Mon, May 24, 2004
Hey, Remember the '80s?
I was on ESPN Classic because I wanted some background noise for a light nap and golf was already over, so I picked a Billie Jean King biography – plus I was waiting around for Cheap Seats to start in a few hours; it's hilarious, do check it out.
Anyway, ESPN Classic was on, so shortly after I woke up, I was inadvertently watching a few minutes of a 1991 football game between BYU and San Diego State. Looking at the graphics and the quality of the broadcast, I was struck by how "80s" it looked. Which is a kind of interesting thing – and I've noticed this before – my memory of how a decade looked or felt doesn't usually coincide with the exact ten-year span of that decade.
Which makes sense, if you think about it. In 1991, it was the '90s, but it wasn't like everybody just woke up on January 1, 1990, and changed. It had just barely stopped being the '80s, so things hadn't caught up yet. The '90s didn't really start looking like the '90s until about 1994 or 1995, just as the '80s didn't stop looking like the '70s until around 1987. (Both of which I base more on movies and TV coming out of those periods than any sense I got during the '80s or '90s; back then, it was all happening too gradually.)
I can't tell if it's coincidence that the '80s distinguished themselves from the '70s later than the '90s distinguished themselves from the '80s, or if the whole thing is speeding up. (I'm reminded of an old Onion article that warned of the rapidly depleting stocks of "retro." Pretty soon, they said, "retro" things will only be two or three years old!) It could just be me – for me, the "80ness" of the '80s peaked with the introduction of Reebok's "UBU" ad campaign, which the Internet tells me was 1988. Anyway, if the process is in fact getting quicker, that would explain why it already feels like we've pretty well differentiated ourselves from the '90s. Back in the '40s and '50s this would have hinged more on cars, clothing, and politics. Today, it's mostly technology, which is developing much faster.
When those flying cars finally show up, this is all going to get a lot easier.
There's a Cheap Seats marathon on ESPN Classic Sunday, May 30. Set your TiVos!
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