As the decade draws to an end, looking back, you could argue that, culturally, it wasn’t really the 00s that we lived in, but that it was actually more some kind of synthesis of the 00s and the 80s. A retro fad at the beginning of the decade, the infiltration of 80s culture into 00s culture, the 80fication, has actually perpetuated until the decade’s end. This last decade’s aesthetic was undeniably influenced by 80′s aesthetics, in fashion, in music, in design, and who knows what more.

Some examples:

Tetrification. I used to love hooking up my gameboy to my gamegirl next door & play tetris with her all day long:

West loved to knock off knock-offs of 80s knockoffs – softer worse slower and definitely weaker:

get-ups like this remained cool throughout the 00s:

artists from the french Ed Banger label were probably most succesful @ reinventing the 80s elektro in the 00s. Kavinsky managed 2 actually become the 80s aesthetic:

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JC in the 2nd most popular indie band of the 00s – became digi for 12:51:

JoyD: The most popular indie band of the 00s?

I always found the term bboy a little 2 cute for a movement that hailed from the cold hard burroughs of new york in the 80s:

& thank God this is over…

ohhh…i’m sorry this one wasn’t supposed to be in here:

chiptune – 8Bit music is a genre with endless potential if U ask me:

sabrepulse – horizons [remix]

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& more of this please:

So…in the last 9 ½ years we saw an insatiable hunger for everything 80s in underground culture, a hunger eventually kept leaping to mainstream pop culture. What could have been the reason for this? I mean: did we really want 2 relive the 80s? A bad case of nostalgia? Well, a lot of the hips championing the 80fication, were actually made in the 80s [as was i] & could therefore only have childhood memories of the decade. They were 2 young 2 actually know wtf was going on. But then again, that might just be where the nostalgia kicks in. The longing 2 NOT know wtf is going on.

Gung ho!

Or was there something more historically driven happening? Maybe there are cultural parallels 2 B drawn between the 2 decades? The contrast between the 80′s and the 90′s were of course obvious. The 80s were the last Cold War decade, the 90′s the first post-CW decade. Where the 80s were branded by Reagan’s “Evil Empire” revival of 50s CW fighting spirit, the 90s proclaimed the Fukuyama “End of History”: wtf are we gonna fight 4 now?! The 00s answered this question with: “the same shit the western world had fought the commies 4 in the 80s. Money, greed, neo-liberalism/conservatism, expanding americanism, etc.” & what did it bring us? New global conflicts, wars and a gigantific stock market crash. So let’s link cultures, then and now:

BEFORE:

gekko

AFTER:

madoff

BEFORE:

steve jobs

AFTER:

steve jobs

We loved 80s money & greed as much as we loved 80s computers & gadgets as much as we loved the offspring of 80s culture in the 00s. They R all linked. Despite the natural backlash of 1 decade to the preceding decade [in the 90s people hated the 80s], its following decade sees reconciliation. Because the once hated 80s DID have an influence, and DID determine who we were and became, they therefore became loved in the 00s. The 80s obviously made us who we are now:

we just love 2 hang out in dark rooms while eating magic pills and listening 2 repetetive music

As much as I love any kind of GOOD music, hailing from ANY decade, I seem to have a special weakness for any kind of music reminiscent of either 80s video games music or 80s television series theme songs. I [re]love the sounds of 8bit bleeps & digi synths. Next year we’ll see a remake/sequel to the classic 80′s bitfreak film TRON. I can’t wait [to B disappointed - allthough Daft Punk is doing the soundtrack]. Look @ what they did 2 Indy and Darth.

This is actually the latest symptom of 80fication. It’s seeing classic 80′s cartoons like Transformers and G. I. Joe being transformed into horrible blockbuster movies. Well, with this, if I may, I would like to predict the death of 80fication. I really hate seeing my childhood heroes being mutilated [and I imagine many of U agree].

Come on you gotta be kidding me…demi more looked tougher in G. I. Jane

I might be wrong, but the 80s might have finally died along with MJ. 2 weeks before “THE TRAGEDY” I posted about how amazing it was that everybody [and I meant everybody] still loved the song Billy Jean. I still do, but the overkill of “THE AFTERMATH” has forever tainted it 4 me. So who knows, maybe next year we might be [re]loving KC or 2PAC.