Misconceptions About the '80s

[@emilymulcahy]

As someone who was around in the 80's we absolutely did call them mullets

[@DonJuanDecepticon]

Yeah I dk what they are talking about. My cousin's nick name was Mullet Mike smack dab in the 80's .

[@dennis8196]

Sadly I was called out for my mullet, what credibility can this channel have getting something like this so wrong.

[@yugenheorte6828]

When they mentioned mullets I thought they were going to dispel the misconception that mullets were a racist hairstyle not that it wasn't referred to as mullets

[@davidmedlin8562]

Mandela effect

[@yugenheorte6828]

A mate of mine had a mullet in 2018, looked kinda cool! On him anyway

[@jimsanderson4180]

I think the comments on the “greediest generation“ are a little off-base. It was called the greediest generation because it was being compared to the 1970s and 1960s. The naked avarice was apparent to anybody who had lived before that time. Now that level of greed is quite common place so it doesn’t seem particularly extraordinary. But, at the time it really was a break with the past.

[@deadsirius3531]

"Stranger Danger" and yet we were thrown out on the street alone all day long and told not to come home and bother our parents till dinnertime. Can't have been that scary

[@CrystalWilliamsoncoach]

R&B in the 80s was incredible!! Chaka Khan as a solo act, Whitney Houston started out, Luther Vandross -- too many others to name!!

[@rowynnecrowley1689]

When I was in high school, I'd walk across the street to the pay phone at the local airport (private planes only) to call my friends, so I can talk as long as I wanted without having people listen to my conversations. It was an actual phone BOOTH with a door. I'd call my friends collect, they'd deny the charges and call me back, and I'd sit there on the shelf on talk for hours.

[@erictaylor5462]

I was born at the very end of the year 1969 so I was 10 in 1980. I personally knew a kid who was kidnapped in the 1980's. Taken from his bedroom in the middle of the night. Probably the biggest thing I remember about the 80's was the AIDS scare.

[@alveolate]

oh right, how did the AIDS "pandemic" not get mentioned?? that was also a huge political football used by conservatives to demonise "the gays" (not mullins).

[@batfleckforever3594]

And autism wasn't well understood at the time.

[@kandipiatkowski8589]

Thats when I was born too! 2 months after the moon landing, and 3 months before Christmas!

[@nariu7times328]

I graduated from HS in the 80s, and thoroughly enjoyed this video. Having to explain how a pay phone works cracked me up.

[@happyfacefries]

Woahwoahwoahwoahwoah. Just because someone donates a lot to charity doesn't mean they're not greedy. Greedy people have found that by donating to charities, they get less flack or the attention is turned to someone else. My favorite 80s hair band song is probably Don't Stop Believing by Journey. Will always be a classic.

[@jliller]

"Greedy people have found that by donating to charities, they get less flack or the attention is turned to someone else." Also, tax writeoffs.

[@elizabethsullivan7176]

OR a company starts a charity to make more money by giving a small percentage of their profits to the charity while taking the much larger percentage that helps them to become one of the wealthiest companies in the world.

[@jmsmith1767]

1:00 the Mullet was also called “hockey hair” in the 1980’s

[@l3m0nfl00rwax]

Helmet hair or helmet head is what we called it. Enough hairspray band it would look the same the next day 😬

[@T-P.]

I never thought a payphone was untraceable but it would be preferred by criminals to hide their address.

[@alhypo]

The real reason New Coke was such a blunder is that taste test studies are fundamentally flawed. When a subject is given the product to taste, they are only given a small sample. And then given samples of other products to compare. So they aren't actually consuming a full can of New Coke. With only a tiny amount to taste, of course the sweeter drink is going to taste better. But if you have to drink an entire can of that garbage, you're probably going to get sick because it's sickly sweet. Also, having less carbonation is fine when you have a small sample because you consume it immediately. But it takes time to drink an entire can of Coke. The entire time you are drinking it, it's losing carbonation until it become flat and gross. Having a little extra to begin with will allow it to remain palatable for longer. Of course, we shouldn't be drinking any of this garbage to begin with.

[@alveolate]

my friend, coke should've hired you! those are the most accurate soda-appreciation statements i've heard in a long while.

[@jliller]

"we shouldn't be drinking any of this garbage to begin with" I drink Coca-Cola (and Pepsi, if Coke is unavailable) because I hate the taste of coffee, tea, beer, and wine.

[@brucemorris3830]

How did you hit on “stranger danger” and not even mention the very 80s moral panics around satanism and “drug pushers”? In hindsight the single most disappointing thing about the 80s was that I could never seem to find these guys giving out the free drugs 😂

[@donbishop6994]

The satanic panic is making a return run as of late 🤣😂

[@happyfacefries]

20 doesn't mean those are the only facts

[@alveolate]

yea i'm not even american and the whole nonsense about pokemon and harry potter being satanic hit us - all the way in singapore, 10,000 miles away. the drug war never ended tho. millions of americans are still incarcerated for minor drug offences, mostly poorer folks who can't afford bail. coming soon in the 2020s: abortion moral panic!

