I wish I knew this in high school
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I am on summer vacation, and this is always a good time for teachers. This time lets me get things done around the house that take a back seat during the school year, as well as take some time to just do nothing when ever possible. It was hot yesterday, and those who have ever been in the midwest during the summer know hot also means humid. I decided to go to the wonderful Mall of America, nothing like a little people watching to take ones mind off the heat that was causing me to go a little haywire around the house.
Once I got to the mall I noticed something strange and I wondered if what I was seeing is happening in other places around the country. It appeared to me as if the 80's were back in full swing. This scares me quite a bit because the 80's were a time I thought we all were trying to forget. I think the first thing that got me was the clothing styles a lot of people were wearing as they paraded around the mall. These are styles that I could find if I opened my high school year book, and I feel they did not look good then let alone now. In fact I brought my yearbook into my classroom this past year to let my students see what kids looked like "back then" and needless to say they got a pretty good laugh at the pictures they saw. Yet here I was in 2008 and all the same styles that had gone away were back in full swing.
I saw big hair, pastels, high tops, flock of seaguls swept hair cuts and my least favorite....... goofy ass boots for girls that look like a cowboy boot gone horribly wrong.
!http://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/UrbanOutfitters/14088512_11_b?$detailmain$!
Speed up to last night and that is when I spent a good amount of my night watching various music videos here on my computer. The tell tale signs of the 80's are also to be found in the music that the general public is listening to as well. Catchy synthesizers, drum machines, and lyrics that read like the script from a John Hughes film. Even further evidence of this phenomenon is the headline I read stating Kevin Costner is due for well deserved come back.
I did not think I would live to see the day the 80's made a come back but I think it is happening and there is nothing I can do about it. Even MTV is talking about going back to strictly showing videos, and I wonder if this is just a sign of the apocalypse. The 80's were fun, and we ended up with a handful of good bands that we still listen to now and then, but do we want to go through that entire era again? If you are waiting for an answer, I suggest you go pick up Freaks and Geeks and you will see first hand how bad the 80's were. Here is a clip, hope you enjoy.
Comments (71)
haha i am TOTALLY with you on the cultural divide between normal civilians and the teens of today :) I think the boots you may be referring to are those god damn nasty uggs...
I actually like 80s fashion and music (peep the bobby brown avatar). I wouldn't go as far to shave my hair into a gumby fade, but its fun to look at lol.
But then again, I was born in 83 so i didnt exactly get to enjoy that decade the first time around.
Weird! I was thumbing through the racks at the Princeton Record Exchange yesterday and they young hipsters there played the entire "Reach The Beach" by the Fixx.
BTW shouldn't those boots be rolled down?
I'm with Frost. I LOVE THE 80's. I love those boots pictured in your post. I think everyone should be dressed like they did in the Love is a Battlefield video.
Long live the 80's!
Mr Frost- you were born in 83? Judging from the pict I thought you were of MC Hammer's generation... :)
indie - I prefer the ugh look to those boots I posted. I remember Heather Flemming wearing those damn things every day and I never liked them when I was in the 8th grade.
MrFrost - I think the more important question here is, would you wear a pair of hammer pants out to the bars? I think its fun to look back and smile, not fun to look in the closet and pull out old clothes.
qballvolpe - I take it you have seen those boot being worn around as well. Yes the rolled down look is the way to roll......I say throw them in the trash
I think I was about 8 years old when "U Cant Touch This" came out...... MC Hammer is from my hometown (oakland)... so that song was godlike in elementary school lol...
We had the big ugly pants and everything....
Troy - I thought you would be fond of these kind of boots
Indie - looks like we are thinking the same thing when it comes to the froster
really? i think they are something the devil came up with and named ugg.
Hear Hear (or is it Here Here)! I hated it the first time around, what gives. I'm not buying Jams, or Skidz again. I like that my nieces and nephews enjoy the John Hughes films (because it really seems they are timeless), but no more puffy shoulders, red frame glasses, No more Nagel portraits (though I'm sure there's someone that will imitate that style and become famous biting this style). Please spare us the rat tails, acid wash jeans, the french rolled cuffs...
There should be a prayer set up by the church to ward off the 80's.
Kev, yes, the dominatrix boots are my first love, but the 80's look has a special place in my heart. I say, bring it on!
Indie - maybe it is too many memories of Heather F. and her constant asking of me to "go with her." I always wondered where exactly we were supposed to go.
Contra - amen to all of that.........dont forget the hyper color shirts by genera which are already back on the shelves
Maybe if the 80s come back in style Eddie Murphy will start being funny again.
