I love the 80’s, really, what’s not to love. I love hearing 80’s music as much as anyone and so many movies from the 80’s are constantly playing in my mental reel. Surprisingly, even to me, I came to conclusion this weekend: the 90’s is the superior decade. Seriously, the 90’s were made up of better movies, music, television, sports and in fact, a better country.
Exhibit A. Movies. The 80’s gave us so many memorable movies. Characters we’ll always love, and refer to on a first name basis: Ferris, Daniel-son, Maverick, and Axel to name a efw. There were lines that have found their way into our everyday vernacular, “Anyone, anyone, anyone?” or “Phone home.” Mostly though, we remember these movies because they were so much fun, but were they really that good? It was a time of bubble gum pop movies. Cheese was served in excess, with a side of cheese on the side, and we ate it up. But how do the movies of the 80’s matchup with those from the following decade?
Well, they don’t. That’s the short answer. I looked at IMDBs Top 250, here comes the long answer. Of the 250 movies, the 90’s are represented by 48 movies to 28 from the 80’s. The average score of a 90’s movie is 8.59 to 8.45 from the 80’s. Three 90’s movies appear in the top 10, while the highest rated 80’s movie took 11th place. Movies from the 80’s have a nice warm spot in our hearts, and many of them are fun to watch for a walk down memory lane, but as a collection of work, it pales in comparison to the 90’s.
In fact, I could argue that the 90’s was the best decade for movies. Look at these titles: Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Schindler’s List, Fight Club, Goodfellas, Silence of the Lambs, Seven, Gump, American History, Saving Private Ryan, LA Confidential, Fargo, Heat, Big Lebowski, Toy Story, Casino and Good Will Hunting. That’s just some of the best movies from the 90’s, and if you’re collect movies, there’s a good chance you own all of them. Best of all, they’re still watchable and relevant.
90’s: 1 80’s: 0
Exhibit B, Music.
Feels like it should be a runaway victory for the 80’s right? So many great bands made their mark in the 80’s. U2, REM, Guns N’ Roses, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, and Metallica. It was a decade of great pop singers, including some from previous decades: Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, and Bruce Springsteen. The 80’s gave us Hip-hop and hair bands, Run DMC, NWA, Motley Crue. It was an epic decade. Thriller, Slippery When Wet, Joshua Tree, and Green are all classics.
Again, there was enough cheese for everyone: Wham! New Kids On the Block, Tiffany, and Debbie Gibson, but every decade will have embarrassing and fun trends, especially when it comes to pop music.
If you took the top 15 bands (listed above) from the 80’s against the top 15 from the 90’s in a March Madness style bracket tournament would your #1 seeds be U2, Michael Jackson, Madonna and GnR? Or would you have to give some of those top seeds to: Nirvana, Fugees, Eminem, Green Day, Wu-Tang, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band, Chili Peppers, 2 Pac, Dr.Dre, Mariah Carey, or Pearl Jam? I’m not sure how to account for acts like Madonna, who were pretty popular in both decades.
I’m not sure how that bracket plays out, but the point is, the 80’s don’t dominate in this area. Then if you consider other aspects of music, like how we hear it and play it, well the 90’s absolutely win out there. CD’s over cassettes. MTV was huge, changed music forever. Well until we could download music, which could be considered a negative, since now the masses listen to singles rather than entire albums. But you can’t discount the impact the internet had on music. Napster made a CD burner a must have item. That paved the way for the iPod.
Perhaps tomorrow I’ll tackle television and sports of the 80’s versus 90’s. If not, definitely later this week.
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