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Some say that we, the generation of the new millenium, are to cruel when we mock decades past. However, you only have to look at this stupid decade and realise how right we are. Ok, so the 80s have some redeeming features, for example I and many of my comrades...in fact all of my comrades where born in this decade. This on its own is not a valid enough reason to save the 80s from ridicule. I think Matt best summed up this gender-bending decade when replying to Dr. Jones "Ahhh, the 80s, when women were women." with "And men were women too."
Lets face it, any decade which is
completly responsible for the rise of New Romantic Music is not
worthy of being put on a calendar. Just look at this typical
member of the New Romantic Crowd: 
. If that
doesn't make you want to vomit in terror I don't know what will.
So know that I've made a start with the musical aspects of the 80s
I may as well run with it.
Music
As already established the whole idea of the New Romantics came about as a result of the stupid 80s. How the Hell hair feathering and dressing up as 17th century French people ever became popular is perhaps a question best left to the philosophers. But what other Music genres really came into their own in this bizarre yet diverse time?
Well perhaps the most obvious type to move onto is Punk. Yes, punk grew up in the 70s but unfortunately didn't leave during the 80s when it should have. Bands such as the Sex Pistols becoming world famous. The big question here is WHY? Yes, many people love the Sex Pistols but I am not one of these people. I really can't stand the Sex Pistols or anything to do with the 80's British Punk scene in general. I'm sure there were some Punk bands out there that perhaps i would have liked but, sadly, I haven't heard them. So what if the British Punk thing was all about revolution and anarchy,it was still shit in my eyes.
Now on to a better, genre which people started to take notice of during the 80s. I speak of course of Rap. God Bless the 80s for making Rap what it is today. Rap was new in the late 80s. It had started in prison 20 years earlier by jailed black inmates who, in the absense of instruments, turned poetic metre into musical rhythm. The early rap heard on ghetto streets was abrasive and laced with hostility toward society.Later many rappers rose to fame such as MC Hammer and LL Cool J. Even white rappers tried. Some such as the Beastie Boys succeded, whilst others, who will remain nameless in order to keep a small shred of dignity, sucked. Right I'm bored of talking about music so lets some up. British 80's Punk and New Romantics bad, Rap and Hip-Hop good.
TV
Thank God for 80s Tv otherwise I would have had to justify the stupid decade on Rap and my birth alone, which although great, would still not have been enough to explain the 80s existence. Its time to face facts. The 80s wasn't about revolution and hair feathers, it was the age of the coach potato. Out of all the genres of Television show at the time, the two most prominent were the sitcom and the action-adventure. The sitcom aspect of televison came through great shows such as Married With Children, Diff'rent Strokes and The Cosby Show and the action-adventure coming in the form of Charlie's Angels and of course The A-Team. Also the comedy classic, which I love and many UK residents weren't been lucky enough to see before it was pulled by the Sci-Fi Channel, Mystery Science Theatre 3000, was first aired in 1989. There is, however, an aspect of 80's TV that I will remember even better than these quality shows. Summed up in two words, Kids Shows. The 80s where home to some of the greatest children TV shows known to man. Who could forget such classics as The Thundercats, Transformers or The Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. The 80s was the age of the greatest kids TV shows ever seen, particularly those beginning with T. It was also the age of Dinosaur themed cartoons, mainly due to the sucess of The land Before Time, with shows such as Dink, The Little Dinosaur, Denver The Last Dinosaur and Dino-Riders.Of course I couldn't talk about Childrens TV without mentioning He-Man. Oh, the memories. Kids today don't know what they missed.
Film
This is where the 80s is much more
varied. As with any decade there are a number of films that are
great and others that just plain suck. Perhaps one of the
funniest films of the decade was the fantastic Space Balls 
. Also
up there are classics such as Ghostbusters and Airplane!
The Sci-Fi genre was also alive and well in the 80s with hits
such as Aliens, Blade Runner, ET and one of them Star
Wars films. Other 80s films also worthy of note are Platoon,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Terminator, Raiders Of The Lost Ark,
Little Shop Of Horrors, The Shining, Wierd Science, The Fly, The
Goonies, Masters Of The Universe, Die Hard and Batman. And lets not forget Gremlins
the greatest film about little green things( Except for Gremlins
2: The New Batch, which made in 1990, so I can't include it
here). But what about the bad films? Need you be reminded of the
endless number of Police Academy movies? Or what about
anything with Chevy Chase in it? Can anyone belonging to
the millenium generation really say they have watched Dirty
Dancing and enjoyed it? And, sorry, but I really didn't like
Karate Kid, except Mr. Miyagi. He ruled.
Toys, Video Games and anything else.
The 80s had good toys, its a well known fact. Lets face it, we had He-Man, Transformers and Thundercats. These were the greatest toys known to man and the sad truth is that many of these toys are being left, unwanted by todays children, at car boot sales. Ungrateful Bastards. I would have given my life for the entire set of He-man toys for under Ł10 but the children of today all want their Pokémon and their big things with lights and moving, robotic parts and millions of buttons just to make one noise. I was quite happy with a lump of plastic that vaguely resembled something I had seen on TV.
Unfortunately the same cannot be said about video games. Sure the consoles of the decade may have been the fathers of all that we have today but they really did suck. Unlike other things such as TV and Toys which were better in the 80s, video games have come a long way since then. The decade was ruled by three mega-companies. These were Amstrad, Commodore and Nintendo. The most notable was Nintendo, the first to really develop the console format, but the 80s also saw the emergence of a console called the Master Sytem, created by a bright young company known as Sega, which, in my eyes, would rise to be the greatest entertainment company in the world thanks to the Mega Drive, only to die due to the release of the stupid Saturn.
Finally i'm going to talk about wrestling. In the 80s everyone loved wrestling and with good reason. With wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, who could really resist its charms, although it really made an impact on the world in the early 90s when its fame really peaked.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the 80s aren't
really as bad as we sometimes make them out to be, but still lets
not forget
Overall I give the 80s a 7/10.