Troy are you asking to have your mog pass revoked?
hahahaha........I can only hope so seeing they are making a Beverly Hills Cop part four. Loved one and two but the third ranks up there next to Caddyshack part 2
Man, don't make me post every one of the songs from VH1's top songs of the 80's. I have them all.
Come on, man! The 80's were the shit! Fast Times at Ridgemont High? WHAT?!!?
By the way, anyone else seen the JC Penney commercial that's made to look like The Breakfast Club?
Yes troy 80's movies were good...........80's fashion not so much so
Ocean Pacific and Jamz, those were the shi*!
PS will you "go with" MTV if they start playing music again. Check Box:
[X] NO
[ ] YES
That all depends on if you were one of the cool kids or not!
Ahh, man. They cut my picture off. You don't get to see Jon Cryer in all his coolness!
ok, you wear that out to the club and ask for Living On a Prayer to be played by the dj and I can assure you you will be going home alone. The only thing Jon Cryer's outfit is missing is a set of these........
See, doesnt look cool now either
The 80s are back? Does this mean I'm gonna have to get concieved again? Ewww....
haha......so young, so young........you will see Jox, there will be a time in your life where you will want no one to see what you were wearing back then. Better yet, you will not want people to know what you were listening to
Well if it's wishful thinking your after, maybe Van Halen will be good again too.
This is "cool"?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnIgzS14gPI
Troy, I saw that breakfast club JC Penny's commercial and it made me so sad. Not to mention that the kids that it's aimed at don't even know that movie.
Please take the Wham UK! picture off, I got dumped in 7th grade because of George Michael...
Another thing...
For those of us who were teens in the 80s (I was born in 1970, so I had the whole thing), did you ever notice the difference between us and our parents generation? They worshipped the 60's, made us worship the 60's, they made us feel that we missed everything? So are we sure that all of our 80s hate is not just some kind of self hate/inferiority complex instilled in us us by the generation that is majorly screwing up the world right now?
Damn, Listen to Frost, Troy Joxley, et al., maybe we were right?
qballvolpe - What I hate about the 80's was that most of what came through into pop culture was the reguritated, re-interpretation of what the 80's was. It was turning "New Wave" into flourescent bangle braclets, checkered patterns, baggy t-shirts tied off as a skirt, amd the side pony tail. So basically our parents made us feel bad about what we liked, but then repackaged and sold us our culture in the form of rapping granny's, and substance free bad pop.
This is our parents version of everything we loved in the 80's:
The side ponytail is something I can live without.... that one can stay in the 80s
Kev, it's hilarious that you even made this post today. I just realized a week ago that my boot fetish was possibly started by Molly Ringwald's boots in The Breakfast Club.
I'm a teacher too (8th grade) and this year I noticed this more than ever before. I had one student who went around every day with one glove on a la Mr. Jackson, actually brought her Wham! and Culture Club LPs to school one day, and had long conversations with me about how cool the decade was (well, that's what she thought. I hold to the opinion shared by Kevin that most everything from the 80s are best shot, drawn, quartered, bundled up into a lead container and dropped somewhere really, really deep).
Orrrrr....Flashdance, anyone? See, the 80's weren't all bad. You've got to focus on the positive.
Yeah, but every time I see that picture I think of that shit-hole of a song that goes with it!!
I liked the flashdance song. :(
Contra, I am with qball........that picture frightened me. Oh, and qball I think the difference between the 60's and 80's is like night and day. Look at the things that have stayed the test of time since the 60's. Not to mention the music that most of us here on mog still listen to. The 80's, well fashion wise I think we can say it was a bust, and as for the music how many 80's bands still get heavy rotation outside of a comp disc you play at a party.
Frost, I agree if you are going to wear a ponytail, at least have it in one spot.
Troy, once again you are finding the needles in the haystack. These are exceptions to the rule, but for the most part the 80's blew. To quote Cynthia from Dazed and Confused, "Maybe the 80s will be like radical or something. I figure we'll be in our 20s and it cant' get worse." Well it is safe to say she was wrong.
Groon, and I feel kids are eating it up just to piss off their parents and or teachers.
Obviously, I didn't, but if there's one thing The Breakfast Club taught us, it's that we can be different and still get along!
Richard Vernon: You think about this: when you get old, these kids - when *I* get old - they're going to be running the country.
Carl: Yeah.
