Am I Cheating On The 70's When I'm Nostalgic For The 80's?

[palitoy]

You know, when I posted this, I was surprisingly not thinking about the current wave of 80's nostalgia. Surprising because it is everywhere right now. I think I have a different nostalgia for the 80's then the stuff people are reveling in right now. I don't feel a connection with the current wave.

That's an interesting notion. I'm certainly not rejecting all things 80s as bad but yeah, I wasn't a kid then so stuff from that angle isn't my favourite.

One thing I will note- when I first came here to the Museum, I definitely remember some folks feeling about the 70's the way this current wave seems to feel about the 80's. There were some who seemed to believe that all songs, TV shows, movies and toys lost all value at the exact stroke of midnight on December 31st, 1979.

Yeah, i understand that, never shared that viewpoint.

I remember when I joined the Museum mailing list in the middle 90s someone posted that "we probably all exclusively listen to classic rock right?" and that couldn't have been further from the truth for me, I was in a golden age of new music at the time.

I love the past with all my heart but i live in the present and love it too.

The best line I've ever heard about nostalgia is this, "The best time to be a kid is when you were eight".

[Werewolf]

There were some who seemed to believe that all songs, TV shows, movies and toys lost all value at the exact stroke of midnight on December 31st, 1979.

I've noticed that too and it is a little depressing and confusing. I had always thought of the 70s and 80s as culturally connected and so many of us grew up in both. We're the Gen X generation the unloved middle child were everything we loved sucked or was demonic and popular music began and ended with the Beatles. I still remember older collectors mocking 80s toys. I know it's petty but I does make me smile that their great grand children will still be playing with Transformers, My Little Pony and many other 80s toys.

I don't think everything 80s was totally awesome. I didn't like teen comedies and I can take or leave Back to the future. Give me Tron, Krull and Dragonslayer.

I do find it hard to feel sorry for resentful 70s kids when you can walk into Target and buy vinyl and Megos and virtually every show you loved no matter how obscure is available on affordable DVD boxsets.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I'm actually more of an 80s kid, really, having been born in December of 1974. But I remember the 70s better than a lot of folks my same age. I think partially because I started getting comics and older kid toys earlier than most, and didn't stay in the Pre-School range long.

So, that's a round-about way of saying, it's perfectly fine to be nostalgic for the 70s and 80s. Heck, I'm a bit nostalgic for the 90s now too!

Chris

[Werewolf]

I don't know if 90s nostalgia will ever really be a thing. Power Rangers and Pokémon never went out of style but other than those two franchises nothing really had any staying power. Nickelodeon has tried to push their 90s Nicktoon stuff and it has never really clicked. Musicwise I don't see people really pining for Nickelback and Smashmouth. Techwise it was still pretty much the 80s. Slow computers and VCRs.

[palitoy]

I don't know if 90s nostalgia will ever really be a thing. Power Rangers and Pokémon never went out of style but other than those two franchises nothing really had any staying power. Nickelodeon has tried to push their 90s Nicktoon stuff and it has never really clicked. Musicwise I don't see people really pining for Nickelback and Smashmouth. Techwise it was still pretty much the 80s. Slow computers and VCRs.

It won't be the phenom like it currently is for the 1980s but it's all cyclical and yes, there will be nostalgia and it will make you feel old. I can hear the pogs rattling and someone yelling "Reboot!" right now.

[Earth 2 Chris]

90210 is back on with the original cast. 90s nostalgia is here folks.

Chris

[palitoy]

And never say anything negative about smashmouth again! (dang that supposed to be all caps but i forgot we filter that out)

[Werewolf]

I'm not knocking the 90s. Culturally I consider much of it and extension of the 80s as I consider the 80s and extension of the 70s. A great deal of the popular music of the 90s was from 80s artists. Popular 80s toy lines, like TMNT, continued into the 90s. Popular 80s cartoons, like Thundercats, got heavy play on Cartoon Network's Toonami. VCRs and compact discs continued on. I just don't think there was enough uniquely 90s mega popular toys or cartoons that had as much lasting power or cultural influence.

[Hector]

I only feel nostalgic about the 60s, 70s, and to a lesser degree, the 80s.

I don’t quite get that feeling for the 90s. Maybe in another 20 years...if I live that long, lol.

[Hector]

I never could understand the appeal of 80's teen comedy/drama films

At 20 years old was I too old to "get" The Breakfast Club ?

The movie tried to get me to like them and understand all of their delicate problems with growing up …..

My thoughts were, spoiled b_stards need a job … when I was their age I was laying sod after school and on weekends

BTW, if I was thinking this at 20 I must be a total d_ckhead today

I never liked the Breakfast Club. To me it was lame forced angst. It’s just a boring flick.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on the other hand, fun and cool.

[Werewolf]

What's different about 80s nostalgia is the lasting power of 80s properties. 80s nostalgia will live on because 80s properties live on. Transformers, TMNT, Care Bears, Smurfs, Cabbage Patch, MOTU, etc. are pop culture staples. Your kids, grand kids and great grand kids will still be collecting 80s brands. It will never end mwhahahhaha.

[Wee67]

I don't know if 90s nostalgia will ever really be a thing. Power Rangers and Pokémon never went out of style but other than those two franchises nothing really had any staying power. Nickelodeon has tried to push their 90s Nicktoon stuff and it has never really clicked. Musicwise I don't see people really pining for Nickelback and Smashmouth. Techwise it was still pretty much the 80s. Slow computers and VCRs.

