When you think of the decade of the 1980's, what's the one thing that stands out the most for you?

[Snsl153]

Is it the music? The fashion? The films? The technology? Yes, now I know I'm too young, but I used to have one of these -

It was given to me by an older relative, and I used to play with it a lot. I don't know what happened to it though; at some point along the way I lost it :'( I hear they're worth a fortune now, if you can find one, because they're real collectibles.

[WhiteSteve]

I was a child, so I just think of my childhood. I probably am more familiar with the pop culture than the politics. I remember Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, of course, but I didn’t really understand, I just got indoctrinated with this “America = hood; USSR = bad” with no real explanation. I remember there was beef with Libya and Gaddaffi, although back then it was spelled with a Q, like Qaddaffi, so when his name started showing up again like 10 years ago or whenever it was that he was killed, it was spelled with a G, but I don’t know why it changed.

I mostly remember toys and cartoons: G. I. Joe, He-Man, Transformers, etc, and the girls had My Little Pony and Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. We also used to collect these trading cards called “Garbage Pail Kids” (a play on Cabbage Patch Kids”, and they featured cartoon depictions of babies or young children in some kind of gross-out humor based on their name. We went CRAZY for these things in like first and second grade (1985-87 for me). I remember at one point they tried to ban them at school because some parent was offended lmao.

And I guess music was the other big thing for me. I was into music very young, so all the big pop stars like Michael Jackson and Madonna were already iconic, the early rap groups like Run DMC (and I liked The Fat Boys, they were kind of a novelty act though, haha), and then all the more flash-in-the-pan acts like The Bangles. Walk Like An Egyptian was a huge song, and we’d all do the “dance” from it, plus the lead singer was real easy on the eyes, Young WhiteSteve was loving her, lmao.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cv6tuzHUuuk

(Pretty sure that’s actually Qaddafi from Libya in the blue windbreaker at 1:50, this is all coming together for me so perfectly😂)

And the movies…. the teen angst movies I didn’t catch til the 90s, mostly, like the John Hughes kind of stuff like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink…. anything with Molly Ringwald or Anthony Michael Hall in it, basically, haha. The big ones for me were The Karate Kid and The Goonies, plus Back To The Future, Teen Wolf (WILDLY underrated Michael J Fox movie lost in the sauce with his Back To The Future work), The Indiana Jones movies were some of my favorites too, and just the overall thrill of going to a video rental place on a Friday night to take out movies or Nintendo games for the weekend.

I guess that reminds me that I’d be remiss to not mention Atari 2600 and the original NES Nintendo console. I wasn’t even the hugest video game guy, but I still played a good amount. I liked Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out a lot, Blades Of Steel (hockey), TecmoBowl (football), and RBI Baseball. Also can’t forget the fishing game Black Bass, and Super Mario Brothers 3 blew my mind when it came out. Shout out to Fred Savage and the movie “The Wizard”, which was basically a 90-minute commercial for Nintendo and the upcoming Super Mario Bros 3, which I think is the first game I ever anticipated the release of, they didn’t really make a thing of release dates like they do with games today, and also for “The Power Glove”, an incredibly underwhelming accessory in reality. But what if I told you that this Power Glove kid actually seemed really cool to me at that time. Like that’s what a “cool kid” looked like back then, holy shit😂😂😂

https://www.youtube.com/embed/2KoZHtcKkXo

[Fuentes]

No social media, seemed like people were less jealous of others amd could only focus on their life's and goals and the music and future seemed very bright. I wish I grew up in the 60s 70s or 80s at the same time tho I am of color so it may not be a good idea but those were most likely my people. Just seemed like a breeze of a time.

[EnglishEuropean]

It was! The future was so bright, we had to wear shades!

[Snsl153]

@EnglishEuropean I actually know that song reference :)

[SaoirseS]

I have the full-size arcade Donkey Kong. It still works.

Other than that, when I think of the 80s (although well before my time), I think of a boat load of coming of age movies with Molly Ringwald.

[KimmyKimchi]

I don't know, I think of Stranger Things. The 80s was 20 years before I was born

[ohsheeT]

The '80s were the best LOL because we were Freer we lived life the music was 10 times better than it is today going to clubs picking up on women traveling all over the place having places to go not worrying about things it was a freedom that we have lost and we are losing more and more of every day I feel sorry for the young kids nowadays I really wish they could experience everything that I got to experience as that's what life is all about that's why we are here is to experience as much as possible to take it back with us because energy Never Dies we are energy

[FunkyMonkee]

Several things, my first forays into sex, getting into a band. Making our first 3 records, the movies, the incredible music (almost as good as the psych era!), my college years, the second hippie movement, a good bit of depression for a short while. Except for the bad personal years (late `83 to mid `85), it was a BLAST!! I would love to relive almost all of it all over again!

[Kr2030]

I was a kid/teenager in the 80's. I hate almost everything about the 80's, fashion, music, movies, style, cars (except for knight rider). I don't know why 80's music is still played on the radio so much even today. I like the 90's and everything after.

[andreasderjuengere]

In the 80's no one ''liked, followed and subscribed''.

We were living REAL lives.

Related: ''Advertising'', ''marketing'' and communication did not yet follow us to even the toilet. We had privacy :D

[Th3ft]

Well I was born in 89 so there is that… but then it’s the movies and video games. We had a SAGA genius grousing up. It was so cool! And looking back on it it was horrible. Lol!

[Slingblade1126]

The U. S seemed united as a people and the vast majority of people were proud to be an American. Patriotism wasn't a dirty word.

[EnglishEuropean]

I mostly remember the music, but also what a great time we were having.

[AviatorTom]

The 1980s were the end of DISCO and the beginning of RAP.

[KostasKouvalis]

A time of social and political issues, but also the height of pop culture, especially the film industry.

[Letthesunshine]

Thats it!

[eagle1951]

I married the love of my life April19th 1980

[Avicenna]

The end of the cold war

[nawtee_me]

disco sucks...

[NathanDavis]

synths...

[maximumpower]

my best years.

[Alex8736]

Atari

[Anonymous]

metallica