Gaddabout

Somewhere around 1995 I started seeing a commercial with a guy who vaguely looked like my class valedictorian asking me, "Hey, remember the 80s?" It was an ad for the 80s Preservation Society or something like that, and I recall thinking I wish I had an Einstein-type time/space eraser with which to eliminate that entire decade. I hated it. The music, the clothes, the attitudes. Even the underground scene was one big ball of bitterness. I'd like to forget that, too.

While going through the 90s, I thought I would have many fond memories of it: I was in my 20s, acoustic instrumentation had returned to popular music, and nobody was trying to moonwalk. In fact, the 1990s was almost parachute pants and penny loafer free. The only white glove of the decade didn't fit on OJ's monstrous hands, and that only made it more memorable.

The geeks finally inherited the earth, at least until venture capitalists figured out geeks were selling ether rather than physical objects that could be sold off piece by piece if the company went under. Normal people could buy homes AND stocks. It gave us the Internet and Internet addiction. I remember paying less than a buck for gas, even while Bush the First discovered Saaaaa-dum as the perfect foil to pump up flagging approval ratings. It gave one of the funniest political statements in the history of American political debate: James Stockdale's opening line, "Who Am I? Why am I here?" I recall thinking I really didn't care what his answer to those two questions would be. It also gave us Ross Perot, who was a political cartoonist's wet dream incarnate.

It was the era of the sitcom and animated series: Seinfeld and Friends, with a full-on dose of the Simpsons helping reshape our world view ... we're Ugly Americans, and it's bloody funny. It was also the era of coffee. I don't remember what I did with my friends before venti cafe mochas with quadruple shots while pleading with the short-haired woman with the acoustic guitar in the corner to play something other than Indigo Girlz. I would complain about the neo-hippie culture trend, but it was so ridiculously fashion driven rather than the original cultural phenomenon, it remains a funny and memorable part of the decade.

There are a lot of things about the 90s to like. I believe in hindsight many of us who lived it will remember it as a hey day. In so many ways I believe we've entered this new millennium trying to recapture the simple magic of the previous decade. We want a major bounce back from recession, low interest rates, a technological boom, and faith that even when we badly screw up foreign policy, it can't touch us here.

I fear I'm going to end up like a lot of the original hippies, who have spent their lives trying to recreate the 60s. As Edie Brickell, the Joan the Baptist precursor to the 90s, once sang: "Drown me in the shallow waters before I get too deep."

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Before I saw him, I could figure things out. He was the first guy I saw close-up and just didn't get what he was doing. Josh Freese on Vinnie Colaiuta

masterphomeg

Ahhhhhh...the 90's...The days of muscle sweatshirts, Zuma pants, and mulletts.

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Linderbee

Great post!

I look back on the 90's with much fondness, too. All the reasons you stated, and all my kids were born in the 90's. 1990 for the first, and 1999 for the last! I always thought that was cool.

But I believe the line is "Shove me in the shallow water..."

edit: most sites are saying "Choke me in the shallow water..." but I don't agree w/that. I'm d/l the song now.

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Gaddabout

My friend, Chris Whitten, recorded the drum tracks for that song. I believe he would say it doesn't really matter which way you remember those lyrics because the whole thing was rather surreal.

But that's 1988 history, and we're talkin' about the 90s.

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Before I saw him, I could figure things out. He was the first guy I saw close-up and just didn't get what he was doing. Josh Freese on Vinnie Colaiuta

Linderbee

It sounds like she's saying 'choke'...I think my 16-year-old brain (at the time) preferred something with a little more hope (and it makes more sense as "shove" to me). "don't let me get too deep", so it would make sense that she wants to get shoved to the shallow water...oh, well. It's a great song. Can't believe it's almost 20 years old.

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dreamcastrocks

This sounds more like a P&R piece.

That said, I loved the 90's. Still love the music.

I remember $97c gas as well. The days of filling up my Toyota Corolla for $10 are long gone.

Besides, wasn't OJ's glove black and not white?

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Gaddabout

I said I remember the 90s. I didn't say I remembered it accurately. The laws of time and distance require I remember things more ironically than reality first allowed.

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Before I saw him, I could figure things out. He was the first guy I saw close-up and just didn't get what he was doing. Josh Freese on Vinnie Colaiuta

Linderbee

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Mulli

I remember a lot about the '90s. Some of it actually happened.

dreamcastrocks

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'Just to reiterate, Derek Anderson isn't hurt.... he has just been benched.'
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CardFan67

I think it has much more to do with the age you were during the decades you are companring. In my opinion the fondness comes with where you were at and what you were doing. The people who were about saving the 80's are more than likely 9 to 15 years your senior. They were at the age in the 80's that you were in the 90's. The "stuff" that goes with it is all unimportant. It is the association of that stuff, with everything else you were doing and going through that creates the fondness or the memories...

