Poll: 80's or 90's: Which was the Bigger Cultural Wasteland?

[Silvertongue]

I may not have been around for the 80's, so my opinion is that of one who has learned from what relics of the past have survived to see the light of day, for good or for ill.

I was thinking about this mostly in the frame of film, although music and television soon became part of this thought process as well.

What follows is purely my personal opinion.

In brief, I feel that the 80's produced more cool stuff than the 90's. When I look back at my childhood and then hear people who grew up in the 80's talk about THEIR childhoods, and sample some of the stuff that's still available from that era, and even including the stuff that blew chunks, it seems by and large to be loads better than what we had in the 90's.

Also, maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but out of mainstream American music in the 90's, there's only a handful of acts that I can still listen to with any consistency, and none of them are even close to the poppy crap I listened to when I was living in those days.

Contrast with the 80's...Dio. That's all that need be said. There's no one from the 90's, not even Kurt Cobain, who seems so much a visionary to me as Ronnie James, God rest his soul.

As I said, this is all just my opinion. Thoughts?

EDIT: As I said in a later post, the 90's, in my view, win in the realm of video games, because it seems to me this is where they began to develop into more of an art form.

 

[SimuLord]

I grew up in the Eighties. I have nothing but love for even its cheesiest elements.

The Nineties were so smug, self-satisfied, mock-ironic, and contained so much bullshit that I was glad to see them go.

 

[Free Thinker]

I grew up in the 90s. The Offspring was in my blood! I will admit that the 80's had some cool stuff, I'm looking at you James Cameron's Aliens! But I still hold firm to my grunge music, N64, GOLDENEYE 64!, and other awesomeness.

 

[ajofflight]

Great, everyone thinks that the 90's, the decade I grew up in, sucked...
So do I :3

 

[Canid117]

The 2000's. Horrid cultural wasteland for music. Oh wait I can only choose between those two? I will have to think about that.

 

[Grayjack]

I grew up in the 90's, but I think the 80's were a better time.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Grewed up in da 90's. 99 was a great year for music. But the 80's it had it all

 

[Silvertongue]

I'm glad to see other children of the 90's agreeing with me. The 80's really were well rounded in terms of having at least something good in every realm of its entertainment. I have to say, though, that the 90's were where gaming began to become a legitimate art form, in my view.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

None, both kicked ass.

Eighties with the music, 90's with the games.

Now 2000's...except 2000-2002 was horrible

 

[Wayneguard]

The 80's produced Thrash Metal and Aliens. What more could you ask for in a decade?

 

[Perhaps]

The 80's and 90's are still far better than the 2000's.

 

[Space Spoons]

I think it's entirely a question of which era you grew up with. Both decades had their fair share of highs and lows, it's only when the question of nostalgia comes in to play that one seems to gain the advantage over the other.

It's basically the same principal you see every time someone makes a "Remember when cartoons were awesome? I MISS THE 90's!" thread, but applied to every aspect of culture.

 

[lockeslylcrit]

Both had their advantages and disadvantages. The 80s had great music and great movies (who doesn't love the Goonies or Back to the Future?), and the 90s saw the rise of video games. If I had to choose between the two, I'd say that the 80s win out over the 90s as the best of the two decades, simply for the fact that gangsta rap wasn't invented yet.

 

[octafish]

Both of the last two options for mine. Good and bad in both decades.

 

[Kiju]

The 2000's seem to have a stagnating culture, currently. So...none of the above, This day'n'age is worse culturally than both the 80's and 90's. :\

 

[Souplex]

The late 90's were the zenith of humanity! (The late 80's and early 90's were essentially the same thing, the 90's culturally lasted till 04) The only failing of that era was the music.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

I grew up in the 90s. Bad hair and bad music. Though I suppose it's a matter of taste... but I'll take Hall and Oates or Yes! over the Spice Girls any day.

 

[oliveira8]

As far as music, film and television goes. We've only started to see halfway decent products of each of those come out in the last few years of the 00's.

80's and 90's were pretty consistant.

You wrong. Film industry and TV has been consistent in the 00's in terms of quality(Good quality). On TV at least the 00's was the best decade in the industry history. Just The Sopranos(I know it started in 99) and The Wire are enough to make the 00's a far superior decade. There was plenty of shit too, but so did the 80's and the 90'. And Reality TV is a creation of the 90's.