What year do you think it was? Although, there were 80ish movies made before, I think 1984 was when 80's movies really took off, if you look back at the movies tha year.

I agree on 1984. That was the year the 3 most 80's-looking movies EVER were released - Hardbodies, Ninja III, and Body Rock.

These are not great movies by any means, but for sheer "80's-ness" alone, the nostalgia factor is off the charts!

Another good one is the "Bishop of Battle" segment from the horror movie Nightmares (1983) starring a young Emilio Estevez.

Scariness - 0/10, nostalgia - 10/10!!!

I would have to say 1983. Haven't you guys heard of Flash Dance from 1983? Can you get any more 80s?  ;D

I would have to say 1983. Haven't you guys heard of Flash Dance from 1983? Can you get any more 80s?  ;D


I agree, though personally I think Star Wars from 1977 set the fantasy/sci-fi tone for the 1980s (e.g sequel Empire Strikes Back, E.T, Dark Crystal, Ghostbusters, Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Flight of the Navigator, Legend, Princess Bride, Back to the Future, Batteries not included, Cocoon...).

Just One of the Guys (1985) can't get any retro than that.

...another vote for 1985.


Mister 80's John Hughes' "The Breakfast Club". How about: Back to the Future, Teen Wolf, St. Elmo's Fire, The Goonies, and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial.

I agree, though personally I think Star Wars from 1977 set the fantasy/sci-fi tone for the 1980s (e.g sequel Empire Strikes Back, E.T, Dark Crystal, Ghostbusters, Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Flight of the Navigator, Legend, Princess Bride, Back to the Future, Batteries not included, Cocoon...).


Good point! Although you could 100% tell that the film was made in the late 70s!

Fast Times At Ridgmont High from 1982 is pretty 80s!

I saw Friday the 13th from 1980 and you could easily mistaken the film for a late 70s film!

Friday the 13th part 2 from 1981 is still pretty '70s'.

I'd say about 1982 was when a film started to have that '80s' feel!

I would have to say 1983. Haven't you guys heard of Flash Dance from 1983? Can you get any more 80s?  ;D


the clothes in the film were retro.

the clothes in the film were retro.


Especially the 'one shoulder' shirt that some girls wore in the 80s!

the clothes in the film were retro.


They're retro now, back then they were the current styles...but those styles are becoming popular again.

I agree on 1984. That was the year the 3 most 80's-looking movies EVER were released - Hardbodies, Ninja III, and Body Rock.

These are not great movies by any means, but for sheer "80's-ness" alone, the nostalgia factor is off the charts!

Another good one is the "Bishop of Battle" segment from the horror movie Nightmares (1983) starring a young Emilio Estevez.

Scariness - 0/10, nostalgia - 10/10!!!


I's funny you mention, Ninja III. I had that in my mind, too. That movie is an 80s masterwork.

Fast Times At Ridgmont High from 1982 is pretty 80s!


i just randomly got FTARH in the mail, apparently i ordered it last october, selected the super-saver option and apparently amazon thought that meant it could take nine months to ship it. anyway, that movie felt really late 70s to me, with the promiscuous consequence-free sex, old muscle cars, feathered hair and led zeppelin references. definitely had a lot of 80s faces in it though... sean penn and phoebe cates, jennifer jason leigh, etc. (actually i think of JJL as more 90s, even.)

i just randomly got FTARH in the mail, apparently i ordered it last october, selected the super-saver option and apparently amazon thought that meant it could take nine months to ship it. anyway, that movie felt really late 70s to me, with the promiscuous consequence-free sex, old muscle cars, feathered hair and led zeppelin references. definitely had a lot of 80s faces in it though... sean penn and phoebe cates, jennifer jason leigh, etc. (actually i think of JJL as more 90s, even.)


Fast Times At Ridgemont High is released in '82, so it was still early in the decade. It was actually a mix of 70s and 80s in my opinion.

