This is going to be a long one and in two parts. I did a lot of brain storming and had the urge to write. Yesterday I looked at a 'Life' magazine from 1992. In it they showed some of the greatest artist '40 yrs of rock n' roll'. It had me thinking. Thinking about music and everything else. How much life has changed over the yrs. A lot has even changed since 1992. I love sitting and thinking about stuff like that. The past, today, wondering about tomorrow. In some ways things are better. Somethings are worse and others haven't changed much. No matter what is going on, I still find life to be pretty amazing.
1970's - Environmental issues started. The economy was really bad. Women were taking a stand for more rights. The gay movement took a huge step forward. There were popular video games like space invaders, asteroids and pong. Pocket calculators were invented. So was the floppy disk, video games, fiber optics, microwave ovens and VCR's. Personal computers were about too. For tv, you could only get about 5 channels depending where you lived. Cheesy but cool tv shows like Brady bunch, Mork and Mindy, Welcome back Kotter, Three's company and so many more where a big hit. The reality shows for that time were stuff like That's incredible and variety shows. The talent shows were the gong show. Game shows were family feud, the price is right and others. Kid shows included Bugs Bunny, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers and the Muppet show. You had to get up to change the channel and adjust the volume. They had to be really careful what they said and showed on tv. The fashion was lg. Afros, side burns, beards and platform heel disco boots for men. The women had long straight hair and the feather cut. Bell bottoms and turtle necks were in. For music there were records, 8 track tapes until the cassette tape came out in the early 70's. There was a rise in soft rock and pop rock while disco was hot. Some of the people you heard on the radio were Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Bee Gee's, Diana Ross, Barry White, MJ and other great artist. At the movies you saw Jaws and made you scared to go in the water. Grease made you sing and dance and the Exorcist made you scared as hell. Superman making you wish there really was one, Star Wars with awesome effects, The God father and so many others. For me, well I was born in 72. I remember 8 tracks, getting up for the tv, watching The Wiz and Star Wars at the theaters. MJ's Off the wall and me thinking people on the records were not real (I was a strange kid ok). I remember when VCR's first came out. There was VHS and Betta, VHS won. In 1972 a couple of months before I was born, a boy was born who would grow up and create awesome music and touch so many hearts. Darren Hayes is his name.
1980's - 'Just say no' campaign started, drugs becoming a serious problem. Space shuttle Challenger disintegrated. Beginning of AIDS pandemic. Seat belt safety got pushed, so did smoking awareness. More fighting on racism, discrimination etc. Gay rights became more widely accepted in the western world. The discovery of AIDS allowed the Christian Right to condemn gays claiming AIDS was brought about by gays "loose morals". The home computer became more popular, the mouse was invented so was the bulky cell phones. Pagers were popular especially for teens. Walkman radios & cassette players were huge. The remote control started to become big. Nintendo game system came aboard with games like Super Mario brothers, Duck hunt and Tetris. Other video games were popular like Pac-man, Donkey kong and Zelda (other Mario games as well). Cd's came about in 1982 quickly taking over records and tapes. Fashion - big hair for both men and women, hair gel, leg warmers, shoulder pads, bright florescent colors, big earrings and bracelets all up and down the arm. The Rubik's cube came aboard with everyone trying to solve it, can you? Cable tv became more accessible. Tv shows: Alf, Knight Rider, Full house, Rosanne, Facts of life, Cosby, Star Trek next generation, Cheers, 21 Jumpstreet giving us Johnny Depp and America's most wanted to help catch the bad people. Kid's shows: She-ra, He man and transformers. Reality & contest shows were Star search, Solid Gold and Bloopers and practical jokes. Game shows, some stayed the same like Price is right & family feud. There were so many good movies like ET, Indiana Jones, Beverly hills cop, Fatal attraction, Back to the future, 16 candles, Nightmare on elm street, St. elmo's fire, Big, and Steven King movies like Christine. In music, disco died and keyboard synthesizer and drum machines were popular in music. Techno came about. Hard rock, heavy metal and glam metal became popular. Rap exploding on the air waves while break dancing was cool. Parents freak out about lyrics in songs this creating the parental advisory crap to end up on cd's. Mtv was launched and music videos began with a huge effect on the record industry. The people that were being blasted on the air waves were MJ, LL cool J, Will Smith, Madonna, Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper, Kylie Minogue, George Michael, Prince, The cure, Def Leppard, and New kids on the block. For me, my sister was born, I started high school, got braces and experienced the loss of a family member for the first time. I had the bracelets, leg warmers and bright colors. Can't forget the parachute pants and biker shorts/pants. I loved watching Mtv. Trying to dance like MJ in Beat it, being amazed by Thriller. Hearing boom music coming from cars got on my last nerve and still does. Rap was actually fun to listen to. I watched albums disappear from my record store as cd's took over in the spots. Loved Janet Jackson's Rhythm nation cd, talking about racism. Seeing teenagers having pagers. Even though I was picked on a lot in grade school, when I was in high school I really got a sense of the prejudice in the world. Hearing people talk bad about MJ, New kids (I did and still love those guys) and about people who were gay really bugged me till no end. I couldn't understand how one can judge another without knowing the person first. Overall, I love the 80's.
This is the end of the first half. Stay tuned for the second part, 90's, today and the future.
