I <3 the 80s.

Reagan, AIDS, two recessions...

Riding bikes with friends and playing ball in the streets, going to the mall, the record store, buying He-man and G.I. Joes, horror movies. MTV, The Facts of Life, Phil Collins, Back to the Future, The Karate Kid. The list is endless.

This sums up some of the fabulousness. Warning: shitty video quality

R3 Wow! Everyone pull out your peacocks!

Better quality for the following year but not as high octane.

Lots of shit was going on, of course. But I was in my early 20s, and very much in love with a great guy (and still am). He told me that this was 'our song'. He rented a dumpy little house with two friends, and they'd make fun of his bed squeaking when I'd visit him (no air conditioning, either). On Christmas, we had a bad argument, and I threw all the presents I bought him out the window into the snow. But he still loves me, somehow, even though I'm a proven asshole.

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar...

I hate the 80s. 12-22. Should have been prime years. But the conservative backlash, Reagan. AIDS, extreme capitalism made it miserable. I expected to come of age in a swinging 70s world and was stuck in a Dynasty/Moral Majority/culture wars world. Took until Clinton for the world to be a little less hateful - and to overcome the terror of AIDS and homophobia.

The schlocky sumptuousness of Drian De Palma

AIDS was horrifying, I was a young teen. The gay-hating was everywhere. Other students actually laughed about AIDS, about people dying. Dark times.

The OP asked for happy memories. I have the sad memories, too. I (we) always will. I used to carry an enormous burden of guilt, for surviving. After my parents died, though, I resolved that I wasn't going to spend the rest of my life in mourning. I still do, but I try to pace myself, and do helpful things instead. Did you see the 'Life in the Doghouse' thread? You can donate money to a pet rescue. Life kicked lots of us in the ass, but none worse than the people we lost. But we're here, and they're not. I hope you don't think I'm being mean, because I'm not.

I was too young to be exposed to the AIDS crisis, but being a teen in the 90s and early 2000s made me scared (and scarred) to have sex given the prior wave of death. To this day, I am reluctant to have sex.

R13, You need to look into Prep and Safe Sex (yes, still). Prep can keep you from getting AIDS, but not other STDs. That's why safe sex matters. But you shouldn't deny yourself sex and/or love. If you really like a guy, you can take the time (I did) to get tested, and to get to know him before you indulge in riskier behavior. I posted upthread, but my BF and I were both tested for HIV before we engaged in full-scale intercourse (as he calls fucking).

Here's something fun, OP.

Full Force

Expose

Jennifer Beals!

R18, Loved it! The idea that a steelworker in Pittsburgh can join the ballet. In reality, yes, it can happen. Not often, but I've known ballet dancers, who worked regular jobs.

I loved this song back then.

Let me hear your heart beat, I can feel your heartbeat!

Go-Go’s

[quote]Life kicked lots of us in the ass, but none worse than the people we lost. But we're here, and they're not.

I occasionally reflect on who fared better in the deal.

the three As of the '80s: AIDS, aerobics, and AA.

Smash Hits and NME magazines

British indie music: The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode...

I get why a lot of people hate the 80s, but I was a child so for me it's always going to be a magical time. I was 2 to 11 years old for that decade for me it will always be about, Ghostbusters, Dynasty,bubble perms, Childrens BBC , The Gummy Bears, BMX bikes, A-Ha, Tears for Fears, Breakdancing and VCRs. All the fun stuff. Also Christmas always seemed to be much bigger back then. TV made more of an effort to be "Christmassy"

@ r7, pretty much the same story without the happy ending. We made it 22 years and for that I'm grateful

R27 you are very lucky. I've never had one year with someone. I'm lonely as hell.

@ r28 ... I know

R27, R28, I love him so damned much. But he broke my heart. And I broke his. Love can hurt like Hell. We were both a couple of histrionic idiots back in the 80s. He took a job at Arby's, but I was NEVER allowed to visit Arby's, or see him in his uniform. He's a petite guy, but I always obeyed his commands. He can still boss me around, even though we're in our late 50s. He's been driving me to my doctor's appointments, lately, since he knows I'm scared. He's still an adorable little 20-something to me.

