To those who were alive in the 1980s what was it like ?

[Massimo2002]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

 

[Bthoth]

Best music and much of the time spent was learning. Weird part is, the more a person learns the more realization of just how little is known.

 

[Massimo2002]

Best music and much of the time spent was learning. Weird part is, the more a person learns the more realization of just how little is known.

That must've been cool acquiring knowledge before the Internet.

 

[Bthoth]

That must've been cool acquiring knowledge before the Internet.

It was a pain in the arse as going to many different libraries and then a variety of college campuses. I was lucky to have met a few professors that loved my self motivation. I would read a paper, than do the math/homework on my own and bring it back to the teacher for review. I was not even enrolled but I was a kid that loved to dig into tough questions about natures processes and electronics.

I spent too much time on buses and wish i was able to drive but I appreciated living in Southern California with great weather and a campus in most every city surrounding me.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I remember it as bland and conservative in the U.S. and burdened by the Aids epidemic.

 

[Orbit]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

The 80s were strange. On one hand, Reagan was elected in 1980 and you had the rise of the religious right, starting with his "Moral Majority". According to Reagan, we really didn't need a social safety net, because there were "a thousand points of light", which referred to people giving to charity. He created the homeless problem by releasing people from state mental institutions, people who really couldn't function on their own. He told Americans that if we gave tax breaks to millionaires, they would create jobs and wealth would "trickle down" to average people. It never did. The media told us, in the middle of a recession, to "dress for success", another expensive and bogus idea. Surveillance cameras started to appear in public areas for the first time.

On the other hand, there was a vibrant counter-culture in reaction to this. Punk rock and post-punk flourished. Gay subculture was vibrant. I spent the 80s playing in a punk band, and there was a nationwide network of people in local punk scenes making zines, booking shows, and doing art. Industrial music became a thing. I started community college in 1987, and every year that went by, educational funding and grant support was reduced.

A quick Google image search will show you the mullet haircut, and the "big hair" for women. There was also what we called the "hair metal" scene, with heavy metal guys who wore spandex, used the same Aqua Net hairspray that your grandmother used, and were in bands with names like "Pretty Boy Floyd".

That's what comes to mind off the top of my head.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Hair was a lot bigger and more flammable, and new cars were slow and underpowered.

New wave music was all the rage.

And the Brat Pack was at the peak of popularity.

 

[icehorse]

In my world music was very important. You had to have a BIG stereo system, with HUGE speakers. But then you also had a Sony walkman so that you could play the music you had on cassettes wherever you went But IMO the 80s music wasn't as good as the 60s and 70s music.

Personal computers were new, and rare. As a programmer, the computers I used were as big as a refrigerator and no where near as powerful as an iPhone.

I did a lot of business travel. You could show up 20 minutes before your flight and run from your car to the gate - no TSA

Cameras used film, no one had mobile phones, people had machines that used cassette tapes to record phone messages.

 

[Clizby Wampuscat]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

I graduated HS in 1987. My kids like to ask me questions about life before the internet. Here are a few things from my memory:

Transportation was important to kids. Before 16, bicycles were the key to freedom, after 16 the car was the key to freedom. it seems now many kids don't ride bikes or even want to drive.

Meeting up with people was different. This blows my kids minds but to meet someone at a restaurant lets say. You talked in person or on the phone and made plans. Then went to the place to meet and waited until the other people got there.

Payphones were everywhere and everyone kept a roll of dimes or quarters in their cars to call if needed.

People wrote a lot of checks

People did their taxes by hand

No personal computers in the home unless you were rich. In my high school we had about 12 apple IIc's and that was it. No windows. We got a Commodore 64 in the mid 80's, this hooked up to your TV screen and could almost do algebra. You had to load each game separately each time and Atari was awesome!

Glam bands were awesome, no music like that today.

I could by cigarettes at 16 and we had a smoking area at our high school

Spent most of the day outside playing with neighbor kids when in elementary and middle school

The difference in the political parties were small. Mostly disagreed on social issues and agreed on foreign policy, and fiscal responsibility. Parties talked together and compromised unlike today.

Air quality was an issue early 80's but got much better mid 80's

Travel was done my paper maps and planned out beforehand and used travelers checks to pay on trips

PG movies had much more foul language in them.

Bullying and voluntarily segregating into social classes was more common in schools.

 

[Quintessence]

Wasn't all that different, to be honest, aside from the usual so-called "progress" of technology from then to now and the usual shifts of the pendulum for social movements and subcultures. Humans were still humans. That is, incredibly stupid, short-sighted, creative, and brilliant.

 

[JustGeorge]

I was born in '84, so I only remember things through a child's eye...

But I liked the animation better. The toys were cuter.

