I thought I'd ask something different here because I don't think it's ONLY "becoming 20 years ago" (and thus getting on the younger side of your parents generation) which makes something become cool again. It seems like there's always something which sparks nostalgia for a decade, to where everyone's going "Hey the '80s are back" and it probably gets the youth discovering it for the first time and they become fans too.

People seemed to start getting into '80s music alot back around 2002, and it might've been from the Grand Theft Auto games (I've seen comments on Youtube on music videos from kids and teens to that effect) and radio stations having their "All Eighties" weekends more often. Fashionwise, I think people like it because it resembles the Emo look in a different way. Also, stuff like striped Izod shirts have come back into style. There's also been alot of remakes (i.e. Miami Vice, TMNT movies) in the mid-late decade.

I thought I'd ask something different here because I don't think it's ONLY "becoming 20 years ago" (and thus getting on the younger side of your parents generation) which makes something become cool again. It seems like there's always something which sparks nostalgia for a decade, to where everyone's going "Hey the '80s are back" and it probably gets the youth discovering it for the first time and they become fans too.


I think it was a loss of new ideas and natural progression.  Remember, in the 90s, there was a 70s revival of movies (Charlies Angels), music, TV shows, etc.  Well, now it is the 80s turn.  Next decade, it will be the 90s turn.   Maybe, "the powers that be", (i.e. media executives, etc) are at the age where they long for their younger years in the 80s, therefore they bring back the 80s ideas, since they cannot come up with new ideas.

By the way, fashion designers should be ashamed of themselves BLATANTLY ripping off 80s styles because they cannot come up with new original designs!  New styles should integrate 80s styles now blatantly steal from them.  BTW, I love the 80s. LOL.

I am not complaining in the least bit! I am VERY happy that the 80s styles are taking back off. I've only waited all my life for this. And I AM embracing it. Still waiting for big hair to make a full comeback and I'll be happy.  ;D I live in the south, it never quite went away.  ::)

At a club I worked at in NC they were reviving the 80's in 1993 with an 80's night that commenced weekly for 8 years until the place closed in 2001.  Inthe80s/00s has been around in several incarnations since the mid-late 90's. 

What made the revival take off?  People who support and believe that the culture of 80's was an important time in history.  :)

I think it was a loss of new ideas and natural progression.  Remember, in the 90s, there was a 70s revival of movies (Charlies Angels), music, TV shows, etc.  Well, now it is the 80s turn.  Next decade, it will be the 90s turn.   Maybe, "the powers that be", (i.e. media executives, etc) are at the age where they long for their younger years in the 80s, therefore they bring back the 80s ideas, since they cannot come up with new ideas.

By the way, fashion designers should be ashamed of themselves BLATANTLY ripping off 80s styles because they cannot come up with new original designs!  New styles should integrate 80s styles now blatantly steal from them.   BTW, I love the 80s. LOL.


Yeah, I think that's true about people being in positions of power to influence the media (like if they're 35 and think back to when they were 10). I guess if they add their influences onto new things, it gets more and more people to notice it.

I have a feeling the 90s will come back sooner and more in depth. I think we're actually starting to see it already (especially with the earlier pre-Internet era around 1993), since the people who have the most nostalgia for it seem to be kids and younger teens, as opposed to older teens/younger adults (as the '80s nostalgists seem to be). Like with classic Nickelodeon and stuff like that.


I am not complaining in the least bit! I am VERY happy that the 80s styles are taking back off. I've only waited all my life for this. And I AM embracing it. Still waiting for big hair to make a full comeback and I'll be happy.  ;D I live in the south, it never quite went away.  ::)

Yeah, same here. :) Even though I'm not as into the overblown fashion aspects (other than with stuff like ripped jeans and certain styles around 1988) I've been an 80s fan my whole life.


At a club I worked at in NC they were reviving the 80's in 1993 with an 80's night that commenced weekly for 8 years until the place closed in 2001.  Inthe80s/00s has been around in several incarnations since the mid-late 90's. 

What made the revival take off?  People who support and believe that the culture of 80's was an important time in history.  :)

Hmmm, I halfway agree. If you're in a place like a club that's more devoted to that era anyway, there'll always be fans coming in and music playing, so that's more of a continuation than a revival. I guess I'm more talking about en masse, because I used to get (lighthearted) crap sometimes from certain kids in high school in the late 90s if I talked about NES games or whatever. That's a definite difference from seeing styles coming back and more people embracing that stuff by, like 2004.

