Yes, this is gonna sound stupid to the old school members of this board, but bear with me here. Many of you reading this were probably teenagers in the 1980's, but just because you were '80s teens doesn't mean you guys are all the same. As a matter of fact, you are all very, very different. If you graduated high school in 1984 for instance, then you likely had a very, very different adolescence from someone who graduated high school in 1988. As you got older, the age difference may have become insignificant, but when you're that young four years is a big huge freaking deal!!!

Adolescence is generally paired up with high school, and rightfully so. Just because you are 13 or 19 doesn't mean you are an adolescent—you are a teenager, not an adolescent! When I refer to "'80s Teens", I'm talking about people who spent either all or most of their high school years in the 1980's. I consider adolescence to span from the summer right before 9th grade year (because 9th grade isn't always considered high school) all the way through the summer immediately following 12th grade year. For someone who graduated high school in 1989, that would span June 1985 through August 1989. With that in mind, here is how I label who's an "'80s teen" based on high school graduation dates:

Early '80s Teens: H.S. Classes of 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985
Mid '80s Teens: H.S. Classes of 1986, 1987, and 1988
Late '80s Teens: H.S. Classes of 1989, 1990, and 1991

All of these people spent either all or most of their high school years/adolescence in the 1980s. This may come across as decadeology-ish, but I swear it's not. I'll give a little example of what I really want to discuss.

What music did you listen to when you were in high school? What did you wear? What movies and television shows did you watch? Did you play video games? Where did you work? What catchphrases were you saying as a teen? When did you graduate? Make sure you mention if you were an early adopter and where you lived, because both of these things could discredit you (although it's not an instant disqualifier). All of this stuff really matters, because every decade is very different from the beginning to the end. Urban music in the 1980's is perhaps the #1 biggest divider in how you experienced the decade as a teenager. A lot of my relatives were teenagers in the 1980's. My dad and my aunt (mom's side) graduated in 1984; my uncle on my mom's side graduated sometime in the late 1980's. My mom's youngest sister graduated in 1991. My dad's second-older brother (the middle child) graduated high school in 1983. This is just a sample of the '80s teens I know in my life. Every single one of them I just mentioned here is an '80s teen, but they would have had very different experiences.

So now it's time to hear your story! Did you graduate high school in the 1980's? Did you have any relatives or close friends who did? How would you say they were different from other '80s teens who graduated at a different point in time? If you are an early '80s teen, how would you say your adolescence differed from someone who was a mid '80s teen? And if you guys run into other '80s teens in this thread make sure you guys converse and compare your experiences!! If you are an actual '80s teen (according to the rules I labelled above) then you get a Karamel!  ;)


P.S. - For anyone that may be reading this: Please don't start a '90s teen or a 2010's teen board. I'm doing those. I also will not be doing a poll for anymore of these threads either.

(EDIT: This is based on the American school system/layout, so Europeans may be confused by this thread!)

Update 12/5/2016: So I decided I'll make the age definitions a little less rigid... For flexibility reasons, I'll classify Class of 1985 are early-to-mid '80s teens, Class of 1988 are mid-to-late '80s teens, and Class of 1991 as late '80s teens with an acquired taste for early '90s culture.. This is due to proximity and when they graduated.

As for my brief input, I think the breakthrough of Hip-Hop and Rap music is what makes '80s teens so different from each other. It's not just Hip-Hop, but also other Urban cultures as well that divide '80s teens. I mean, the early '80s had light-hearted post-disco, raw new wave, hard rock, and poppy post-punk; While the rest of the decade had glam metal, synthpop, Latin Freestyle, Contemporary R&B, Quiet Storm, dance-pop, Hip-Hop, and towards the very end of the decade, new jack swing and the very beginnings of alternative rock and electronic dance music achieving mainstream popularity.

This:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pOq4hyoX9ghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWzy5q_M5Ho

Is a completely different era from THIS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-fSv9jClCwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdizL4on-Rc

If this is coming from an observer (I was born in the '90s), then I can only imagine the differences must have felt even more huge for people who were actually in high school!

