Nostalgia for the 1980s

Off the top of your head, what’s a quintessentially 1980s film? Using the powers of the Internet, it can be determined that every single one of you has answered Robocop. The 1987 film was both a popular and cult classic, nominated for and followed up with sequels and TV adaptions. But that was a 1980s audience which is less developed than we are today. Audiences today probably want something thought-provoking, like Elysium or Riddick, right? Apparently not, if the new trailer for the Robocop reboot’s anything to go off. And it’s not just Robocop that’s getting a revival: Evil Dead, Miami Vice, GI Joe, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career – the same things are repeating themselves. How’s this happened?

It all seems to come down to this generation’s overwhelming sense of nostalgia. Now, nostalgia’s no new thing. Homer was banging on about nostalgios three thousand years ago. Swedish doctors used to treat nostalgia as a medical disorder and treated it with opium (chocolate not having been invented yet). However, their nostalgia was a kind of homesickness. This generation’s nostalgia, on the other hand, is less for places and more for people and things. These film reboots and comebacks show that it’s a specifically 1980s nostalgia that we’re dealing with.

It’s not just the film that’s been affected – it’s television, too. Some of the more popular shows are rife with homages and references to the 1980s. Family Guy and Futurama have jokes, scenes and entire plots derived from something 80s-related. (Family Guy’s Rocky pastiche and Futurama’s “80s Guy” are just two examples of this). Some networks have even gone so far as to adapt 80s films for television, like the Rambo series currently in production. It doesn’t stop there, though.

The Internet is perhaps the greatest haven for this type of nostalgia. In fact, it’s a little 80s mad. Go to Youtube, search for “1980s” and see how many results pop up. You’ll find countless clips from old 80s commercials, television and film. You can also see people showing off 80s toys, playing 80s games and generally giving their opinions on all things 80s, like shoulderpads. Similarly, online stores are jumping on the bandwagon, selling all sorts of 1980s merchandise. Back to the Future t-shirts, Transformers mugs, G.I. Joe stationary – it’s available and for low, low high prices. Add to that the podcasts and discussion boards and you’ve got a kind of perm-free,1980s paradise.

The reason for all this attention seems obvious. The men and women who grew up in that era are now in their 30s. They’re old enough to start reminiscing fondly about their childhoods. They want to talk about the things that were important to them in their youth which, for lots of people, is going to be different kinds of media. It’s why we’re getting remakes of 80s films or seeing former action stars together in new ones. It’s also the reason behind all the 80s references in TV and online stores popping up everywhere. In a lot of ways, it’s no different than the strange obsession people had in the 1980s with the 1950s (the rockabilly comeback, America electing a cowboy, etc). This current trend for the 1980s is simply this generation’s version of that.

To conclude, it seems that all this 80s-stalgia is just a natural thing that each generation goes through. It goes along with grey hairs, wrinkles and thinking all music after your adolescence is rubbish. However, because of the Internet, there’s no reason for this 80s thing to disappear. It also leaves us with the frightening question of what will happen when people born in the 1990s enter their thirties. What will the 90s-stalgia dredge up? Will Will Smith be badgered into making a sequel to the Fresh Prince with Jaden co-starring as his 30 year old, high school son? We can only hope.