The decades

[Reservoir Dog]

So, I've been stuck driving long hours lately in the middle of nowhere, and I've had a little time to think.
One thing that came up that kept me occupied was thinking about the last three decades. Seeing as how I've been alive for them all, I have my own opinions on them. And since they were at different points in my life, I'm probably destined to see them in a different light based on my age at the time.

But here's my question, which decade do you think was the most influential? The 80's, 90's, or 00's?

Then I got to thinking about how without the advancements in one decade you never would've had the influence of the others. The 80's saw the last big gasp of the Cold War and Communism. The rise and fall of hair bands, heavy metal, the birth of true alternative, punk, and rap music. Giant shoulder pads on women, Greed is Good, Just Say No, the miracle on ice, deteriorating inner cities that resembled war zones. Gas rationing to the last decade of it being under a dollar. The rise of video games, computers and handheld, portable, technology.

The 90's saw the Internet finally start to take hold. Economic boom times. Grunge came along and took over for a few years. MTV was still playing music and TV premiere of music videos was a national event. Seinfeld started it's run. The nation became enthralled when the President lied about getting a blow job and talk of a stained dress became a focal point. We continued to bomb countries around the world even though in most cases we weren't officially at war with them. School shootings and domestic terrorism became a little too common place.
The digital age had finally dawned. But nobody knew how to make money off it. Didn't stop them from blowing a ton of cash though.

The 00's saw the rise of the the always "connected" individual thanks to the advent of reliable wireless communication. Insanely small devices considering the technological advances in just a short time, almost rule our world now. Politics became something that more people became aware of and everyone felt the need to comment on the Internet about it. We talked about a woman briefly flashing her tit during the Super Bowl halftime show, while following every opportunity the paparazzi took to find a picture of some hot celebrity's cooch. Streaming video and High Definition became the big thing. Everyone wanted to star in a reality show that never resembled anyone's true reality.

Eh, I don't know. I'm obviously leaving out a lot, but thought it might be worthy of some discussion.
I'd personally pick the 90's out of the three, but I think most of us have fond memories of our late teens and early twenties. And the decade of our childhood(80's in my case), culturally at least, we are reliably nostalgic about.

[TrojanHusker]

I got married in '90 and my kids were born in '91 & '92.
So it's hard for be to be objective about any decade other than the '90s being the best.

[Floating on Raft]

I got married in '90 and my kids were born in '91 & '92.
So it's hard for be to be objective about any decade other than the '90s being the best.

Out of the three I would pick the 80s for all of the reasons you've said. Those decisions are still affecting us today. Especially the economic "greed is good," and the war on drugs.

[Sean C]

I'd have to say the '80's because democracy defeated communism...and Jethro Tull won a Grammy.

[TrojanHusker]

...and Jethro Tull won a Grammy.

I now have a better idea how your mind works -
Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental
I'm a fan of Ian Anderson but this award was just bizarre.

[Brent]

For me, it was the nineties. My best memories all reside in that decade, and its been kind of shitty since then. Unfortunately, I made most of my mistakes back then by doing pretty much nothing at all; eating double cheeseburgers and being antisocial comes to mind- so in retrospect I wish I'd done then what I've done in the past two years. My life would've definitely taken a different direction and most likely I'd have never even been around forums (which I got hooked on right around 2000), at least not to the extent I used to be.

On the flip side, that would have mean missing out on knowing and meeting a few good people, most notably Barb. But I definitely wonder what I'd be doing right now had I never let myself become a computer dwelling hermit. Damn.

[A.L.]

80's for all the reasons stated plus I had more fun in the 80's than anyone should be allowed to have ever. Sex, drugs, rock 'n roll, fast cars, faster women. The real estate boom was really something too. What a fucking time! Then the world was taken over by mad mothers with self righteous sticks up their asses who told us we couldn't drive drunk or bring peanut-butter & jelly sandwiches to school. Had to wear helmets on bicycles and all that other shit. Fuckin' pussies...

The world, though well on it's way already, surely went to shit after the eighties. I put most of the blame on Nancy Regan. Just say no"?! Fuck you, you dried up old cunt!

[Jason Rance]

Define influential. Are you referring to the social, the political, the cultural, the technological? There are many factors at play here. Obviously the 80s was the most prolific era for modern technology with the rise of Steve Jobs and the other guy whose name escapes me now.

-Political? Ain't the 80s. Reaganomics failed. The Bush dynasty caused irrevocable damage with it's twenty year reign. Impending doom from foreign hordes influenced the pseudo-machismo of the MTV and MySpace generations. Obamanomics is the new thing.

-Cultural? 90s. The rise of the independent circuit influenced all those film festivals featuring gay-cowboys-who-eat-pudding. Blockbusters and sequels were common place and many of those indie movie makers were behind them. Some struck a chord with the mainstream in the 00s (Aronofsky, PT Anderson, Peter Jackson, Nolan, Tarantino, etc.) striking back by introducing layers of verisimilitude and poignancy not found in the corny genre pictures of the 80s (The Dark Knight series, The Lord of the Rings, Kill Bill vs. Burton's Batman, Star Trek, movies featuring Ah-nuld, etc).