Early '80s, but near a large city since there was a large divide as smaller cities and most suburban areas preferred the country music after disco died (In fact, 1981 has the greatest percentage of pop hits that are country), not to mention that those same large cities were the ones that would catch on to New Wave when it really was cool. Plus, I can take in the NES and Sega Master System during my college years. By the early 2000s (when I was a teen), it was getting fairly close to today, with the main difference being social media in its infancy and this "24/7 world at your fingertips" already upon us, not to mention that the movies of that time were rather lame compared to those in the early-mid '80s. Sure, there was Dreamcast, Playstation 2, and Nintendo GameCube (and 5th generation consoles earlier on) during my HS years, but you can't deny the imagination of those early second-gen consoles, along with video arcades and shopping malls as hip places rather than places you go to during Christmas or to dine out or shop for clothes for a special occasion. I'd also graduate college during the mid-late '80s when the economy had really recovered and would be able to ride most of the economic boom through the '90s, allowing for a strong nest egg and portfolio. I also like the ballads of the late '80s/early '90s since ideally I'd get married around then. I also like how the fashions are more natural and not ridiculous like they became in the mid-late '80s, though I don't mind neon at all. And finally, I'd have a better opportunity to be a videophile and record many TV shows/early MTV that may be lost forever!

Speaking of music, I preferred the classics to the current music in high school (I'd be definitely be labeled a "Square"!)

I turned 13 in 1989 and although I'm completely happy with my early life, I do think it would have been a bit cooler to have experienced the mid 80s slightly older. So I voted for mid-80s. I was born in 1976, but I reckon 1973 would've been a good year to have been born. Then again being the age I was was perfect for toys and cartoons etc - it's a tough decision to make.

My 80s highschool life started in 1987 and it was very Rick Astley / Debbie Gibson / Tiffany / Bon Jovi.

I turned 13 in 1989 and although I'm completely happy with my early life, I do think it would have been a bit cooler to have experienced the mid 80s slightly older. So I voted for mid-80s. I was born in 1976, but I reckon 1973 would've been a good year to have been born. Then again being the age I was was perfect for toys and cartoons etc - it's a tough decision to make.

My 80s highschool life started in 1987 and it was very Rick Astley / Debbie Gibson / Tiffany / Bon Jovi.


I forgot that you were British! I just remembered that not everyone on the forums is American, so the school systems are going to be quite different in other parts of the world (and as a result people will have completely different coming of age experiences). Not that you aren't allowed, as a matter of fact, you're free to discuss in this thread as much as you like. However, you may be confused by the American members' experiences because "High School" in the United Kingdom is completely different from that in the United States.

I would rather be a teenager in the mid 1980's.

However, you may be confused by the American members' experiences because "High School" in the United Kingdom is completely different from that in the United States.


Google tells me high school in the US starts when you're 14 - is that right? In that case it was definitely a 90s high school for me, haha. I actually grew up in the UK and Asia equally.

Google tells me high school in the US starts when you're 14 - is that right? In that case it was definitely a 90s high school for me, haha. I actually grew up in the UK and Asia equally.


It depends on the school system. Some American high schools start at ninth grade (freshman year) while some start at tenth grade (sophomore year). There are some schools in which they combine lower grades (eighth grade) and higher grades. I hope this makes sense.

Yes, this is gonna sound stupid to the old school members of this board, but bear with me here. Many of you reading this were probably teenagers in the 1980's, but just because you were '80s teens doesn't mean you guys are all the same. As a matter of fact, you are all very, very different. If you graduated high school in 1984 for instance, then you likely had a very, very different adolescence from someone who graduated high school in 1988. As you got older, the age difference may have become insignificant, but when you're that young four years is a big huge freaking deal!!!

Adolescence is generally paired up with high school, and rightfully so. Just because you are 13 or 19 doesn't mean you are an adolescent—you are a teenager, not an adolescent! When I refer to "'80s Teens", I'm talking about people who spent either all or most of their high school years in the 1980's. I consider adolescence to span from the summer right before 9th grade year (because 9th grade isn't always considered high school) all the way through the summer immediately following 12th grade year. For someone who graduated high school in 1989, that would span June 1985 through August 1989. With that in mind, here is how I label who's an "'80s teen" based on high school graduation dates:

Early '80s Teens: H.S. Classes of 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985
Mid '80s Teens: H.S. Classes of 1986, 1987, and 1988
Late '80s Teens: H.S. Classes of 1989, 1990, and 1991

All of these people spent either all or most of their high school years/adolescence in the 1980s. This may come across as decadeology-ish, but I swear it's not. I'll give a little example of what I really want to discuss.

