Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 72 posts

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#41

Post by bsder »

cmollis wrote: post #9

I was born in 1967.. so I remember the 80's very well. First, let me say that it wasn't all great: AIDS was pretty scary (as someone else noted).. no one knew what the hell that was and it was killing a lot of people. There was also the ever-present spectre of nuclear war with Russia...Iran-Contra, 1987 stock market crash.. However, to your point, there was no exhausting news cycle, no exhausting bullshit social medi…

Please explain to people living in towns that had 30+% unemployment and later completely collapsed that the 80s were better and watch them laugh in your face if they don't punch you (see: any mill town in Pennsylvania--Allentown, Johnstown, etc.) ...

While I'm always one to dump on the MAGAs, they have a point in that for a LOT of people, life WAS better because labor jobs (mills, mines, auto factories, etc.) paid for a decent life. Those jobs which were good in the 1960s and 1970s then vaporized in the 1980s.

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#42

Post by vavrek »

dogline wrote: post #34
vavrek wrote: post #20

Was born in 1973 and grew up in the Redwoods of Northern California, near what would eventually become Silicon Valley. In that place and time, the 80's were mostly a very fun and exciting bunch of years to be a child, with the crazy hippie 60's/70's mentality of the adults crossing over into a new "cleaner" era of exploding fresh technology and intelligent comic vision. Records became cassettes. Being able to record…

Did you say, awful "Cop Rock"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop_Rock

Unfamiliar with this apparent "flop."

From the Urban Dictionary: "The name "butt rock" has a few possible origins. First, in the 1980s, the musicians in many hair metal bands often dressed in a "glam" style, wearing tight pants that would accentuate their butts. (This may also be the origin of the term "cock rock," which has the same connotations, as the tight pants would also accentuate the musicians' crotches.) A less flattering origin for the name is that the lead singers of these bands sounded like they were singing out of their asses. Finally, the term can generally mean that the music sounds like ass."

By the way, here is my band: https://tryad.bandcamp.com

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#44

Post by mancerayder »

cmollis wrote: post #9

I was born in 1967.. so I remember the 80's very well. First, let me say that it wasn't all great: AIDS was pretty scary (as someone else noted).. no one knew what the hell that was and it was killing a lot of people. There was also the ever-present spectre of nuclear war with Russia...Iran-Contra, 1987 stock market crash.. However, to your point, there was no exhausting news cycle, no exhausting bullshit social medi…

Flying internationally was great. Planes felt mostly empty, lines were faster and shoes weren't taken off. Upgrades were more common, even as a child.

On the other hand people sometimes smoked and luggage was sometimes lost.

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#45

Post by mattl »

mr_toad wrote: post #37
jhbadger wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mall hangout thing was pretty spot on though in the 1980s (I was born in 1970). So much so that eventually a lot of mall security started making a point of harassing teens that weren't actually actively shopping though.

I think mall culture came down to two things: fewer ways to communicate, so the mall was an obvious central gathering location, and secondly fewer things to do, so the mall was where bored teens hung out.

I grew up in the UK and moved to the US in my early 20s.

In UK cities people hung out at different places, not a lot of malls.

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#46

Post by mattl »

starwind wrote: post #31
mattl wrote: post #4

Stranger Things and other modern movies like Wonder Woman: 1984 present an inconsistent idea of what the 1980s was like. Case in point, there's a scene in a supermarket with a bunch of breakfast cereals from various pop franchises. That never happened in reality. In reality, the same cereal would be repackaged for whatever was the hot movie/brand at the time. This is somewhat sent up in this video from UK's The Adam…

Didn't know that. I googled 1980s cereal and sure enough: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/70437468476516/

One of the things I do is edit movies and it makes you notice anachronisms and mistakes more than normal. Kinda ruins watching stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#48

Post by aaron695 »

jshaqaw wrote: post #21

Given this is Hacker News… it was a magical time for technology. Yes it helped I was ages 5-15 for that period. Computers were just coming into the general population and that was a mind blowing thing. At the same time, the pre-mass internet era meant that our brains were our own. Concentration and space to think weren’t yet deprecated features. Other than that it had the same ups and downs as any other time.

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: What made the 80s so pleasant?

#50

Post by starwind »

mattl wrote: post #46
starwind wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't know that. I googled 1980s cereal and sure enough: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/70437468476516/

One of the things I do is edit movies and it makes you notice anachronisms and mistakes more than normal. Kinda ruins watching stuff.

yeah, I think know what you mean. you see the errors in the details and can't appreciate the vibe
Post reply on HN