Fast Times At Ridgemont High is released in '82, so it was still early in the decade. It was actually a mix of 70s and 80s in my opinion.
i actually think the aethetics of most decades tend to morph in the middle. things started to seem "70s" in about 67, 68, and i'd say things started to seem "80s" in about 77, thereabouts. (a good gauge is women's hairstyles: when the beehive fell out in favor of the straight look, when the straight look fell out in favor of the feathered look, when the feathered look fell out in favor of whatever the hell people were doing in the 90s,  ;D etc.) FTARH is a mix, you're right. lots of feathered hairstyles but also a slacker mentality and more emphasis on marijuana than cocaine, all pretty 70sish stuff.

what's interesting to me is where the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s all have a fairly distinctive aesthetic associated with them (even though in the real world those aesthetics weren't necessarily operative throughout each decade), i really don't get as distinct a sense of asthetic for the 90s and 00s. the 90s had grunge and everything associated with that, but i couldn't tell you what women's hairstyle typifies the 90s versus the 00s, as well as what musical style -- i guess the 00s had nu-metal but that seems like a pretty marginal genre to me.

anyway, i wonder if that's just me or if culture is just not changing in the 90s on up the way it did in the middle of the century.

I will have to say mid to late 1982.  I remember this because that's when I started kindergarten, and I remember watching commercials in mid to late 82 and it has a more 80s feel whereas early 1982 is still 70ish.  I remember being 3 years old in 1980 and 4 years old in 1981, and trust me, 1980-1981 still sounded like the 70s, and I remember the music around that time still sounded like disco of the late 70s, so I will have to say mid to late 1982 was when the 80s CULTURE started.

I will have to say mid to late 1982.  I remember this because that's when I started kindergarten, and I remember watching commercials in mid to late 82 and it has a more 80s feel whereas early 1982 is still 70ish.  I remember being 3 years old in 1980 and 4 years old in 1981, and trust me, 1980-1981 still sounded like the 70s, and I remember the music around that time still sounded like disco of the late 70s, so I will have to say mid to late 1982 was when the 80s CULTURE started.


It's nice to hear from someone who actually lived through the 80s and hear their opinion!

It's nice to hear from someone who actually lived through the 80s and hear their opinion!

You're welcome.

i actually think the aethetics of most decades tend to morph in the middle. things started to seem "70s" in about 67, 68, and i'd say things started to seem "80s" in about 77, thereabouts. (a good gauge is women's hairstyles: when the beehive fell out in favor of the straight look, when the straight look fell out in favor of the feathered look, when the feathered look fell out in favor of whatever the hell people were doing in the 90s,  ;D etc.) FTARH is a mix, you're right. lots of feathered hairstyles but also a slacker mentality and more emphasis on marijuana than cocaine, all pretty 70sish stuff.

what's interesting to me is where the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s all have a fairly distinctive aesthetic associated with them (even though in the real world those aesthetics weren't necessarily operative throughout each decade), i really don't get as distinct a sense of asthetic for the 90s and 00s. the 90s had grunge and everything associated with that, but i couldn't tell you what women's hairstyle typifies the 90s versus the 00s, as well as what musical style -- i guess the 00s had nu-metal but that seems like a pretty marginal genre to me.

anyway, i wonder if that's just me or if culture is just not changing in the 90s on up the way it did in the middle of the century.

I would say long straight hair was common among women in the late '90s and '00s, what seperates the '90s aesthetic and '00s aesthic is things like '90s grunge vs. '00s emo, '90s g-funk vs. '00s crunk, baggy jeans vs. skinny jeans. Just in general the '90s was more gritty, minimalist, laid-back while the '00s was more "metro", materialistic, fast-paced, just a platinum clean look and feel, it's that just both decades(especially the '90s) had sooo much variety of trends and styles that it is hard to pin them down to a uniform aesthetic.

Like some others have said, I think 1982 was when the '80s feel and look really started to come in, even though there was already '80s like movies in '80 and '81(Mad Max 2 for example). I agree with you on the decades blending together near the late/early parts, like even in 2011 alot of the popular trends today can be traced to late '08/09(electro-house, skinny pants, fro-hawks for black males), so there was still a '70s influence maybe up to 1983/1984. Even the Thriller album has very strong disco roots, the same with Madonna and even some of the fashion, like the whole Miami Vice look is basically neonized leisure suit.

