In order to present a more realistic depiction of life in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s, I have decided to some investigation into how people that were alive in that period saw life. This should allow me to write and describe the atmospheres I want to portray much more clearly.
During my investigations, I came across some investigative difficulties which I was not expecting, which I will outline in this blog. I first began my investigation by taking a look at fashion magazines, music videos and celebrities around the time of the 1980s. At first glance, this seemed like an appropriate way for me to begin my research, so that I may learn more about what the 1980s were like.
The problem is, a lot of the fashions, celebrities and music videos I found featured extremely flamboyant styles, featuring bright colours and complicated hair styles and fashion. Now while the 1980s celebrity scene and popular culture is renowned for it's overly flamboyant styles, it does NOT provide a realistic depiction of what the fashion and styles of everyday people in the 1980s would have been like, and therefore perhaps my researching popular culture and fashion magazines in order to see what people would have looked and dressed like is not the way to go.
I suppose a good comparison of where I have gone wrong with my research so far is as if I were using Lady Gaga's music video outfits to find a realistic depiction of the fashion of 2009.
Michael Jackson's outfit in "Thriller" for example, although iconic of the kind of fashion celebrities were depicted as wearing in film and music videos, does NOT give a realistic depiction of how the everyday person would have dressed.
I then decided it would be more plausible for me to find written accounts online from everyday people about what the fashion and attitudes towards styles and culture was like back then. I came across this article; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6752415.stm
A list of user submitted comments at the end of the article provides decent insights into the general consensus towards 1980s style, and popular culture. Recurring themes seem to be people referencing spiky, outrageous hair, fluorescent coloured clothing, and people being somewhat androgenous in the way they dress.
One user sums the time up as being "A time when straight men wore pink."
A user also states that "The news was all about the Miners and AIDS", which suggests that these were very relevant, important topics in that decade. These news stories both seem to revolve around the idea of fear (The fear of losing ones job, and the fear that comes with the disease AIDS) which suggests that financial consciousness and fear of death and illness may have been topics of high importance at that time.
I also found this article; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6752835.stm which explains that the threat of Nuclear War was also a big topic of discussion in the 1980s, once again tapping into societies fear of imminent destruction.
I am not sure exactly what kind of importance these factors would have on my story, if any- but I am slowly beginning to develop an idea about how people growing up in the early 1980s may have thought and operated.
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