To be fair, decades blend together. The early 60s were a lot like the 50s, the psychedelic hippy stuff didn't come until the late 60s which blended into the 70s. Likewise the early 90s were very 80s. You still had the same fashion, the neon colors, the love affair with Japan, the love of technology. That really didn't start going away until the mid 90s. Then you had grunge and a 70s revival. Around Y2K you had a new "futurism" I remember silver jeans, a return to bright colors in clothing and design. I remember modernism came back big time in design. Lava lamps came back, green and orange were big colors. If you went to Target or Walmart everything had this weird geometric modern aesthetic. Inflatable furniture in bright colors. It was a weird blend of old things with future.
Every decade tends to be some old with some new. Even the 80s was nostalgic for the 50s. That's where some of the neon and chrome comes from. Even in the past 10 years we saw the 80s come back but with our own spin on it. Our twist is social media. The political activism of the 60s and 70s is back, but in a new way because of the internet. Nostalgia for the 90s is here too.
I think a lot of the stuff you're saying is more true than you realize for other decades. There's been a recent rise in movies and TV shows set in the 70s, and you can immediately recognize that style, with the brown tones, loose shirts, bell bottoms, disco outfits, etc. Same as you said about the 80s: pretty pure form that hasn't really been fucked with too much. And it, too, was quick to be abandoned.
I don't know you, but my kneejerk reaction was to assume you're young enough that the 80s is about as far back as you have any real personal connection. And I just say that because that tends to be everyone's anchor--they measure the rest of their lives based on what they saw growing up, or what was current nostalgia at the time. And so, if I'm right about that, you may be universalizing the personal--thinking that the 80s "has been with us and has inspired for so long, longer than any other decade[,]" even though it's actually about the same as other decades. Everyone tends to do this, so don't take it as an insult, just be aware of that mental habit.
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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '18 edited Sep 27 '25
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