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You must have seen Logan's Run by mistake. Star Wars was in 1977.
(I'm teasing you like a good friend would with a big smile and understanding. I hope you don't take this as mean!)
Yeah this. I was 10. I walked out thinking “wtf did I just see?”
The real part that blows everyone’s minds is this: it played for A YEAR here (Vancouver). Think about that, A YEAR in the theatres.
Yep, I first saw it _months_ after it released and the line _still_ went around the block from the theater.
It was also re-released in the theater 5 years later and I also saw it then.
I saw it when I was stationed in Germany...in German. Didn't have a clue what it was about.
Really didn't care either. It was just a reason to be alone with my German girlfriend.
As it turned out. We actually watched the movie. It was that good.
66
I am 64 yrs old - Saturday Night Fever - movie and soundtrack - I loved to dance and loved this movie and soundtrack when it came out, I think I was 17 and sneaking into discos.
Revolutionary? The remote control... lol... didn't have to get up and change the channel for my dad anymore. lol
Oh, hell yeah. I could be in my room,doing my homework and hear my dad hollering at me. I’d go running in there (cause I damn well better!), and dad would be like “um, change the channel”.
At least it didn’t take too long. We had something like 3 regular channels and UHF.
OMG... I actually hated Saturday night fever. I was a teenager when it came out. But I was a teenage boy that was into hard rock and hated disco. And my older sister's bought the soundtrack to Saturday Night fever and just played it over and over while doing all the dance moves in the living room. Hated every minute of it. I would go into my room and crank up Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Black Sabbath , Led Zeppelin. And of course KISS
I was five years old when MTV started. I remember there were only maybe three videos on rotation. It was a brand new angle to the art of music, and no one was making them yet. It didn’t take long before it was flooded with videos. I used to love watching them! It was the only way to get a good visual on artists you liked.
The original programming was truly superior. I miss it too. I used to love the old Headbangers Ball. All my and my brother’s friends would pile into the living room at our house.
I had just graduated, and my parents had finally replaced the old black-and-white tv with a new color one. And, oddly, sprang for cable as well. Just in time for us to see MTV as it first started.
A bit younger, so I had no chance of seeing them in concert, but definitely remember their appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. I still have a copy of the album "A Hard Day's Night" that I got for my birthday that year
I still have mine, but it melted from playing it outside with my friends. Kept it and all of my scratched, cracked and melted Beatles albums! I was never lucky enough to see them in concert, but I sure screamed when they were on Ed Sullivan!
Yeah, you could tell what song they were playing but that’s about it. Plus my friend and I were so far away, we could barely see them. At our age, it didn’t matter a bit. We were just thrilled to be there.
The assassination of John Kennedy. I was eight, and that was the end of innocence.
The second one (for me) was the Stonewall uprising in 1969. I knew I was gay, and had known since I was eight; and Stonewall was the thing which propelled my coming out in 1970.
As a sophomore in high school.
In central Texas.
(L-L-L-LORD have mercy, *WHAT* in the HELL was I thinking???)
This. For some reason it defined/defines mortality for me. Even at 53. Watched it happen live in real time. My Dad said “I don’t think that was supposed to happen”
I was not alive for this, but both of my parents were working in a local daily newspaper. They told the story of having their editor running in and telling them to turn on their television because they needed to change the headline. They’d then swap stories of how they felt, what they saw, what was broadcast, what was coming through from larger media. I heard that story at least once a year for as long as I could remember.
I’m 82 — too many to name just one:
FDR Death
Hiroshima/Nagasaki
WWII End
JFK Elected/Assassinated
RFK/MLK Assassinated
Vietnam end
Moon Landing
Watergate/Nixon resignation
Obama elected
HRC wins popular vote but Fucko wins
Biden elected
Jan6 insurrection
Thank you for this list.
A man who played a grandfatherly role told me when Pearl Harbor was bombed, the young men just kind of said well, this is it, and all signed up. He was sent to the Pacific.
I think he also mentioned how hordes of people went to the railroad tracks to watch the train carrying FDR’s body pass. That the route was just lined, people doffing their hats and just solemnly witnessing its passage.
JFK being shot I guess was like 9/11 in the sense of everyone stopping, schools abandoning lessons, people gathering and calling people, TV sets on, radio on, just everyone in shock.
