Current Events > What makes people nostalgic for the 1950s?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Was it the music?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud_JZcC0tHI
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Well, certain people like it because of reasons.

Only the lonely
Know why, I cry
Only the lonely
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The 1950s had the cool jazz, baby! Ya dig?

The styles and aesthetics.

Also, the presumption of it being "a simpler time", which is simply not true.
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- trendy music
- b-movies
- westerns
- the illusion of the perfect suburban life
- the Cold War and McCarthyism making for good storytelling

American dominance
Interstate Highways
Acceptable Racism
Dwight Eisenhower
Leave it to Beaver

Mostly the ease of getting into the middle class and getting a home, I guess? You could make bank off of working in a factory, basically just being an average joe without a college degree.

Also car guys always like that era. Well built cars and gas (especially) were easy to come by.

A lot of it is romanticized though. Obviously segregation was everywhere and you were expected to be a normal straight person who didn't have kids before marriage.
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masticatingman posted...

Mostly the ease of getting into the middle class and getting a home, I guess? You could make bank off of working in a factory, basically just being an average joe without a college degree.

Also car guys always like that era. Well built cars and gas (especially) were easy to come by.

A lot of it is romanticized though. Obviously segregation was everywhere and you were expected to be a normal straight person who didn't have kids before marriage.

These are all very good points.

Aesthetically it was way more pleasing than the 70s-2000s
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WizardPowers posted...

Aesthetically it was way more pleasing than the 70s-2000s

I've always liked the 70s aesthetics. Sideburns and such

Because it was a simpler time when the world was in ruins.
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IWBYD posted...

Because it was a simpler time when the world was in ruins.

This. Exactly this.
United States was the single relevant nation not utterly fucked by WW2.

The only thing I care for from the 50s is the B Movies
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The cars.


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Oh yeah the cars too
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PrettyBoyFloyd posted...

The cars.

Johnny Cash, just because.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHniL8MyMM

Remember Ritchie Valens?
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people who were kids in the 50's just remember their childhood. same reason I am nostalgic for the 80's when other people say the 80s sucked

I love the 30's, 40's and 50's

Interesting times.
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The fact that the majority of people clamoring for it nowadays are the ones who think that the sitcoms of the 1950's actually relate the conditions of the country at the time. It's seen as some idyllic, white utopia where racism and sexism don't exist because everyone just knows their place. They don't want to see that things like drugs, racism, sexism, police brutality, violence, crimes, political turmoil, corruption, pollution, and poverty were just as real then as they are now, they just weren't allowed to talk about it on TV.

Dash_Harber posted...

The fact that the majority of people clamoring for it nowadays are the ones who think that the sitcoms of the 1950's actually relate the conditions of the country at the time. It's seen as some idyllic, white utopia where racism and sexism don't exist because everyone just knows their place. They don't want to see that things like drugs, racism, sexism, police brutality, violence, crimes, political turmoil, corruption, pollution, and poverty were just as real then as they are now, they just weren't allowed to talk about it on TV.

they couldn't even show bathrooms back then. you know how sitcoms always have scenes in bathrooms? back then it was obscene if a toilet could be seen.

Who the fuck said the 80s sucked?

- Nintendo Entertainment System
- World Wrestling Federation
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Transformers and G.I. Joe
- the BEST damned action movies ever made
- some of the catchiest tunes ever made
- slasher movies
- ninja movies
- sequels to Rocky and Star Wars
- Hollywood's overall most stylish decade for film

That may have been just a hair before my time, but come on. That shit was awesome.

I wish we'd go back to TV like the 50's.

Everything has to be so vulgar now.
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Old people and those who don't realize how shitty it would be once you know modern convenience

Imagine not being able to post on ce
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Skye Reynolds posted...

Who the fuck said the 80s sucked?

- Nintendo Entertainment System
- World Wrestling Federation
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Transformers and G.I. Joe
- the BEST damned action movies ever made
- some of the catchiest tunes ever made
- slasher movies
- ninja movies
- sequels to Rocky and Star Wars
- Hollywood's overall most stylish decade for film

That may have been just a hair before my time, but come on. That shit was awesome.

I think the 80's would've been badass to grow up in. But I wouldn't want to have been a full fledged adult then. Just a few years behind technology going crazy. As I know from my dad's career, he basically has had to get used to computers in the workplace for most of his adult life.
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i mean, i sort of get why some people pine for the 50s. they imagine it as some conservative paradise where people are smiling all the time, the wife is always wearing an apron, and you could support a family with a factory job.

except they forget the:

-rampant racism and sexism
-stifling work environment
-constant fear of being nuked
-communism scare
-polio, flu, pneumonia, lung cancer, rise of cardiovascular disease
-korean war
-extreme corruption
-pollution and dirtiness
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masticatingman posted...

Skye Reynolds posted...

Who the fuck said the 80s sucked?

- Nintendo Entertainment System
- World Wrestling Federation
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Transformers and G.I. Joe
- the BEST damned action movies ever made
- some of the catchiest tunes ever made
- slasher movies
- ninja movies
- sequels to Rocky and Star Wars
- Hollywood's overall most stylish decade for film

That may have been just a hair before my time, but come on. That shit was awesome.

I think the 80's would've been badass to grow up in. But I wouldn't want to have been a full fledged adult then. Just a few years behind technology going crazy. As I know from my dad's career, he basically has had to get used to computers in the workplace for most of his adult life.

even worse in the 70's. my dad took a whole class on how to use those punch card computers and then he never even had to use them

As I know from my dad's career, he basically has had to get used to computers in the workplace for most of his adult life.

Back then some people thought computers thought for themselves.

My dad use to say that one could mess a computer up by asking it to figure out PI.
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Doowop
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GOATSLAYER posted...

Doowop

I figure Doowop, Teen Idol and Motown was 1959-1963... or pre British Invasion.
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PrettyBoyFloyd posted...

GOATSLAYER posted...

Doowop

I figure Doowop, Teen Idol and Motown was 1959-1963... or pre British Invasion.

No, it started in 1955
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It was the last decade where White Straight Christian Males had absolutely all of the power in the US and were basically untouchable by anyone else.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rQEbQJx5Bo
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rQEbQJx5Bo
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To quote American Dad:
"I miss when white men had all the power instead of just most of it."
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For white people its basically ignorance is bliss
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jazz, blues, poets, etc... as far as my family is concerned, anyway. not much for people of color to be nostalgic about when it comes to the 50s.
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MB2012 posted...

To quote American Dad:
"I miss when white men had all the power instead of just most of it."

Interestingly put
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Solar_Crimson posted...

It was the last decade where White Straight Christian Males had absolutely all of the power in the US and were basically untouchable by anyone else.

Hmm
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