When did the 80's really begin?
July 17, 1981: the release date of Journey's Escape album.
1980 and the first part of 1981 were just an extension of the 1970's.
If you do cultural observations of any decade of the 20th century, you'll find it takes time for a new era to make its mark, whether it be music, fashion, or pop culture.
The common trends I have noticed is, you don't really start seeing the stuff that defines a decade until halfway through. A fine example would be, in the 90s the first half was pretty much "The 80s 2.0," and even the public release of the internet in '93 took some time to make an impact on people. My family didn't get our first browser or try the internet until '96. You didn't start seeing the really, really 90s styles come about until '95, '96-ish. It was the same with the 80s and other decades before it.
The first two decades of the 21st century have also experienced that, though on a more muted level. Technology and politics seem to define them more so than fashion or pop culture ever did.
Politics is everything now whereas in the past it was kind of derided or a side issue. Identity politics in the past was about what sports team you liked or band/musical genre you liked rather than politics, sexuality, race etc
The internet is an interesting one. When I started working in the corporate world in 1997 the internet was still a rarity. Faxes reigned supreme. It wasn’t really till about 2004 that we started using it more before that there was like one or two systems with email etc for the whole team to share lol.
Musically you had Grunge become popular with Nirvana even though Grunge was around in the 80’s as part of the Seattle sound. It was just more generally referred to as indie or alternate rock. A lot of the 90’s grunge bands were more metal or hard rock anyway but grunge sold better. Than grunge became commercialised like hard rock in the 80’s and we got Alanis Morrisette and Creed which continued on into the early 2000’s.
It's true. Up until 10 years ago, nobody cared who you voted for. The only place it was really hotly debated was in Washington D.C, and even then, it was nowhere as vicious and tribal as it is now. Even the news was better at pretending like they didn't lean one way or the other (when close observation revealed them to always be more liberal-leaning, they just hid it better from the average Joe).
shareIn Australia we had a conservative Govt from 1997-2007 the only reason the PM didn’t get a 5th term was he started threatening peoples pays and jobs.
Back in the 80’s we still made fun of people who got worked up by politics and social causes. Remember political satire? You don’t really get that now. Back in the day the comedy shows were full of it and they would attack every side and every cause or group. It didn’t matter. You can’t do that now because someone’s feelings would get hurt.