went though a time in the mid '90s when I started really liking the '70s (especially 1976+).

I think it started with films from that era. My parents showed me one of the Pink Panther movies when I was about 11 or 12, and while it may've not been something I would've picked out on my own, I soon got into all of them. Same with Steve Martin's first big comedy, The Jerk from '79 (I always quoted the "phonebook" and "he hates these cans" lines). ;D

Plus, there was some "mystique" in them being slightly before my time, but not before my realm, if that makes any sense? Like, when I was 12-13 in 1994, I was thinking, Hey, this time is pretty cool. 1974 is still only twenty years ago, so it's pretty similar and recent overall, but also far enough away to be interesting.

This is also, to a lesser extent, why I always preferred the pop culture of the early '80s (up to early '86 or so). Even if I may have been playing NES games from 1989, I always really dug it when VH1 played a video block from 1983. ;)


Good memory, Marty :0) Yeah, I was actually heavily into the 60's/70's stuff when I was in my early to late teens (1995-1999). I really didn't start feeling nostalgic for the 80's until maybe about 4 years ago. I think that's when I started realising those memories were slipping away (and boy, they slip away fast once you hit your 20's - one minute they seem so vivid and the next minute they're leaving, one by one).

The 70's seemed like a natural place to dwell since it was so near the time I was born and plus a lot of kids I grew up with were 70's born and raised (even late 60's born kids, like the ones who babysat me and stuff and introduced me to watching The Monkees on TV, etc.)

And yes, since us very early 80's born kids still got a flavor of the 70's (just like the early 90's born got a flavor of the 80's), we were introduced to films from that era and other pop culutre stuff that had lingered on in the news throughout our childhood. I mean, heck, we were still alive when Russia was still the U.S.S.R. These were things that we grew accustomed to from previous eras and in which we watched change and evolve into their current state.

It's too bad I hadn't embraced the time I was born as much as you, Marty. I wish I hadn't thought of it so bitterly at the time, but now I can reflect on those times in a more brighter light.

^ Exactly. :)

Despite the fact that I think I'll always remember 1987 and up perfectly, it does seem further away. Even in 1999, there was a very small piece of the '80s that was still under a decade ago, so it still felt "within reach". Whereas now 1980 is pushing 30 years old! It's stuff like that I find scary (even if 2006 is in many respects, just an updated 1999).

Alot of my babysitters as a kid were around ten-fifteen years older (people we knew from the neighborhood, or guys from the grocery store, etc). Probably anywhere from 14 to 25 most of the time (i.e. 1964-74 born, or thereabouts). At the time, I thought of them as big brothers/sisters, so I was very familar with their generation of thinking, too.

I feel the same way as you actually, about not holding onto some childhood stuff as much as I could have. Even erasing certain VHS tapes, or for instance, selling some of the '80s compilation tapes I bought around 1993, just because I ended up having all those songs on other albums a few years later. I still kind of am mad at myself and wish I'd kept all that stuff, just because it was a part of my past, ya know?