The 1980s encapsulated in one photo.
If you remember the eighties, you were probably there. Big hair, bad music, and terrible fashion. Or was it so bad?
This was the decade when no one dominant musical trend dictated the terms—as say the Beatles did in the sixties or as heavy metal, prog rock or punk did in the seventies. Pop culture atomized into many different groups and subcultures. New wave, new romantics, punks, mods, goths, emos, hip-hop, rap, and eventually acid house and rave—which symbolically broke music down into euphoric repetitive beats with little reference to song, substance or subtlety.
Everything was considered equally valid, equally worthy, equally saleable, yet completely disposable.
Pop music was a teenage rite of passage; an entertainment business that vied with rudimentary computers and video games for attention. The revolution was no longer about class war it, was televised concerts to raise money to feed the world and discussions about what kind of trainers to wear. There was nothing to fight for. Affluence was king, feigned poverty was chic (ripped jeans for $100), gangster culture fashionable, and existential angst labored under a ton of makeup and hairspray. The eighties were all about dressing up and having fun which is kinda borne out by these photographs of youngsters from the decade.
Does my hair look big in this?
It’s all about… me.
The pained look of teenage angst.
The pained look of too much hairspray.
One of the Thompson Twins pretending not be a Cure fan.
What happens when you drink too much snakebite.
White punks on hope.
Punk’s not dead…
...but maybe it should be.
Mod girls or maybe four skins?
These are your parents.
And so are these.
Punk still not dead…but doesn’t have many friends.
Mod holiday.
‘We make our own clothes.’
‘I know, we do kinda look interesting but seriously, we’re really boring. Really boring.’
Retro chic.
‘People think I’m weird.’
How I broke my leg.
How I broke my neck.
‘I’m tellng you, the Invisible Girl was just here.’
It’s still all about me.
‘Seriously dude, we’re having so much fun.’
‘Yeah man, of course we’re in a band…can’t you tell?’
‘Whadya mean, you think we look like groupies?’
That’s why you always find me in the kitchen at parties…
Miss Piggy was to the eighties what Elizabeth Taylor was to the sixties.
‘No honestly, it was hilarious.’
‘Best. Party. Ever. You just had to have been there.’
Via Cvlt Nation, Vintage Everyday and Internet K-hole.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Photos of nineties kids in their bedrooms
The Revolution usually starts here: Photographs of Teenagers in their Bedrooms 1960-80s
Girls just wanna have fun: Teenage fashion of the 1980s
Visible Girls: London’s lost female subcultures
Big hair and lipgloss: Unsung girl groups of the 70s and 80s