R30 is R7.

r31 , yes we know, I get his story and I love his story :)

The 80s were exiting times. People took risks in pop culture and pushed the envelope. The New Wave era delivered some serious edge to music.

[quote]The 80s were exiting times.

Time to go.

Jesus, people can't read. OP said only fun and happy stuff!

He said the '80s, r35. [italic]What[/italic] "fun and happy stuff!"?

Girls, girls - you BOTH gag me with a spoon!

It was the golden age of daytime and prime time soaps. It was Marvel for gays. The shows had insane ratings and big budgets. A complete and total Fantasia with endless options. You could find your favorites, the ones that spoke to you. I was a child and an ABC daytime devotee and loved the prime time soaps. Heaven.

Now that r38 mentions it, watching soaps was one of the few enjoyable aspects of the '80s, though I watched the Magnificent Midwestern Towns rather than those trashy ABC shows. Unfortunately, I didn't get started until 1988.

Classical music was another '80s discovery for me. I became quite obsessed with it when CD became the dominant format.

When Whitney Houston was still gorgeous, sang (sappy, melodramatic adult contemporary crap) like an angel and seemed to have a bright, lovely future ahead of her....

Tom Selleck in Magnum, PI. Now there was sexy!!

That face, that 'stache, and Lord, Lord, Lord that ass!

It was a crazy, fraught, dark, ecstatic time and I have majorly conflicted feelings about it in retrospect. I was just a kid (graduated high school in (1987)...so most of my memories are bit romanticized and sense-related: the movies, the music, the style, coming into my own as a homo and the guys I was super-hot for. I remember being obsessed with horror movies, new wave music - mostly British bands, some rap, hanging at the mall, crazy out of control parties (like right out of Sixteen Candles), hot jocks in jeeps and Guess jackets, the stench of New York City, especially in the summertime (it reeked of grease, piss and the noxious fumes of crack), the last vestiges of the east village art scene, the punk scene on the lower east side, etc etc.

I started hooking up guys around this time - ran up to the video booths on 42nd street a few times - and being convinced I had AIDS afterwards, even though I only let guys suck me off.

Somebody else mentioned this and it's worth emphasizing; gays were fucking DESPISED back then. We were looked at as subhuman, disease-ridden scum and the fact that a brilliant, angry, realty-changing, life-saving political wave exploded into being in response is probably the single most significant thing about this time period. It still humbles me and blows me away (if you haven't seen How To Survive a Plague, please do so immediately).

Horrifying times. There were people who actually liked Reagan. People you used to like. Gays were dying of AIDS and the Reagan administration was laughing.

Then there was just the horrible gestalt of the times: horrible hair, pleated pants, hideous fashions, cocaine everywhere, and teen movies taken seriously as important cultural moments.

Bad tv. Bad food. Bad everything except music. The music was actually pretty good.

Viewer Comment: "God I love shoulder pads."

Sorry to counter the goal of this thread OP - but I have to agree with the fact that the 80s were a miserable time. Most people romanticize their youthful years - but I struggle to find anything about the 80s that wasn’t soaked in homophobia, death and conservatism. Clothes, hair, music, movies, architecture - didn’t like any of it. Even though it should have been my years of optimism and blind hope for the future, it was full of fear and expectation of an early death.

OP's video didn't even include Crispin Glover's nerd dance from FRIDAY THE 13th PART IV, so why shouldn't we kill him and the videographer right now?

Just kidding. You keep kickin' it with Rodney Dangerfield and Howard the Duck. That's cool.

The McPizza was the best thing about the '80s.

R.I.P.

God R2 I think we knew each other growing up!

As a wrestling fan, the 80s produced some of the best wresting moments. The attitude era killed gimmick wrestling and I haven't been a fan since.

[quote]brilliant, angry, realty-changing,

The housing market was pretty good.

AIDS. Reagan.

I don’t think so, OP. Fuck off.

Magnum P.I.

R16, what is Paul Anthony wearing? Was he trying to be Madonna?

Here's my contribution:

Yaz...Upstairs at Eric's

I ❤️ Adam Ant

[quote]Debbie Downer - sorry

No...Rhoda Realist

I think the greatest thing about the 80s was what we didn't have. It was the last era before the internet became all-consuming in our lives. People still had real connections to each other, because you had no choice but to engage with other people. There was no hiding behind a computer screen. Society was nicer and more polite.