What music did you listen to when you were in high school? What did you wear? What movies and television shows did you watch? Did you play video games? Where did you work? What catchphrases were you saying as a teen? When did you graduate? Make sure you mention if you were an early adopter and where you lived, because both of these things could discredit you (although it's not an instant disqualifier). All of this stuff really matters, because every decade is very different from the beginning to the end. Urban music in the 1980's is perhaps the #1 biggest divider in how you experienced the decade as a teenager. A lot of my relatives were teenagers in the 1980's. My dad and my aunt (mom's side) graduated in 1984; my uncle on my mom's side graduated sometime in the late 1980's. My mom's youngest sister graduated in 1991. My dad's second-older brother (the middle child) graduated high school in 1983. This is just a sample of the '80s teens I know in my life. Every single one of them I just mentioned here is an '80s teen, but they would have had very different experiences.

So now it's time to hear your story! Did you graduate high school in the 1980's? Did you have any relatives or close friends who did? How would you say they were different from other '80s teens who graduated at a different point in time? If you are an early '80s teen, how would you say your adolescence differed from someone who was a mid '80s teen? And if you guys run into other '80s teens in this thread make sure you guys converse and compare your experiences!! If you are an actual '80s teen (according to the rules I labelled above) then you get a Karamel!  ;)


P.S. - For anyone that may be reading this: Please don't start a '90s teen or a 2010's teen board. I'm doing those. I also will not be doing a poll for anymore of these threads either.

(EDIT: This is based on the American school system/layout, so Europeans may be confused by this thread!)
What would members of the Class of 1992 be?

What would members of the Class of 1992 be?

Early 90s teens... according to Arctic.

What would members of the Class of 1992 be?


Those people are definitely early '90s teens. Yes, they turned 13 in 1986 and 1987, but that doesn't matter; what really matters is when they started high school. For one, they spent only one full school year completely in the '80s, which was their freshman year. The rest were in the '90s. Over 60% of their adolescence was in the calendar 1990's. Culturally, it's even more skewed toward the 1990's. The late 1980's were all about Glam Metal (which peaked in 1988–89), very early mainstream Rap (like Run DMC-type music), dance pop (e.g. Rick Astley "Never Gonna Give You Up"), and big, booming power ballads. They only spent one year in that kind of culture, whereas the rest of their high school career was culturally very much early '90s. New Jack Swing, Golden Age Hip-Hop, Alternative Rock, Adult Contemporary, and House were all the rage in the early '90s (as early as the summer of 1989 even). Soft Rock was really the only substantial genre that survived the late 1980's. Glam Metal admittedly did too, but it started rapidly declining in 1989 (especially by the 1989–90 school year) and took forever to die off long after it had peaked. If you want to understand it better, this is how their high school years progressed (culturally speaking):

Summer 1988: Solidly late 1980's
1988–89 school year: Mostly late '80s (hints of the early '90s)
Summer 1989: Transition from late 1980's to early 1990's
1989–90 school year: Mostly early '90s (with late '80s leftovers)
Summer 1990: Pretty much completely early '90s
1990–91 school year: Primitive early '90s
Summer 1991: See below
1991–92 school year: Peak early '90s
Summer 1992: See above

This kind of music was popular during their freshman year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cDLZqe735khttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nKsnQsi0EQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OP5EnaaYjQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2r2nDhTzO4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uKLTtVqQpEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SidxJz94Svs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phOW-CZJWT0

This was popular during their sophomore year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB54dZkzZOYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb2np1HGqxghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvb6ovTNQPk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJEzEDMqXQQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aofoBrFNdghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE7fs2979Y4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EcjWd-O4jIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP01RNDDsPMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJQSAiODqI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWJXDG2i0Ahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt2mbGP6vFIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygIcyOSITgo

The 1988–89 school year's popular music was very rock-influenced; whether it was softer or harder, rock and roll was the way to go. Even the urban music still had a strong Rock production to it. The 1989–90 school year on the other hand, was very electronic-influenced and the genres were far more distinctly produced in terms of their sound. Everything was hardcore, aggressive, big, epic, and cutting-edge; it was a far edgier era, and it had just begun. Class of 1992 were only high school sophomores when that culture began, and that very same culture was at its creative and commercial peak when they were seniors in 1991–92. Anecdotally, senior year of high school is virtually the peak of a person's interest in all things new, cool, and hip. Class of 1992 were very much products of the Bush Sr. era and they were totally early '90s teens bro!  8)

Google tells me high school in the US starts when you're 14 - is that right? In that case it was definitely a 90s high school for me, haha. I actually grew up in the UK and Asia equally.



