Guest post by Nathan Arizona
There’s an ‘80s revival going on. It’s been going on since about 1990. It’s the decade that wouldn’t die.
Eighties pop culture nostalgia spiked in the 2000s, bubbled on low heat for a while and now Gen Z can’t stop TikToking about big hair, bold colors, Game Boys, shoulder pads, Rubik’s Cubes, “Straight Outta Compton,” Princess Diana, one white glove, Pac-Man, MTV, Paula Abdul, downtown post-punks, popinjay New Romantic bands and the pioneers of synthpop.
“I hate being controlled by a calendar,” one guy posted. “The year is 1984.” Probably not an Orwell reader.
This is often perceived as nostalgia for the last decade before the world went to hell. Nobody was trying to ruin your life on the internet. Ronald Reagan seems a mere grandfatherly bumbler now that every day brings a new existential crisis from Washington. These kids might be surprised to know a lot of people in the ‘80s were pining for the less edgy days of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
The nostalgia has been boosted by the popular TV show “Stranger Things,” which is set in the ‘80s and saturated with the mood and artifacts of the time. The iconic ‘80s singer Kate Bush got a welcome career resuscitation when her song “Running Up That Hill” was featured prominently on the show. A-Ha’s “Take on Me” has been rediscovered through other means.
It’s easy to get confused about decade nostalgia. There’s also a ‘90s revival going on. (What the heck were the ’90s about anyway?) Maybe thoughts of the 2010s are bringing warm memories to Generation Alpha. Yeah, it already has a name.
Nothing says ‘80s nostalgia like the John Hughes teen movies and their Brat Pack actors. Especially a John Hughes movie with a theme song by one of the era’s most popular bands. It’s hard to think about “The Breakfast Club” without thinking about “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by the Scottish band Simple Minds. Judd Nelson thrusting his arm in the air after Saturday school detention while the song plays underneath is an iconic ‘80s image.
But the guys in the band weren’t seeing the song’s possibilities. They didn’t even write it. At first they said no when asked to record it for the soundtrack. They thought they were past the point of singing somebody else’s tune. It turned out to be the most popular song of their long and successful career.
“We couldn’t give a toss about teenage American school kids,” a chagrined lead singer Jim Kerr said later. As band guitarist Charlie Burchill put it, “We had delusions of being ultra-hip.”
Here’s the 1980s cultural touchstone.
Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall and Aussie folk-rock band Boy & Bear did interesting cover versions.
