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The 1980's

1980's

The 80’s was one of the greatest decades when it comes to music and movies, perhaps the greatest.

Rick Astley, Thomson Twins, Howard Jones, Bananarama, Bangles, Rick Springfield, John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne, Art Company, BeeGees, Clannad, Enya, Eurythmics, Foreigner, F A David, Starship, Robbie Nevil, Tanita Tikaram, Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, Kim Wilde, Climie Fisher, Boy George (Culture Club), Duran Duran, Blondie, U2, Crowded House, Daryl Braithwaite, John Farnham, Nik Kershaw, Cyndi Lauper, Pet Shop Boys, Wham – the list goes on.

Here are a few other singers/groups that aren’t from an English speaking country: Kraftwerk (Germany), Alphaville (Germany), (Munchener) Freiheit (Germany), Indochine (France), Mylene Farmer (France), Aha (Norway).

Movies like the Karate Kid, Back To the Future and Less Than Zero positively poured out of Hollywood, and other countries like the UK and France produced many fine movies too, like My Beautiful Laundrette. It wouldn’t be surprising if people became spoiled and complacent, taking all this for granted.

The fashion was kind of mixed. Lots of hair for the girls was very typical. People sometimes dressed quite traditionally, though others wore corsets or workout clothes, like tights. Watch The Last Days of Disco and the Wedding Singer for typical 80’s clothes and music. Lots of hot young actors began their careers. River Phoenix was the greatest of them all. Who remembers the rest of them? But Andrew McCartney and Kevin Bacon are still something. There were fewer protests (but in 1986, the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl caused much criticism against nuclear power – something which people today seem to have forgotten).

Here in Sweden we had some really good movies for kids, like Ronia the Robber’s Daughter and The Children of Noisy Village. But as usual there were no good movies for grownups. Perhaps it’s because only old men run the movie industry? I’m guessing the same old men who were making movies in the 1960’s and 1970’s were still at it. The same goes for the actors.

Several of our Swedish schlager- and pop singers started out back then – like Lena Philipsson. At the end of the 80’s Niklas Strömstedt made his breakthrough. Jakob Hellman with his song Bara Vara Vänner (“Just Be Friends”) was a really great singer who for a long time didn’t have to pay for his pizzas if he sang his song. Freestyle/Style were enormously popular. Gyllene Tider. Magnus Uggla. Those are just a few of all those who started out or made their breakthrough in the 80’s. I just have to mention the Wahlgrens, especially Niclas – he’s sooo cute. They started out in the 80’s, both as performers and as actors. (The other two are Pernilla and Linus).

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