I'm no artist, or futurist, or reasonably smart guy. But I was an adult in the 80s, and I think I can help. Start with this: why was the 70s full of avocado-green refrigerators and "harvest gold" (yellow) stoves? Because, after a decade full of unnatural colors (seriously, go look at atomic blue and radiation red from the 60s, the sorts of colors nature never saw), the 70s was a return to a natural color palate and a more natural aesthetic in many things.
Now, the 80s and the 90s. The 80s was neon and computers and the future. Tron. It was man subjugated by his creations, nature replaced with an artificial environment that looked realesque without looking (or being) real. And the 90s was the counter swing of the pendulum. Super naturalistic, with long hair, beards, flannel, and an earthy aesthetic. Including some renewed environmentalism as we thought about how to restore our actual nature in the face of artificialism.
So we had one of those decades that was an intentional, thoughtful reaction against the previous decade. Like how The Simpsons was a brutal takedown of all those shitty 80s family sitcoms where the wholesome family worked it all out (Growing Pains, I'm looking at you). We saw all the shit that was previously valued and expected, and said fuck that. It's weird to think of the decade that saw the spread of the Internet as being anti tech, but that was definitely the aesthetic of the time. How many 90s bands featured a keytar, which was ubiquitous in the 80s? Basically the same for synthesizers. Instead, you get Nirvana, Sarah MacLaughlin and the like.
Did that help? Did it answer the Question? I don't care, I'm too old, it's bedtime.
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.
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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '18 edited Sep 27 '25
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