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Not to mention the wonder that was Disco.
Not to mention the wonder that was Disco.
The folks who are taking shots at George Lucas for "American Graffiti" just weren't there at the right place and time to experience for themselves what he was portraying as an autobiographical account of what he experienced growing up in Modesto, CA in 1962.
Also, the music that most people here hate was perfect background music for us as we did what we did, and was perfect just as Lucas used it.
("American Graffiti": 1973 - "The Wonder Years": 1988 - who's stealing from whom?)
("Fonzie" - whom I dislike and would never watch - was not a creation of George Lucas.)
The 70's had lots of bad music, but also had southern rock that was good and in my opinion was the Golden era of country music..(mid 70s-mid 80's). Though there was some bad stuff there too. Hey, I liked the 80s. That said I was young and in school then. I also lived in the south. Where I was it may have said 80s on the calander but we were over a decade behind. And I am not referring to racism. Where I grew up my school was 80% Black 20 % white. As kids we all got along great. The thing I remember about the 70s was how dark everything was.
I use to first laugh, then shake my head and then lower my head in embarrassment wherever I was overseas and over hearing American tourist in their matching polyester shirts complaining how people drive, the food was terrible and they sold no Budweiser. One time I turned and said, " you should have stayed home".
Yes! Kraftwerk, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Ramones, ZZTop, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Porter and Dolly on the t.v., ShaNaNa on the t.v., Hee Haw on the t.v., Jan. 14, 1973 the apex of human technological achievement - Aloha from Hawaii - the King himself in all his 70s jumpsuited glory broadcast LIVE via satellite to 40 countries around the world.
What a shame to let all this great achievement be obscured by the pacer and some macrame owls.
Heh. Your nation does kind of have a certain stereotype, which doesn't always ring true, but there are certainly those who live right up to it. Isn't that the case everywhere, though?
("Fonzie" - whom I dislike and would never watch - was not a creation of George Lucas.)
The obnoxious tourist certainly isn't limited to Americans. In fact, we're far from the worst offenders. I wish I had a nickel for every European tourist who came to the US only to feel compelled to give me a list of what's wrong with the US and why they don't like our culture.
I found many Americans knew nothing about the countries they were in but actually expected that country to be an American clone and were disappointed it wasn't.....especially if it was a country we liberated sometime in History.
Sounds like these people were already aware of American culture, especially if they were European and still came with an attitude. I found many Americans knew nothing about the countries they were in but actually expected that country to be an American clone and were disappointed it wasn't.....especially if it was a country we liberated sometime in History.
Yeah, that was largely a spin off of the generic nostalgia boom. I always liked Happy Days because it reminded me of The Flintstones. At one point as a kid I thought the latter was a parody of Happy Days, as disticnt from the All-American Family sitcoms that were its contemporaries.
And I think it's getting worse because, despite the Internet, I think a lot of Americans, particularly young people, live in a much smaller world than when I was their age.
One thing I've noticed about tourists in my travels, particularly in Asia, is that there is a trend for the tourist to want to be a part of everything rather than an observer. This is particularly noticeable in photography. I've had locals not understand when I only want to take a photo, not actually be *in* the photo. They don't see tourists who don't want to take "selfies" every 30 seconds. Perhaps that's a recent or generational thing, however.
I've met very few who are nostalgic for the eighties. Usually folks who were eighteen in about 1983 and would love to relive their undergraduate years, or hipster kids who were born in the nineties and think The Wedding Singer was a documentary. Of the former, without exception they're all old goths, new romantics, or some other subculture group. People who lived through the eighties and want to revive the mainstream culture of the period are like rocking horse doo doo.
Even MTV, which has had such a murderous influence on pop culture, initially was so poor it only showed basically art students turned musicians doing their own videos, because it was free material. Those were actually very interesting and quirky and fresh. The feeling of discovery of some new sound was great too.
I'd actually very much like to go back to 1983, so I could punch my 1983 self in the face and tell her what to avoid over the next five years.
This is shocking to the kids today, but the "M" in MTV used to stand for "music".