Why did everything in the 70s (and late 60s/early 80s) always look so dirty?

What in the fuck are you blabbering on about

EVERYTHING?

Because it was. There was more pollution and littering. Leaded gas, too.

Eww yes OP People were definitely dirtier. It was that counter culture thing that was going on.

Well, at least people weren't the size of a Volkswagen like they are today.

We had a thread about this recently, people were trying to say that photos like this were completely accurate, because pollution had covered everything with a layer of grit and so everything was literally brown.

I'd like to think some of our dumbest Dataloungers believed it.

Am I overlooking the dirty and greasy parts?

I agree with r7 that we should turn this into another JFK Jr thread.

Sepia filters and gritty lenses. It was a thing. Just like harvest gold and avocado green, shag carpeting and wood paneling. The gritty pulp look was in.

I really like that pic at R2. It looks so, I dunno, wholesome, if that's the word for it, slightly campy, and fun. You see where nostalgia can warp our minds a bit, huh? Even though he was probably boffing both those girls with that package of his (but probably in a more wholesome way, haha).

But I [italic]really[/italic] like that pic at R7.

[quote]Sepia filters and gritty lenses. It was a thing. Just like harvest gold and avocado green, shag carpeting and wood paneling. The gritty pulp look was in.

I remember when I started going through puberty in the 90s finding a book called "The New Encyclopedia of Sex" in my parents room. I think it was from the late 70s or early 80s (it seems very unlike my parents, I imagine it was given to them as a bachelor party/hen's party gift, but who knows?). I noticed at the time that all the pictures are filmed to look so brown, like everyone was being made to look tanned. Then later on watching retro porn I noticed similarly. It definitely is of its time.

Because Steve Jobs wasn't in charge of the 70's and 80's, but had he been...

The Brady Bunch looked clean and fresh and fluffy.

It wasn't really like that, OP.

Everyone showered daily, washing their hair with Prell and blowing themselves dry with Conair, while wrapped in one of those velcroed towel thingies.

It couldn't be that dirty when there was... LIME FRESH!!

Soap wasn't invented yet.

I miss the 70s & 80s. Such fun times.

You might laugh at me, but I genuinely mean this when I say I would happily sit at the feet of you gay blokes who lived through the 70s and 80s and listen with fascination to all your stories.

All I know is growing up in the 70s and 80s, items such as doors and surfaces in public places weren’t so sterile as they seem to be now. I’m talking about things like that back office door with a metal surface plate that has a haze of grime on it, like the hands touching it through the years have just embedded the dirt. Also junky doorknobs, broken bathroom tile, old fixtures, et cetera. I suppose “corporate clean” is helpful, but I miss seeing the individuality and how much more relaxed people seemed to be about these things.

A Major difference is now the cars are much cleaner.In the seventies the cities i lived in where terribly polluted by autos. The oil streaks down the middle of the roads where the cars dripped oil. You smelled raw gas in the air all the time. It was just normal. Just look at a picture of a freeway from the 70's and you can see the black stripe. Cars stopped leaking and dripping in the 80's.Smog controls worked but all we did was add more cars. Now you can't get away from the dam things except your own backyard.But we are cleaner.

Maaan….John Jr. looks great at r7 and the vibe is carefree and wholesome. I really miss that.

[quote]the vibe is carefree and wholesome

I like this too. Growing up in the late 90s/early 00s I feel things were still more innocent than today, but at the same time we were very cynical too. I really like the vibe of these photos from the 70s.

People WERE dirty then. It was the hippie thing, whether they were one or not. Everyone smelled faintly of ass. Thank God the 80s arrived and we all went preppy.

[quote]Everyone smelled faintly of ass.

I always imagined men smelled a lot back then of those strong types of colognes like Old Spice.

I do wish men, or at least more of them, would go back to rocking that slender look of the 70s/early 80s.

I remember in the 80s, those who were in their 60s and older would remark how much better people looked nowadays, as opposed to people ten years ago.

[quote]I remember in the 80s, those who were in their 60s and older would remark how much better people looked nowadays, as opposed to people ten years ago.

This is really interesting. From my perspective, when I look back at photos (of real people at the time, you understand, not famous people etc) from the 80s and early 90s, all I think is how frumpy everyone looks hehe. The 80s nostalgia thing has everyone thinking people dressed up like that all the time, but mostly it seemed to be bad haircuts and ill fitting outfits, hehe.

R25 That was in the mid-to late 80s when there was somewhat of a 50s revival in fashion (look at the way Rick Astley and Kylie Minogue dressed). The preppy/yuppie style became dominant, until Grunge and Hip-Hop became mainstream.

Every picture of New York City from that era looks really dirty. Probably because it was dirty.

[quote]Every picture of New York City from that era looks really dirty. Probably because it was dirty.

I recently watched a movie set in late 70s New York called "The Driller Killer". While basically a murder movie, it was set among a group of struggling artists, and had a very "this is everyday life" feel about it (outside of the murders) and when you saw how they were living and the conditions they were surrounded in, it really pulls you up from romanticising too much the whole "Starving artist in 70s/80s New York" thing.

The Driller Killer is schlock on a budget.

Don't look to bargain basement horror movies for too many details about real life. They commonly shoot in cast off places with whatever garbage is around.

The streets in cities were definitely dirtier, but people and their homes were not.

^Oh we had shag carpeting here too, and bleh is right!

Yeah, sorry maybe I was reaching, I just thought the scenes of the artists doing their things looked almost documentary like, and I wondered if that was all realistic, just the driller killer part being the schlock on top. Always happy to be wrong and learn something.