The 1980's was the best decade ever (1 Viewer)

[George_Washington]

The 1980's were undoubtedly the best decade ever for movies.

Just think of all the great movies that were made then: The Karate Kid, Total Recall, Top Gun, Commando, Running Man, Terminator, Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Wall Street, Platoon, Howard the Duck, Big, Mr. Destiny, Batman, Superman 2, The Jerk, Spaceballs, LA Story, Empire Strikes Back, Ghostbusters, Crocodile Dundee, Big Trouble in Little China, Star Trek 2, Full Metal Jacket, Raging Bull, Princess Bride, Highlander, Willow, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Lost Boys, Goonies, The Secret of My Success, My Blue Heaven, Labyrinth, Neverending Story, Rain Man, Cocktail, Days of Thunder, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Beetlejuice, Die Hard, Scarface, Adventures in Babysitting, Airplane, Little Shop of Horrors, Scrooged, Caddyshack, ET, Dark Crystal, etc. !!!!

OMG there are just so many good 80's movies, it just blows my mind!! Who can forget these incredible classics? Truly, Jesus himself created the 80's and set it aside from other decades. I don't think they will ever again make movies like Karate Kid or Back to the Future. They've recently released a special edition of Karate Kid on DVD, I suggest everyone on this forum buy it.

Of course the music of the 80's was just as mind blowing: Duran Duran, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, The Cars, Roxette, Poison, Def Leopard, Damn Yankees, Motley Crue, Queen, Phil Collins, Chicago, Genesis, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Scorpions, Alice Cooper, Great White, etc. !!

And then once the 90's came, things gradually started to suck more and more, to the point where we're at now.

But the spirit of the 80's lives on.

 

[Sir_Alec]

You Forgot About The Smiths

 

[George_Washington]

You Forgot About The Smiths

What's that about?

 

[americanwoman]

I have to agree on music and movies, but 80's was the worst decade for fashion. When I see pictures of myself from the 80's I wonder what the hell were we all thinking......or smoking back then. :mrgreen:

 

[cnredd]

I have to agree on music and movies, but 80's was the worst decade for fashion. When I see pictures of myself from the 80's I wonder what the hell were we all thinking......or smoking back then. :mrgreen:

Saint Tim's dance...eighth grade...

Let's all spray our hair silver and wear spiked bracelets!...:doh :doh :doh

 

[George_Washington]

I have to agree on music and movies, but 80's was the worst decade for fashion. When I see pictures of myself from the 80's I wonder what the hell were we all thinking......or smoking back then. :mrgreen:

lol I don't know, I kind of just like the fashions. I liked the big, curly hair on women. I thought it was a turn on.

 

[Sir_Alec]

What's that about?

You ignorant fool

 

[George_Washington]

You ignorant fool

Whatever, I bet it wasn't as nearly good as Crocodile Dundee.

 

[Sir_Alec]

Whatever, I bet it wasn't as nearly good as Crocodile Dundee.

It wasn't a movie! It was a band and they still owned Crocodile Dundee!

 

[Gardener]

Best 80's music happened early in the decade, transitioning from the late 70's as the punk movement gave way to post punk. XTC, The Soft Boys, Elvis Costello, Wire, Squeeze, Talking Heads, The Jam, The Clash, Echo and the Bunnymen, Psychedelic Furs, Teardrop Explodes, English Beat, New Order -- the list goes on and on of bands that began in the late seventies and honed their craft as the one decade gave way to the next.

Those stale hair-metal bands like Poison et al sure offered nothing new, and were very formulaic. Alice Cooper, Queen and Chicago are more indicative of the early to mid 70's rather than 80s, and Phil Collins produced little but pablum in the 80 -- especially considering the body of work of the groundbreaking band from which he came.

 

[Iriemon]

Ah yes, 80s, the decade of greed, the me generation, disco, and heavy metal. There were some great movies, and some great music, sure. But by the 1980s, much of the popular music was commercialized, not that innovative. The advent of MTV changed music from being based on pure music to music+entertainment and further commericialized the scene.

The 80s and 90s cannot compare to the mid 60s to early 70s in terms of the explosion of innovation, exploration, and art. The Beatles took popular music from simplistic song structures and packaged performers, and evolved it into an incredible diversity of sophisticated music, opening the door for a huge variety of offshooting genre that exploded in the late 60s and early 70s; that the the late 70s, early 80s, and 90s simply borrowed. Mixtures of country and rock (CCR, CSNY), jazz and rock (BST, Chicago), psychodelic rock (Moody blues, Pink Floyd), hard rock (Stones, Zepplin).

Heavy metal and punk have their genesis in music that was developed in that time period. About the only new music genre developed since then has been disco and rap, neither of which will leave a particularly lasting mark in musical evolution, IMO.

Culturally, the mid 60s to early 70s represented an upheaval is social mores and an long needed reevaluation of the way we thought about things as a nation. There were some excesses in direction, but many of the thinks we take for granted now -- how we treat others of different race, and gender, our views about sex and our bodies and our health, had their genesis in this re-evaluation that took place in that time period.

In contrast, the 80s, 90s have been flat. If I had to think of a defining characteristic of the 80s, it would be that greed became popular.

Economically the 80s were strong; thanks to Volker the inflation beast was brought under control, the only major mar was that the federal debt tripled, which we are still paying for today. The 90s were stronger economically, and the debt issue was brought temporarily (as it sadly turned out) under control.

