The Day the '80s Died
I normally write on and report about war and human rights issues. Not being able to travel to Iran in time before the election, I've been blogging it from afar like so many others. CNN took a break, albeit a temporary one, from celebrity/reality TV pseudo-news to set up its "Iran Desk" and filing reports from Youtube and gleaning headlines off of Mousavi's Facebook page. Today it reverted back to what the cable stalwart is most often more comfortable with. A friend called and said he'd just come from a hospital visit here in Los Angeles where he'd heard from hospital staff that Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, had just died. I checked the BBC, CNN and all I saw was that Jackson had been hospitalized after he'd stopped breathing. I then checked tmz.com and they had pronounced Jackson dead. I figured TMZ's guru Harvey Levin wouldn't risk his reputation and the accompanying lawsuits if it were not true. I texted friends and relatives. They said they were watching CNN and MSNBC and that there was a chance Jackson was still alive and that perhaps TMZ was wrong. But it was not to be.
An old classmate in Manhattan then texted me and asked me if I could hustle over to the UCLA medical center's Ronald Reagan building and file a few photos for the press agency in NYC that he works for. He'd recently been promoted and was looking for a big story. "Sure" I said. Why not? Still trying to digest the news of Farrah Fawcett's passing, I borrowed my roommate's car and his backup camera and sped from Koreatown to Westwood not knowing what I would find or who I would discover.
I arrived on the hospital grounds minutes after Michael Jackson had been pronounced dead. No one knew what was going on or what to say. To my surprise (somewhat) there were more press than fans milling about. Los Angeles was gleaming as I walked around firing off my 35mm camera with nervous fury. I'd moved to southern California after the LA riots and OJ trial of the dismal early 90's and had generally purposefully stayed clear of such surreal life-esque events. After several hours photographing the anxiety and hysteria, I jumped in my borrowed car to whiz home and file the photos back in New York. I called my buddy to say I was coming back and said "You know what dude, today is the day the 80's died." It began to sink in. It had been thirty years since the 1980's began with the death of disco and a frowning Ayatollah Khomeni returning to Tehran and embarrassing President Jimmy Carter with his arduous hostage standoff. MJ signifies the frivolity and fun of the last period of the Cold War presided over by another celebrity, Ronald Reagan. Jackson helped to moonwalk our generation through an awkward period. Today Michael Jackson died at the Ronald Reagan building in Los Angeles. A part of my childhood, and our culture. died with him. Goodbye 1980's.
Michael Jackson is dead [Updated] | L.A. Now | Los Angeles Times
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The music of the 80s was basically the soundtrack to my warped high school life. Sure there was Michael Jackson, but there was Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Culture Club, Wham!/George Michael, Hall and Oates, well too many to name, but basically what was blaring on the radio. I did have a copy of "Thriller" and enjoyed it very much, but by the time "Bad" came out, I had moved on to more 'alternative' music, listening to the school funded Alt station from the suburbs, and the local college stations...I was into bands like Talking Heads, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Smiths, OMD, The Sugarcubes, Midnight Oil, etc., in all my teen angst, I didn't care if I heard another MJ song again....even as an adult I went on to discover classic jazz, 50's [pop, rockabilly, R&R, R&B], 60's [psychadelia, folk, british invasion], even found the joys of Ray Conniff and Lawrence Welk...But Thursday, I somehow felt that music was given a big void as I felt a jolt hearing about MJ's passing, you never thought it could happen and it seemed as though you were smacked in the head by a cynderblock...I will admit, I wasn't a fan of MJ, but it was a reminder that in spite of his troubles and eccentricity, he did write and perform some of the greatest songs of the 80's....the King of Pop will be missed.
Good article, Derek.
i challenge you to play 'billie jean' again. that opening bass line is the heartbeat of the 80's and it's still beating for many of us.
I thought the 1980's died when Nirvana's "Nevermind" came out in 1991. Rock itself died about five years later as music entered into an era that combined big solipsistic moping with gangster posturing.
That pretty much how I remember it! The 80s ended with the gulf war and the Seattle scene! I can even tell you when the 90s died that one easy can you guess it...
I've wanting to kill the eighties since 1982.
The stupidest decade in the history of earth.
Please, that honor goes to the '90's and '00's.
Grunge/alternative music where everyone's acting and dressing like they were so d *a *m *n depressed; then the unfortunate rise of gansta rap (don't get me started on this). Now we've got the likes of so-called "reality" junk all over the airwaves, Miley, Paris, Lindsay, Britney, stupidity is celebrated, ugly-@*s*s guys ruling the box office, living in a recession and high unemployment, and country's at war.
Yeah, these were/are real good times we're living in.
I swear, if I hear those bloody Jonas Brothers one more time, I'm gonna barf out my large intestine....my neice plays that constantly.....I gotta block out the Disney Channel.