I thought it was about 15 or 16? ???

Early 90s teens... according to Arctic.



I'm Class Of 1992. :)

I thought it was about 15 or 16? ???


Well, most high school freshman turn 15 at some point during the school year. Then you also have some who are 14 until the summer after, and you have even fewer who are already 15 right when the school year begins.

Those people are definitely early '90s teens. Yes, they turned 13 in 1986 and 1987, but that doesn't matter; what really matters is when they started high school. For one, they spent only one full school year completely in the '80s, which was their freshman year. The rest were in the '90s. Over 60% of their adolescence was in the calendar 1990's. Culturally, it's even more skewed toward the 1990's. The late 1980's were all about Glam Metal (which peaked in 1988–89), very early mainstream Rap (like Run DMC-type music), dance pop (e.g. Rick Astley "Never Gonna Give You Up"), and big, booming power ballads. They only spent one year in that kind of culture, whereas the rest of their high school career was culturally very much early '90s. New Jack Swing, Golden Age Hip-Hop, Alternative Rock, Adult Contemporary, and House were all the rage in the early '90s (as early as the summer of 1989 even). Soft Rock was really the only substantial genre that survived the late 1980's. Glam Metal admittedly did too, but it started rapidly declining in 1989 (especially by the 1989–90 school year) and took forever to die off long after it had peaked. If you want to understand it better, this is how their high school years progressed (culturally speaking):

Summer 1988: Solidly late 1980's
1988–89 school year: Mostly late '80s (hints of the early '90s)
Summer 1989: Transition from late 1980's to early 1990's
1989–90 school year: Mostly early '90s (with late '80s leftovers)
Summer 1990: Pretty much completely early '90s
1990–91 school year: Primitive early '90s
Summer 1991: See below
1991–92 school year: Peak early '90s
Summer 1992: See above

This kind of music was popular during their freshman year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cDLZqe735khttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nKsnQsi0EQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OP5EnaaYjQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2r2nDhTzO4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uKLTtVqQpEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SidxJz94Svs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phOW-CZJWT0

This was popular during their sophomore year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB54dZkzZOYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb2np1HGqxghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvb6ovTNQPk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJEzEDMqXQQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aofoBrFNdghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE7fs2979Y4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EcjWd-O4jIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP01RNDDsPMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJQSAiODqI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWJXDG2i0Ahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt2mbGP6vFIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygIcyOSITgo

The 1988–89 school year's popular music was very rock-influenced; whether it was softer or harder, rock and roll was the way to go. Even the urban music still had a strong Rock production to it. The 1989–90 school year on the other hand, was very electronic-influenced and the genres were far more distinctly produced in terms of their sound. Everything was hardcore, aggressive, big, epic, and cutting-edge; it was a far edgier era, and it had just begun. Class of 1992 were only high school sophomores when that culture began, and that very same culture was at its creative and commercial peak when they were seniors in 1991–92. Anecdotally, senior year of high school is virtually the peak of a person's interest in all things new, cool, and hip. Class of 1992 were very much products of the Bush Sr. era and they were totally early '90s teens bro!  8)
I believe that people who graduated in 1992 are to '80s teens and '90s teens what people born that year are to '90s and '00s kids: there's the ability to pick one side or both sides.

I believe that people who graduated in 1992 are to '80s teens and '90s teens what people born that year are to '90s and '00s kids: there's the ability to pick one side or both sides.


Eh, I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one, but to each his own I guess. To me that's like saying Class of 1994 could be considered both early and mid '90s teens because they were in high school in both periods..

Well, most high school freshman turn 15 at some point during the school year. Then you also have some who are 14 until the summer after, and you have even fewer who are already 15 right when the school year begins.


I was a freshman at 14.

I was a freshman at 14.

Yea you were born in March.
I was born in October, so I was 15 for most of m freshman year.

Yea you were born in March.
I was born in October, so I was 15 for most of m freshman year.


Yep, same.

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php?topic=9360.0
Found this post from 2005 talking about 80s teens. Crazy how fast time flies.