What’s So Magical About The Eighties?
On December 31, 1989, there was a general feeling that something different and historic was on the horizon. 1989 was a year full of international revolution and resistance against the status quo. The Tiananmen Square demonstrations in China, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany that November, were solid indicators of the imminent fall of the Soviet Union and the birth of the “New World Order” only a few years later. Back then, the 1990s were thought of in almost utopian ways.
But how about the Eighties? Why was it such a unique and fondly remembered decade by so many people? Well, the decade began with the assassination of music icon John Lennon and the election of Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter in the immediate aftermath of the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the failed “Desert One” military operation. The early years of the decade were marked by a major economic recession. Crime and poverty was widespread, especially in struggling urban communities. President Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1981 and faced tremendous challenges at home and abroad. That same year in media and popular culture, as cable television became increasingly popular, MTV debuted. It would transform the entertainment industry and become the center of music culture during the decade. In fact, young adults who came of age during the decade would come to be known as the “MTV generation”. Although the network was reluctant to feature minority artists, reflecting the blatant racism that was prevalent at the time, the talents of transcendent black artists like Michael Jackson and Prince could not be ignored. New Wave music took over the sound waves in the early 1980s, and inspired the aesthetics that largely characterized the decade.
In cinema, youth culture took Hollywood by storm. Teen films like Back To The Future, The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Buellar’s Day Off captured the imaginative, yet cynical, and often rebellious attitudes of Generation X. A generation that would make an even larger impact on American culture and society during the early 1990s. Films like 1987’s Wall Street spoke to the socioeconomic ideals of the times. Financial greed and power were symbolic with the decade. Reaganomics and mass consumerism defined an era, while long-simmering social issues were largely ignored.
1980s America was often described by President Ronald Reagan as a “shining city upon a hill”. His past career as a Hollywood movie star solidified his almost mythic persona, especially in the years that followed the assassination attempt on his life in 1981. He was the ex-actor, turned president, who was going to bring the Soviet Union to its knees. Reagan decisively won reelection in 1984. A political juggernaut, Reagan’s brand of conservatism was truly an embodiment of what we think of when we look back on that decade. However, behind the Hollywood-like aura that characterized the decade, there lied the ugliest and most grotesque of horrors.
AIDS and the crack epidemic haunted the American public throughout the 1980s. AIDS exposed how removed society was from accepting homosexuality and the LGBTQ community. The Reagan administration largely ignored the lethality of AIDS and viewed these matters in what can be best described as unempathetic and indifferent. Over 100,000 Americans died of AIDS during the decade.
Crack was arguably as deadly or even worse than AIDS. It was a deadly street drug that ravaged Black and Latino communities, and it also significantly fueled the unprecedented gang violence that developed within these communities. Police activity increased dramatically in response to a “War on Drugs” that was at its height during the 1980s. Police brutality and misconduct perpetuated against minorities skyrocketed and defined the relationship between law enforcement agencies and the minority communities that they were tasked to serve and protect.
So then what was so magical about the 1980s? I’d say that the decade spoke to the possibilities. Especially for often excluded and misunderstood groups. Icons like Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Freddie Mercury, Madonna, Arsenio Hall, and Spike Lee emerged during those years, creating an opening for historically marginalized groups to break into American mainstream culture by the early 1990s. Despite how exclusive, and at times even strikingly divisive the decade was, the 1980s produced a culture that even the youngest generations today can still relate to. From Michael Jackson’s moonwalk to the Super Mario Brothers. Sure. Today we have the internet, social media, and live streaming. But the 1980s were truly the beginning of the world as we know it. It was the decade synonymous with the Tech Boom. When personal computers, home gaming systems, and the VCR first debuted. I, a traditional millennial, and your average teenager of today, could both sit down and watch The Breakfast Club, and find something authentic and relatable about it. Much of the themes present in that film still echo well into the 2020s. I don’t think you’d find that in a movie from the 1970s, for example.
I suppose that’s what gives the Eighties their appeal. It was a very new time, especially for artistic exploration and experimentation. From early hip-hop artists to alternative rock legends. A newness and changing cultural landscape was aided by transforming norms and attitudes. Much of this explosion of human creativity can be credited with building the society that we live in today, for better or worse. Nonetheless, I can see how someone can listen to Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” and sense something magical about it. Although I was born over two years after December 31, 1989, I can still feel the magic. Without the Eighties, I wouldn’t be who I am. That’s magical folks.
