Things you prefer from the 70s over the 80s?

[Deleted]

Of course my favourite decade of all time is the 1980s and mostly I prefer everything about it to the decades around it. To answer the question though, I much prefer 70s Bond movies over the 80s ones. You've got two of the biggest Bond films, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, as well as Connery's underrated swansong and the even more underrated MWTGG. Live and Let is my least favourite, but it's got Jane Seymour in it so it's worth something. 80s Bond is a bit of a mixed bag mainly because I find Octopussy, a movie I used to like a bit, and Licence to Kill a bit crap these days. For Your Eyes Only isn't a favourite of mine although I consider it better than those two films. A View to a Kill is good fun although hardly the highlight of Moore's tenure. I suppose The Living Daylights is the only one I can say that I really like and even that isn't one of my favourite anymore. I find the Bond girls less attractive in the 80s too. In the 70s you had Tiffany, Plenty O'Toole, Solitaire, Anya and Goodhead. The ones from the 80s weren't as interesting either except for maybe Pam. Anyway, I much prefer 70s Bond. I prefer essentially everything else from the 80s over the 70s though.

[burrunjor]

I agree that the Bond movies were better, (as was Doctor Who, though both decades obviously tower over the 21st century.)

I think overall I prefer 70s music too. The Sex Pistols, Queen, Alex Harvey, Kate Bush, Thin Izzy, John Lennon's solo career, Wings etc. It was also when the likes of Elton John and David Bowie were at their peak too, even if they began in earlier decades.

I do like some 80s music don't get me wrong. Wham, Annie Lennox, and also just as Bowie hit his peak in the 70s, then Queen arguably hit theirs in the 80s.

Still overall I think music was better then.

I also rank the 70s as the last golden age of British genre cinema. It featured the last (and somewhat underrated) hurrah of Hammer Horror with classics like Captain Kronos and Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, the Wicker Man, the Amicus anthology films, Ray Harryhausen (who had permanently moved to London by that point,) hell you could even could Star Wars and Alien.

By the 80s however whilst you did still get some really good British genre movies obviously, sadly the British film industry went through a big lull. Really I think the death of Hammer horror in the 70s helped to cement the end of the golden age of British horror and fantasy films that had begun in the 50s.

Proof is that by the 80s a lot of guys like Peter Cushing were out of work for long periods. Added to that sci fi on tv began to die, hence Classic Who's protracted demise.

[iank]

Yeah I'd agree with that.

[Monster X]

Born in the '60s, grew up in the '70s, went to college/started work in the '80s.
Things I prefer from the '70s over the '80s ?
Everything.
I know Pepsi Maxil loves the '80s, but mostly, I much prefer the films, television, music, comedy, books, plays, comic books, styles, design and fashions of the '60s and '70s. I remember the '80s as if it were yesterday and TBH, it was pretty grim.  The '60s and '70s were a much more organic /experimental/colourful time for the Arts and culture - by the time the '80s came along, the suits and money-men were running things and British culture was in decline and pretty-much overtaken by American commercialism (although I realize this is a very over-simplified view).  There's a great deal of stuff from the '80s that I adore (comic books in particular) and compared to the way things are now, it was (generally) much better, but alas, it comes down to what you prefer - I'd personally rather watch a Hammer Horror or Carry On film than, say, Rambo or Top Gun. 

 As I'm sure you can guess, I adore the 1970s - I consider myself extremely fortunate to have lived through that particular decade.

[Deleted]

One decade had Genesis of the Daleks, the other had Time-Flight. You decide which was the better decade.

[Deleted]

Aug 23, 2021 16:15:37 GMT @tanleeeeeeeeeeeeeeee said:

One decade had Genesis of the Daleks, the other had Time-Flight. You decide which was the better decade.

One decade had Remembrance of the Daleks, the other had Underworld. You decide which was the better decade 

[Deleted]

To be honest, I've warmed to the Seventies quite a lot. Apart from the great Bond films, I like the first two Rocky flicks as well as Richard Donner's Superman, Star Wars (to a lesser extent now, but still) and the original Willy Wonka film from 1971. The first two seasons of Blake's 7 are also fantastic and I enjoy Season 17 of Who too (all of this is late 70s but I suppose it doesn't matter). The 70s also had some of the most beautiful women like Pam Grier, Jane Seymour, Britt Ekland and all the other Bond girls from the decade as well as the likes of Katy Manning, Carrie Fisher and lovely Lalla Ward. As for the music, I like some of the film scores. I'm also a fan of ABBA. I'm not really big on the other music really. Fashion wasn't too bad, although I prefer the 80s in that respect as well. 

[iank]

It's still the 80s overall, sorry.

[ClockworkOcean]

Most things, really.

Politically and economically, the 80s marked the beginning of so much of what's wrong with Britain today. The post-war social democratic consensus was smashed by Thatcher, the disastrous impact of which we're still suffering through. Zero-hours contracts, neutered or non-existent trade unions, extortionate utility bills, the scarcity of social housing, the financial sector deregulatuon and privatisation that led to the 2008 banking crisis... It all began in the 80s.