The 80's dead? Don't be ridiculous. We still have Madonna( truly the only person in Michael Jackson's league), Prince, Springsteen. But the two biggest from the 80's were indisputably MJ and Madonna. The 80's aren't dead.
true that. and there are many new bands i've recently discovered that would have had no problem getting airplay on college radio in the 80's. these kids were born in the 80's but to listen to them will really take you back. here are a few of them, check 'em out on iTunes: the Cinematics, Interpol, The Mary Onettes, Ladytron, VnV Nation.
great rock still lives on. it's just harder to find.
Odd. You write about the death of the '80s, while another writes about the death of the '70s. Both of you are valid though.
The 70s died when That 70s show came close to last more than a decade!
If this is what it took to jar you out of the 80s, you have my sympathy. Lost innocence? You could describe Michael with lots of words, but "innocent" probably wouldn't be one of them. He was a musical and entertainment genius, but there was very little else in him to admire.
When John Lennon was killed in 1980, we had already known for a very long time that the 60s were dead.
See Derek Flood's Profile
Jackson was certainly not innocent himself but the memories of his early music and videos are to millions. He was a tragic icon, but an icon nonetheless.
No offense intended to Jackson or his fans, but I've always thought the '80s were the most vapid decade of American pop culture. He was a great showman and musician, and he would've been a superstar in any era. But let's be frank: His star burned a little brighter because he was surrounded by mediocrity. If, as you suggest, the '80s will be buried along with Jackson, some good has come from his sad death.
Oh, and the two decades since the '80s have been stellar examples of pop culture?
I'm sorry, but the '80s, despite the frivolity and other weaknesses, is a major part of my life. I came of age during that time. So, while you're rejoicing its "death"; I'm grieving. For both Jackson and the decade that he helped define.
Spot on. Thank you.
Yeah, I'd say definitely the pop culture of the past 20 years or so has been much more exciting than the bland, sterile '80s. Easily. The '80s was the death rattle of the old showbiz model. Everything seemed stale and mechanical. The advances in technology and delivery systems, the rise of the premium-cable TV dramas, the vast multitude of choices available to us--without middlemen like networks and record companies dictating to us--have enlivened pop culture in a way we've never seen. We all have a sentimental attachment to the schlock of our childhood, but that doesn't mean it wasn't schlock. Don't take it so seriously. It's only show business.
The 80's opened music up to new sounds and possibilities. Springsteen did Born in the U.S.A and Tunnel of Love which didn't sound like anything he had done before. Neil Young was out there doing whatever he wanted. Prince with Purple Rain and Sign of the Times. R.E.M with Document. Mellencamp, the Police, and U2. It was the beginning of techno, hip hop and rap and a lot of the artists form the 80's are still going while many bands in the 60s and 70s disintegrated. The 80s are far from dead.
you're absolutely right. no decade was more musically creative than the 80's. it was a time when technology, experimentation and creativity merged to give us some of the best entertainment we ever had in the history of rock.
i'll end this with a small list of some of the most phenomenal singers and bands of the 80's or ever: Cocteau Twins, the Smiths, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Dead Can Dance, Bauhaus, Peter Gabriel, The Church, XTC, Joy Division, Annie Lennox, Jane SIberry, Bronski Beat, Art of Noise, The Call, The Cult, Depeche Mode, Kate Bush...
i could go on. barriers in music exploded in the 80's. sounds no one ever heard before were created, i feel really fortunate to have been a teenager in the 80's, and a member of Generation X.
Agreed wholeheartedly. I hated the 80s.
the eighties can't die painfully enough for me.
culture did get better once the saviors of grunge kicked the stool out from under the nonsense of the eighties. Even television is better now with shows like the Shield and Dexter.
I could never relate to any of the 'icons' of the eighties. I am aware, however, that in the background, out of the view of popular culture, there were some good things. You really had to look, though.
I'm not knocking people who truly enjoyed Jackson's music. Each to their own. I think I'm angry at the music 'industry'. especially Mtv
It probably the first time in at least a decade that somebody refer to MTV as part of The music 'industry'! That the big problem is in it?
having come of age in the 80's this perfectly sums up how i've been feeling since michael's death. i think it's safe to say that many of us Gen X'ers feel that with his departure a part of our childhood died. i'll always remember being glued to the tv screen when MTV (the only channel i watched back then) premiered the Thriller video. and of course it was all the kids were talking about the next day at school. it's still hard to believe he's actually no longer with us. part of me always felt that if anyone could figure out how to live forever he'd be the one to do it and outlast us all. i suppose in a way he has. rip michael.
I watched and listened to all of the M. Jackson's videos on HuffPO and was reminded that he was truly a musical genius. What a gifted person and a loss for the world. RIP, Michael.
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