Why were the 70s such a tacky decade?

[V.C. Brunswick]

You knew it was the '70s when Sinatra went from this...

to leisure suits... :eeek:

 

[31 Model A]

Earth is not the issue....the mass amount of LOONIES is what has us here in our household worried. You simply cannot escape the loonies. It is like some alien life forms got left off to bred with regular normal humans...and someone forget to come back for them all. Our news is packed full of them. Some loonies even get placed in some very powerful positions.

Remember what I said earlier.....Science Fiction has been known to become reality. The Loonie problem has already been noted and waiting to come true!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oS4KcEoMeY

 

[Edward]

"Star Wars" bugged me when it first came out, but I couldn't put my finger on why. It was only later that I realized that the whole picture was meant to be viewed between quotation marks. It's a pastiche of a science-fiction movie, not an actual science-fiction movie, and that fits in very well with the whole Era of Insincerity that took over the world in the Sixties. Pretty much everything Lucas has ever done strikes me in the same way.

I don't know, I think the silly old hippy actually believes his own chutzpah.

One word: polyester.

I said just that to a 60s/70s girl once. She looked me dead in the eye and said "Moths."

Touche.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't know, I think the silly old hippy actually believes his own chutzpah.

I'm convinced that's all he believes in. Real science fiction, substantial science fiction has something meaningful to say about the world in which it was created. Even "Star Trek," for all its bloated pretentiousness, was sincere in that respect. The various Lucas projects have nothing meaningful to say about anything except squeezing more bucks out of the fanboys. How fitting it is they ended up in the gloved hands of The Mouse.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The only real sci fi movie Lucas made was THX 1138.

 

[Stanley Doble]

You think it was a hideous decade to look at, you should have lived through it or maybe you are lucky you didn't. Massive unemployment, with high inflation, cars were not only ugly and poorly made, they got terrible mileage and had no performance. Then there were the gas crises when you couldn't even buy gas and when you did the price was insane. Lunatic government policies that were bad at the time and set the stage for every rotten thing that has happened since.

I can think of a few good things, the end of the Vietnam war (even though it was badly handled and humiliating, a bad peace is better than a good war). Regular people were engaged in politics and in the protest movements of the times, they did not sit in front of a computer and moan they did something. They weren't always right but at least they made the effort.

There may be a few other good things but basically you are right, the whole decade was a mess.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The best thing to come out of the '70s was the "back to the '30s" fad of 1970-72. It didn't last long, but while it did, thirties culture was everywhere, and was even mainstream again. But then that dreadful hack George Lucas stuck his face into things with "American Graffiti," and the whole fake-Fonzie-fifties thing followed immediately after. Phooey.

 

[sheeplady]

I don't know. I'd take that tacky style over the lack of style of today. At least people in the 70s put on clothes to go out even if they were leisure suits. Today a lot of people don't even bother to change their Pajamas or run around in tights and a t-shirt.

Also some of the things that the 70s renewed weren't too bad. I have some nice clothes that were 20s through 40's inspired that were my mother's, including a lovely raincoat I wear as a nice jacket and a couple of cloches.

I have to call bushwa on this widely stated generalization. MANY of us left-leaning kids of the 60s/70s did NOT turn into narcissists and/or yuppies. Some of us continued to believe in idealistic causes, never acclimated to the country's hard swing to the right under Reagan, and didn't turn into greedy, wealthy fat cats. Sure, I have been a hardworking citizen and parent for decades, but I was never fixated on just myself or accumulating wealth... and I didn't. .

I think that it is just an overgeneralization. I knew hippies when I was younger (I was in my twenties and living in a liberal college town) that never "grew out of" being hippies. The values of charity, low impact on the earth, community, etc. stuck with them and they WERE hippies, living in the community eco condos, wearing tie dye, riding their bicycles to work, creating community healthcare plans, growing their own food, etc.

