80s Fads Ruled

In the 80s, fads ruled. They ruled the malls, the fashion scene, the media, television, film, music, and music video. And 80s fads ruled the schools.

Kids took up 80s fads and they became crazes, fetishes, wildfires that burned up the culture and then burned out.

One day you absolutely HAD to have twenty pairs of neon socks. The next day, you wouldn’t be caught dead in them.

80s Fads and Fashion

Fads and fashion always go hand in hand. The 80s fads that affected fashion were curious, bold, and outrageous. Shoulder pads were added to almost every shirt and jacket, giving women (and some men) a boxy shape. Not flattering, but all the rage nonetheless. Layers were a better look though some people overdid it, layering every item of every outfit to the hilt – two hats, three shirt, two pairs of tights, four pairs of socks, and sadly, just one pair of shoes.

Jelly shoes came and went but oh how the girls loved them, even though if you wore them without socks, your feet turned into a sweaty swamp of stink. Low-cut boots with a loose fit were worn with everything from shorts to dresses. And who could forget the shoe that every girl alive in the 80s donned? Keds. In every color imaginable.

80s fads slammed the world of fashion accessories – jelly bracelets, hair clips, and bulky, long necklaces with oversized crosses. Everyone started getting multiple piercings in their ears (even the guys) and you had to have one pair of enormous earrings for each shirt you owned. And lacy fingerless gloves. What self-respecting Madonna wannabe didn’t have ten pairs of those?

80s Fads at School

80s fads took on a whole new meaning for youngsters who had to face the harsh competitive world known as the schoolyard. If you didn’t have enough friendship bracelets or pins, you were clearly a loser. Were your jeans rolled the right way? Did you have sunglasses that looked like Ray-Bans even if they weren’t the real thing?

Girls toted armfuls of Cabbage Patch Kids into the classroom for show and tell and the other girls eyed them with envy. The boys boasted boom boxes and carried around scraps of cardboard so they could pretend to be breakdancers, even if their skills were limited to just one or two moves – like maybe the snake and a wannabe version of the backspin.

You better not be seen carrying a paper sack. A tin lunchbox displaying one of the most current cultural icons was mandatory or you risked feeling like a leper. Pac-Man, Dukes of Hazzard, Strawberry Shortcake, and of course, Star Wars were all acceptable wrappings for lunchtime edibles.

The pressure was on high and it was something new all the time. Kids could make or break those 80s fads and once a couple of cool kids adopted some trend, it caught on and next thing you knew it was as common as clouds in the sky.

80s Jargon and Slang

Every generation makes some kind of contribution to the language. New technology and inventions fatten our dictionary, and writers are always concocting new turns of phrase that slip from our tongues and end up as part of our lingual makeup. But nothing marks an era like the slang that comes out of it.

In the 80s, every other word was “like,” or “ohmygod.” The California valley girls’ intonations somehow found their way to the far reaches of the nation and suddeny everyone under the age of twenty-one were crying “gag me with a spoon!” making sure to roll their eyes while simultaneously rolling that last syllable through every pitch possible: spooOOOoooon.

Fresh, tubular, rad. Bitchen, awesome, and bad. Sure, a few of these words stuck. Others disappeared before the decade came to a close. And while every decade sees a new collection of slang words, few come close to the sheer bulk of words that the 80s managed to put out.

Love Those 80s Fads

If you sat down and listed all the 80s fads, you might lose another decade. They just kept coming. And going. In a neverending stream, they rained down on society, splashing across cities, countries, and continents only to die quick, forgettable deaths.

But there’s a place where we still remember those 80s fads. And you, my friend, have found it.

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