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 Get ready for a rope burn! Next week, we’ll discuss what it took for GenX teenagers to look good: a suntan, some Sun-In, Stridex, and lip smackers. Today, let’s talk about how GenXers lived to adulthood: no helmets, no seatbelts, no problem.
 Me in my Adam Ant phase. Today, let’s talk about the art of music videos and the artists that starred in them. I’ll be talking exclusively about music videos of the 1980s. While there were some great videos in the nineties, MTV started the steep slide downhill as it focused more on reality shows and game shows.
Read this essay to the end to see a list of my 25 favorite eighties music videos.  I want my MTV! August 1, 1981. “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.” With that simple statement, MTV launched into GenX hearts and pop culture history.
Next time, we’ll discuss MTV breakout stars and history-making videos. Today, let’s begin at the beginning. How did MTV come to life? You could say it was the brainchild of a bunch of middle-aged white guys looking to make money by injecting new life into the floundering music business.  Photo by Jace & Afsoon on Unsplash Today, let’s remember some of the ways GenXers consumed music in the 1970s. If you enjoy this essay, tell your friends!
When we weren’t listening to 8-track tapes or vinyl records (later “re-discovered” by hipsters), we tuned in to AM/FM radio, often on tiny transistor radios or stereos housed in gigantic wooden cabinets in our living rooms. Beyond that, we found music on television.  Jamie in his McCloud phase. Let’s talk about child’s play! No, not the movie. I mean actual playtime.
I think it’s safe to say that children growing up in the 1940s through the 1980s enjoyed less supervised playtime than kids in recent generations, as well as more outdoor play and physical activity. However, all the generations have had their playtime influenced by media, including radio, television, movies, and comic books. Media influence became more pervasive in the 1970s and 1980s as advertisers targeted children.  Breaker, breaker. This is 7080: GenX Pop. Have you got your ears on?
If you’re a GenXer, you probably remember the ubiquity of CB radio culture in 1970s media. Back then, you could find it in music, movies, television, and even children’s cartoons. CB slang permeated everyday conversation, and some of it remains embedded in our language today.  What a happy family. Generation X has been called angry, disaffected, sullen, and cynical. That is a blanket criticism that is not wholly true nor completely false. Some GenXers, including myself, do tend to be cynical. Why?
I blame sea-monkeys.  Big Bird, Jamie, and me. Long before Millenials met Jambi the Genie and Captain Carl in Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, GenXers were learning words, numbers, and good citizenship from a bunch of talking gloves. Let’s talk about educational television of the 1970s, including Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, The Electric Company, and ZOOM.
 Two poor kids trying to look cool and not succeeding. Nobody wants to be pigeonholed, but the truth is, if you grew up in the 1970s and were a teenager in the 1980s, you will share some pop culture references with your generation. Generational "experts" usually define Generation X as the group of people who were born between 1965 and 1980. GenXers have been called the MTV generation, latchkey kids, slackers, baby busters, and other nicknames. I prefer to think of us as the cool kids.
I created this 7080 newsletter to discuss GenX pop culture. It’s a big world, and I’m a tiny part of it, so I’ll address what I know best: American pop culture of the seventies and eighties. I’ll examine television, movies, books, comic books, and music, hopefully within the context of what was happening at the time. You’ll find all of the posts on LinkedIn.  Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash
 Smiley Cyrus.
 Click on the link to listen to us discuss grieving, fear of being forgotten, Appalachian culture, and writing: https://archive.org/details/PoetsAndWriters/Neva+Bryan.mp3
 Mom was my best cheerleader and came to all of my events.
 Photo by Jacob Hodgson on Unsplash Here's the audio for my interview with Henry McCarthy on Poets and Writers at WEHC.
Please forgive my lapse in memory where I attributed Even Cowgirls Get the Blues to Tom Wolfe instead of Tom Robbins. Audio: https://archive.org/details/NevaBryanPart3  Photo by Deleece Cook on Unsplash
 Photo by Natalya Letunova on Unsplash
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June 2024
AuthorNeva Bryan has published over 70 short stories, poems, and essays in literary journals, online magazines, and anthologies. She lives in the Virginia mountains with her husband and their dog. She also writes a series of essays about GenX life in the 1970s and 1980s. 
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