THINGS FROM THE 1980'S THAT NO ONE TALKS ABOUT:
Saxophones. They were everywhere. Rock bands had saxophone players.
Frusen Gladje. That German ice cream in the impossible-to-open plastic space capsule.
Leftover 70s stuff. All the brown, yellow and orange furniture and dinner sets that not everyone got rid of.
Obsession with computer chips. They were like some kind of magic things that could apparently do anything.
Kids watching slasher movies. In those days, "Rated-R" just meant "This is going to be some cool shit." Seriously, they marketed Robocop and Rambo toys through Saturday morning cartoons.
Yuppies. Those rich assholes who for some reason, we all loved to hate.
1950s car nostalgia. Maybe it was because so many people were driving tiny, cheap, fuel-efficient Japanese cars, that people were looking back so much at the "good old days" when cars had style.
Black and white checker and stripe patterns. Put that shit next to some abstract sculptures, and people will know you're "classy."
Neon lights in people's houses. Neon lights had been around for a long time, but for some reason, people suddenly noticed how cool they looked.
High heels as a symbol of empowerment. They make you look taller, and force you to walk loudly and with purpose. Throw in a tight-skirted suit and some shoulder pads, and you're ready to take over a corporation.
Skinny ties with dark-colored shirts. A drastic departure from the wide ties and light-colored shirts of the 70s. People tend to forget that formalwear fashion changes just as often as casualwear.
People who can't figure out a Rubik's cube. Movies and sit-coms made this out to be one of the great mysteries of the universe, even though it came with a solution booklet.
Nerds. Sure, we talk about "geek" culture being everywhere these days, but back in the day, nerds were almost like a racial minority that Hollywood loved to show that they were cool with.
Disco hatred. I can't think of any other genre of music that went so suddenly from being everywhere to being despised by everyone so quickly. No one knows why.
Alternative and country hits. You wouldn't think emos and cowboys would catch on with the mainstream, but quite a few of them managed to break through.
THINGS FROM THE 1990S THAT NO ONE TALKS ABOUT:
Rockabilly and swing revival. There was a wave of old music styles trying to make a comeback, but these two kind of sort of gained traction for a while. There were even several attempts to bring disco back.
Adult contemporary stations. It used to be the "rule" that young people listened to new music, and old people listened to old music, but suddenly, there was a whole genre of new music targeted to older people. Basically, take all the hallmarks of pop music and make it less poppy.
Macarena. Interestingly, the dance that everyone know was similar to the dance from the music video, but not exactly the same. Strangely, most of the "love" for this dance seemed to be sort of half-ironic.
Goth chicks. Every show and movie had to have a goth chick. They even tried to turn Rogue from X-Men into a goth chick.
Gender-neutral language. Forget about asking people for their preferred pronouns. The politically correct thing to do was to assume everyone was non-binary.
Political Correctness backlash. One of the biggest stars in the country was Andrew Dice Clay, and his only schtick was the fact that he was (both in character and in real life) an asshole.
High heels as a symbol of oppression. High heels, originally used by cavalry soldiers, became suddenly popular in the 80s as a sign of female empowerment, and then almost overnight, became despised as a foot-torture device that was probably invented by men to make women look like sex objects. It was a changed worldview that seemed to come out of nowhere, but may be related to aerobics guys in the 80s wearing pink outfits, while they're younger brothers and sisters learned to see pink as "only for girls and sissies," making the color pink in the 90s not only gay for men, but insulting to women.
White suburban guys trying to be gangsta rappers. There was a time when a white person trying to rap was seen as a joke that was so funny that movies and television couldn't stop making fun of the idea.
Don't Worry Be Happy. That song was everywhere.
Brady Bunch reruns. No one knows why, but for some reason, people on television couldn't stop referencing nostalgia for the Brady Bunch. Maybe it's similar to young people in the 2020s praising "Full House" and The "Golden Girls."
What is the deal with thongs? Like most things that had just come out, comics had to make fun of the idea. One particular thing that happened, though, was that women started trimming their pubic hair smaller and smaller, down to just a landing strip. Men, of course, didn't have this issue. A few years later, when internet porn became easily available, it became common for both men and women to be seen completely shaved. But because of this, there was a very brief window of time where pubic grooming was something that only women did, which is my men's pubic hair trimmers have to have macho-sounding names today.
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