I Lived A Day Like It Was The 80s

After an entire Sunday of binge-watching Ghostbusters and The Breakfast Club and listening to Michael Jackson, Elton John and Madonna on repeat, I was hit with the post-80s blues. And it wasn’t easy to reconcile. Being born in the 90s, I was curious about how life was before my time. The only way to really grasp this was by doing some research and consuming entertainment from the time.

As I took my headphones off and stopped the DVD player (ok fine, it was my laptop), I felt alienated by our world of the 21st century. Cellphones, wifi and Instagram fashion were boring me. I missed frosty makeup, ponytails and neon leg warmers. I needed to travel in time because waiting this out wasn’t going to cut it. I needed to get this out of my system.

And what better way to do that than dive head in? So that’s when I decided I was going to live my next Saturday like it was no other year but 1983… because that’s the year Thriller was released.

This is how I did it:

Music is one of the most important parts of setting the mood to any event or moment. Whether you are hyping people up at a pregame or getting them to concentrate at work, there’s a playlist out there to help. There’s no movie without a soundtrack, so this was probably one of the most important parts of my day.

And it wasn’t only what I listened to, but how. At home, it was through television, vinyl and the radio. No iPhones, iPods, laptops, Spotify, Apple Music or anything similar. If you are doing it right, you shouldn’t have a choice in what you are listening to either. Remember, on-demand TV didn’t exist then. Leave it up to MTV to curate your playlist, even if that means sitting through eight music videos before Every Breath You Take or Girls Just Wanna Have Fun comes on.

For me, the most exciting part was leaving the house, because portable cassette players are the bomb. Kidding. I didn’t have a Walkman so that meant painfully silent bus commutes for the entire day.

The next most important thing: my clothes. If I was going to live like I was in the 80s, I had to look like it. Fake it ‘til you make it, am I right?

I wore a shirt that had practically every colour on it in it’s most neon form, with slighlty oversized high-waisted blue jeans. I topped it off with ankle-high white socks, a yellow bandana around my head and dirty sneakers to complete my look. Check out The Corner Shop (Zha Huo Dian) in Far East Plaza for great 80s style outfit options if you don't have anything at home.

Expert tip: if your hair is longer than three centimetres, you need to backcomb your hair until it’s so frizzy you look like you got electrocuted. No one in the 80s would take you to prom without this, so I'd say it’s a must.

Are you even in the 80s if you don’t snap a picture of everything you do with your disposable camera? No. So if you are dedicated, I recommend going to the closest Kodak shop and getting not one but five disposable cameras. Pictures you and your friends take of your outfits should take up at least one whole roll if you are looking legit enough. If not, go back to the previous step. Also, who needs Instagram filters when you get the contrast-rich, blemish fixing effects of film? You can thank me later.

To really ensure my day sounded like an outtake of Valley Girl, I had to get into the nitty-gritty details of mundane life. This meant language. A quick search for the slang used in the 80s led me to phrases like “Gag me with a spoon,” “Barf Me Out,” “No, Duh,” “Gnarly.” and “Psyched.”

Here’s how some of my conversations went:

My sister: “Edoardo, what’s that yellow barf on your head? Tone it down.”

Me: “Toned down? Gag me with a spoon. Neon? Now that’s gnarly.”

My best friend: “I heard they are making boba pearl pizza. Doesn’t that sound gross?”

Me: “No duh. Barf me out.”

Some Girl At A Party: “Omg, too bad Katy couldn’t come out, Josh is here and she totally has a crush on him.”

Me: “Well Mary must be psyched she’s finally getting her chance to slide in without Katy cockblocking.”

What do all 80s teen movies have in common? They boogie to awesome music. I didn’t mention all those music legends who released hits in 1983 for nothing. You must dance to it.

So I hit up a retro arcade bar. It was the only place viable for someone still in 1983, and I’m so happy I did. A DJ was playing hits from the decade and the arcade games were on brand for the time period.

The best part was I totally fit in. I didn’t feel weird for having a yellow strap around my head because everyone had something neon on. The glow lighting also complimented my outfit. I probably spent a bit too much time playing with the working arcade games, but it’s not often you get your hands on some of these that are authentic from the period.

I finally felt like I was really in an 80s rom-com.

After a couple of hours dancing to groovy tunes at Nineteen80, I was ready to head home. So I did what any angsty teen would have done in ‘83: rent E.T. and watch it on my DVD player on the couch with a bag of popcorn. Wearing nothing but furry neon pyjamas. Duh.

Warning: rent your movie BEFORE the night out. Pretending it’s 1983 is great but the reality is there are barely any DVD rental stores left, let alone 24-hour ones.

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