My life would have been so different if everyone hadn't died.

In the 80s, especially in 1984, things were comforting, even corporate conglomerates like Beatrice.

I can't imagine anyone finding America "comforting" in 1984. Not anyone I knew.

The 80s will be remembered as the last period in which there was a unifying spirit, before the disintegration.

Even the Village People knew that the 80s were going to be big.

I apologize if my reflexive, explosive vomiting accidentally came through your screen so hard it knocked you off your recliner, OP.

I just couldn't help it.

Body Heat

Romancing the Stone

Against All Odds.

Another thread about the atrocious 80s? Enough already. That decade, for the most part, sucked.

I'm sad that a won't live long enough to see if the 2080s are a similar renaissance.

Finding a Hustler mag in the woods and jerking off my friends.

....

....

"Ready for the '80s" fills me with horror every time I hear it. Or, in this case, see a link to it, which I will not play. The last thing we were was "ready for the '80s."

I was age 10-20. the twin terrors of AIDS and the wave of anti-gay male hysteria are hard to even describe. It was a holocaust/holodomor/hiroshima for gay men. I never talked about it to anyone. this is the first i've written about it. I still have PTSD from that era. How did I survive? I have no idea. I had no chance of a life against that but now in my 50's am finally enjoying life. It does get better...eventually.

Seriously R69? Of all the choices, you pick a song released in October 1989 that sounds totally 90s?

....

I love the 80s so much my heart aches. Everything about it, my 20s included, my 20s especially.

The way the country is so divided now, we’ll probably never see for many decades another 49 state election landslide like 1984.

We <3 Madonna.

R71 agree. The only good thing about coming of age in the 80s, is now in my 50s I’ve been prepared for and worried about death for so long, it feels like I can finally live and all this time from here on out is gravy. Most straight friends are just starting to deal with mortality. I’m starting to accept I’m actually going to live to old age and really appreciating having had so much time.

Jem, Debbie Gibson, Nintendo, Laser Tag, Gremlins, The Golden Girls

Well, as I stated in another 80s thread, it was really a rough time. Yet, in many ways, some things were very exciting - in music - videos were becoming the norm, MTV and VH1 were exploding, and there was the "2nd British Invasion". Those were the bands like Culture Club, Thompson Twins, Duran Duran that were breaking new ground and the "New Wave" movement was fantastic! Cable TV was expanding the medium of television and broadening it's influence in society at large. However, 1987, the year I turned 23 I went to 36 funerals - friends, friends of friends, etc. I remember vividly when the AIDS Quilt came to be displayed and I was overwhelmed with anger, frustration, and hopelessness by the destruction that insidious disease had caused and the pain and suffering that it was still causing as I viewed the panels. The president never, repeat NEVER, mentioned AIDS ever during his time in office (1980-1988) so it was scary to see the people in power ignore an epidemic because of who it's victims were. Sigh!!! I hope this gives the OP some idea of what it was like and let me state - for the record - that this will be my LAST post in any 80s thread about anything having to do with the 80s. I'm very saddened by the memories I've evoked and I won't do this to myself anymore. Hate to be a Kill-Joy but that is just how I feel.

[quote]The president never, repeat NEVER, mentioned AIDS ever during his time in office (1980-1988)

I’m no Reagan fan, in fact I despise him, but this isn’t true.

I despise Reagan as well, but he did mention AIDS. not until it was far too late though

Only the good and happy stuff please!

Actually glad to see the hate for the 80s on here. People need to understand that the 80s destroyed core values and initiated some really horrible things that permeate today’s baseline politics and lifestyle. Capitalism, homophobia and conservatism crushed what was a vibrant and free culture. Slowly the idea that we should care for others disappeared from both the left and right. There used to be humane Republicans. There used to be caring Christians. The 80s shredded basic mores and resolved it all with capitalism and money at any cost. Instead of heroes like Lincoln or MLK or Gloria Steinem, we began to worship rich people like Trump.

^ replaced it all

As bad as it was, there was a still sense of optimism, a sense that no matter how bad things were, change was possible, and the ship could be turned around . People got mobilized, got out in the street and fought. You had groups like ACT UP, Larry Kramer doing whatever they could to get the message across. But of course Hollywood wasn't as demonized as it is today, so it meant something when an Elizabeth Taylor or Madonna stood up for the community.