[@missoula2213]

Iran-Contra.

[@danielraiber3639]

The "D.A.R.E." program really made it seem like they were just giving away drugs to anyone and everyone. I never met that person either.

[@JuicyCrone]

It's infuriating when runaways are not considered *missing children in danger* it makes it seem like they are not of high priority. 😢

[@iprobablyforgotsomething]

I think it goes hand in hand with how it never occurred to police and/or a lot of other 'authority figures' to consider that some kids ran away from genuinely abusive situations (regardless of how seemingly 'upright' the family appeared), not because their parents wouldn't increase their allowance or let them stay out late on Saturday nights. . But I also think they (the ones who truly cared and wanted to do right) had less access to technology to track and find people, and were overwhelmed and discouraged and all too often overruled by those placing priority on cases easier to solve or of more immediate known danger.

[@beckyscott4026]

Gotta say..... I WAS approached by a man when I was about 9 or 10 (approx 1980) and asked me if I wanted to go for a ride on his motorcycle -

[@Hillers62]

At 1:34 ....The 80s was Not the "me" decade...That was the 70s....

[@kellylucyglostott918]

Mullets are an easy target. You missed the rat tails.

[@lainiwakura1776]

Those were still around in the 90s lol.

[@KattMurr]

I had one before it was popular with lesbians. I slept over a "friend's" apartment when I had mine and she and a couple other "friends" thought it would be funny to cut it off....some friends they were....NOT!

[@BenderBendingRodriguez2024]

I had both…the rat tail was my way of hanging on to one little piece of my mullet.

[@neddreadmaynard]

I must take exception to one part of your advice : It is NEVER safe to approach someone with a Mullet, unless you are a trained hairdresser or selling a utility vehicle. Great vid.

[@markcrites7060]

I lived through the '80s I never once heard the term stranger danger until sometime in the middle late 90s.

[@langreeves6419]

New Coke was not just a psychological thing It was very bad tasting It seems it only won on taste test where you take a small sip of both drinks I have read that experts in this field point out the best way to do a taste test is a take home test where the consumer takes home to products simply labeled A and B or 1 and 2 and decide which one they like for an entire beverage for the entire meal or snack or just in drinking the whole beverage If you just take a sip the sweeter tasting beverage always wins But if you're drinking 12 oz of a beverage that sweetness can become overbearing by the end of the beverage

[@angrynoodletwentyfive6463]

nowadays old people will say "the world just isn't safe for children like it was back in the 1960's" even though overall there is less crime and around the same amount of violent crimes as there was in the 1960's. Crime peaked in the late 70's and has been going down ever since.

[@latenighter1965]

Charitable giving was higher because they earned MORE (GREED) and realized donating their max of 10% was a total tax deduction and they made way more, which means way more greedy people chose to donate their 10%, which meant more money donated, but greed was the backbone of it all.

[@erictaylor5462]

But tracing a call to a phone that anyone could use wasn't very helpful. Especially when you considered the lack of security cameras. Yea, tracing a call to a particular payphone will cut you suspect pool by a large amount, but cutting the suspect pool form 10's of thousands to several hundred still leaves a suspect pool quite a bit larger than could be reasonably searched just on it's own.

[@camiblack1]

Thing is they almost always had one nearby usual because of it being at a store, or nearby one an easily seen from a parking lot.

[@expendableindigo9639]

@@camiblack1 what?

[@TJ52359]

a Decade's "Culture" is almost always a Couple of Years behind the actual dates.. what we think of as "the70s" was still around in the early 80s ... "the 80s" bled into the early 90s

[@iprobablyforgotsomething]

" 'the 80s' bled into the early 90s" . Those unfortunate neon highlighter colour schemes on clothes sure did. I remember seeing them in stores. They flattered almost no one, yet persisted longer than one'd expect.

[@John-ct9zs]

Yeah as a kid in the 80s, my friends dad was still rocking his 70s blow dried feathered do into 1987, complete with bushy mustache. All the kids would snicker at him for being stuck in 1977. Then I knew a guy about my age that still sported a mullet into the late 90s, he was a young guy at the time, early 20s in 1998, but still living like it was 1988.

