If you were born from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, you probably spent your formative pre-teen, teenage and/or early college years with 80s pop. It reflected the feeling of boundless optimism that characterized the decade. American consumerism was at its peak, Ronald Reagan said it was morning in America, and pop music was bright, cheerful, colorful, and yes, fun! As the generation of ‘80s fans now approaches or reaches the 40-year-old mark, there are revivals of ‘80s music everywhere – on Internet radio, regular radio and in clubs.
It was the music most dear and near to my heart. It was the music I listened to on LPs and cassettes (no, not 8-tracks, I am not that old(!), although they weren’t far behind me). I wanted my MTV, and I heard my favorite hits on my Walkman as I traveled around NYC and London. Silver pants, big hair, keyboard and synthesizers were all the rage. Computers, cellphones, VCRs, CDs, and cable were our ‘big’ technologies.
Everybody Have Fun Tonight” by the British band Wang Chung."
should be the anthem of the 80s:
So if you're feeling low
Turn up your radio
The words we use are strong
They make reality
But now the music's on
Oh baby dance with me yeah.
It’s hard to find people these days having pure unadulterated fun, bouncing, bopping and cheering. I used to attend concerts at classic NYC venues like Danceteria, Pyramid Club, CBGBs and the Ritz. Everybody jumped so hard that the floor around the stage would shake and I would have a sensation that it might cave in at any moment. I stepped to the perimeter, happier to be at the edge of the chaos than in the center of it. My ears would ring well into the night from the music blaring from the speakers, but it was all worth it.
I remember when the first record store opened in our sleepy Queens neighborhood. It was when the can of worms known as 80s music was unleashed! I was 13 or 14, and I was lured in by my friend, whose parents owned a dollhouse store down the street. When I first walked in the store, I was wowed by the neon lights, the faint smell of pot lingering from the back room, the stacks and stacks of newly cut records, the pungent vinyl wrappers wafting off the album covers.
We had learned about all these bands from the newly-created MTV. From a TV hanging in a corner of the shop, we watched the Bangles’ new video, and we were hooked. At each others’ houses my friends and I would watch all the great new bands: The Police. Squeeze. Nina Hagen. Madness crooned about “Our House.” Culture Club asked “Do You Really Want Me?” Nina and her 99 Luft balloons flew in our imaginations, Bananarama promised a cool, cool summer, and David Bowie taught us about “Modern Love.” Duran Duran were hungry like the wolf, Toni Basil sported her peppy cheerleading clothes and sang “Mickey!” If it was American it was cool, but if it was British or European it was cooler than cool..it was even hip!
The 80s were all about reinvention. A working class guy from England could grab a guitar and become a pop star. Someone like Boy George could give himself a stage name and transform himself from a regular guy into a colorful, extraordinary queen. Michael Jackson and Madonna were iconic presences who reinvented themselves multiple times over. They proved that just by changing your clothes, your makeup and your outward persona, you could recreate reality into a highly charged, colorful fantasy world. There was the Michael Jackson of the sparkly silver glove doing Billy Jean, then the Thriller video Michael Jackson, the momentously charged zombies choreographed in perfect funky sync. There was the Madonna of Lucky Star, the icon of East Village trendiness, followed by the Material Girl and the Virgin. There were so many personas up her sleeve, you could never figure out what was next.
I too could reinvent myself. My brother, who suffered from a chronic, life-threatening illness, was worsening, his muscles deteriorating and forcing him to become wheelchair- bound. My parents filled their time with hours of TV to hide the despair and the helplessness they must have felt. But I could sport a pink Cleopatra wig, wear a tight green fluorescent mini skirt, black eye makeup and black nail polish, and I could imagine myself to be anything I wanted to be. I slinked through the clubs after dark, trying to pass for 18. One time after school I got a buzz cut at the Astor Place Barber shop near Cooper Union, and a few months later when my hair grew in, my best friend and I got our hair dyed purple at a little incense and jewelry shop on St. Marks Place staffed by two aging Goths.
The ‘80s are over, and '80s music can even be heard these days on oldies stations, but to me the music always sounds fresh, vibrant and innovative. The music of the '80s will always be special to me, and even today, as I listen to '80s music on the radio or on YouTube, I draw on its boppy, perky outlook as I try to adapt a positive frame of mind in all areas of my life.
According to a Pepsi Optimism Project survey conducted in 2008, “Children of the ‘80s and ‘90s inherently feel a strong sense of optimism in the future and their ability to shape it,” said Lisa Orrell, generation relations expert and author of Millienials Incorporated: “This age group feels refreshingly unencumbered by history or tradition, a feeling that they can accomplish anything they resolve to achieve.”
I’m an '80s music child and I know it, so why not turn up the volume? Join in on the fun. Set a course for achievement and fun right here, right now. As former Go-Gos lead singer Belinda Carsisle sang it, "Ooh baby do you know what that's worth? Ooh, heaven is a place on earth."