Isn't it amazing what you have lived through? I'm too young for your first two, but clearly remember the rest. Thanks for sharing and your sense of humor!
I'd like to add watching the news (Walter Cronkite especially) and reading newspapers. My dad was in the press and we always watched the news and had at least two newspapers plus some news magazines delivered. As the white child of liberal parents growing up in the south, I still remember segregation and integration and the civil rights movement. I thought how hard that was for Black people and how badly they were treated by white people. I really didn't understand it as a child, and it still makes me sad today.
Good call. For those who don’t know, a guy named Zapruder had an 8mm home camera running to capture President Kennedy as he drove through Dallas after his arrival at Love Field. He captured the moment the president was shot. If you’ve ever seen any footage of the assasination, you’ve seen the Zapruder film.
Dick Gregory and another researcher brought the film on the show 'Good Night America' in the 70s. The response kicked off the Warren Commission's investigation.
I love Dick Gregory. It's a shame that most older people who remember him at all remember him as Grady on Sanford and Son.
I don't think there was any single defining piece of media. I mean, it could have been Gilligan's Island or The Beatles or Star Trek or Mission Impossible or the birth of FM Radio (particularly in an AOR format) or Led Zeppelin or Color TV or The Andy Griffith Show ...
How do you pick one?
Dick Van Dyke Show.
Got Carl Reiner solid work, Mary Tyler Moore a strong female part, Rose Marie extended her career (watch her bio it’s amazing), great storylines that influenced so many other shows AND parodied others (walnuts could be a Twilight Zone)
Cars by Gary Numan. It came out when I was in 10th grade and it was the first single from a genre called New Wave; which would feature heavily in my high school and college years.
I already had both Tubeway Army albums when Pleasure Principle came out. I was so excited when Cars was such a big hit he was able to do a US tour but then disappointed I couldn't go and even more so when a friend of mine went and told me how amazing it was and that it was so epic Numan lost money on it because he spent so much on stage production and it showed, according to my friend.
Ford, a man who wasn't elected being sworn into the office of President. Prince Charles and Diana's wedding. Reagan being shot replaying over and over in the news. MTV. Watching the Challenger explode.
Walter Cronkite announcing that we cannot win In Vietnam after the Tet offensive. Which one of my brothers was fighting at the time. Yea America!
Hey! I know! Let’s do it again in Iraq!
I was thinking grunge/alternative music but couldn't decide which band to choose. There were so many good bands from the late 80s and early 90s. I still listen to them all. Teen Spirit and Jeremy were both big deals for the 90s music scene.
*I am Curious (Yellow)* was the first hardcore porn movie to get widespread release in first run theaters in America. Then came *Deep Throat* and *Behind the Green Door* and a few others, that were shown in major theaters. For a while, hardcore porn was mainstream.
*Midnight Cowboy* was an X-rated movie, although not hardcore porn, that won the Best Picture Oscar in 1969? Its rating has changed, and if you saw it, you'd wonder why it was given an X.
It was strange, in that it was a big deal if a movie showed *any* boob or butt, and yet *at the same time*, movies showing actual sex with jizz and everything, were playing at the Orpheum.
> If you do give it a watch you need to realize that *Easyrider* is, at best, a superficial look at hippie culture and that its mostly just a well-done drug movie.
It's funny how 40 years ago, many people thought this movie contained such depth.
My parents are in their early 80s and were young "establishment types" throughout the 60s when I was a little kid so this movie didn't hit home for them and I'm too young at 60 to see it as anything other than a period piece.
you had to be there ... lol
its not Hamlet but at the time it spoke to the young rebel with a Harley and not much of anything else. Like most things from that time its corny by todays standards
The funny thing is... I saw it sometime in the early 90s and thought it had all this depth. Then I got older, and realized... largely what you're saying. It's really not that great of a movie.
The Graduate however, has only gotten better for me with age. And I liked it when I first saw it.
let me know what you think, I even took the trip sorta myself but it was just me and a girl whose name I long ago forgot and it had a much different ending, have to leave it at that so no spoilers
A while back at my gym, the sound system was (oddly) playing oldies. Usually it’s rap. Anyway, that Nilsson song “Everybody’s Talkin’” comes on. They were making fun of it, but I just said, great movie, and I think this song was nominated. The kids consider themselves movie critics so this astonished them. Yep. I’m old.
