043 - Pop Cultural Era Bleed

[captain_slinky]

It all started with this quip I made last weekend while listening to The Radio -

You're in the middle of a KWAD All-Eighties Weekend! We're playing all eleven of the songs that were written in the 1980's, plus 4 that you're *pretty sure* were from the Seventies or the Nineties!",/i>

This lead to my Up-Till-3am Thought of The Night last night, a little something I like to call "Pop Cultural Era Bleed". "Eighties Music" doesn't just include any and all songs written between 12:01am on January 1st 1980 till 11:59pm on December 31st 1989, right? Plenty of 80's mix tape standards, such as "I Don't Like Mondays", "Video Killed The Radio Star", "My Sharonna"... those are from the 70's. Likewise, MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This", Poison's "Unskinny Bop" - 90's songs!

It's not the music that really got me interested in this idea, though... it's MOVIES. Unlike with music., where a particular band with a particular sound can drag their 70's sound all the way into the 2000's (I'm lookin' at YOU, AC/DC), movies follow trends and technologies to bring you bigger and better films all the time.

We all have out favorite 80's movies, right? But what was the *last* 80's movie? Not *technically* the last 80's movie, but like the last bug blockbuster film that used practical effects, 80's pacing, the musical cues... when did we switch from "Ghostbusters" to "The Matrix"?

I think it was Jurassic Park.

Comments

[aurora77]

Now that I think of it, Jurassic Park does have several key aspects of 80's movies. I wouldn't classify the soundtrack that way, but the rest, pretty close. The book came out in 1990 (meaning it was written in the 80s), which probably contributes to the bleed. It definitely feels transitional.

I'm thinking of movies like Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Encino Man, Bill & Ted 2 and Home Alone. They're all from before Jurassic Park, but still released in the 90s.

There's definitely era bleed. Russell & I talk about it pretty often. Music is often written well before it's recorded, which can be well before it's released. Songs released in 1990 and 1991 sometimes feel straight out of the 80s because technically they are. Whereas songs popular in the early 80's are often from the 70's and have some of the sound of the 70's.