I would say long straight hair was common among women in the late '90s and '00s, what seperates the '90s aesthetic and '00s aesthic is things like '90s grunge vs. '00s emo, '90s g-funk vs. '00s crunk, baggy jeans vs. skinny jeans, just in general the '90s was more gritty, minimalist, laid-back while the '00s was more "metro", materialistic, fast-paced, just a platinum clean look and feel. Like some others have siad, I think 1982 was when the '80s feel and look really started to come in, even though there was already '80s like movies in '80 and '81(Mad Max 2 for example). I agree with you on the decades blending together near the late/early parts, like even in 2011 alot of the popular trends today can be traced to late '08/09(electro-house, skinny pants), so there was still a '70s influence maybe up to 1983/1984. Even the Thriller album has very strong disco roots, the same with Madonna and even some of the fashion, like the whole Miami Vice look is basically neonized leisure suit.
this is a great post! (although terms like "crunk" make me feel super-old, as though i've heard it quite a bit i'm still not clear what "crunk" is.  ;D is that like nu-metal? i suppose i could google it but what would be the fun in that?)

interestingly, when i googled "90s hairstyle" i actually came up with a lot of short, katie-couric-style bobs, and now i think of it, i do recall seeing that look a lot back in those days.

http://www.lesjones.com/www/images/posts/mary-do.jpg

it's tricky because there were a lot of there were a lot of individual artists who tended to be forward-looking and others who were nostalgic so anytime you pick a year someone can come along with a counterexample. the examples i always trot out are van halen, which was sounding very 80s back in 1978, the movie "heathers," which was busy being the quintessential 90s movie in 1988, and edie brickell, who to me also typified 90s slackitude in 1988.

also, "fight club," to me, feels very 00s though it was made in 1999.

i mean, to belabor the obvious, a part of it is these works and artists are actually defining the styles of these decades so it makes sense they wouldn't coincide exactly with, say, new years day 1980.

Especially the 'one shoulder' shirt that some girls wore in the 80s!


They sure don't wear that anymore.

i actually think the aethetics of most decades tend to morph in the middle. things started to seem "70s" in about 67, 68, and i'd say things started to seem "80s" in about 77, thereabouts. (a good gauge is women's hairstyles: when the beehive fell out in favor of the straight look, when the straight look fell out in favor of the feathered look, when the feathered look fell out in favor of whatever the hell people were doing in the 90s,  ;D etc.) FTARH is a mix, you're right. lots of feathered hairstyles but also a slacker mentality and more emphasis on marijuana than cocaine, all pretty 70sish stuff.

what's interesting to me is where the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s all have a fairly distinctive aesthetic associated with them (even though in the real world those aesthetics weren't necessarily operative throughout each decade), i really don't get as distinct a sense of asthetic for the 90s and 00s. the 90s had grunge and everything associated with that, but i couldn't tell you what women's hairstyle typifies the 90s versus the 00s, as well as what musical style -- i guess the 00s had nu-metal but that seems like a pretty marginal genre to me.

anyway, i wonder if that's just me or if culture is just not changing in the 90s on up the way it did in the middle of the century.


I think if they do 90's nostalgia movies, they should have the women in that kind of big/thick straight hair look. That was huge in the 90's. For the 2000s, regular straight, pin straight, and the wavy curls, almost feathered look.

I would have to say in 1986 Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Good point! Although you could 100% tell that the film was made in the late 70s!