J. Lo and P. Diddy are responsible for the nonsensical, vocoder-induced shit on the radio today. People dressed like slobs and metros in the 90s and they upped the ante for new millennium with the surge of mainstream geekiness and emo culture. Superficiality and absurdity have always been a staple of American culture.

-Social? 80s was a free-for-all. 90s was a cooldown period. 00s was a return to the Devil-May-Care attitude of the 80s. Various contemporary cliques are more common as specific marketing capitalizes on each varying social group. People are as polarized as ever.

So who wins the brawl of the decades? Answer: None of the above. While our 401ks wither into the sky like ash from a cigarette, we can at least appreciate that we got iPods and Predator out of the bargain.

[Reservoir Dog]

Define influential. Are you referring to the social, the political, the cultural, the technological? There are many factors at play here. Obviously the 80s was the most prolific era for modern technology with the rise of Steve Jobs and the other guy whose name escapes me now.

I was referring to them all. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that each decade brought a different thing to the table. And each part of the pie influenced the other, both within the decade and following it. Some aspects had bigger impact short term, others built up over time.
And I think you could make the argument within each part for each decade. For instance, you picked cultural-movies-90's. But what if you focused on music, fashion, or toys of the 80's? Hell, the toys of the 80's practically were the reason behind VH1's "I Love the 80's". And some of the great movies of the 80's I didn't truly appreciate until after I saw the movies of the 90's, simply because I was old enough to understand them properly.

I'm not saying there is a right or wrong answer, or a right or wrong way to debate the question. It was purposefully open ended.

[Jason Rance]

Define influential. Are you referring to the social, the political, the cultural, the technological? There are many factors at play here. Obviously the 80s was the most prolific era for modern technology with the rise of Steve Jobs and the other guy whose name escapes me now.

I was referring to them all. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that each decade brought a different thing to the table. And each part of the pie influenced the other, both within the decade and following it. Some aspects had bigger impact short term, others built up over time.
And I think you could make the argument within each part for each decade. For instance, you picked cultural-movies-90's. But what if you focused on music, fashion, or toys of the 80's? Hell, the toys of the 80's practically were the reason behind VH1's "I Love the 80's". And some of the great movies of the 80's I didn't truly appreciate until after I saw the movies of the 90's, simply because I was old enough to understand them properly.

I'm not saying there is a right or wrong answer, or a right or wrong way to debate the question. It was purposefully open ended.

In that context, I would argue that the 80s influenced modern society the most.

The glorification of yuppies, rampant sexuality, "War on [Interchangeable]", vanity, corporate conspiracies, shameless merchandise tie-ins, flamboyant fashion, incoherent children's programming, dime-a-dozen-flavor-of-the-week celebrities, personal computers. The list goes on and on--the thinly-veiled "hipsters" are eating the nostalgia up like candy. One major difference I've noticed is that while nationwide crime steadily rose in the 80s (and hit it's peak in the 90s)...it's at it's lowest rate now since the 1970s. So while Optimus Prime and friends may have returned to wrestle in the mud with the cronies of Megatron, armed robbery and drug smuggling just ain't "in."

The mid-90s were somewhat of a return to "mild" social conservatism (AIDS, high teenage pregnancy rates, Rodney King, OJ Simpson--scared the shit out of people). Yeah...that didn't last very long. But we got Tarantino and a funny story about a cigar out of it all. Not too shabby.

With the new millennium, we decided to go back to default form (or as they would say in the 80s, 'old school style'): A solid return to that 100% 'Merican, Grade-A, divide and conquer imperialism. Nothing significant here, folks. Move along.

[A.L.]

Yeah JR. It was crack that made the 80's dangerous. And it hit suddenly. Bad Bad shit. People would lie, cheat, steal and pick the rug for it. My house got robbed twice in the eighties. The local stop & cop, which had been perfectly safe for me alone at night on my motorcycle to get a nickle bag of weed, over night became a shooting gallery and the ground littered with empty vials.

[Jason Rance]

It wasn't only that crack, my lil' nugga--that yayo fucked shit up and good. That would explain the ostentatious neon lights, Tony Montana-esque fashion, NEW WAVE, punk rock, Deloreans, fluffy manes, shoestring budget VHS porno, the success of Michael Bolton and Electric Bungaloo (a movie I've never seen but heard all about a thousand times).

We got Blade Runner and Optimus Prime out of that minefield known as the 1980s so maybe the decaying crime choked drug craze was worth it in the end.

[A.L.]

Coke was very cheap in the 80's but it was still never the scary street drug crack was. "Scarface" was early on, 1983, and even by then a lot had changed. Crack was rocket fuel compared to coke. Bad Bad rocket fuel...

[Jason Rance]

The world changed in 1983 and mostly for the better. Because:

1) I had been born around that time, I bet and
2) That's all.

This is what we call "balance." When somebody crafts the ideal toilet, inevitably somebody is going to shit in it. Not the most flattering metaphor, but it get's the point across fairly well.

In ways, Jason Rance is the antithesis of crack.

[The Game]

Coke was very cheap in the 80's but it was still never the scary street drug crack was. "Scarface" was early on, 1983, and even by then a lot had changed. Crack was rocket fuel compared to coke. Bad Bad rocket fuel...

Starts at about 1:30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t00UmIH ... re=related