Most of that is missing today. Society has become too cynical, jaded and most of all, accepting and complacent of the corruption and hatred. Everyone sits around and bitches for someone else to start a movement. A snappy comeback on Twitter is what passes for resistance. It looked like people were getting the message with the protests the first few months after the election, but everyone got complacent. Now people want someone to come in and save them. In the 80's people fought to save themselves.

Erica Kane

Abby Ewing

Alexis Colby

Tina Lord Roberts

The 80s were great if you were a child, like I was, but it was a pretty scary time for many adults, as so many posters here have explained.

I'm amused by all the 80s nostalgia we've seen for years now because I remember that in 1989, everybody seemed to be happy that the 80s were ending and they were looking forward to the 90s. It was a sense of "thank god this decade is almost fucking over!"

R87 This is how I feel about the 2010s

I never once feared getting shot at my school in the 80s.

Sorry OP your thread got hijacked by gloom and doom. Yeah I know that part too - all too well. I'll let myself out.

As a kid at the time I thought the 80's was pretty cool really, loved the OP video, surprised at the quality as most of those things are usually a blurry mess of NSTC VHS. My one thing that I'm most embarrassed about from that era is having engaged in some speciality gentleman's pursuits whilst watching Risky Business. Ugh.

[quote]Sorry OP your thread got hijacked by gloom and doom.

His topic is the 1980s, r90. What in the name of fuck is there to be sorry about? Do you also discuss the wonders of the 1940s with European Jews?

R92, maybe you didn’t read the actual OP. Ya know, what the fucking theme of the thread is supposed to be. Here let me repeat it for you:

[quote]What was [bold]great[/bold] about the 80s? [bold]Only the good and happy stuff! Music, movies, fashion...[/bold]

Looking back on the 80s I don't think we'll ever have gay orgs that are truly 100% concerned about gay/lesbian issues.

Today GLAAD and HRC are obsessed with giving out awards to straight people and raising money so they can have their lavish celebrity filled parties.

R93, these are for you to share with OP.

Why you think anyone needs rose-colored glasses to remember the good times in their lives is beyond me.

Every era, every decade, every year has negatives, some more than others. It doesn’t mean that’s all we can focus on and think about every time someone brings up the timeframe. That’s stupid. OP asked for good memories, why people shit all over it is beyond me.

Yes, the 1980s had terrible times. But not for everyone and it wasn’t all negative all the time.

Agreed R95.

My childhood in the 80s was mostly miserable. My parents were out of work a lot because of the two recessions, I wasn't very popular and only ever had a few friends who would usually abandon me when someone more interesting came long.

TV, movies, music, food all gave me comfort in the 80s and those are the things I remember most.

When I'm feeling really down, I watch my DVD of Summer Rental, have some pizza and I'm back in 1985 and feeling good.

I'm going to sound nuts but I have an inexplicable aversion to all things 1980s . I hate,hate,hate the synthetic sound of eighties music. When I see a film made in the 1980s, I get almost nauseous and have to turn away. Something about the lighting actually turns my stomach. For what it's worth, I absolutely adore 60s and 70s film, television, and music . And I don't have this visceral unpleasant reaction to most current films and music either.

You sound perfectly sane to me, r98. Well, except for not having this visceral unpleasant reaction to most current music.

R72, Suck it! I'll just double-down!

I hate you.

[quote]I'm amused by all the 80s nostalgia we've seen for years now because I remember that in 1989, everybody seemed to be happy that the 80s were ending and they were looking forward to the 90s. It was a sense of "thank god this decade is almost fucking over!"

I think it depended on where you lived. I was an adult in the 80s, but didn’t live in NYC or similar locations. I agree that it’s nostalgia, in that you don’t realize what it was until it’s over and you look back on it. The three decades since have been pretty bad, so the 80s look a lot better by comparison.

Growing up in the 80s was a blast. I can understand the older queens who were adulting in the 80s being bitter though.

Going through the 80s as a kid really was a blast. It was like the 50s for Boomers.

