One of Life's Great Unsolved Mysteries

[Darth Bootay]

I just have to know...

...why is it that everyone runs up and squacks "I'm a child of the 80s!!111!!!111!!!!" while wearing clothing no selfrespecting 80s child would be caught dead in, dissing 80s music and culture and going bannanas over revisited 70s fashion and celebrating 90s culture?

[Tristalyn]

Cuz they were born in the 80s? Just because you change your appearance and you grow up doesn't mean you didn't grow up during that era. A part of that era remains with you whether it be worn on the exterior or found within.

I'm an 80s child and I like dark gothic vampire stuffs. Doesn't mean I didn't wear hot pink and green bangles with jelly shoes and sang my head off to Debbie Gibson.

[Darth Bootay]

I'm an 80s child and I like dark gothic vampire stuffs. Doesn't mean I didn't wear hot pink and green bangles with jelly shoes and sang my head off to Debbie Gibson.

Well, considering goth was born in 1979 and peaked in the early 80s, "gothic vampire stuffs" are very much a downplayed but intrinsic facet of 80s culture. Same goes for what is historically recognized as punk fashion and culture, though the real punk crested and then died about '82 or '83...

You are a child of the decade that moulded and defines you, not neccesarily the one in which you were concieved -- All of those things you have carried forward in time, sometimes kept through decades and hidden in your "closet" from childhood that comfort you when no one else can see and judge come from that era that clings to you like a unique identifying scent or a fingerprint.

I remember Ronald Reagan speaking at my highschool. I still have both versions of DK's California Uber Alles. I thought Balki was hot and cylons were cooler than jesus and I just yearned with a nearly crazy desire after the Lost Boys. I remember when MTV was cool, in the very beginning and I just SUCKED at PacMan, though I'd feed the machine every weekend with my friends... these are things that define me and that will not change as the decades fly by. I know why most actual children of the 80s are at least vaguely geeky because it's something we all have in common. It's part of the stamp the decade left on us.

But this isn't something most kids who were BORN during the decade remember and those who were from the first years of the decade recall with the same horror and sense of WTF that those who were shaped by the 80s have for those things 70s. And more perversely, children of the 90s, born in the mid to late 80s LOVE all things 70s revisited, yet every time some 80s thread or mail pops up they jump on the 80s nostalgia bandwagon -- nevermind that all they remember of the decade is strawberry shortcake and reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard.

So why?

[Nicodar]

You are a child of the decade that moulded and defines you, not neccesarily the one in which you were concieved

If I use that as the definition, then I would be a child of the 80s even I was only 6 months old when they started.

Cause I am a fan a lot of the rock from the early 80s (actually I listen to some music from as far back as the 60s). A lot of my favorite movies are from the 80s. Hell I remember TV shows that I watched in the 80s better than the ones I watched in the 90s when I was a teen.

[Tristalyn]

I think I'm just gonna have to disagree with you on this one, Boo. It's all a matter of opinion. I don't feel that because someone says they are an 80's child that there is an unwritten law that they must act like it. You are who you wanna be, and noone else has the right to agree or disagree with that.

[Tarryk]

I'm a child of the 80's becauase I was a child...in the 80's.

[Vallikat]

Meh. My opinion. One of many, to be sure:

I was born in 1967. That does not make me a child of the 60's. I would never proclaim to be part of the Woodstock Era simply because I was alive when it happened (missed the "summer of love" by a scant week).

I went through my early childhood in the 70's. But I still don't consider myself a child of the 70's despite that fact. Though I am a fan of 70's classic rock, I don't identify with a lot of 70's pop culture.

I went through the remainder of my childhood in the 80's, graduating from high school in 1985. I do consider myself a child of the 80's because that is the decade that I identify most strongly with.

I feel it is the era in which you went through adolesence that defines you much more closely than your early childhood. The pop cultural icons that surrounded you when you had your first date, lost your virginity, learned to drive, went to concerts, and etc. are the things that have the greatest impact on your adult life. Thus it is those icons which make you a child of any specific era.

[Ashval]

I'm a child of the 70's...the 80's...the 90's...the 00's...

Growing up is hard, yo.

[Oddysee]

I'm a child.


Tm

[Innari]

I was born in 1982. I was a child in the 80s. I live on the retro music and the classic rock from that decade. I love the movies and the TV shows.

I think I have a right to call myself a "child of the 80s" as I was a child in the 80s.

I was just having a little fun with the TV shows thread, sheesh.

[Boinky]

Wondering if anybody is a child of the Bootays. It's an esoteric kinda ethereal era that's hard to pin down or pick a color for. I think anyone who is though would be fairly interesting.