MovieChat Forums > Skateland (2011) Discussion > 1980s?

1980s?

posted 14 years ago by StellaDallas
5 replies | jump to latest

It reminded me very much of an updated American Graffiti and the actors were great. As someone who grew up in this era, though, I was puzzled because the hair and clothes and roller disco were all 1977-79ish. By 1981-83, the era where most of the music in the film was released, no one I knew had Farrah Fawcett hair, pimpstaches or flared jeans, and those who still did were not listening to synthpop like Flock of Seagulls; those people were still stuck on 70s arena rock bands. Maybe it was different in Texas than on the coasts?

[–] yusef_svacina 14 years ago

The film is set in a small town in East Texas. The trends and fads took time to reach small towns, especially ones like Longview where the film takes place. The costume design and hair styling supports that notion that this was a small town on the cusp of a trend change, but still stuck in the late 70s.

[–] phoe-phoe 14 years ago

I saw "small East Texas town roller rink" and thought Marshall. I'm a little dissapointed that it's set in Longview.

Trends definitely took a while to reach East Texas in general in the early 80s though.

[–] mcdemuth 8 years ago

Yeah, there are always transitional periods.

Not everyone could afford to throw their 1979's clothes away, or close or remodel businesses that were still disco oriented, on January 1st, 1980. It took time for the majority of people and belongings to conform to the new trends. And as pointed out, in the smaller towns it took longer. Especially since this was all pre-internet. It took people in smaller towns a while to become aware of the new trends happening in the big cities.

I remember my Dad still owned a motorhome for vacations, built in the mid 1970's, in the mid 1980s. It was strange for him to go from a daily car with a CD player, to driving a once a year road machine that still could only play 8 Track tapes. He did have a Cassette Tape to 8-Track Tape Converter that helped.

You just don't throw cars away every new year either...or that brand new 1979 orange shag carpet, that was installed in the family room.

Every decade has a particular "Image" in everyone's mind, but if you really look hard, you will find it really wasn't so rigid to just those ten years.

[–] saint-21 13 years ago

they never get period piece movies 100%, there are usually made by people who were like 3 in 1983.. and just go on what they are told or what they see in older movies from that time..

[–] 8 years ago

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