There's this common perception that people are "liberal when young and then grow into being conservative." And it *does* happen, but I think it more happens to people who when they are young don't know their own mind and values. It is the same I'd say for someone who moved from conservative to liberal. It is kind of like the people who become vegetarians because it is "cool" to do so when they are 20, but start eating meat the minute they are no longer in the dorms.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think that it is just an overgeneralization. I knew hippies when I was younger (I was in my twenties and living in a liberal college town) that never "grew out of" being hippies. The values of charity, low impact on the earth, community, etc. stuck with them and they WERE hippies, living in the community eco condos, wearing tie dye, riding their bicycles to work, creating community healthcare plans, growing their own food, etc.

I've mentioned before the "back to the landers" who came to Maine in the 70s, and were conflated with the hippies -- understandably enough, because we never had the San Franscisco-style summer-o-luv sixties hippies here. But they weren't here to smoke dope and play guitars, because you can't survive a winter here doing that. Most of those that lasted became real hard-working farmers, not dilettantes, because trying to grow anything worthwhile in Maine is not a job for dilettantes. There are exceptions -- Roxanne Quimby, the "Burts Bees" cosmetic tycoon, is one of the most disliked people in the state because of her overbearing I-Know-Better-About-What-To-Do-With-The-Woods-Than-You-Dumb-Hicks attitude -- but fortunately these are in the minority.

Far worse than the ex-hippy types are all the middle-aged downsized MBA "consultants" who come here to be big fish in a small pond. They're the ones most likely to get their names in the paper for embezzling millions.

 

[Stearmen]

One of the greatest things about the 70s was, peace! After the war ran down, we had a nice long run with no wars. Although, I did have friends in Beirut 1983, never forget them! Now that I think of it, nothing much good came out of the 80s. When is the last time you heard some one say, if they invented a time machine, "I would really like to go back to the 80s?"

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

That was due to the popularity of the movie "Bonnie and Clyde". 1930's fashion recreations which were fairly well done save for the polyester fabrics in use at the time. A small bright spot in the overall dismal decade of the 70s. I can't really think of too much of the culture from that decade that really could be seriously considered to have been in good taste. A few movies, some music, as well as the all too brief 30s fashion resurrection,...that's about it.

The best thing to come out of the '70s was the "back to the '30s" fad of 1970-72. It didn't last long, but while it did, thirties culture was everywhere, and was even mainstream again. But then that dreadful hack George Lucas stuck his face into things with "American Graffiti," and the whole fake-Fonzie-fifties thing followed immediately after. Phooey.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The best thing to come out of the '70s was the "back to the '30s" fad of 1970-72. It didn't last long, but while it did, thirties culture was everywhere, and was even mainstream again.

I remember that time. One of the first movies I saw in the theatre when I was a kid was The Sting.

 

[Edward]

I'm convinced that's all he believes in. Real science fiction, substantial science fiction has something meaningful to say about the world in which it was created. Even "Star Trek," for all its bloated pretentiousness, was sincere in that respect. The various Lucas projects have nothing meaningful to say about anything except squeezing more bucks out of the fanboys. How fitting it is they ended up in the gloved hands of The Mouse.

Very true.

The only real sci fi movie Lucas made was THX 1138.

Interesting argument- I think you're on to something there. I love the story of the intern who tried to impress him by saying that was her favourite film of his. Lucas is said to have turned, looked at her in genuine confusion, and said "But that didn't make any money!?"

The best thing to come out of the '70s was the "back to the '30s" fad of 1970-72. It didn't last long, but while it did, thirties culture was everywhere, and was even mainstream again. But then that dreadful hack George Lucas stuck his face into things with "American Graffiti," and the whole fake-Fonzie-fifties thing followed immediately after. Phooey.

Sometimes I think it's only me that could see through American Graffiti. If you didn't know, you could be forgiven for thinking it was a poor rip-off of The Wonder Years, any single, random episode of which was superior in every way.

