As Tron: Legacy becomes the top grossing movie in America this weekend, we need to ask a seemingly trivial but oh-so-important question: What's with our newfound 1980s fetish? Though the original Tron has a loyal following (of which I include myself), it was a commercial disappointment. And yet it was updated in blockbuster $170-million-dollar fashion. Clearly, in light of that history, the driving force behind it being remade is the ascendant 1980s zeitgeist, especially considering that it was the latest in a series of 1980s remakes. So, again, what's with our 1980s fetish?
This is a question that I tackle in my upcoming book Back To Our Future: How the 1980s Explain The World We Live In Now. The book is due out on March 15, 2011, but you can now pre-order the book here and also read a just-released sneak-peek mini-excerpt here.
As I argue, 1980s pop culture truly defines how we think about major issues today. Indeed, as trivial as, say, Ghostbusters and G.I. Joe and Mr. T may seem, these multimedia creations/archetypes in film, sitcoms, cartoons, video games, toys, commercials, sports and music made a lasting imprint on an entire generation -- an imprint that shapes the most serious policies and political debates of the present moment.
As just one poignant example ripped from this week's headlines, you may have noticed this New York Times dispatch about Google's new word-searching tool. The Nation's Chris Hayes subsequently used the tool to show how America's "ideology of pseudo-egalitarianism began circa 1980," as evidenced by this graph tracking the use of the term "level playing field":
As you can see, it was in the 1980s that we started hearing so much about how our country is supposedly so fair -- and how we therefore don't need progressive policies like affirmative action, a minimum wage and unemployment benefits. This 1980s-created narrative, of course, defines the most pressing political debates today. Notice, for instance, conservatives' reliance on the "level playing field" idea in their constant insistence that the unemployed in America are lazy.
So, as frivolous as you think your own memories of 1980s kitsch and culture may be, they are anything but. They are, in fact, still shaping how we look at the most significant challenges. That's what Back To Our Future is all about.
On a personal level, the book was an immense challenge for me in that it was a big leap of faith. Though my newspaper columns have focused on the intersection between culture and politics, I had never attempted that kind of focus in book-length form. This is probably why the book took longer for me to write than my previous books -- and why I'm both excited and incredibly nervous in anticipation of its release.
Again, the book isn't out until March 15, 2011 - but I hope you'll give the mini-excerpt a read, pass it on to friends, and perhaps even pre-order the book. You'll not only get a trip down memory lane, you'll also get a lot to chew on as you think about our society's future.
NOTE: If you have examples of how 1980s pop culture shapes our current society/politics, please email them to me at ds[at]davidsirota.com or Tweet them to me @davidsirota -- I'm compiling a list for the presentation I'll be giving on my book tour in the Spring!
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Then there’s the alleged arm-twisting of Michael Jackson when MTV initially refused to play his videos. Before the ‘80s, Michael and his brothers did okay as black artists with crossover appeal. But, being promoted as a pop artist was the holy grail. It meant the world was your audience and the sky was the limit. Michael was able to develop his career as a pop artist and became king of pop in the ‘80s.
Other aspects of black culture- tv, movies, literature, theater, academic studies, etc-also moved from the margin to the center of American society. You could say that America got used to seeing blacks in all their diversity during the ‘80s. That certainly paved the way for the election of a black U.S. president years later.
Regardless, please help me. Mullets: eighties or nineties? (I've got to keep up with the past somehow)
IMO, we wait just long enough for a decade's ills to be forgotten and to take on a "glow of yesterday" and then we look back at that that now-airbrushed image and long for it's "simplicity and goodness".
So, a decade or two from now, we'll be looking back at the Bush decade - especially its culture - with a similar fascination and longing.
But that's all just the entertainment portion of the picture (and what Sirota pointed to when referring to Tron, etc.). There *was* a real inflection point that happened in (and around) the 80's. That was when style really started being valued much more than substance. It was what made Miama Vice (and similar entertainment) such a hit, bit more importantely, it made Reagan and his policies a hit, too. Reagan *seemed* like a fiscal conservative, so that's how he was perceived, even though he balooned the defecit. That misperception lasts to this day. Style over substance.
So while the 80's started the Internet era of "information available to everyone", it also greatly increased the "who needs facts when you've got an opinion" attitude that has come to pervade our society.
The created think tanks, started buying up radio stations to get the demonizing narrative out to the masses. Economically they started the disbanding of USA financial legs and social safety net programs through massive tax cuts (wealth redistribution), outsourcing (job losses), privatization (businesses due work of govt), mergers/acquisitions (job losses), deregulation (let businesses rip people off, who cares), destruction of labor unions.
Yes, the 1980s was the decade that truly set the conservative ideology of "I've got mine, screw you" governance that permeates our society today.
Personally, I had a great time in the '80s, but my friends and I had to dig awfully deep to find music, films, TV, and writing that had any freshness and humanity.
May I remind the gentle reader of Max Headroom which totally predicted our current situation? It was absolutely brilliant TV and they couldn't get it off the network fast enough.
Musically, while the production styles are regrettable, a lot of great songwriting was hidden behind goofy synth sounds and fake drums, but the song writing was often quite solid. U2 decidedly did their best work, there was Sting coming into his own as a solo artist, there are so many... really. For hip-hop it was a defining decade. The Beastie Boys happened.... like them or not they're monsters and innovators. I don't see the 80s as the cultural wasteland it's been made out to be.
Budget = $17 million
Box Office Gross = $33 million
Larger gross than budget = commercial success