Renz

Sorry, had to chime in here. I graduated high school in 1985, so I have a great fondness for the decade of the '80's. Not trying to pick on you, but I hear a lot of smack talked about '80's music and it is really a crock!

Sure, there was crappy music in the '80's, just like there is crappy music in every decade. I'm not sure why the '80's gets such a bad rap. Maybe because all that people remember are Paula Abdul and Tiffany.

I'm a huge fan of '80's alternative ("New Wave" if you were there). Some of my favorites, off the top of my head, include:

The Clash, The Jam, REM, The Police, Oingo Boingo, Prince (1999 & Purple Rain, very innovative for the time), Devo, The Cure, The Smiths, Squeeze, English Beat, Peter Gabriel, Violent Femmes, Wall of Voodoo, The Replacements, INXS, New Order, Yaz, B-52's, Talking Heads, Billy Idol, The Church, Split Enz, Suzanne Vega, The Cars, Elvis Costello. Also, in the '80's U2 released their best work, IMO. Albums such as Boy, October, War, The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree.

I know I am leaving out a ton of good artists as well. Don't paint decades with a broad brush. A lot of great and influential music came from that decade.

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Hollywood

To many of these guys walking around in the 80's. I will say that Joshua Tree is in my top three albums.

Gaddabout

I graduated in '87, and I was there for all of it. I think of Paula Abdul and Tiffany as late comers to the crappy music party. When I think of 80s music, at least the stuff played on radio, I think of Eddie Money, Dokken, Motley Crue, Eddie Rabbit, Olivia Newton-John, Kenny Freakin' Rogers, Lionel Freakin' Ritchie, REO Speedwagon, Juice Bloody Newton, Air Supply ...

I have to pause for a moment. I'm getting nauseous ... OK, I'm back

... Survivor, Human League, Chicago, Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder (two artists who were just fine on their own in the 70s), Duran Duran, Hall & Oates (an artistic team that should have quit sometime before the turn of the decade), so many others, but the Cornaball of the Entire Freakin' Decade:

PHIL COLLINS



That's not music, man. That's white people (mostly) gone crazy. White people also brought us sampled electronics, which was the WORST INVENTION IN THE WORLD. IT RUINED MUSIC FOREVER. Bottom line, I think of the 80s as one of the whitest of all 20th century decades. White people didn't discover P-Funk or Bootsy Collins until the 90s. Damn white people, going around stealin' the funk all the time.

But it's long past 20 years since, so I'm mostly over that. Mostly.

The Police, Prince, Peter Gabriel, the Talking Heads (very early 80s), U2, the Cars, and Billy Idol (sans Generation X) were the only groups I would consider "mainstream" up there. Devo had one hit, then they went right back underground. Didn't they form Joy Division or something? Good stuff though. Especially the Police/Sting and Peter Gabriel.

Sorry, but U2 has never been on my radar. Can't say I was a big fan of INXS, either.

The Smiths, Suzanne Vega, Elvis Costello, the Cure, select Boingo -- these were all cool bands that sort of outgrew the underground scene, but never collected what I would call 80s icon status. At least not actually during the 80s. Boingo had a hit. Vega had a hit. Costello was writing great music but going mostly unnoticed. If you were fans of these artists, you probably weren't the life of the keg parties. Or even attended them.

I would add Edie Brickell and the new Bohemians and Lennie Kravitz as great 80s artists, but somehow they always get placed in the next decade because they were soooooo different from the 80s era.

Bah. There was great music, even in other genres such as jazz. Miles Davis put together a few incredible albums that flew entirely under the public's radar. It birthed a whole new generation of brilliant post-bop artists like John Scofield, but the scene was all about mindless guitar shredders like Yngvie. Yuck.

Just don't get me going on 80s music. I can carry this rant on all night long. What was quality and what got played on the radio are too different things. The one thing I can say about 90s radio is there were enough alternatives to keep me interested. I actually listened to FM radio for spells during the decade.

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Before I saw him, I could figure things out. He was the first guy I saw close-up and just didn't get what he was doing. Josh Freese on Vinnie Colaiuta

Renz

Joy Division morphed into New Order after their original leader killed himself. Devo has always been Devo.

You're right, I was never really into mainstream music. My point was that there was good music in the '80's, you just had to be willing to look for it.

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