I agree though it didn't feel right saying Empire Strikes Back (1980) without referring to it's inspiration, lol.

i actually think the aethetics of most decades tend to morph in the middle. things started to seem "70s" in about 67, 68, and i'd say things started to seem "80s" in about 77, thereabouts. (a good gauge is women's hairstyles: when the beehive fell out in favor of the straight look, when the straight look fell out in favor of the feathered look, when the feathered look fell out in favor of whatever the hell people were doing in the 90s,  ;D etc.) FTARH is a mix, you're right. lots of feathered hairstyles but also a slacker mentality and more emphasis on marijuana than cocaine, all pretty 70sish stuff.

what's interesting to me is where the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s all have a fairly distinctive aesthetic associated with them (even though in the real world those aesthetics weren't necessarily operative throughout each decade), i really don't get as distinct a sense of asthetic for the 90s and 00s. the 90s had grunge and everything associated with that, but i couldn't tell you what women's hairstyle typifies the 90s versus the 00s, as well as what musical style -- i guess the 00s had nu-metal but that seems like a pretty marginal genre to me.

anyway, i wonder if that's just me or if culture is just not changing in the 90s on up the way it did in the middle of the century.


That is a good point, Tia, especially the idea that the aesthetic doesn't always reflect the real world. The aesthetic (or zeitgiest as I like to call it) in culture is never clear-cut. What confuses the matter further is when a decade is clearly inspired by another. For example, the 1980s was inspired by the rock 'n' roll era when you see films like Stand by me, Back to the Future, Dirty Dancing, Good Morning Vietnam and Platoon. You can also see the influence the 50s has had even on John Hughes 'Brat Pack' films like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink.

I'm sure the younger generation would be able to tell us easily the difference between the 90s - 10s but that is where I kind of lose the zeitgiest. I believe the zeitgiest is in every decade but you can only find it personally if your heart is there.

I think "Blade Runner" (1982) retains a very eighties aesthetic.  Dark, angular, synthetic, intentionally futuristic, vaguely Asian.  No feathered hair or wood-paneled station wagons...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPcZHjKJBnE

I'd give another nod to "Desperately Seeking Susan" (1984) for setting an eighties hipster tone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyV9m9C5P4o

They sure don't wear that anymore.


Heh my girl friend and I had an 80's weekend a couple weeks ago.
Needless to say, she wore that!

One doesn't have to look farther than Fast Times At Ridgemont High for a quintessential 80's flick. It came out in 1982 and certainly has an 80's look if you ask me.  8)

I think "Blade Runner" (1982) retains a very eighties aesthetic.  Dark, angular, synthetic, intentionally futuristic, vaguely Asian.  No feathered hair or wood-paneled station wagons...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPcZHjKJBnE

I'd give another nod to "Desperately Seeking Susan" (1984) for setting an eighties hipster tone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyV9m9C5P4o




Madonna back in those days had the 80's look.

http://media.onsugar.com/files/ed2/192/1922153/42_2009/00dd24c3f7850bcd_teen-witch.jpg

Teen Witch from 1989 is pretty 80s if you ask me. ::)

http://media.onsugar.com/files/ed2/192/1922153/42_2009/00dd24c3f7850bcd_teen-witch.jpg

Teen Witch from 1989 is pretty 80s if you ask me. ::)


I thought it was the late 80's the styles started to fade away? ???

No, there were a ot of 80's holdover styles throughtout the early 90's.

No, there were a ot of 80's holdover styles throughtout the early 90's.


Early 90's had that grunge look,I mean the big hair was out and so was the different styles of clothing.

Early 90's had that grunge look,I mean the big hair was out and so was the different styles of clothing.


Yes and no. I don't think 1990 had a grunge look at all ... not really until the later part of 1991. and even 1993 had some people carrying around the late 80s fashions, especially in places that weren't as up to date on fashion trends, ie, the Midwest.

it's true that 1989 was sort of the very beginning of the 80s style becoming diluted though. 1987-88 was the peak of 'big hair'.

One thing I notice about 1989, it seems like the 80's-ness in half the movies that year, feels kind of downplayed, or more early 90's-like. I don't think that was reflection on the pop culture of the time, because the 80's were still very 80's in 1989. Maybe the filmmakers were purposely downplaying the era, to feel more timeless? most movies scream 80's from 1984-1988.