Whether it's sporting that one-gloved-MJ-vibe, saving up all summer for front center concert tickets, spending all your change at the arcade playing mrs Pacman, dancing in alleys with a boom box slung over shoulder blaring Jessie’s Girl, or envying the girls that can afford Gunne Sax dresses you believe that the 80s rocked American culture. This is for all those people that wish they could have experienced the 80s first hand - the music, concerts, big hair, conversion starter clothes, and weird culture.
Your wardrobe screams 1980.
When shopping at your local Goodwill, you cannot pass up a baggy white washed jacket or a pair high wasted Guess shorts. You’ve been searching for a pair of MC Hammer’s parachute pants, but can never find your size. Your outfits basically represent your personality – crazy, unapologetic, vibrant, and vivacious. Never are you afraid to wear neon, you probably still own a pair of neon green or yellow pants from your high school thrift ventures. You’ve never been able to settle on a “style,” you probably have a piece of clothing from each style genre. Your wardrobe has been accumulated by finding items that are weird but somehow stylish, retro but clean, and just straight up eccentrically beautiful – aka thrift shift hopping. The phrase you hear all too often is “only you could pull that off.”
You feel music has gone drastically downhill since 1989.
The music of the 80s embodies your life and aligns with your emotions. You’ve not afraid to show off your moves on the dance floor; some things are timeless. Sometimes you get a little too into the music, and ending up dancing into your own world. On occasions you have sauntered up to a DJ or music controller and suggested/demanded some Van Halen, Joan Jett, or Survivor - shamelessly. Whether it’s listening to Styx when there’s too much time on your hands, untangling your emotions with Journey after a break up and you go your separate ways, listening to MJ in the morning while reflecting on life and the (wo)man in mirror, during the realization that it’s more than a feeling Boston is there to give you courage, listening to Blondie when the tide is high during a relationship, or heeding the wise words of Billy Joel, you can confidently say every breath you take, every move you make screams the 80s.
You venture high and low for cheep vinyl.
You love the thrill of the chase for old cheep vinyl. You’ve thought long and hard about the quality of vinyl, versus cassette, CD, and electronic music, but concluded the former is better. You refuse to buy records from the high-end hipster, $40 per album, stores. (Unless it’s one of your FAVORITE albums in AMAZING condition). You prefer picking up vinyl at sketchy thrift shops and the occasional yard sale. You own all the classic albums – High Fidelity REO Speedwagon, I Love Rock N’ Roll Joan Jett, and 1984 Van Halen. But also have acquired some eccentric albums that you were drawn to by their album covers or unique sound.
When it’s all said in done, you love weird clothes, good music, thrift stores, and being unapologetically you.
Yes, I was named after the Boston song Amanda