[@chrisfreemesser5707]

"Stranger Danger" was a thing in the 80s? My brother and I would be out all day playing with our friends with mom not knowing where we were. She had no problem with that...at dusk we'd hear her yell for us to come home and we obeyed. A parent today doing that would would be castigated for being a bad parent and would have CPS called on them

[@hernanhernandez6567]

I would call this timeframe before cellphones. Cause I sure as hell was out till dusks as well in the early-mid 2000s without a care in the world of us being in trouble

[@phoenixliv]

My curfew was the streetlights coming on too but my parents drilled me not to talk to strangers & never go near strange vans

[@IceMetalPunk]

"...at dusk we'd hear her yell for us to come home and we obeyed." If you could hear her yelling, you weren't that far from her in the first place.

[@chrisfreemesser5707]

You have no idea how loudly she could yell ;)

[@tinlizard45]

My mom had a dinner bell on the back porch in the 80's and 90's. You could hear that from blocks away and knew to get your butt home.

[@afa78djd]

I don't think the whole Stranger Danger thing was meant to portray a child abduction crisis, just raise awareness of kids being safe and kept a close eye on by their parents. Sort of like Nancy Reagan and her Say No To Drugs campaign. Sure, Cocaine was king in the 80s but that doesn't mean it was the worst era for drug abuse, think the 60s will forever own that honor. As for the fashion that is so seen as representative of the 80s (spandex, big hair and bright neon colors), they really weren't as prevalent as you think. The average folk dressed very plain. Jeans were a thing an many used them, as were polo shirts and crew cuts. Many girls wore jeans with nice patterned or plain blouses. In schools however, and parties, kids loved flaunting their most extravagant attire, hence you'll see big hair in many school pictures. On the topic of 80s Metal vs. Grunge, I couldn't agree more. Grunge was not the demise of 80s Metal (which during the 80s it was just that, metal, not hair metal or glam metal, that phrase came much later). Here in LA the radio stations just stopped playing Metal bands and adopted the newer stuff. Radio Stations like 100.3 Pirate Radio and 97.1 KLSX just stopped playing it, and some stations just disappeared altogether. Interest in it soon plummeted and Rap and Regional Mexican Music took over the radio waves. By the mid 90s it was just a distant memory.

[@galloe8933]

@Pixel the Ragdoll I remember being very, very young, and having my mother being upset with me because I pulled out the shoulder pads in one of her shirts and not knowing what they were, I put them in one of her bras. That was a very long time ago, and I was likely still a toddler, but somehow I remember the shoulder pads in mom's bra thing.

[@lainiwakura1776]

Seriously, tight high-waisted light-colored jeans, a tucked in baggy button up shirt, hoop earrings, and white high top sneakers were the look. I think the sneakers with two laces, one white and one colored, and the scrunched up colorful layered socks were also in, I was really little during this phase though, it was probably more late 80s, early 90s.

[@elizabethsullivan7176]

Before they realized how dangerous/addictive cocaine, morphine, and heroin is these drugs were just another "over the counter" medicine. Heroin was legal until 1924 and was even given to babies to help them sleep better and soothe them when they were teething. People were becoming drug addicts without knowing it and it just took off from there. I don't think drug addiction was more prevalent in the 60s, it just wasn't hiding anymore. If anything drug addiction is more common now than at any other time in history. Popular music changed from Metal to Grunge when the record companies stopped investing in bands from LA and started spending all of their money on bands from Seattle and radio stations changed the music they played on heavy rotation. At the beginning of the 80s music changed from 70's Disco and Punk to "New Wave" around 1981-82. Each musical genre makes way for the next a couple of years into the next decade.

[@castielsgranny4308]

You lost me at Nancy Reagan. "Just say no" was the most ridiculous waste of money that made no difference. I don't know your age, but drug abuse was far greater in the 80's than 60's.

[@leonardpriestley6822]

Bro, you can be busting misconceptions about the 80's if you were born in 1999.

[@DaveSomething]

I've not seen a working public payphone since about 2003.

[@iprobablyforgotsomething]

i appreciate that you clarify "working" payphone. xD Because true; no one's gonna pay to remove them when they can just unplug them.

[@danielraiber3639]

80's music as a whole is impossible to pick a single favorite. From "we're not gonna take it" by twisted sister, to "Total eclipse of the heart" by Bonnie Tyler, to "Africa" by Toto. All great songs by completely different artists with completely different styles and sounds. The beasty boys, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Joan jet (both with the black hearts and the run aways), Ozzy, Micheal Jackson, Whitney Huston, GNR, Twisted sister, Cinderella, Rat, Wham, Poison, Elton John, Barry Manilow, Meatloaf, Air Supply and so so many more. I love them all and can listen to them all day everyday and never get tired

[@momof1lvssvng]

Love them all!!

[@matthewcrome5835]

And here I am with my knowledge of the 80s based purely off Vampire's Kiss and American Psycho and their corresponding memes... btw if anyone thinks that the yuppies of the 80s ever went away, you need to watch "Silicon Valley" (or maybe go to Silicon Valley).