Richard Vernon: Now this is the thought that wakes me up in the middle of the night. That when I get older, these kids are going to take care of me. Carl: I wouldn't count on it.
and that something dont change
(that last was a response to Troy, BTW).
I can't say it's pissing me off, but it reminds me of what I used to think back in the day. I have a distinct memory o fbeing in middle school at some point (so this would have been mid 80s) and seeing a video or something from the 70s and asking myself, "What were they thinking? Look at those clothes and that hair! Ugh! At least now, in the 80s, things are better."
Of course, now I know how wrong and clueless I was.
Yeah, I tend to find the things I loved and hold on to them. The flashdance scene with the bucket of water falling on the chick, completely washes away all the bad memories.
And I'm happy with that.
So...yeah, forgive me if I hang on to the things in the 80s that gave me wood, and forget the ones that gave me indigestion. I'm just a man. :)
I think your Kevin it is a sign of the apocalypse...
So...yeah, forgive me if I hang on to the things in the 80s that gave me wood, and forget the ones that gave me indigestion. I'm just a man. :)
That, I can respect.
Hehehehehehehe, he said 'Wood', ehehehehehe!
Late to the game on this post(gotta work sometime ya know). And actually I'm surprised Kev you're just now figuring this out, since the '80s have been "in" for quite a few years now. Do you recall the whole "Electro" scene that went on? Peaches, Felix Da Housecat, Miss Kitten & The Hacker & Fischer-Spooner were all a part of that & it started in New York City in '98, TEN YEARS ago. But I guess it's just now becoming obvious in your neck of the woods, haha!
you said "woods"
OMFG! You're right, I did! How 'gay' of me ahahahahaha
Hey, that's MY line!
@;P Yup, I 'stole' it from you Troy. Thought I'd use it instead of waiting for someone else to do it!
which line did you steal..........keep in mind Troy has stolen all of his good lines from me!
The gay line, lol. So I stole it from you via Troy eh Kev? You sly dawg.
I work like that August, all is fair though I steal all my wardrobe ideas from troy. That includes the fuck me boots I am wearing right now!
Word? Boy, I didn't know you & Troy got down like dat! Come fuck me boots, day-ummm! That's some *serious* shit, haha
...oh boy...
[running through the monsoooon...]
Troy told me that if I wore them women would find me that much more attractive.........I think I misread him because I think they look a lot better on a set of womens legs
Noooooo...I said women will LIKE YOU A LOT MORE! Because they'll think you're gay, therefore non-threatening. See, it's the ol' bait and switch routine. Works every time. :)
I dont need any help in the "women think I am gay" line of thinking. I have gotten that my whole life and I am starting to think my wife thinks the same thing.
Man, a friend of mine (who's actually coming to visit for the weekend) told me that if she didn't KNOW me, she'd think I was gay. Another female friend said that I'm slightly metro (but, her support were things like I'm well groomed and I know how to match my clothes). And I get hit on by guys so much that it's a running gag. "Every time we go out, some guy gets a little to friendly with Troy." I've come to the conclusion that I must actually be gay, but I'm the only one who hasn't figured it out yet.
tell me how things are with R. Kelly trapped in that closet troy
Crowded. But the company is interesting. :)
haha, that R. Kelly comment was perfect Kev! Good one. And women thinking your gay is quite a compliment since it just means they think you have great taste!
And Troy, it's probably those CFM boots that getcha the attention by the guys when you go out! The boots tend to make one's booty stick out & look perky & prettier(& ready) since that's what they're designed to do to women!
Curse this wonderful ass of mine!
haha Curse of Da Booty!
yours and mine
I'm starting my own '70s-'80s mash-up revival band called A Flock of Eagles. Contact me by MOG-Mail for bookings.
Nostalgia's all the rage. Imagine what will happen when when we hit the 90's "do over" - listening to nu metal all over again? I hope not but just like with the 80's, the worst of that decade will be extracted and turned into pure genius, somehow.
I was too young to experience the 80s when they were happening. Therefore, I am ready to sit back and watch the revival with a beer in my head. BRING IT ON.
With a beer in your head?
Well, I guess that's were it ends up eventually.
mine usually end up being poured over my head but thats another story
I type with my head and think with my hand.
I am totally behind on this post, but I just had to say this is something I feared would happen after the peasant shirts were "in" a few years back. Ugh, the 80's styles were least of my favorites. So I wonder when the grunge era is coming back. Cause you know it will....
Crazy!
yes shud, it is right around the corner.............now where is my flannel!
Nothing like line dance choreography that will keep a man back in a music video! Sweet!