Arisha Iman
It may be 2023, but today we’re all dressing up like we’re from the '70s and '80s! It’s very sad these two decades were lumped together—yes they have their similarities but they are way different from each other in many ways, too. From music, movies, and even fashion, let's look at the '70s and '80s!
The "freedom land" of the '70s is most iconicly known for bell bottoms and the rise of disco, as well as hippie culture and activism. People in the '70s started to develop more of a passion for social issues, especially environmentalism. Large crowds gathered across the U.S. on April 22, 1970, to commemorate the first Earth Day. Gaylord Nelson created the day with the goal of raising awareness of environmental initiatives around the country. The Environmental Protection Agency claims that there was no EPA, Clean Air Act, or Clean Water Act before then. He seemed to have been successful—look at how society progresses!
Respectfully, both of these decades shaped the music industry in many ways. From how we listened to music, to the songs that were coming out, the '70s and '80s ate and left no crumbs.
Some of the top artists from the '70s include Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, Queen, Marvin Gaye, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Black Sabbath and Donna Summer just to name a few of many. The most popular music genres at the time were funk, soul, R&B, pop, hard rock, soft rock and disco. Along with that came the birth of the hip hop genre. People in the '70s had access to quite a lot of musical genres!
If you thought the '70s were great, you’re going to freak out over the '80s. Because of technological advancements, music changed up a bit. For starters, huge reverby snare drums, lots of delay on the vocals, electronic rhythms, synthesisers and songs fading out when they ended.
MTV was single handedly responsible for all the successes in the music industry at the time. It was the first cable network that aired music videos with the very first video being the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star". Some of the top artists of this decade included Madonna, Michael Jackson, Def Leppard, Blondie, Billy Joel, Whitney Huston, Joan Jett, Janet Jackson, just to list a few notable artists. The most popular genres at the time were pop, hip hop, new wave and hair metal.
The '80s also gave society the beloved cassette tapes, which were the original Spotify playlists, but it took a little bit more effort to make. People would enjoy these “mixtapes” on Walkmans. We can thank the creator of Sony for that. He is just like me because he just wanted to listen to music while he did all his silly day to day tasks. Hence why he created the Walkman, which, fun fact, was almost called the “Sound About”. Personally, I think Walkman sounds better, don’t you agree?
Moving on, fashion in both decades… One word—revolutionary. Fashion started to get more exciting and expressive in these decades. It is no exaggeration to say that the fashion revolution started in the '70s. I mean come on, the '70s were the first full decade where women could be seen wearing pants out and about. Fashion was extremely different at the beginning of the '70s compared to the middle of them. The decade started off fun. Lots of colour and taking the best of the '60s fashion, only to either perfect it or exaggerate it to its core. During this decade, society lost its interest in aggressive flared pants and the day to day tracksuit became a closet staple for both men and women. As the decade progressed, pants had more of a tighter fit and earth tones were more "in". I guess people were sick of all the colour by the end of the '70s!
The '80s were a creative fashion era. It was all over the place, but that is why I feel as though it left a huge impact on fashion history. The decade started off just as muted as the '70s ended. Neutrals were in and so was dressing up like tennis players. However in the middle of the decade fashion took a turn thanks to pop stars. I’m talking bright coloured accessories like sunglasses, bangles, hoop earrings, teased hair, loud makeup… and neon. This is the style most people associate with the '80s. MTV also played a role in fashion. Are we even surprised MTV dominated most things during the decade? It had the same power over people that social media apps have today. Suddenly, it became much easier for fads to spread around.
Both decades have their fair share of cinematic masterpieces. Personally I am a huge '80s movie fan. Some of my favourite movies from the decade in no particular order include The Outsiders, Heathers, Dead Poets Society, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Butller’s Day Off, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Sixteen Candles, Die Hard, among others. The '70s also provided society with many iconic films such as a great deal of the Star Wars franchise, Jaws, The Godfather, Grease, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Rocky, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, and Eraserhead!
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