[@jliller]

Ah yes if you are a retired real estate executive who can afford to sink $100,000 into an anti-soda campaign what is really missing from your life is a million dollar payoff to buy your silence or a new gig as an advertising spokesman. That's a first-rate example of "What do people with money and power want? More money and more power."

[@Resmungo]

Yet I, an 80's baby, somehow still remember the word chlorofluorocarbons

[@soulofastro]

11:00 The problem with new coke was that if you tried to drink the whole can it was disgusting. Taste testing only gave people small samples, and their taste buds didn't get the chance to become overwhelmed.

[@animalunleashed3812]

The whole idea around New Coke, was because the sweeter, less sharp taste of Pepsi was what younger people preferred. Coke had always dominated the cola wars, but Pepsi, with ALOT of aggressive advertising in the 80's (Targeted at young people) was closing the gap, and had Coke worried. If Coke had simply introduced New Coke as an additional offering, instead of as a replacement, the cola scene may be very different today.

[@BoomGiggity]

Today's man-bun is the 21st century equivalent of the mullet.

[@emilymulcahy]

Nah, a man bun can change just by taking an elastic off, you had to have a whole ass haircut to change a mullet

[@lainiwakura1776]

I don't get growing your hair out to just put it up all the time. Let those glorious locks flow!

[@TonyHammitt]

I gotta go with "Turn Up The Radio" by Autograph as my favorite hair band song. Although there's probably a 100-way tie for second

[@4.Cats.In.A.Trenchcoat]

You: bad talking mullets My toddler: runs up with his whole mullet

[@MissLilyputt]

Is there a way to have half a mullet?

[@expendableindigo9639]

Cursed.

[@Adam-qv2bd]

I lived in the 1980s. It was awesome. I didn't take highschool seriously at all, I walked in and out of classes all the time. I had fun with it.

[@elizabethsullivan7176]

I spent more time at the arcade in the mall next door to my high school than in school

[@SandlotRider]

6:20 Maybe you should make an episode on the misconceptions about charity and how it is in fact less about "giving away" and more about "taking back" 😅

[@kiffkong5147]

Exactly cf. Vox's video about tax breaks and Second Thought's on billionaire philanthropy.

[@jerryh1895]

Maybe one about the misconception that someone else with money means you can not get money too?

[@Hillers62]

At 9:39 ...This is true....in 1978, news reports came out about this problem...so many (like me) started using squirt spray for our long hair...thankfully for me there was a men's version...

[@AndrewLakeUK]

Mullet: the problem with ages of words citations is that things could be in popular usage, but not written down. Shakespeare didn't just come up with words that no one around would understand, but he is the first citation of a lot of words. This is much easier now, but there is still a large gap between first use and first use citation. Stranger Danger: it's not odd that children are more afraid of strangers than nuclear war. Kids get abducted, we've never had a nuclear war.

[@yugenheorte6828]

Ww2 could definitly be considered a nuclear war 2 nukes were used

[@AndrewLakeUK]

​@@yugenheorte6828The Second World War was over by then, bar the logistics. Nukes didn't change the war. They didn't alter anything at all. Russia declaring war against Japan was way more significant. Indeed to be classed as a nuclear war, both sides need to use them anyway. If I shoot you in the face and you're unarmed, is that a gun battle or a shooting? If we threw rocks at each other for a couple of months, then I lobed a grenade at you, would that be a grenade war? It could only "be considered a nuclear war" by idiots. No offence. :)

[@yugenheorte6828]

@@AndrewLakeUK only because the allies achieved nuclear weapons first, there was definitly a race for nuclear capabilities, both sides were trying to develop nuclear arms so in that sense it could be considered a nuclear war by the end of it, but you could also by the logic that I'm suggesting (not professing) that Vietnam was a chemical war. War is by its very nature never fair. So yea I do think it was a valid fear for kids in the 80's but abduction was definitly a bigger worry for children, but nuclear war was definitly a fear, especially as more countries achieved nuclear capabilities and that the world HAD seen nuclear weapons used in a war before. Yea I think I read that the war was practically over by the time the nukes were dropped but USA just really wanted to try them out and dw I know you're not calling me an idiot, because I'm not saying it WAS a nuclear war just that it was a war were nukes were used and therefore it can't be denied that a war with nukes isn't something that has never happened before and so a nuclear war is something people had to worry about

[@IceMetalPunk]

As someone born in 1990, is hair rock the same as glam metal, musically speaking? Because if so, glam metal is still around to this day, and I love modern glam metal playlists as background music while I work.

[@deadsirius3531]

Basically

[@sschmidtevalue]

They are closely related and some overlap exists, but they are different subgenres.

[@jjgdenisrobert]

Charitable giving isn’t a metric of anything, since in the US, it includes the massive amounts of money given to religious organizations, which should never be considered anything but payouts to criminals.

