How The 1980's Ruined EVERYTHING.

Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody just shut the fuck up tonight. Can someone please explain to me why we look back so fondly on the 1980's? Its is the most overrated decade since the 1750's for pete's sake! Every club has an 80's night, and everybody has fond memories of the culture shaping decade. I cannot deny that the decade was culture defining. It is one of the biggest popular culture upheavals in american history. Art as we know it was being redefined, music, film, fashion and lifestyle. 

Ever since the decade ended we haven't wanted it to stop. We have 80's parties and movie nights. We fill mixtapes with the songs of Dexy's Midnight Runners and Culture Club. I really don't know why we love it so much, since it ruined our conscience when it comes to art. It is the defining turning point of when our popular culture started going down the tubes. The vapid pleasures of reality TV were just a stones throw away. The 1980's ruined everything!

The 1980's Ruined music. Right after Punk's first wave was ending and the second wave was starting up, someone learned how to make punk music shitty and call it new wave. By adding synthesizers and drum machines we stole the soul of rock n' roll and gave it to Pop.  This is when the reign of Rock n' Roll came to its end. When It would eventually be given the label "Alternative". The 1980's revitalized top 40 hits over albums a trend that lovingly continues and gives us danceable single use songs. We got a taste and we have never looked back. We want to be just like eveyone else. 

The 1980's ruined film. The 70's were the last decade in which the director was in control. The 1980's gave birth to formula movies. We've been telling the same stories and making a shitload of money doing it for 30 fucking years. It all feels so hollow now, but we show up in droves because we are culturally stupid. Kate Hudson is a frigid lion tamer, oh god the must see movie of the millennium. These A plus B equals ending C was born and raised during the regan years.

We've lost all our irony. Its no longer hip to be square. Art has been given only to those willing to dig through all those copies of "Bride Wars" and "Transformers" to find "Waltz with Bashir". Art is a gift to those who want something better. Its easy to become a snob, that you watch better movies, read better books and listen to better music. Plain fact is you do, but the plain fact is Micheal Bay is laughing all the way to the bank. 

At the same time, I the art snob am not impervious. I love movies from the 1980's and love those disposable 80's hits. But I know the difference between it and art. Why? Because I've worked at it. Also, Im a pop culture whore. Entertainment Is a fine thing but it isn't the only reason to enjoy a film or a band. Strive for something more. Its almost like eating better. No one's saying dont have a fucking candy bar sometimes. But eat something good for you. Even if ut have subtitles or a plot that dosen't end with "and they lived happily ever after..." Even if it has a chord structure of more than three or isn't "club material".