Exploring 80s and 90s Culture: Contrasting Nostalgia and Reality
80s and 90s Culture and The Complexity of Nostalgia
Everyone thinks that the time period they grew up in, was the “best decade ever,” right?
Wrong.
For some, childhood was full of turmoil, uncertainty, and bad memories.
For all of us critical thinkers out there, we understand that our personal views of the past are truly unique.
No two people have had the exact same experiences and the past is much more nuanced than all good or all bad.
Not surprisingly then, when we look back at our personal memories of 80s and 90s Culture, we stumble upon memory fragments that remind us of positive and negative experiences.
If we are fortunate to be flooded with childhood memories of rainbows, kittens, and lollipops, then yes, we may be tempted to euphorically declare the years that we grew up during were the greatest period of time in the history of humankind.
Challenging the “Best Decade Ever” Narrative
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking you to shoot your unicorns.
I am, however, quite confident in stating that sweeping generalizations like this add zero value to a conversation.
You can get high on the nostalgia for the “good ole days” but how can that help us to relate to others and try to understand why we are the way we are today?
Those sorts of endeavours are much more valuable, or at least that’s my opinion.
Personal Reflections: A Childhood in the ’80s
As a middle-aged earthling, perhaps dueling with a looming mid-life crisis, I find myself much more intrigued (in part due to my therapist) in trying to understand the past and how it has shaped me and the world that I live in.
I was born in 1980 and I have a lot of fond memories of growing up during the 80’s.
I also have some not-so-great memories of becoming self-conscious about my weight and body size around the age of 10 just as the decade came to a close.
Growing up in a rural town a few hours North of Toronto, Canada, my parents did a wonderful job of shielding my brother, sister, and I from many of the harsh realities of the world.
The Influence of Media and Consumerism
During the early 80’s, I was blissfully unaware of the financial struggles they endured in a turbulent time marked by soaring interest rates.
I also was unaware that everything that I consumed via staring at the floor model colour tv set was telling me to ask or even beg my parents to buy me this and buy me that.
We could only get 3 channels (4 if we held on to the rabbit ears while they were pointed in just the right angle for the weather that day).
However, those 3-4 channels were plenty to inundate kids like me who preferred to gaze at the Cathode Ray Tube TV screen rather than going outside to play, with ads targeted specifically at kids.
The shallow consumerism associated with 80s and 90s Culture; this is something I will cover in a future post.
Nostalgia vs. Reality: Understanding Our Past
I am right there alongside those who still get shivers when they hear the Hulkster’s iconic “I am a real American” theme song (which is funny because I am a Canadian); or those of us who are inexplicably drawn to the aesthetic produced by that classic image of a retro neon sunset.
I whole-heartedly miss mixtapes, and from time-to-time I do still pine for a time before cell phones (those car phones in a bag that plugged into the cigarette lighter don’t count).
However, to truly understand how I was shaped and influenced by 80s and 90s culture, I need to contrast my unique experiences – the good, the bad, the rad, and not-so-rad, with what is now known about those decades and who others experienced them.
The more I learn about the recorded history of 80s and 90s culture, the more I am starting to understand why I am how I am today and why some important inventions, values, societal norms and movements began as well as why some were ended or quickly fizzled out during that time.
I am not here to argue with anyone who believes that a certain decade was or is the best.
If that is what you want or need to believe, I certainly do not want to poo poo on your parade.
It’s just for me and where I am at in my journey through this strange, wonderful, scary, beautiful, and mysterious life, I feel a need to dig deep and really think about what was happening in the world and how it affected both the haves and the have-nots.
I am an incredibly anxious person and it is difficult to be around groups of people, however, I am truly curious about others and care deeply about my fellow earthlings.
I want to know how you experienced the past and I want to try to understand and make sense of the past in a context larger than my own development.
When we are less concerned with trying to prove (or disprove) what time period was best, we can have a more inclusive understanding of our world and of each other, and that can lead to some exciting discoveries, engaging conversations and help us make sure that we try to avoid (or correct) any mistakes that lead to harm.
The Dual Nature of Nostalgia
The Good: Fond Memories and Cultural Icons
Were the 80’s great?
Sure they were, at times.
Like when there was a conglomerate of cute bears (and then bear cousins consisting of elephants and lions and other large mammals) that tried to stare the world into caring more about each other.
The Bad: The Shadows Behind the Glamour
But the 80’s were also not-so-great because those same bears (yes and their cousins), were created not to heal the wounds of the world, but instead so that their creators could enjoy the benefits of capitalism and target the most naive demographic of consumers they could reach – kids.
