Thursday, November 2, 2017

The 80s

I was born in the 80s, and, I mean, early in the 80s, so you might think I would be used to 80s aesthetics.  Nevertheless, I just really don't like them.  I mean, after having watched the Blade Runner sequel, I remarked to multiple people that my main memory of watching the original is just how off-putting I found the actresses' haircuts.

I was just reminded of this again by watching a whole bunch of Bowie videos and performances spanning decades.  I don't always find the aesthetics of Bowie's appearances in the 70s attractive (not a mullet fan), but they are consistently appealingly bizarre.  Conversely, while in the 90s, 2000s, and 2010s Bowie's aesthetics were more normal, they were consistently pretty attractive.  However, the aesthetics of Bowie's 80s appearances were a thoroughly unappealing mix of conventional and unattractive.  Sigh.  The only partial exception is Bowie in the Screaming Lord Byron role in the "Blue Jean" video, but:

  1. this is presumably meant as a parody of Bowie's own 70s personae.
  2. it is literally a Byron reference.
  3. although presumably unintentionally, it reminds me strongly of Torquil.
Certainly I don't find anything else about the aesthetics of the video particularly appealing.

Sometime this year I am intending to watch the "Love Cats" video again, and hopefully that will remind me that there are at least some 80s aesthetics out there that I quite like!

2 comments:

Lonin said...

It just occurred to me that Screaming Lord Byron is probably a reference not only to George Gordon but also to Screaming Lord Sutch (look him up! his career was bizarre!).

Grace Mulligan said...

Oh, yes, it definitely is (and I am sufficiently a British politics fan to be aware of him), but that's probably less relevant to my own aesthetic tastes than the Byron reference ;-)