Nearly everyone you talk to will say the best decades was the one they lived in as a youth. I graduated high school in the 80's so I'm not different. We explored space, the Berlin Wall fell, we had New Wave and heavy metal, the CD was invented (a fancy silver coffee coaster to the youngsters), and it was a good time to be young with world ahead of you. However, there was no internet as we have today, there was lots of racism and homophobia (probably not as much as in the 50's) and of course Reagan.

Quote from a movie: Disco sucks, punk is dead. Gimme rock or gimme redacted.

Rap actually did emerge in the 80's. Some of the 70's were cool but there's really no justification for the affront to God and man that is the bell-bottomed jeans. The 70's had to have been the silliest era for fashion since men wore codpieces.

Okay, I think about that the current trend towards wearing one's pants around their ankles might be sillier still...

For some reason I thought Rapture (Blondie) was from the late ‘70’s, but you’re right, 1981 ...

That was a wonderful moment in history.


I would say that it is a good thing because simplicity rocks!

Jeanette Isabelle

Rapper's Delight by The Sugarhill Gang was released in '79 and was certainly one of the first rap recordings made.

I graduated high school in the 2000s; the 1990s were better.

Jeanette Isabelle

I had some sear-sucker (a type of material) red, white and blue striped bell bottoms, white patent leather shoes, a silk shirt, and gold chain. And bushy hair that would make that Kaepernick dude look normal. That was the price of admission to the discos ... where the girls were. A codpiece would have been a great addition to that style of clothing! Except, I didn't know about them back then. It was always a breath of fresh air when you could get out of that horrid garb and put on the jeans, cowboy boots and hat and head out to the country-western bars for some line dancing. As an added bonus, you got to dump that stupid drink with an umbrella in it and get a beer instead. There were quite a few lovely ladies there too. But my groups real love was rock and roll. You'd go to those places, and, well, I never once saw a female there.

These days, I play classical piano - desperately trying to keep up with all the talented ladies who can so easily out-perform me!

I never made it into a rap bar. Was there such a thing? I hated rap more than disco.

I participated in a number of questionable fashion trends in the 80's as well, although I think they were less dorky than the bell-bottoms and corduroy of the 70's. [Note: Corduroy bell-bottoms were the deepest circle of hell! Nothing like looking like an idiot while simultaneously creating friction fire with your legs!]


While I was in high school I had the camo jeans, the skinny leather ties, collars popped up, and of course a mullet. Ah, the 80's...

I think the 80s fashion was totally awesome!

Jeanette Isabelle