The 1980's have never left me. I was 8yrs old when it started and 18yrs old when it ended. Even in the 1990's in my late teens and 20's always talked about how amazing the 1980's were. It had nothing to do with me want to stay being a kid, it was purely that the pop culture of the 1980's was very energetic, optimistic, unique and beyond amazing, and since the 1990's pop culture has had in my opinion no real cultural leaders, or anything unique, because each decade from 1990's to present has relied to much in being retro.
Michael Jackson made and defined to 1980's for me and many millions of people. Back then we had no internet, so getting film footage, photos etc on Michael was something you had to wait for, and you never knew what was coming next in newspapers or magazines. Since the internet I rearly, but I used to buy loads of magazines etc, even if they just had a small photo of Michael. But now magazine such write the same articles about artists like Michael, David Bowie and Prince etc that they've been writing since the 1980's and 1990's. I remember seeing a news clip of Captain EO on BBC ONE Nine Clock News in 1986, the first I had heard of it. And it was so exciting, the adrenaline that ran through my body was like a thunderbolt seeing a new clip of Michael dancing. And the first time I saw Michael in television since the We Are The World video a year before in 1985. I could write for ages about seeing the Billie Jean video on Top of the Pops when it was No.1 in early 1983, seeing the Beat It and Thriller videos for the first time in 1983, buying the Bad album in 1987, seeing the video, attending the Bad Tour and seeing Michael in person for the first time at the Mayfair Hotel in 1988 during the Bad Tour. I get goose bumps and almost an outer body experience when I go to the Mayfair Hotel just to look and remember. I stay way because to memory is too powerful.
They way I see things today, the 1980's has all the pop culture the 2000's can only ever wish it has. And today in the 2000's we have all the technology we wish we could have had in the 1980's. Even though some of that technology like mobile phones, computers did exist but in bigger or slower forms. We had cassette and later CD Walkmans in the 1980's, were as now we had iPods etc. Computers we had Sinclair, BBC Micro computers etc, where as now we have Apple Mac and PC computers.
When you go in to technology shops now, it's full of computers, Blu-ray/ DVD players etc. In the 1980's technology shops were full of electronic keyboards and music stacking systems etc.
In the 1980's I used to like riding my BMX and customizing it, buying really cool breaks, seats and Skyway mag wheels etc.
Artists I listened to in the 1980's
01. Michael Jackson
02. David Bowie
03. Prince
04. Adam & The Ants
05. Queen
06. Kraftwerk
07. Run DMC
08. Newcleus
09. Afrika Bambaataa
10. Grand Master Flash
11. David Grant
Television Shows I Liked
01. Dallas
02. Dynasty
03. Only Fools and Horses
04. Minder
05. Grange Hill
06. The Wonder Years (It first screened in the UK in 1989)
07. Dear John
08. T.J Hooker
09. The A Team
10. Miami Vice
Films I liked.
01. Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back
02. Star Wars - Return of the Jedi
03. Time Bandits
04. Twilight Zone: The Movie
05. Back To The Future
06. ET
07. Weird Science
08. The Breakfast Club
09. The Terminator
10. The Rachel Papers
11. Stand By Me
12. Indiana Jones
08. Gregory's Girl
08. The Cosby Show