 

[George_Washington]

Those stale hair-metal bands like Poison et al sure offered nothing new, and were very formulaic. Alice Cooper, Queen and Chicago are more indicative of the early to mid 70's rather than 80s, and Phil Collins produced little but pablum in the 80 -- especially considering the body of work of the groundbreaking band from which he came.

I don't think I'd agree with that. I think Collins offered things that Gabriel couldn't. I think Collins brought about not only a new sound for the band but one that was sort of a metamorphosis from the sound they had in the 60's and 70's. I think the album, "Invisible Touch" was a great album that really built on the general sound of the 80's. I think this was a massively creative album as well as being one that built on the popular and, "sophisticated" sound of the 80's.

 

[George_Washington]

Ah yes, 80s, the decade of greed, the me generation, disco, and heavy metal. There were some great movies, and some great music, sure. But by the 1980s, much of the popular music was commercialized, not that innovative. The advent of MTV changed music from being based on pure music to music+entertainment and further commericialized the scene.

The 80s and 90s cannot compare to the mid 60s to early 70s in terms of the explosion of innovation, exploration, and art. The Beatles took popular music from simplistic song structures and packaged performers, and evolved it into an incredible diversity of sophisticated music, opening the door for a huge variety of offshooting genre that exploded in the late 60s and early 70s; that the the late 70s, early 80s, and 90s simply borrowed. Mixtures of country and rock (CCR, CSNY), jazz and rock (BST, Chicago), psychodelic rock (Moody blues, Pink Floyd), hard rock (Stones, Zepplin).

Heavy metal and punk have their genesis in music that was developed in that time period. About the only new music genre developed since then has been disco and rap, neither of which will leave a particularly lasting mark in musical evolution, IMO.

Culturally, the mid 60s to early 70s represented an upheaval is social mores and an long needed reevaluation of the way we thought about things as a nation. There were some excesses in direction, but many of the thinks we take for granted now -- how we treat others of different race, and gender, our views about sex and our bodies and our health, had their genesis in this re-evaluation that took place in that time period.

In contrast, the 80s, 90s have been flat. If I had to think of a defining characteristic of the 80s, it would be that greed became popular.

Economically the 80s were strong; thanks to Volker the inflation beast was brought under control, the only major mar was that the federal debt tripled, which we are still paying for today. The 90s were stronger economically, and the debt issue was brought temporarily (as it sadly turned out) under control.

Well, the 80's and 90's might not have been as purely innovative as the 60's and 70's from a strict artistic standpoint, you might be right. And of course bands became less flamboyant, possibly. But I think in a lot of ways, the 80's hand a truly unique and creative sound and a lot of those bands you mentioned perfected their talents. Take the Beatles, for example. John Lennon's last album, the one he made just before he died, had come out in 1980. That was his best solo album in my opinion. His single, "Starting Over" I think was brillant. And Chicago really recorded some nice stuff in the 80s with Peter Cetera, which I think was just as good as what they had previously recorded earlier.

 

[cherokee]

Nothing passed the time better then AC/DC and Black Sabbath

 

[mixedmedia]

This thread makes me feel ill.....GW, you have a lot to learn, young man. :doh

 

[Sir_Alec]

This thread makes me feel ill.....GW, you have a lot to learn, young man. :doh

He doesn't even know who the smiths are! He's got a lot to learn I tell ya.



Just kidding man I love ya

 

[George_Washington]

This thread makes me feel ill.....GW, you have a lot to learn, young man. :doh

Come on, admit it. You just KNOW that Pretty in Pink and Weird Science were the BEST teen movies ever...the soundtracks were also awesome...you just know they are. Actually though, I was only like 4 years old or something when they came out, so I can't really relate to them as far as my teenage years went...:rofl. I mean but I can though in the sense that I think they were awesome and great movies for young people.

And of course all know that Ferris Bueller's Day Off set the pinnacle record for awesome teen movies that has never been broken...none of the teen movies nowadays can come close to the greatness of that film...or the song they played during it: "OH YEAH." :mrgreen:

The 80's really set the standard for coolness...I think most of the films nowadays suck in comparison...think how cool the vampires were in, "Lost Boys." No vampire movies today are that cool.

OMG all this talk of the 80's has made me like the 80's even more. I just have to go out now and buy every 80's movie ever made.

 

[George_Washington]

Also, you guys, have you ever noticed how everything in the 80's was really high classed, everybody dressed nice or at least nicer than they do now, and they had so many shows and movies with beach scenes? Recall Miami Vice, Top Gun, Weekend at Bernie's, etc.

It seemed like everything about the 80's was all about happiness and resort areas. Nowadays, everything seems to be about ghettos and depressing things. They call it the decade of greed but I don't agree. I'm not trying to get political in this thread, I'm just saying that I think things were very cultural.

Contrary to some opinions expressed in this thread, I really do think the 80's were a good decade for fashion. A lot of the top designer brands that we have nowadays really started becoming popular in the 80's, such as Giorgio Armani. Recall how Don Johnson used to wear all those shiny Versace suits that I think were really, really cool. And recall the film, Wall Street. Michael Douglas really wore nice suits in that movie. And I liked certain things about fashion from that decade, such as the large shoulders on men's suits.