[R96] Yes, you are 100% correct - every decade, era, time & place has it's good & bad, it's ups & downs, it's triumphs & tragedies HOWEVER, that being said; I cannot think of ANY decade that began with such optimism, such potential for what was to come, and with such promise to then see almost an entire generation of the world's most gifted, most talented, and people who had such promise annihilated in the span of a few short years by a deadly pandemic and, in the U.S., the government turned a blind eye to the problem - I think the 1980s is unique in that area.

There were a lot of people in America who liked the thought of a Ronbo, through might or SDI, crushing the Commies and not just trying to along with them. The fall of the Wall was the culmination, but then the country had no new grand mission afterward to continue to unify the majority.

Agree R98 - not to quite that degree, but I feel physically agitated and upset by any 80s era music or images. Just a really bad period - I struggle to remember anything good. Maybe a good meal or a trip to Europe or California for the first time but nothing 80s specific.

Dark terrifying decade that believed terrible over the top clothing hair and music would somehow compensate for how dreary it actually was.

[quote]It was like the 50s for Boomers.

The '50s were a bore. Life began in 1963.

"Let the Music Play" - Shannon

"it wasn’t all negative all the time."

Well [R96] - allow me say that you are ABSOLUTELY 100% correct! Many people emerged from 1980s as POSITIVE - you are right - most were not all NEGATIVE all the time. In fact, [R96] no longer being NEGATIVE in the 1980s was a pretty big deal... BRAVO, well stated!

I ended up negative. I must have that CCR5 gene.

Okay, okay! I'm going to put an end to all of this AND give Millennial, clueless, twink OP his answer to the "can of worms" question that he felt he needed to ask - this video incorporates EVERYTHING one needs to know about the decade of 1980 to 1990 - it shows all the 80s in all of it's rancid, putrid glory - the hair, the color schemes, the fonts, the jewelry, the lyrics are SPOT ON as to the mood of the time, the fashions are absolutely period and true to what was being worn by all, and also the choreography, the pulsating "aerobic" beat... This song and this video is the 80s in one neat vomit inducing nutshell = ENJOY!!! if you can... ENOUGH!! CLOSE THIS THREAD!

Well done R113. Aaaandddd scene.

R113 Eat a bag of dicks grandpa.

I like the retro '80s artwork the children are doing these days.

Here's Kung Fury, for those who missed it.

And this Youtube channel compiles all of the best Retrowave songs in '80s style, including constantly new stuff.

It's great to listen to at work, like an Easy Listening radio station.

[R115] At least I've had the sense to stay alive, stay HIV-, and spent the better part of 2 decades fighting for the rights that the younger gays take for granted and feel entitled to these days. As sad as it is to say were it not for some of us who joined ACT-UP, became radicalized (the term now is "woke"), and fought every day for YEARS to bring attention to the issues there would be no PREP, no PEP, no Marriage Equality - so maybe [R115], instead of being a snide, snot nose brat - stop and consider what us "grandpas" have helped to bring about for you and your generation. Or would that be too uncool?

I like the Memphis Group, which is the design group that made the 80s look like the 80s.

r119 another hated aspect of the '80s

R119 I love it!

"Strut" - Sheena Easton

I had a friend bring a gun to school in the 1970s. I confronted a teacher in the hall. "He's got a gun!" and she said, "What do you want me to do about it, get shot?" So I went to the principal.

Over Christmas he shot and killed himself, allegedly playing Russian roulette. There were no counselors for us, but they did set up a phone tree so that the kids could hear the news before returning to school.

I had a perpetual crush and hard-on for the judge on "Night Court" and would wank with him in mind. I was in junior-high at the time and pretty desperate for material.

Agree R120 - Memphis is another perfect example of how shitty the 80s were. Even interior design was ugly as sin. Memphis is possibly the most hideous design concept in the history of the 20th century.

R123, wrong thread?

I was responding to the person who said in the 80s they weren't afraid of being shot in school. They should have been.

R127 Bitch, please. Mass shootings were not on the radar of anyone in the ‘80s or even pre-Columbine. If it did happen, it was an anomaly and not an epidemic that the average 80s student would’ve worried about.

Playing video games with my friends on my Commodore 64, and later on being king of the schoolyard because I had an Amiga. Those were the days...