Musically, 1965-1977 was an era of unprecedented creative freedom for artists, sadly to be followed by a corporate crackdown on artistic independence which began around 1978, became much more apparent in the mid-80s, and eventually culminated in the barren wasteland of the 2010s. Slowly but surely, the music industry has been reduced to a hollow shell of its former self, and the late 70s moving into the 80s was the beginning of that. I will concede that mainstream pop was probably better in the 80s, but it became harder and harder to get financial support for anything more experimental, and the noose just never stopped tightening.

Needless to say, the 60s/70s was a golden age for sci-fi and fantasy on TV, but the one thing I do prefer from the 80s is films. The 80s saw a resurgence in big-budget sci-fi and fantasy movies initiated by the success of Star Wars, which was a welcome change after the emphasis on gritty realism in 70s cinema. However, even this had the downside of making TV executives lose confidence in their ability to compete on a lower budget and stop commissioning the kind of shows we'd like to see. It's a miracle that Doctor Who managed to hang on for as long as it did.

[RobFilth]

70's for me too, for many of the same reasons observed above.

For me, the 70's represent the final post-war decade where the National Social Consensus held before it crumbled and a selfish greed and a "Me!Me!Me!" mantra took over.

[Bernard Marx]

Aug 26, 2021 15:25:26 GMT ClockworkOcean said:

Most things, really.

Politically and economically, the 80s marked the beginning of so much of what's wrong with Britain today. The post-war social democratic consensus was smashed by Thatcher, the disastrous impact of which we're still suffering through. Zero-hours contracts, neutered or non-existent trade unions, extortionate utility bills, the scarcity of social housing, the financial sector deregulatuon and privatisation that led to the 2008 banking crisis... It all began in the 80s.

Musically, 1965-1977 was an era of unprecedented creative freedom for artists, sadly to be followed by a corporate crackdown on artistic independence which began around 1978, became much more apparent in the mid-80s, and eventually culminated in the barren wasteland of the 2010s. Slowly but surely, the music industry has been reduced to a hollow shell of its former self, and the late 70s moving into the 80s was the beginning of that. I will concede that mainstream pop was probably better in the 80s, but it became harder and harder to get financial support for anything more experimental, and the noose just never stopped tightening.

Needless to say, the 60s/70s was a golden age for sci-fi and fantasy on TV, but the one thing I do prefer from the 80s is films. The 80s saw a resurgence in big-budget sci-fi and fantasy movies initiated by the success of Star Wars, which was a welcome change after the emphasis on gritty realism in 70s cinema. However, even this had the downside of making TV executives lose confidence in their ability to compete on a lower budget and stop commissioning the kind of shows we'd like to see. It's a miracle that Doctor Who managed to hang on for as long as it did.

Yep, agree with the bulk of this. I do confess to preferring 70s cinema, however. I think it nailed the horror genre completely, with an incalculable number of classics that decade, and although I appreciate the success of Star Wars and Jaws as mainstream blockbusters and very good films in their own right (being a fairly fervent Star Wars fan myself) as well as their influence on big-budget 80s cinema, I do think they contributed to the commodification of subsequent decades in their fetishisation of commercial success above artistic integrity. Although the 80s absolutely nails that style of filmmaking, it's also the decade when it became commonplace and overshadowed everything else. This therefore opened the door for the moribund nature of 2010s blockbusters- although a few were undoubtedly very good, films akin to the MCU all began to blur into one, after taking the commercial angle initially finetuned in the 80s and turning it up to eleven, limiting the viability of genuine artistic freedom (even if many independent films from the 2010s stood out, they were rarely ever commercially successful). That said, 1980-82 was a fantastic era for mainstream cinema, although my personal golden era for cinema overall is probably 1966-82 (concluding with Blade Runner, one of my all time favourites). 

The influence of neoliberalism became quotidian in the 80s, obviously, and I think that started to blend into the arts and culture too, Having said that, it was still a very satirical decade, with a genuine pushback against Thatcher visible within the political mainstream. Compare that to today, where the shitstorm of today's political landscape is complimented by an apathetic response from most, and accompanied by nary any incisive satire whatsoever. 

[Deleted]

Aug 23, 2021 21:08:00 GMT iank said:

It's still the 80s overall, sorry.

Same here. 

[mott1]

Aug 26, 2021 15:45:12 GMT RobFilth said:

70's for me too, for many of the same reasons observed above.

For me, the 70's represent the final post-war decade where the National Social Consensus held before it crumbled and a selfish greed and a "Me!Me!Me!" mantra took over.

70s for me too when it comes to overall culture, which is sometimes excessively demonized now.

The 80s, I admit, probably has the edge on comedy movies, even if the 70s contained some of the calibre of Blazing Saddles. Combine that with the powerful dramas and epics of the 1970s and you'd have a true cinematic golden era.

[Deleted]

80s porn was much better although Debbie does Dallas in 1978 was pretty good. Still, the 80s had Taija Rae, Ginger Lynn, Traci Lords, Christy Canyon, Erica Boyer, Candie Evans and of course Ron Jeremy.

[Deleted]

Aug 27, 2021 22:54:45 GMT @gusgorman83 said:

80s porn was much better although Debbie does Dallas in 1978 was pretty good. Still, the 80s had Taija Rae, Ginger Lynn, Traci Lords, Christy Canyon, Erica Boyer, Candie Evans and of course Ron Jeremy.

Idiot, I forgot Barbara Dare! She was something else, man.