Eightiesology.com is meant as a true study of the the years between 1980 and 1990, covering topics like music, film, television, sports, toys, trends, events and assorted memories from staff. This blog aims to take both a serious and a whimsical look back into the oft-maligned decade. More importantly, Eightiesology will attempt to repair some of the damage that others have done to the decade in exploiting it with snarky quips and overextended irony, dressing nostalgia up as kitsch. While the decade definitely had its flaws, much of its dignity deserves to be restored so that it’s not just remembered as a cheesy decade full of one-hit wonders, tacky movies, and robotic voices.
The 80s will not be heralded as the greatest or most influential decade here. We Eightiesologists clearly recognize the improvements to media and society in the years since and the legendary events the preceded the 80s. This isn’t a blog for people who can’t escape the past. Here, the 80s are put into the context of the people we became. More than we typically recognize, the decade’s influence extends beyond a picture of you with tacky clothes or a Starship cassingle. It’s how you felt listening to “We Built This City” in your bedroom ready to take on a world with no worries or cares. Or how that picture of you in those tacky clothes was taken on your first trip to Walt Disney World, still one of your favorite places on Earth. Hopefully, in taking this different approach, this blog can offer something more enriching about the 1980s. This is our American Graffiti and Wonder Years.
Additionally, 1990 through 1992 get special treatment because 10 years was simply not enough to contain all that was good and mighty about the 80s since much of the cherished decade spilled over into the early years of the 90s until grunge and roots rock rubbed out the last remnants of hair metal. This ushered Generation X into a more cynical age, often disregarding the 1980s as an unrealistically hopeful era. But it wasn’t some sudden transition that arrived on our laps January 1, 1990. It took a few years and those years will get some focus as well.
About the Eightiesologist
Jason Grasso was born in 1974, a year before the Vietnam War ended. He doesn’t remember punk rock or disco, Gerald Ford’s presidency, or seeing Star Wars in the theatre. But he remembers the day MTV launched, waiting on line for Return of the Jedi, and the anticipation of EPCOT Center opening. Jason doesn’t write for a living but he lives for writing.
Jason can be found on Facebook and Myspace, or hiding under his desk.
