h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Break-Dancing had to be one of the coolest things at the time, but also one of the things I am most ashamed of. It's very scary to see these kids break dancing again, in a way which is so much "cooler" now

Rah-Rah skirts, pixies boots, Ford Capris, blue mascara, 90% of my record collection....I'm not going to think about this anymore. It hurts.

Nothing to do with this forum, but if you're in the UK, have you been watching the 70's nostalgia series on BBC2 Saturday nights? Now that I'm watching it again, I realise the 70's were FUN! And last night they showed Enter the Dragon!!! Aaaawwwwweeeeeeeyyyaaa!!!!! Thwack! Thud!

Fantastic!!!

Sue - I agree 90% of my music as well, but many months ago when I was as new to the site as you are now, I entered a discussion on what this decade was to be called - still unresolved. But I came to the conclusion that decades have no meaning for me the late 70s had more in common with the early 80s and the late 80s had more in common with the early 90s, and I am sure that the same will be said in 5 years.

Decades are just media inventions made up so that they can sell you "Best of the 80s" CDs and themed TV nights, Don't be conned.

But whilst I am here - ALL home computers from the ZX81 thr the Dragon, Oric, Spectrum, C64, Vic 20, BBC - B, Atom, Electron etc in all their many formats and all the wonderful games.

CH

CH - very true. 85-90 did't exist as part of the 80's really . More of a no mans land in the wilderness - best left buried & forgotten. The 80's that I remember fondly (& hazily) existed between 78-84. Bit of a contradiction I suppose. Nostalga really, really makes my head hurt...

78-84 why is that no surprise given your stated age, that would be when you started and left secondary school (if you did A levels) as it is identical for me.

One thing that did stand out in that period was a show called Grange Hill, it started just before I started secondary school, so I knew exact what to expect - shame life wasn't like that, or maybe not otherwise I may have ended in EastEnders (or even ER)

C Hawke

Sorry, most of these are actually the opposite of cool, but I couldn't resist.
Footloose
Purple Rain
Morris Day and The Time
Izod shirts, often worn two at a time with the collars up.
Skinny leather ties.
T-shirts, sport coats, 5 o'clock shadow (Miami Vice)
The camouflage revival (Mr. T)
Those Michael Jackson zipper jackets
The second incarnation of skateboarding
The Grateful Dead make the pop charts
Wham!, Duran Duran, INXS
Saturday Night Live goes to hell (the Robert Downey Jr./Anthony Michael Hall years)
Magnum P.I.
Cabbage Patch Kids
Teddy Ruxpin
Christie Brinkley
Iran/Contra, Ollie North
Infocom
The Apple IIe
Nintendo
Oh, there was one very cool thing about the 80's... ELVIS COSTELLO

Seeing all the smiley icons being used in the chats reminds me of wearing a smiley T-shirt and glow-in-the-dark wristbands, blowing a whistle and screaming aciiiiiiid!! at parties where what was later to become Techno-Music was played. Did we ever feel cool!

Does anyone remember ALF?

Alf? Of course!
Actually, while I was living in Japan (from 93-96) there were two American television shows on every day at 5:30 and 6:00 - one was "Alf", the other was "Blossom."
The "father" from "Alf" is in a new series now called "Norm" - starring Norm Macdonald.

For my age group, and even according to "Cosmopolitan" at the time, the "in" woman had a baby on her arm ( or, more practically, in a sling). Unfortunately, these cute accessories grew into messy toddlers, but a lot of them are now quite normal and are joining us on this site.

In Germany, there was a musical era called the "Neue Deutsche Welle" - "New German Wave", which foreboded a sort of techno. It was an over-simplistic, very synthetic type of music with very silly words, lots with allusions to space travel. The costumes and video clips were on the same theme. Everyone dressed in aluminium foil. Was there an equivalent in the UK or USA? The groups also had surreal names and consisted of a melodic female voice interspersed by a male rhythmic part.

Kraftwerk existed long before this and still exist long after, and would probably be offended if they were included in the genre.

Sorry, but I've got to get this off my chest:

Bad Manners 'Can-Can'
Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan (not personal favourites)
Rolling up the sleeves of suit jackets
THAT Robert Palmer video
Nicking the badges off the VW Golfs owned by Yuppies
Mobile phones the size of house bricks
Keith Chegwin (yes I know he started in the seventies)
Betamax videos looked like they might give VHS a run for its money...
Stu "I could crush a Grape" Francis on Crackerjack.

God, I feel old now. Can someone please pass my zimmerframe.

Oh god I'd forgotten about the Can Can..surest way to half kill yourself at the school disco.

I sort of wish I'd never posted to this thread..It keeps popping up again just to remind me of my age. Rockhopper, care to share the zimmerframe?

one word - Mc Gyver
i still remember that show...just give hima a chewing gum wrapper, a paperclip, some fertilizer, duct tape, a match and some gassoline...and he could do anything...

i also remember alf...that was a great show.

when you are 5 alf and mc gyver are the coolest.

i also remember nintendo, and star wars

all the boys played little legue football...all the girls took gymnastics and every school had at least one firlscout troop.

wow...and every time a space shuttle was launched, every tv was tuned to that channel. enough reminising for today

I still don't understand how McGyver and the A-team managed to shoot so many automatic weapons and not hit anyone.

Another one for the aging Brits...Metal Mickey!

Has anyone mentioned Steve Guttenberg yet? No, wait... Police Academy was NEVER cool. Even the one with Sharon Stone in.

What about the Rubic Cube - havn't seen that one yet!
And the bighead/showoffs who could solve it in ten seconds flat??
Made me sick
Still can't do it
Not bothered now though
'G'

Role Playing Games Like warhammer and Dungeon and Dragons.Cool TV like Grange Hill with Zammo (Remember Just say No)>Test Cards on TV in the afternoon.AHH the memories

I don't if anyone had said this but NEON that was a huge thing in the 80's I remember it all too well I was an 80's I had funky hair and hot pink skirts and yellow and bright pink lipstick *shudder* I quiet frighten of those pictures of me actually

What about Europe - The Final Countdown, Def Leppard - Animal, Helloween, the umpteenth wave of British Heavy Metal, the rise of thrash metal, death metal, and Kiss unmasked. All the epitome of un-cool (I hope)