Nostalgia of the 1980s
Most of us associate songs, music and typical dance styles with events in our life. In fact, we have songs to remember a particular occasion or a memorable experience. You remember the songs you danced to in your high school ball or the foxtrot you danced with your first girfriend or the music you heard on the radio while driving your first car. And every song has a story behind it.
For most of us, the 80s was an exciting era. It may look too bling and cheesy in retrospect, but the the music, the styling, the films and everything else that was glamorous then, set many trends. And there were some pathbreaking styles which also set apart the 80s. The artists and choreographers of the 80s provided us with memorable songs that we still dance to, even today. In fact, here’s a little piece of trivia. Most of the bands then played their own instruments and didn’t need to sequence any of it.
This reminded me of the way we used to listen to music then. Remember the eight track players in our cars and how we moved upward to cassette players? Vinyl records were in huge demand then. Every week you could go to your local record store and pick up new song on a 45 record. Of course, there was always the radio to listen to — most of the popular songs were on Amin Sayani’s popular show Binaca Geet Mala. The range and repertoire of music then varied from the romantic melodies to cabarets and disco songs.
As far as dance in our films goes, 80s gave rise to the bling era. Disco dancing was immensely popular. Break dance was one of the biggest dance craze then and street dance was just evolving then.Bollywood saw some of its most elaborate dance sequences with over the top dance moves, but nonetheless entertaining to the hilt. Be it Jeetendra in his trademark white avatar or Mithunda as a disco dancer, the 80s dancing was loud in its expression, but set itself apart for maximum entertainment. Who can forget the dance sequence from Himmatwala featuring Jeetendra and Sridevi amidst hundreds of earthern pots? The Ta Thaiyya TaThaiyya sequence was also immortalised in the recent blockbuster The Dirty Picture where Vidya Balan danced with Naseerduddin Shah to Ooh La La.
The nostalgia of the 1980s music and dance lives on even today. Some of us download that music and listen to them on our local radio stations every other day. There’s nothing like watchihng your favourite 1980’s performers live in concert. I remember going for an Usha Uthup concert, Lata Mangeshkar’s concert and Hema Malini’s ballets. I still live with those wonderful memories.
Nobody can forget Mithunda’s pelvic thrusts, the typical swagger of Amitabh Bachchan to which we groove till date. Such things never grow old. They only get better with each passing decade. And no wonder that most of our films today seek inspiration from the 80s.
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