One of the greatest things about the 70s was, peace! After the war ran down, we had a nice long run with no wars. Although, I did have friends in Beirut 1983, never forget them! Now that I think of it, nothing much good came out of the 80s. When is the last time you heard some one say, if they invented a time machine, "I would really like to go back to the 80s?"

I've met very few who are nostalgic for the eighties. Usually folks who were eighteen in about 1983 and would love to relive their undergraduate years, or hipster kids who were born in the nineties and think The Wedding Singer was a documentary. Of the former, without exception they're all old goths, new romantics, or some other subculture group. People who lived through the eighties and want to revive the mainstrem culture of the period are like rocking horse doo doo.

Amusingly enough, when it comes to the eighties, I find myself talking like my mother does about the fifties when she mistakes my dressing the part for wanting to live then.

 

[31 Model A]

"Sometimes I think it's only me that could see through "American Graffiti"

As I get older, American Graffiti is what keeps my memory moving. Not the movie, but the time period it portrayed. Other than the portrayed location, it was spot on in so many ways, each and every character. Same with Forrest Gump. In regards to movies portraying the 50/60s, Vietnam War, hippy generation, if you didn't live then, was not the age to have participated, yes, it will be difficult to understand anything. To those it's entertainment, sorta like Science Fiction.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Interesting argument- I think you're on to something there. I love the story of the intern who tried to impress him by saying that was her favourite film of his. Lucas is said to have turned, looked at her in genuine confusion, and said "But that didn't make any money!?"

I'm not sure about the film's origin but I believe that THX-1138 started out as a student film that Lucas made when he was a student at the USC Film School. Parts of the movie were shot in San Francisco's BART system tunnels which were newly built at the time.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've met very few who are nostalgic for the eighties. Usually folks who were eighteen in about 1983 and would love to relive their undergraduate years, or hipster kids who were born in the nineties and think The Wedding Singer was a documentary. Of the former, without exception they're all old goths, new romantics, or some other subculture group. People who lived through the eighties and want to revive the mainstrem culture of the period are like rocking horse doo doo.

What I remember most about the '80s is 25 percent local unemployment. "Morning In America" my hiney.

 

[Edward]

What I remember most about the '80s is 25 percent local unemployment. "Morning In America" my hiney.

Unemployment was very high here too - three million I remember being bandied about as a high-watermark. Great times for some, not so great for many more. Much like the thirties, in that sense. My native Northern Ireland wasn't exactly a fun place back then either; I still remember the security, the alerts, and such. It was never quite downtown Beuruit the way the media, especially the US media (ironic, given where much of the funding for the paramilitaries was coming from), liked to portray it, but it was a pretty depressing backdrop, I imagine, for my parents' generation who were bringing up kids through it.

 

[hatophile]

I agree to a point. I do like some of the music that came out of the early to mid-seventies, especially the "folk rock":
The Byrds, The Band, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Eagles, etc. I did like disco for about a month, after all, the young ladies liked to dance to it.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I don't know. I'd take that tacky style over the lack of style of today. At least people in the 70s put on clothes to go out even if they were leisure suits. Today a lot of people don't even bother to change their Pajamas or run around in tights and a t-shirt.

My thoughts exactly. They may have had bad taste, but at least people cared about getting dressed, wore shoes, and mostly remembered to put their pants on.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I've met very few who are nostalgic for the eighties. Usually folks who were eighteen in about 1983 and would love to relive their undergraduate years, or hipster kids who were born in the nineties and think The Wedding Singer was a documentary. Of the former, without exception they're all old goths, new romantics, or some other subculture group. People who lived through the eighties and want to revive the mainstrem culture of the period are like rocking horse doo doo.

I'm of that early 80's part, and I'm not nostalgic for the 80's per se, but it does annoy me when people go on about how horrible it was. It was no better, no worse than many other decades, but it happens to be mine, and I'll be damned if I'll let anyone dismiss it as irrelevant. It may have been a crappy decade, but it's *my* crappy decade.