Hmmm, I halfway agree. If you're in a place like a club that's more devoted to that era anyway, there'll always be fans coming in and music playing, so that's more of a continuation than a revival. I guess I'm more talking about en masse, because I used to get (lighthearted) crap sometimes from certain kids in high school in the late 90s if I talked about NES games or whatever. That's a definite difference from seeing styles coming back and more people embracing that stuff by, like 2004.


Thing is Marty, the club I worked at wasn't a devout "80's club" like say, the Polly Esthers/Culture Club nightclubs.  Its forté was actually a fusion of 70's funk/soul and 90's-current alternative dance, funk and a splash of hip-hop.  The club opened in 1991. PE/CC-type clubs came later in the mid- to late-90's, and other clubs across the U.S. were holding 80's nights in the mid-90's.

BTW (shameless plug here), I'll be spinning 90's dance trax in November on my Retro Dance Party show Friday nights on Renegade Retro. :)

I think it's the music too.  Some music in the early part of this decade began to resemble 80's music a little bit, with choreography, beats in a modern way, with the fashion to go along with it, but more fitted and sexy.  I think when studded belts, belt chains and pants with stuff all over them started getting popular, that was the start of it all

I thought I'd ask something different here because I don't think it's ONLY "becoming 20 years ago" (and thus getting on the younger side of your parents generation) which makes something become cool again. It seems like there's always something which sparks nostalgia for a decade, to where everyone's going "Hey the '80s are back" and it probably gets the youth discovering it for the first time and they become fans too.

People seemed to start getting into '80s music alot back around 2002, and it might've been from the Grand Theft Auto games (I've seen comments on Youtube on music videos from kids and teens to that effect) and radio stations having their "All Eighties" weekends more often. Fashionwise, I think people like it because it resembles the Emo look in a different way. Also, stuff like striped Izod shirts have come back into style. There's also been alot of remakes (i.e. Miami Vice, TMNT movies) in the mid-late decade.


Some of it is probably when the 80s radio stations hit somewhere in the early 2000s, as it was an alternative to what the radio was playing at the time(nu-metal which most of grew out of).  I was caught up with it for the most part since they played a few songs I remembered(for better or worse).

Just wait for the 90s revivial, baggy pants with flannel shirts will be the 'in' thing.

VH1's I love the 80s? Or maybe it was because music in the 00s sucked, so people wanted to look back!

I'm not sure, mysef.

I haven't noticed ANY 80s revival in the 00s. Not at all.
Where is big hair for example? Nowadays curly girls are so uncool.

Don't wanna look like a b*tch, but it's not all music. Movies and fashion has nothing to do with 80s movies. And tech is totally better these days. When it comes to big hair - it will probably come back in the 2010s. Nowadays we have better hairsprays than people in the 80s. And they are also ozone-friendly.

I thought I'd ask something different here because I don't think it's ONLY "becoming 20 years ago" (and thus getting on the younger side of your parents generation) which makes something become cool again. It seems like there's always something which sparks nostalgia for a decade, to where everyone's going "Hey the '80s are back" and it probably gets the youth discovering it for the first time and they become fans too.

People seemed to start getting into '80s music alot back around 2002, and it might've been from the Grand Theft Auto games (I've seen comments on Youtube on music videos from kids and teens to that effect) and radio stations having their "All Eighties" weekends more often. Fashionwise, I think people like it because it resembles the Emo look in a different way. Also, stuff like striped Izod shirts have come back into style. There's also been alot of remakes (i.e. Miami Vice, TMNT movies) in the mid-late decade.


Excellent observations Marty. 

In addition, I would say that all the poison 'anti-80's' press that prevailed during the 90's (you know who you are) used to give us the tiresome line of 'ooh, isn't the music/fashion etc soooo bad'.  Uh yeah, right. 

- Unfortunately they didn't forsee what the noughties was going to serve up: absolute dross.  So once again, radio stations dusted down the old 80's singles and started proudly playing them, knowing full well that they had infact nothing to be embarrassed about in the first place. 

The whole anti-80's press campaign was a disgrace, and the same twats that criticised the decade can now be found praising the decade as fully-fledged 'experts' on such shows as VH1 'We Love The 80's'....

Oh, and RANT OVER!  ;)