I think people will always form a nostalgia for that time when they were kids, whenever that was. It has little to do with the quality of the things from their era. Its all about that "simpler" time when we barely had a care.

I'm actually more of an 80s kid, really, having been born in December of 1974. But I remember the 70s better than a lot of folks my same age. I think partially because I started getting comics and older kid toys earlier than most, and didn't stay in the Pre-School range long.

So, that's a round-about way of saying, it's perfectly fine to be nostalgic for the 70s and 80s. Heck, I'm a bit nostalgic for the 90s now too!

Chris

I think this is along the lines my original thought- not so much a 70's vs 80's nostalgia, but more a childhood vs teen nostalgia. Two different types of nostalgia. My childhood nostalgia is the same as Chris'. Mine just happened in the 70's while Chris' overlapped the decades.

[palitoy]

I'm not knocking the 90s. Culturally I consider much of it and extension of the 80s as I consider the 80s and extension of the 70s. A great deal of the popular music of the 90s was from 80s artists. Popular 80s toy lines, like TMNT, continued into the 90s. Popular 80s cartoons, like Thundercats, got heavy play on Cartoon Network's Toonami. VCRs and compact discs continued on. I just don't think there was enough uniquely 90s mega popular toys or cartoons that had as much lasting power or cultural influence.

I didn't say you were knocking the 90s and sure there is a cross over from the previous decade but it's not an extension of it in any way. I don't think people who grew up in the era would share that opinion either. It all depends on where you start your journey. The early 90s were shaky like the early 80s but it was it's own thing.

There is mountains upon mountains of unique pop culture kid's properties from the 1990s like Pirates of Darkwater, Pogs, Ren and Stimpy, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Earthworm Jim, Blue's clues, Goosebumps, Reboot, Batman the animated series, Spider-Man the animated series, Monster Force, so many iterations of Star Trek, Hercules, Xena, Mortal Combat, Sailor Moon, Street Fighter, Kenner POTF, Spawn, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, WCW, The Critic, the Spice Girls and let's not forget this is the decade when Harry Potter was born and Lego asserted global dominance.

90s nostalgia is already a thing BTW, there is a store in my town that charges $60 for t-shirts i owned. It's called "Vintage 905" and it makes me feel very old.

[Werewolf]

There is mountains upon mountains of unique pop culture kid's properties from the 1990s like Pirates of Darkwater, Pogs, Ren and Stimpy, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Earthworm Jim, Blue's clues, Goosebumps, Reboot, Batman the animated series, Spider-Man the animated series, Monster Force, so many iterations of Star Trek, Hercules, Xena, Mortal Combat, Sailor Moon, Street Fighter, Kenner POTF, Spawn, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, WCW, The Critic, the Spice Girls and let's not forget this is the decade when Harry Potter was born and Lego asserted global dominance.

Batman the animated series is deeply tied to the 89 Batman movie. I agree on Spider-Man the animated series which was very good. Point taken on Harry Potter. That one slipped my mind. I also really liked Monster Force and Dark Water but both cartoon and toylines did poorly and not a lot of people honestly remember them. POTF2 is Star Wars nostalgia filtered through 90s comics extreme. I do envy any 90s kids wanting to recollect it. Most of the figures aren't worth much more than original retail price. Simpsons started in 89. Ren and Stimpy hasn't aged well and I really don't see Viacom revisting it with the news that came out about the show's creator.

Again I'm not saying there weren't popular or really good uniquely 90s shows or toys. Only that not as many of them attained enduring pop culture status, like Harry Potter, Power Rangers and Pokémon.

[palitoy]

Batman the animated series is deeply tied to the 89 Batman movie. I agree on Spider-Man the animated series which was very good. Point taken on Harry Potter. That one slipped my mind. I also really liked Monster Force and Dark Water but both cartoon and toylines did poorly and not a lot of people honestly remember them. POTF2 is Star Wars nostalgia filtered through 90s comics extreme. I do envy any 90s kids wanting to recollect it. Most of the figures aren't worth much more than original retail price. Simpsons started in 89. Ren and Stimpy hasn't aged well and I really don't see Viacom revisting it with the news that came out about the show's creator.

I was hoping it wouldn't devolve into a dissection of each brand i listed and i don't agree with some of those points especially for things that started in late 1989. My point was the 1990s was not the "80s lite", I merely reject that proposition and assert that it definitely had enoug pop culture of it's own to warrant nostalgia, that was the original assumption.

I am quite friendly with a collector in his mid-thirties, known him since he was ten, he loves collecting Spawn toys, the world is his oyster for ten dollars. Sam Noir tells me hipsters in their late twenties cleaned him out of Playmates Star Trek toys. Many fun childhood items fell prey to the speculator market in the 1990s, comics, cards and of course toys, many were hugely successful, overproduced and yeah they're worthless now, that doesn't serve as evidence except fads are kind of dumb.

Maybe they're not as big on the action figures but their era was different than yours or mine. You have to consider film, Comics, tv, music, gaming and of course, the rise of the internet culture.

Again I'm not saying there weren't popular or really good uniquely 90s shows or toys. Only that not as many of them attained enduring pop culture status, like Harry Potter, Power Rangers and Pokémon.

yeah, again my point wasn't which decade was more successful, it was merely that people who grew up in the 1990s will get older and be nostalgic for it, they won't think the era before was better, they will regard the 1990s as the best era for toys, comic books, tv, games, movies and music regardless of what anyone who grew up outside of it thinks.

It's their happy time when things were less complicated.

It's all cyclical.

PS Smashmouth is a lifestyle!