Why wasn't I a teenager in the 80s?

[romanianreaper]

Some of my favorite things in the 80's:

- Sitting around looking at album covers and reading the liner notes to see what gear each guitarist played, etc.
- Making mixed tapes of songs (basically ITunes now) over at your friend's house, thumbing thru his albums, tapes
- Going to a record store and flipping thru album after album of hard rock and metal. Overwhelming!
- Reading "Metal Edge" magazine

 

[ratter]

Such great memories of the 80's. Here are a few of my highlights...
-was 14 in 1984...went out and bought a Kramer Striker 200ST when I heard the new VH album (1984 of course) so I could learn to be like Eddie...wasn't going to happen with that guitar, I can tell you that.
-I was at the Judas Priest show featured in "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" at the old Capital Center in Largo, MD. Check that out on youtube and you will see what it was to be a headbanger in the 80's
-I bought my first car in 1987....and 1978 Camaro....damn I miss that car.
-Me, and every other headbanger in the entire Washington DC area cut school to go to the Monsters of Rock show at RFK Stadium.
-there was NO INTERNET, and metal got zero play on the radio. If you wanted to hear a new album, you had to go buy it to see if you liked it...and sometimes buying an album based on coverart alone
-there was NO INTERNET, you had to buy magazines like Hit Parader, Circus, and Metal Edge to get your metal news.
-there was NO INTERNET, if you wanted a guitar or amp, you went to your local store. I spent the night sleeping on the sidewalk in front of Venemans Music in Rockville, MD to buy a guitar during their Mayday sale (annual one day sale held in May). I bought a BC Rich Warlock....makes me smile now. Guitar is loooong gone.
-It was the age of the PMRC and congressional hearings about metal. Tipper Gore was the antichrist...and Dee Snider and John Denver were defenders of the faith.
-the metal was the best that was ever made (my opionion of course, but I could be biased )

It was a great time to grow up in America....

I remember going to the Monsters of Rock with some kid I hardly knew because all my friends mom's wouldn't let them go! This called into question their dedication to being metal.

I was 13 at the time I think...my older sister had to drive us...

 

[daver101]

Graduated High School in 1987. Those were good times!!!!!

 

[daver101]

One thing that is definitely better now are all the guitar player resources. In 1985, unless you had a really expensive Marantz tape recorder, you had to slow things down to figure out guitar parts using a 15 rpm turntable........which I did many times!!!

The other day I wanted to learn a Van Halen solo section. In five minutes, I had isolated and pitch-corrected the mp3 file for the song in Amazing Slow Downer, had it looped, and had downloaded the powertab for the song. I guess I could have spent another five minutes finding people playing the part on youtube.

 

[gtrwun]

I don't know guys.... If you were young in the 80's, and you don't look back on those times with a smile on your face as you look in the mirror in 2012...... You did something wrong! It was great... Every minute of it.

 

[FriedChickenBandit]

Some of my favorite things in the 80's:

- Sitting around looking at album covers and reading the liner notes to see what gear each guitarist played, etc.
- Making mixed tapes of songs (basically ITunes now) over at your friend's house, thumbing thru his albums, tapes
- Going to a record store and flipping thru album after album of hard rock and metal. Overwhelming!
- Reading "Metal Edge" magazine

Simple, little things like this were my some of my favorite at the time. I can say that doing the above for me at least beats checking out naked chicks with nice, round asses on the net.

 

[skoora]

I remember the only Metal played on the radio in Perth back then was on a University station on the weekend for 2 hours. I would sit there everytime with a fresh cassette, ready to record stuff. Whatever I recorded that I liked I would hunt down in the one, metal specialty record store we had downtown. Loved thumbing through all the album covers and getting the store guy to spin some choices. Taking home purchases like they were prized, sacred keys to the world of metal

 

[scottywompas]

I'd love to say "it wasn't that great".....but it was.

I started high school in 84' and graduated in 88'. The L.A. metal scene started picking up steam in 83', some of the best albums came out in 86', and I was out of school before the "after" bands came out (Firehouse, Warrant, etc.)

It was great sitting in my room playing an Aria Pro II "The Cat", learning "Fade to Black".

Man that was the time wasn't it. I remember sneaking in to the Whiskey, Gazzaris, The Roxy, The Troubador, and how about The Country Club in Reseda.

I don't know that I wouldn't do it over again but I'm glad I was there.

Scott