…
One of the suckiest things about the both the 70s and 80s was the insufferable 50s revival… for instance, Grease, or Wham’s Wake Me Up. But aside from that sort of re-hashed junk, the worst fashion crimes of the 80s (that were indigenous to the 80s) were perpetrated by pop stars, celebrities and fashion models, with few ordinary folks making complete fools of themselves except with their hair. Not so in the 70s - ridiculous hair was yet more prevalent, and average people could be found wearing the most laughable stuff.
Clothes:
80s
http://www.ivstatic.com/files/et/imagecache/636/files/slides/the-cure-636.jpg
70s
Music: from a Rolling Stone reader’s poll, the worst song of the 80s crushed the opposition, and is without doubt one of my most thoroughly hated songs… I totally concur with the poll.
So there’s that… Rolling Stone then did another poll for the 70s, topped by Disco Duck, which although mightily crap, for mine is easily thrashed by #2:
Like Rolling Stone, I’m amazed they managed to make a song about a mid-afternoon shag so utterly, completely execrable. Would rather suffer We Built This City, and that’s saying something.
I won’t hit you with more than a single song for each, but IMO music generally improves with time as it evolves; older-style stuff persists (perhaps not in the mainstream though), while innovation gives rise to novelty at least, which has some small value of its own. Not that all that speaks much to how crap it can get and predominately be, but it’s a factor… I was only 6 at the close of the 70s, but I’m told by someone who suffered long and hard that it was all MOR and disco, with rock all but dead. To my ear, the 80s were more interesting.
Hair:
80s
http://www.ivstatic.com/files/et/imagecache/636/files/slides/bon-family-477.jpg
70s
http://hairstylesites.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/70s-Hairstyles.jpg
Edit: and don’t get me started on interior design…