[@yugenheorte6828]

Amen to that brother xD

[@jerryh1895]

Ahhh, the misconception of confirmation bias appears.

[@mustangnawt1]

Some. Not all. Sometimes it really is decent & good. People hold their religion close, very close. They usually go through a lot trying to find the right place of worship for themselves. That’s a right a ton of people have died for. Someone’s husband, wife, sister, brother, and child. In many countries. Should not be taken lightly

[@yugenheorte6828]

@@jerryh1895 it is overwhelmingly an institution for abuse and depravity you can't deny that, religion is not evil, organised religion is evil

[@SpikeBrave]

You might want to do a video on the kidnapping that affected a region. As an army brat moving around the country in the 80's, the one's mentioned where national, but every region had it's own case that was trotted out to cause fear among the local children. The one that suck out to me the most was Jacob Whetterling in the Red River Valley.

[@marthacoomber3188]

Girl mullet was called the Lioness in Roma Queensland.

[@tappingthevein1]

So no mention of Satanic Panic then? I am disappointed.

[@cybercab]

Thank you for using the phrase "death knell" properly!

[@lounakin]

The simple fact that their could be myths about a decade I lived through is giving me anxiety ;)

[@iprobablyforgotsomething]

THIS. . It's like when someone pointed out to me that the 90's (which housed the largest portion of my teenage years) was already more than a decade ago. I felt the world slide sideways for a moment...

[@FaultAndDakranon]

I called that hair a mullet in the 80s, but I'm Australian, so perhaps it was regional?

[@lainiwakura1776]

Nope, it was called that in the US too.

[@bonwatcher]

I am shocked and appalled that Mental Floss misspelled the word "dollars" as "dolars" in their illustration. Then again, that could be another new cryptocurrency. 🤔🤣

[@MagdaleneDivine]

I was gonna say...as an 80s baby....it was called the.mullet

[@0NlRAPTOR]

CocaCola. it was not called New Coke when the change was made. that epitaph was stamped on it by the public. And far from being an oversite the New Coke switch back to the original formula never took place. the replacement for New Coke used High fructose corn syrup in the place of sugar and Coke never returned to sugar. the whole thing was carefully orchestrated and actually got Coke an even bigger market share after it was completed. there is no bad publicity.

[@UniqueornBacon]

The Coca-Cola company ran ads and commercials advertising it as New Coke. I specifically remember the one where a guy is on a Coca-Cola billboard and he just sticks a “NEW” tag up in the corner. It was even on the products cans and bottles.

[@expendableindigo9639]

According to Wikipedia most were regions were already using High Fructose Corn Syrup in classic Coke. And New Coke had more differences than just that.

[@skybluskyblueify]

Greed=low charitable giving? Don't rich people use charitable giving to help with taxes and PR? Maybe look for another sign of greed?

[@reydelsol7026]

Knowing that the mullet fact was obviously wrong I won't both with the rest. So much for this channel.

[@rowynnecrowley1689]

Don't you dare knock Alf! Have you even seen it? Alf was and still is Awesome. This world could use a bit more Alf.

[@mwmnmwm]

I had "Feathered Hair" ,, yep it was a mullet with nice bangs that feathered all the back to behind the ears. (later long haired skater, head banger kid). never heard of fear of being kidnapped,, the milk carton jokes,, yes... um.. still had a pay phone that still had call back in 2008 in gas station parking lot next door and used it for that too( free long distance calls,, duh). Lived thru the New Coke,, only remember it was just bad Pepsi, like Tab but with sugar(yep,, I remember that) . also,, we just moved along from Motley Crue to more "metal" sounds( I skipped the grunge, went towards heavier). We was a messed up set of kids,, but we are kind in general.

[@TheZolon]

80's kid here.. On the nuke vs strangers, we didn't fear nukes because we knew that whole "duck and cover" was worthless.

[@mellowyellow6572]

“Duck and cover” is worthless if the nuke is dropping only a few miles away like it was portrayed on TV. But if you’re not too close to the blast it can protect you from the shockwave. You need to be behind cover though, the people hiding under picnic blankets are fucked.

[@lainiwakura1776]

Seriously, people got over that in the 60s. Plus Russia had calmed down a lot by then.

[@TheZolon]

@@mellowyellow6572 Umm.. Yes. It will help.. help you have a slow death instead.

[@TheZolon]

@@lainiwakura1776 Umm.. Not in my Alaskan school. We had nuke drills once a month.

[@StitchinStacey1]

How strange on the mullet - just had this come up on a trivia quiz a few days ago ( referencing the Beastie Boys song)

[@jovanweismiller7114]

When 'Coke introduced 'New Coke', I simply boycotted all Coke products. I didn't buy a single thing made by the company until they started selling Coke Classic again.

[@Emthe30something]

Curious about mullets? I suggest watching youtuber Abbey Cox's video about how almost all historical hairstyles are mullets. Yeah.

