Yale Daily News

The 80s continues to be popular because it has character. It signifies a culture of fun music and irreverence to which any young person can relate. Reagan had injected life into the 80s economy despite inheriting a stagflationary crisis from Ford and Carter. The 90s was stagnant culturally and musically and the economy sucked in in the beginning. Musically, it was largely marked by MTV's ending of music videos and creepy devotion to garbage talk shows and crappy teenage bands that all sound(ed) the same. Although, admittedly, this became much worse in the late 90s.

Intro AmStud papers have more sources than this. And make better points. What is this, the Herald? How about reporting instead of a blog post?

Tragically, this is not an American Studies paper, or a piece of journalism, but an opinion piece. You know, because obviously all opinion pieces have SOURCES.

What would there be to report?

Kid 1: Yeah man, I love the 80s because they are so colorful.
Kid 2: AND FUN.
Kid 1: Yes. And fun.

WHAT A GLORIOUS BIT OF WRITING THAT WOULD BE.

I liked this piece muchly.

It is interesting how we feel nostalgia for a decade that happened before we were born. Those of us born in '88 will be the last Yalies to have been alive during the Reagan presidency. But even I have vague memories floating in my brain of watching the Bush-Clinton debate with my parents, and find it a little unsettling that most of the freshmen were born after that.

However, I think this article falls kind of short of really exploring what's going on here. Claire discusses Madonna, but it's not Madonna that our generation is embracing, even though she will undoubtedly be played tonight. It's anthems like "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Don't Stop Believin'" that we listen to even at non-80's themed parties, playing them over and over again, relying on them as last songs to set the tone for stumbling off to wherever people go after the party's over, be it sleep or the continued avoidance of sleep. The article does nothing to account for that. Our love for Michael Jackson can be explained by the fact that his music is *good* (and the fact that he just died). But why Bon Jovi? Why Journey? What's going on there?

Oh yea, villainize Reagan.

The economic revival out of the Carter years is what paid for your Yale tuition.

stupid kids

I think Gordon's saying that we're living the legacy of 80s excess today... but the illusion's been shattered. The economy's now broken and Reagan's politics brought us two disastrous wars, as well as a disturbingly regressive sexual morality. Celebrating the 80s is celebrating all the excess and fun from when that illusion was still intact.

The "Safety Dance" is an ecstatic denial of what the 80s actually were.

You guys have -one ,two ,three,four ,Five Senses Working Overtime.
But like i told you , Only The Lonely Can Play.
So i will walk ten thousand miles,just to be the Man Who Walks The Doggie For You.

patrick bateman is not a "wall street investor." patrick bateman is a vice president of mergers & acquisitions at pierce & pierce, a respectable wall street investment bank.

OK. Like a Virgin climbed the charts in December 1984, not 1982. Also, I think the Safety Dance that I remember attending 4 times was really about Top 40 music from 1981-1985/1986. There was a distinct era of musical garbage that took over Billboard after that era. We were all nostalgic for the great tunes of our early teens. The music of 1989 seemed vastly different from that of 1983.

It's not the particular time, it's the distance. In the early 80s we'd just got through watching Happy Days and listening to 50's music at some dances. In the 90s there was a fascination with the 60s and That 70s Show concluded in 2006. Nostalgia for the long lost youth of the particular generation presently with positions of authority...

BTW -- my recent reunion from a Yale Class of the early 80s had none of the music mentioned.

i think you're overthinking this. the safety dance is fun because you get to dress up in a ridiculous outfit, get wasted and go to a massive dance party with music you secretly or not-so-secretly love but don't hear that often when you're out. i don't think it has a whole lot to do with nostalgia for 80s culture.

...as easily as they think.

yale alums really interject on the ydn comment spaces and have little to no business doing so. this is an undergraduate publication for a specific (current) undergraduate audience, making it very difficult for alums to accurately interpret current yale events pertaining to current yale students.

*that was just a disclaimer for all you alums that feel the urgent need to critically comment on this and other articles (when you have no business doing so)

this piece beautifully captures the 'idea' of the 80s in the contemporary student's mind and makes an interesting and compelling interpretation of yalies' obsession with the safety dance- complete with binge drinking, salvo trips, and cocaine (or not)

the excess of the 80s rang through this weekend; there were more people at the dance this weekend than any of the other 3 safety dances i've been to, i saw boys and girls coming out of bathroom stalls giggling, and i even saw one girl get carried away on a stretcher!

successful safety dance, i must say.

Just how many times do they play the song Safety Dance ? Per nite,

@#13,

Tell your professor that she has no business grading your papers because they were written by an undergraduate and as a professor she has no business judging you.

the world does not bow to you

I'm a dead ringer for the lead singer,
can i come and lip synch ? I'll wear the traditional renaissance gear. Hey bring Properties daughter and nieces ,they really resemble the tra la la trollop

People who weren't alive to experience the 80s think we were all break-dancing and making big money on Wall Street. The fact is the vast majority of Americans were suffering under Reagan's fascist Republican trickle down policies, sky high inflation, double digit interest rates, and rampant joblessness. Look at all the apocalyptic movies that came out in the 80s...Blade Runner, Terminator, Repo Man, Less Than Zero, Running Man, Escape From New York. Everyone was convinced the world was coming to an end. Morning In America my ass. The only saving grace about the 80s was the music, which puts anything being made today to shame. Forget Safety Dance. For me it was REM, The Smiths, The Cure, Violent Femmes, B-52s, The Romantics, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, and of course, the greatest band to ever come out of New Jersey, The Feelies. Those are the bands we danced to at frat parties back in the day. You can take your Coldplay and Li'l Wayne albums and stick them where the sun don't shine.

I remember back in the 80s when I was an undergraduate that even at Yale there were a handful of the really really profoundly slow, the kind who made up their own odd rules, who said such stupid stuff you sometimes cringed with embarrassment, the sort, in short who did not belong at Yale, except for amusement value. I am surprised to see that this echo of the 80s has been maintained along with the Safety Dance.

P.S. Yes, perhaps I shouldn't comment on the profoundly slow -- I don't really "understand" them. And President Levin really "has no business" shouldn't be giving that Freshman Address. Why he graduated from college in '68 ... and from Stanford!

Agreed with #12... safety dance is about getting wasted wearing absurd clothing. That being said, I vaguely remember 70s parties from freshman year- I guess now everyone is too young?

everyone knows the real 80's were the 1880's

Of course, in the 80s, people generally dressed as "preppies" or "punks" at dances and to class. Most of the stuff in the photos of the dance looks like what would appear principally in an aerobics class.

P.S. The 1880s Rule!

let us not forget the birth of those two opposing forces: thrash metal and hair bands. my 80's gave us metallica, megadeth, and anthrax, but, alas, also festooned poison, ratt, winger, and whitesanke upon the scene. oh, the humanity.

finally i love the 1880's too!!!!!!!

"it was REM, The Smiths, The Cure, Violent Femmes, B-52s, The Romantics, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, and of course, the greatest band to ever come out of New Jersey, The Feelies. Those are the bands we danced to at frat parties back in the day"

Oh really? Alternative music of the 80s was Fraternity friendly? That's weird...I don't tend to think of beer-guzzling Frat boys as being drawn to artsy indie music.