Kids with no disposable income or gainful employment but who were master manipulators, somehow born with the uncanny ability to pull on the anxious heartstrings of their parents who were also being subliminally programmed with the ardent desire to “keep up with the Joneses.”
Happiness was what these little bears were selling, and good news kids, your parents can buy you happiness, you just have to keep asking and if they didn’t deliver, if you could wait long enough maybe a magical bearded man would toss when under your tinsel cladded Christmas tree.
Was caring about each other a positive message?
Darn tootin’ it was.
Was that message concealing greedy capitalistic desires?
Yeppers.
Was it really difficult for people who couldn’t afford to buy happiness for their kids?
I bet it felt terrible.
Was it hard for kids who didn’t have a little rainbow bear of their own when all of their friends had one (or multiple)?
That would’ve been really hard for kids, especially given the fact that not only your social status was elevated by procuring a bear (or ten) and but anyone who turned away from the bears was at risk of hating the world and being miserable… yikes. Heavy duty.
And that’s just scratching the surface of this one tiny little 80’s phenomenon.
Did you know that General Mills (yes, the food distributorship company) held the rights to distributing the Care Bears?
Remember getting “prizes” in the bottom of your sugar-coated breakfast cereal box?
Weird, right?
Further complexity surrounds the topic of those caring little fur-balls when you find out that they were: created by Americans; drawn by Canadians, who then outsourced some of their animation to Taiwanese and unpaid South Korean artists (some of whom, ransomed a few critically important original sketches in order to receive some sort of compensation for their time and expertise).
What You Can Expect at Retro Relevance
Was the 80’s more than stuffed animals and cartoons?
Of course.
That wasn’t even a flash in the pan.
That one tiny, seemingly insignificant, lighthearted topic, when reflected upon now, means many things to many people.
That’s the sort of thing we’ll explore together (and not just kids stuff, but grown-up stuff too, but hey, I had to start somewhere).
If you weren’t born yet or have no idea what I’ve been rambling on about over the last paragraph and are totally confused by references to rainbow bears and cereal box surprises, fear not because although the 80’s and 90’s were confusing, and at times, strange, we’ll do our best to make sense of it together.
If you are super intrigued by this rabbit hole, I will no doubt do a deeper dive into the Care Bears in a future post.
But I think that’s enough for now; there’s so many other things we have to talk about!
Sounds fun right?
I think so.
In this space we will be gentle with ourselves and with each other when we need to have challenging conversations.
I believe that will allow us to enjoy the more whimsical, nostalgic deep dives.
In future posts, you will find that the split between the fun factor, the historical facts, and the critical reflection on the past, will be: 80% fun, 15% educational, 5% critical analysis.
Let’s Compare Notes About 80s and 90s culture as We Look Back Together
I know that you are busy and your time is precious.
I appreciate you stopping by.
If you would ever like to contribute to the conversations or share any of your experiences or perspectives, that would be awesome!
Please never, ever feel any pressure though.
I just chuckled to myself while writing this post as I pictured someone sarcastically leaving a comment stating: “the 80’s was the best decade ever!”
I definitely don’t take myself too seriously, and I enjoy a good laugh.
While that would be hilarious, if you are like me, you too are searching for a more nuanced perspective about 80s and 90s culture.
I endeavour to provide that here.
Oh, and if you’re wondering how the 90’s pushed its way into our conversation?
It’s due to the fact that I have a really hard time separating the late 80’s from the early 90s in my own personal memory bank.
It is somewhat laughable to consider that anything can be truly self-contained within the 10-year span that corresponds with a calendar-based decade.
I graduated high school in 1999 and find the 90’s just as fascinating as the 80’s.
I want to reflect on that period of time as well, (not to mention; I am super indecisive and couldn’t pick one or the other).
Ok, enough about me.
Now that we can agree that stating :”the 80’s was the best decade ever” kills the meaningful conversations we are dying to have about retro culture; kindly fire up the Tardis, and join me for more retro reviews of the 80’s and 90’s.
Watch this space for more content; coming soon to a screen near you.
Craig Retro is the host of Retro Relevance and hopes to collaborate with readers and listeners to co-create a nuanced perspective of retro culture.
If you want to read a bit more about why Retro Relevance was created and it’s goals, please feel free to check out our About page.
Craig is a partner, and proud father of a teenage daughter, and two dogs. He's an avid blogger who loves researching and discussing 80s and 90s nostalgia. When not working on his website or hanging with his fam, Craig enjoys playing guitar, watching lacrosse, and being near water.