[@dennis8196]

This guy is still a kid. His research is about as good as a last minute paper for 1st year at school.

[@I_am_Allan]

Stranger Danger ... I was born in 1980. By 1985, I was told "go play outside until the lights come on, or you're called in." Rarely did we get called in before lights came on.

[@elizabethsullivan7176]

Whereas these days the Internet makes people believe that pedophiles are everywhere and parents who let their children play outside are child abusers.

[@jeffjones4654]

The 80s were the best decade to be a teenager.

[@chrisfreemesser5707]

Agree 100%...you younger folk have no idea what you missed

[@lainiwakura1776]

I don't know, I had dial-up when I was teenager and I loved that, plus the anime boom was happening here in the late 90s/early 2000s and it was great time for nerds. But back then and going back to the 80s, there was still some optimism in the air.

[@TesterAnimal1]

I find that whatever the decade in the past that you were a teenager in was the best decade to be a teenager in.

[@jeremywvarietyofviewpoints3104]

@@TesterAnimal1 not for me.

[@OneOfThoseTypes]

I don't blame people for the stranger danger hype. I'm not a parent, but I can imagine that _to_ a parent, their kids are the most valuable thing in their life and it's hard not to get emotional about that.

[@therealsulaco]

In the 80's a mullet was often called "hockey hair". Also, the "Me Decade" was the 70s, not the 80s.

[@elleplaudite]

Oh my, someone fire whomever did the research for this one.

[@animalunleashed3812]

Yeah, imagine a 20-something telling us old people what it was like in the 80's... and being so wrong. :)

[@expendableindigo9639]

No.

[@nBasedAce]

Why do you have things from the 90's like grunge in a video about the 80's. I know that Nirvana's first album came out in 1989 but grunge was a thing of the 90's.

[@klabenz]

The ‘me’ decade was actually the 70’s…

[@wills6936]

Was going to say this as well. All the research he did for this video and he couldn't get this right?

[@PinkAgaricus]

I thought this as well. He was mentioning a misconception throughout the video, though I blame whomever wrote the script for this.

[@elizabethsullivan7176]

And pretty much every decade since the 1970s

[@mrmr446]

I had a mullet before I mercifully went bald, my friends certainly pointed this out but sadly not in print.

[@Hillers62]

I have no misconceptions of the 80s...I lived it...from 18 to 28 years old.....

[@sschmidtevalue]

For the record, I don't think I ever watched a complete episode of ALF. I only caught bits and pieces a few times. Enough to know not to go out of my way for more.

[@sivadmg]

I sported a "mullet" in the mid 80s but I did it because David Bowie did it in the early 70s. I remember the NEW Coke as being like any of the flavored Cokes we have today. They put it out if we love it they continue selling it. Coke seemed to have a low self esteem problem in the 80s.

[@elizabethsullivan7176]

The New Coke tasted to me more like Pepsi

[@sivadmg]

@@elizabethsullivan7176 oh yeah, well I thought it tasted like RC cola- lol

[@DeaconTaylor]

maybe where you were but they were definitely called mullets in australia. i dont even remember hearing any other name for them

[@tomfrazier1103]

I was just told about strangers. I was not inquisitive or traumatised about this. Those erre the years missing kids on milk cartons became a thing. In the mid '80s I inherited cases of 78s, music of 1905-50, and permanently warped my taste in music, Latin, Western Swing, swing, operetta, classical, Hawaiian.

[@peggywoods4327]

I was in my 20s in the 80s and I was way more into New Wave back then. But my fav hair band rocker was "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" by Night Ranger. And anything by The Scorpions.

[@EddieVanAidan]

Scorpions never get enough love!

[@amuseinthecraftroom6257]

Stranger danger was a thing....but after the parental lecture on safety we were kicked back outside to our free range lives. We just had to be home when the street lights came on.

[@BlackDoveNYC]

Grunge was a marketing term made to sell not just music but things like clothes. It also didn’t really arrive until the early ‘90s. As Snider noted for Rock the so-called hair bands and Metal in general were being phased out by the end of the decade. Not that people stopped going to concerts or buying music the style just receded while the “next big thing” took over. While the ‘80s were not the only era to contain its share of the greedy, I don’t think I can name another era that seemed to celebrate it while simultaneously condemning social responsibility. Turning behavior that is at its core damaging on a societal level into something to aspire to was the goal. Basically to roll back any social gains made by groups beginning in the ‘60s. That’s how Reagan and Republicans killed unions. When I think of the decade I think of AIDS/HIV and crack. Many lives and communities were destroyed by these two phenomena. I generally liked the music of the era though I would still put the ‘60 ‘70s and late’90s/early aughts before them.

