Quote from: Dr Rotwang!...and you will.  Won't you?

Robbie Van Winkle.

Ahhh yes.

Total spirit geek. He was the guy who helped make the banners that hung in the halls on Game Day, and that the team would run through on Friday night. Our school Mascot was a Lion, and in finiest spirit-geek tradition, he would run up and down the sidelines hoisting a stuffed lion over his head when we scored (for what its worth, I played football back in the day). He also worked the basketball games and such. But you know its bad when the D&D geek thought HE was a geek.

I should round up my old yearbooks and scan some pictures of him. Short-ish. Semi-curly hair. Cheeky in a chipmunk kinda way. Dash of freckles. He obviously spent alot of time "re-making" himself after HS to achieve his persona. I still wonder where he got the idea to this day.  

Don't get me wrong - he was plenty popular and outgoing. Good grades. Nice guy. But not a rapper from the mean streets of the Mi-am-ay.

Quote from: WerekoalaBut not a rapper from the mean streets of the Mi-am-ay.

He did end up being a decent motocross racer, though.

The 80s were cool. The $$$ I spent for records and clothes was insane. However, by '87, latest, the 80s were sorta over.

Sadly, they weren't really replaced by anything that had both enough pervasiveness, staying power, and oomph.

Grunge: nope. Techno: nope. House: nope. Emo: please.

Everything's fractionalized beneath the subatomic level, retro loops biting their own tails...

Right now, if the Mission and the East Village are any guide, we're back to skinny black jeans and leather jackets... but then, we've been back to that several times already, first with Jesus & Mary Chain, then with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. And that's just one example.

If you were cool back during the eighties, you just called them "The Mary Chain."

Or that's what my cool friends told me anyway.

Oh, I was cool. I looked like Duran Duran. One can of hairspray a week will do that for you.* That, and the pirate boots. And the gold brocade jacket.

*To sustain the effect I recommend avoiding rain and driving around in convertibles. Sometimes this was just not possible, but luckily there are no photos to document the results.

Quote from: Pierce InverarityHowever, by '87, latest, the 80s were sorta over.

The Eighties ended on the day I heard The Fat Boys sing "Wipeout" on Radio Hits, 97.7 FM out of Mexico City, in the late Summer of 1987, or so.

Everything after and up to 1 January 1991...death throes.  Spastic, zombie-like death throes.

That's absolutely right. '87 to '91, WTF even happened?

Whereas I remember distinctly what woke me up in '91 AND told me the '80s were over:

Nirvana.

Suddenly, pop music felt like something that was made by one's younger brother. But that was okay. I mean, it was Kurt Cobain, not half bad for a brother.

Quote from: Pierce InverarityThat's absolutely right. '87 to '91, WTF even happened?

http://www.stockaitkenwaterman.com/

This is what happened.

I was a junior metalhead in the late 80s so I watched the Stock Aiken and Waterman commecial bandwagon roll out talentless Aussie soap star turned singer one after the other with contempt from behind my denim jacket (couldnt afford a leather one).

Like many cash-strapped teenagers my musical fix was whatever I could borrow and tape from a mate, raiding dad's record collection (which fortunately for me had the Rolling Stones, Zeppelin and Deep Purple), and Greater London Radio 94.9's Krushers Metal Mayhem on a Sunday afternoon.
From there I've kinda gone backwards up the evolution of the genre and started listening to old blues stuff, then a sideways step to (old style) Soul and Motown. I don't suppose many people's CD player contains both Aretha Franklin and Love/Hate at the same time

What, you people never heard of Hair Metal? I distinctly remember the later parts of the 80's as Ratt, Poison, Warrant, etc.  As someone pointed out, this all ended with Nirvana/Pearl Jam (I add the second as it's who I noticed first).

The other thing is that decadesnever represent the numbers they claim.  What I mean is that the 50's weren't really from 1950 - 1959.  Instead they always seem to run from about mid point to mid point.  When people think of the 50's, they generally mean the point between 1954 and 1964 (after Korea before the Beatles).  I mean, when eveyone talks about the 60's, they're really referring to the period between 65 and 72-73.

The eighties were odd for having two parts, 82-87 and 87-91, that were very different.

Of course, this is probably dependent on the country/culture in which one is situated.

Quote from: James J SkachWhat, you people never heard of Hair Metal?

Yeah.  Doesn't mean I dug it, though, see...?

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Yeah.  Doesn't mean I dug it, though, see...?

s'cool, man.  I was referring to the question about what happened to the rest of the 80's, not your personal groove, or lack thereof, on it...

I liked the TV show Stingray amongst others and porn seemed better when it was viewed from tape...

Regards,
David R

Oh, here's what on reflection *I* remember about the late 80s, though I was late to the party and to me it was more like an early 90s thing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_house

Remember S'Express? "Technique" by New Order? OMFG. Also, Happy Mondays. OMFG again.

Lastly, Inner City, "Good Life," technically House, but for me part of that moment. That song still gives me shivers.

Americans may not know what I'm talking about here... but there's an awesome reader's review by a guy called sonik57 on British amazon that gives you the lowdown.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paradise-Inner-City/dp/B000024OES

Quote from: Pierce InverarityOh, here's what on reflection *I* remember about the late 80s, though I was late to the party and to me it was more like an early 90s thing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_house

Oi! Inverarity!  Take your house music and sod off to a farmers field in Kent where you don't have permission to be.  I won't have your "Aciiiiiieeeeeeed" contaminating my John Hughes directed, pastel coloured, power ballad soundtracked eighties.

Thankyouverymuch