 

[ChristineM]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

Born in 1970 so from 10 to 20. The first 5 years were horrendous for me, I'm i have a sight problem which prevented me from reading and writing so i was considered to be the thick kid at school and church, being mocked and ridiculed works wonders for killing self confidence. I couldn't leave school but i could leave church, i did. Soon after medical science made a giant leap and i was diagnosed, remedial eye glasses prescribed and voila, letters swam onto focus.

I spent the rest of the decade learning to read and catching up with what I'd missed and making myself a bit of a nerd on some subjects ;-). I listened to a lot of music, very little from the 80s, i preferred my parents era of late 60s early 70s bands. Though the rock was pretty good.

So, the first half of the decade was mostly miserable. The second half, the world unfolded for me.

 

[ChristineM]

I was born in '84, so I only remember things through a child's eye...

But I liked the animation better. The toys were cuter.

The animation was stop motion then.

I heard a story from the Wallace and Grommet team who still use stop motion. The whole team would work a week and celebrate if the had managed 10 seconds of film in the can.

 

[JustGeorge]

The animation was stop motion then.

I heard a story from the Wallace and Grommet team who still use stop motion. The whole team would work a week and celebrate if the had managed 10 seconds of film in the can.

I don't know much about it, but I liked the look of

better than
.
But I understand its probably nostalgia.

 

[Mock Turtle]

As per earlier comments, I think the 60s and 70s were better for music - as to being the origins of so many influences and as to seeing groups live before too much electronica came onto the scene. The 80s were not so important for me, although I did have one of the early home computers (an Amstrad 6128 with disk drive, and which I still have). In the UK we had Thatcher, so being rather left-wing that was not good for me. I was able to buy a quite expensive HiFi system though, being in quite a good job. CDs came onto the scene during the 80s too so mobile devices were quite convenient using these, and better than cassettes. But overall, not a good decade for me.

 

[Massimo2002]

As per earlier comments, I think the 60s and 70s were better for music - as to being the origins of so many influences and as to seeing groups live before too much electronica came onto the scene. The 80s were not so important for me, although I did have one of the early home computers (an Amstrad 6128 with disk drive, and which I still have). In the UK we had Thatcher, so being rather left-wing that was not good for me. I was able to buy a quite expensive HiFi system though, being in quite a good job. CDs came onto the scene during the 80s too so mobile devices were quite convenient using these, and better than cassettes. But overall, not a good decade for me.

I disagree I happen to really love Electronic Music.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I disagree I happen to really love Electronic Music.

Well I like much of electronic music too, but I think it probably affected the quality of musicianship as to much of music.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Especially Compared To Now ? I'm excited to hear your responses.

The smell of stale cigarette smoke in every public place... like decades of it absorbed into the drywall and just off-gassing a little bit all the time.

Cars were crap - our family cars tended to have critical problems around 160,000 km / 100,000 miles to the point that it was just cheaper to get another (used) car.

Kids were more independent. I remember walking home from school by myself in kindergarten (so age 5-6) in 1982-83.

There was a big shift in terms of religion in schools here (Ontario) in 1986. Before that, we'd have more explicitly Christian stuff in public schools - some teachers would do the Lord's Prayer every morning. After the law changed, that disappeared (thankfully).

We had computers (for my parents' business, mainly). Internet wasn't a thing then, but by the end of the decade, I was on BBSes - there were free newspapers available at places like Radio Shack that had classified ads in ths back where sysops could list their BBSes.

It seemed like technology would get obsolete way more quickly then. Today, my laptop is 6 years old and it does everything that a new computer does, but just a bit slower. In the 80s, a 6-year-old computer was basically a useless boat anchor that was completely incompatible with the current operating systems.

 

[Massimo2002]

Well I like much of electronic music too, but I think it probably affected the quality of musicianship as to much of music.

I know that you think that is a bad thing but to me that is a good thing.

 

[Massimo2002]

The smell of stale cigarette smoke in every public place... like decades of it absorbed into the drywall and just off-gassing a little bit all the time.

Cars were crap - our family cars tended to have critical problems around 160,000 km / 100,000 miles to the point that it was just cheaper to get another (used) car.

Kids were more independent. I remember walking home from school by myself in kindergarten (so age 5-6) in 1982-83.

There was a big shift in terms of religion in schools here (Ontario) in 1986. Before that, we'd have more explicitly Christian stuff in public schools - some teachers would do the Lord's Prayer every morning. After the law changed, that disappeared (thankfully).

We had computers (for my parents' business, mainly). Internet wasn't a thing then, but by the end of the decade, I was on BBSes - there were free newspapers available at places like Radio Shack that had classified ads in ths back where sysops could list their BBSes.

It seemed like technology would get obsolete way more quickly then. Today, my laptop is 6 years old and it does everything that a new computer does, but just a bit slower. In the 80s, a 6-year-old computer was basically a useless boat anchor that was completely incompatible with the current operating systems.

That bit about the computer technology is fascinating. I didn't know that technology was more prone to becoming more outdated than today.