[@elizabethsullivan7176]

Reaganomics is when the wage gap we have today really started. The beginning of "Trickle Down" Economics - give the top management at the big name companies tax cuts so they can keep more of their Net Income so that they will be able to pay their employees better wages. Instead they horde all of the money they're saving and while their employees get the shaft.

[@scottrs]

Mullets. Ugh the worst even today

[@jeremywvarietyofviewpoints3104]

Could you do an episode about myths about myths?

[@teemusid]

There are no myths about myths. I don't know who told you they existed, but it's all just a myth.

[@lastguyminn2324]

In addition to underestimating the emotional attachment fans had to Coke, the company made one other big mistake with New Coke. Pepsi came out ahead often on "The Pepsi Challenge" because subjects were only given a few ounces to sip. Later comparison tests where the subjects consumed 8-12 ounces of each beverage more often had Coca-Cola coming out on top.

[@TheZooBrooksAB]

We called it hockey hair in the 80's

[@MinofDeath]

Called a mullet in North Carolina in the 80's I was in high school back then and my best friend had a great one.

[@romulusnr]

13:06 Cardigans? I think you mean flannels.

[@abbysweat9202]

Maybe he meant that cardigan that Kurt Cobain wore to that Unplugged episode? But that is a reach, you are right, I feel like flannels were far more ubiquitous. That being said, I feel sorry for the kid, who knew this was going to turn into a defense of Gen X culture in the comments? Everybody. Everybody did. 😂

[@JasonHalversonjaydog]

funny, i heard mullets are coming back in style now! LOL

[@jeremywvarietyofviewpoints3104]

Are there reverse mullets?

[@TaylorSmith-fz7qn]

Autograph's "Turn Up The Radio," never disappoints as a rock anthem I will blow my speakers out over.

[@alanpontes2855]

Mullet: Business in the front, party at the back.

[@SALVATl0N]

Here's one. Some young people think it was awesome. It was not. I was there, it sucked.

[@tyrannosaurusburke]

The New Coke myth may have been exacerbated by a part in the book "Gump & Co.", the literary sequel to "Forrest Gump". In the sequel, Forrest Gump accidentally invents New Coke, but a riot breaks out during its unveiling when the crowd finds it disgusting and spits it out.

[@yugenheorte6828]

It was due to the amount of hair metal bands in the 80's using so much hairspray that damaged the ozone layer and in turn thawed GWAR out from their frozen slumber in Antarctica *FACT.

[@KattMurr]

LMFAO!!! I was thinking the exact same thing!!!

[@dylanadams1455]

Wait - Grunge didn't hit until '91ish. What's it doing in an 80s clip? Guns 'n' Roses were the inital death knell for hair metal, because they were so much more dangerous and less pretentious than the poodle haired poseurs. But if GnR started it, Grunge definitely killed it. The first time seeing Teen Spirit on Tv was like a blast of fresh air - it stood out so much visually and sonically. I started high school in '90 - hair metal was definitely on the way out already but it was still there (I might have had a Def Leppard Tee and Alice Cooper from the Poison era), but by '91 you had massive albums from Metallica, RHCP, RATM, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, along with Dre, Tupac and Snoop. NOBODY was walking around in a Poison shirt. They would get mocked as hard as that one kid in MC Hammer pants.

[@mikekoz6351]

I grew up calling them mullets in the 80s ,...so not sure if i should watch the rest of this

[@l00k4tstuff]

Stranger Danger directly conflicted with the message of A Stranger Is A Friend You Don't Yet Know. And the bible thumping Born Again movement lingering from the 70's conflicting with people pulling away from religion. Radio stations playing different types of music depending on the time of day transitioning to a station playing one segment. And the transition from listening to AM radio to FM radio for modern music, pushing "your parent's music" to AM. Lots of transitions during that era.

[@tebo2770]

If you could fit in the trunk of a car.....you were probably sneaking into the drive in. 🤟

[@animalunleashed3812]

Yeah, and back then the cars could fit 2-3 people in there. lol

[@jmanj3917]

I lived through all that stupidity...lol J4TR: Never had a mullet; Not then, Not ever. But Yeah, plenty of dudes back then liked to mention the, "Business up front; Party in the back!" mantra, especially when defending themselves after having been "shamed", as some people like to say, about their hair. They were specifically called "mullet heads" from time to time, but usually the whole "mullet" insult thing was just a small part of a larger "geographically/educationally/occupationally based 'shaming" of the mulleted individual(s). Of course, the whole concept, including the actual phrase, of "shaming" had not yet been "invented", for lack of a better word. They just called the other person an a-hole, and they moved onward. Sometimes it came to actual fisticuffs, but not usually. Normally, though, it was just another Tuesday, or whichever day, between 2nd and 3rd period, or whatever... The point is, it was just an accepted and acceptable part of life that *Trigger Warning* people don't and can't be forced to like every single other person. It just doesn't happen that way. We respected each others' right to their personal beliefs in a different way than that of the next generations. We acknowledged that we disagreed and would never concede to the other's point of view. In other words, we agreed to disagree. And that was it. As mentioned above, every so often one or more idiots would push things too far, and they would "Duke it out" ...as in, "Put up your dukes!" from ancient era black and white movie times. And that was it. One would win, and one would lose. Or they would both lose. But that was it. The issue was resolved. It's natural and it's honest. And this is the better of the two generational approaches for many reasons. The first of these is that it is honest. It is also realistic. Both of which are qualities which are suspiciously absent these days, in a world of "generated outrage". If you don't agree, then you're either willfully ignorant or you're just dishonest. Fake outrage is everywhere in the United States these days. It is part of the problem, not part of the solution. So, the next time you catch yourself feeling the need to be outraged on behalf of someone else, especially when that someone else isn't even outraged about it themselves, maybe you could try this instead: Think about everything you have in life. Not the stuff, either; I mean, stuff is cool. I like stuff. But I really mean think about the things that matter. Also, think about how good your life is, how ridiculously simplified and godlike is your life, when compared with the people of this planet who have real problems; problems about which you have no idea. So if you really do want to help the planet, then maybe let's work on this first. It looks to be much more productive. Plus, life can be a big enough pain sometimes without our having to be angry or upset, about anything or everything, the whole time we're fighting with ourselves to figure out this stuff. Feel free to light me up; I don't care. My notification settings reflect this fact. If you don't get my last statement, it means that I will not see your responses. And just to be clear, it is because I just don't care what random strangers think about me. This is because I know I'm right; and, deep inside yourself, you know it, too. And I couldn't care less if you like or dislike or are ambivalent to my words. So, anyway, I hope you have a great...forever.

[@simonsaysism]

Me trying to figure out how Nirvana had anything to do with an accessory used for keeping hair out of your face: 👁️👄👁️

[@snowdog03]

Wasn't Pepsi Clear an '80s thing?.

[@lorensims4846]

Yeah, that's when I first saw kids' faces on milk cartons. It was all part of the fear culture involved with that dreadful Reagan administration. That's when we were first run over by 'Yuppies.' It's also when the book "The Handmaid's Tale" came out and I read it right away. Science Fiction describes a future world but it's always about talking what's going on Now. I was all about New Wave music after I heard Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" on Dr. Demento and then Talking Heads's version of "Take Me to the River". Then, of course, came The Cars and Thomas Dolby. Oh! and the Devinyls!!

[@50toinfinityatleast]

Please send me back to the 80s. Any day now would be great. You can just drop me in 1980 and I’ll live through the whole decade again, hopefully fixing a lot of my own personal mistakes. That was when I was growing up, born in 1966. Not love to do it all over. I wasn’t as touched by the whole Reagan administration until The latter part but I was still pretty young. But oh to be that age again. Whoever originally said “youth is wasted on the young” was spot on. I feel like I want to go back home when I read or watch things about the 80s.

[@50toinfinityatleast]

Lori Anderson was awesome. She came to San Francisco State University when I was going to college there. Talking heads!!! The Divinyls. Berlin. Howard Jones. Joan Jett. Pat Benatar. Depeche Mode. So movie

[@momof1lvssvng]

Wish we had Reagan today…NONE of this BS would be going on

[@eltedioso]

The "Me Decade" was the 70s though.

[@jeremywvarietyofviewpoints3104]

Yeah Tom Wolfe essay.

[@jimmysgameclips]

I Wanna Rock by Twisted Sister, I love it too much

[@Serai3]

These metrics are weird. I don't see what how much I want to give to charity has to do with how much I want to make in the first place. It also doesn't have much to do with how much the people _giving_ that money are actually making. You seem to think that making more money means _giving_ more, which is absolutely not a given, not at all. It's also not an indication of how people see themselves in relation to money and how much of it they want. I was in my 20's in the 80's, and believe me, it was VERY cool to make a lot of money and have a lot of stuff. You think all that fast fashion and throwaway merchandise is a new thing? No way - it really got started in the 80's. It was all about flash and seeming rich even if you weren't.

[@jeremyswalley8625]

A true mullet requires hair in the back to at least go down to the shoulders with almost a crew cut on top! The funniest is the spike with a rat tail! Those were the most tacky things ever!! More than tying a bandanna around your thigh wearing jeans to signify your toughness!! We were ridiculous in the 80’s!!

[@KiloDeltaOneSierra]

I recall you could call a nynex cell phone from most nynex pay phones without having to put coins in. Looks as though their ars setup got munged. And I had a phone line at home that I never got a bill for the service. Seems installer never submitted the paperwork to accounts. And my long distance billed to the local va hospital. So that was nice.