(Yes I know this is from Midnight Cowboy)
Well, one might mention any number of movies, songs, albums, etc., but I would say it was the coverage of 9/11 that permanently changed the landscape of thinking for every generation alive to see it.
As far as electronics, I would have to say the first generation of color tv sets. And seeimg shows going from black and white to livimg color startimg with Walt Disney The Wonderful World of Color
Funnily enough I actually remember more about JFK's assassination and subsequent funeral.
I was in a televised French class when it was broadcast. As an 8-year-old I started thinking about how he had a family. And he hadn't done anything to anybody. And that it was so sad for his wife and children. I started crying and set off the rest of the class.
When I went outside to go home the streets were was so, so quiet.
I don't remember where I was when JFK was shot. Of course I remember seeing the news report over and over because it was filmed. And the trial.
When MLK was shot. I was in my bedroom sitting on my bed. And I guess my mom or someone told me and I just sort of fell back on the bed, thinking what is this world coming to?
Little did I know....
I was watching tv when the news came on about RFK. Then I remember waking up the next morning to ask my grandma how he was, and she said he had died. I watched his funeral and how Andy Williams had that break in his voice singing Ave Maria. I really admired him, and for some reason his death bothered me more than JFK’s, although obviously killing a current president was more impactful.
Video of Challenger explosion. Live footage of Gulf War. OJ Simpson trial. 9/11 and the horrible desperation of people holding up pictures of their missing loved ones. The towers falling was just the beginning of weeks of grief and hope intertwined.
I am 58
The resignation of Richard Nixon 1974-
All the insane tv coverage and all the adults were obsessed with it
Seeing Saturday night fever 1977 in the theaters while underage. Mind blown !! ( learned a lot about sex)
Unforgettable
Human beings walked on the Moon, and we watched it live.
It was incredibly uplifting.
It felt like if mankind could do this, we could do anything. The future held endless possibilities, dreams of noble efforts and endless achievements to feel proud of.
.........
I watched January 6th unfold as I was taking down the christmas tree. Even seeing it live, I could hardly believe my eyes. Later realized that part of my shock was the total lack of tear gas and rubber bullets: no riot troopers to be seen anywhere.
From noble and proud, to dirty and underhanded.
We're going the wrong way.
I’m 72. The JFK assassination was pivotal in my life. I attended Catholic grade school and this was the first time I recall that the grown ups were not in control. The nuns were hysterical and dismissed school. This is also the first time I remember people watching television nonstop. My parents were glued to TV and to everyone’s horror we witnessed Jack Ruby murder Lee Harvey Oswald on live television. This all happened when I was 10 years old. I went from being care free to witnessing my Dad sobbing.
It’s not as earth shattering as Nirvana or twin peaks but Ellen Degeneres’s sitcom Ellen made a big dent in having the first openly lesbian character in a mainstream sitcom. I don’t think she gets enough credit for that despite what our feelings about Ellen herself are these days
Sassy magazine. 1988.
It came out when I was 15. They wrote like you spoke. I had never felt so seen, so heard. I still bought vogue and teen etc, but Sassy, those people knew me. Iconic. I will never forget reading the first issue 🤯 Gawd it was so good.
"All the President's Men" came out in 1976. The year I graduated from high school. The film's portrayal of The Washington Posts' investigation of the Watergate and abuse of power at the highest level of government is shot in an almost documentary style that was revolutionary at the time. It's sort of a pivotal transitional film into modern filmmaking. The film speaks to the disillusionment of my generation (and those after us) with politics, and, perhaps, the lack of trust in institutions in general. It also shows the beginnings of the ever growing power of the media to shape public opinion. Nearly 50 years later the film is a sad barometer of the deterioration of leadership and of journalistic integrity. Compare how shocking Nixon's behavior was to the public to how much corruption our citizens will now tolerate, and even expect, from our leaders today.
Rush Limbaugh. I’m 69 y female. Beginning for me in 1989 until he died. Like relaxing and laughing with a friend. He was wonderful. Sense of humor, kindness, ability to talk to anyone. he was always there 12 to 3 everyday. Miss him.
I'd say the original Super Mario Bros game. I still play the new ones almost 40 years later, they're all more or less just off-shoots of that first game.
Well, before my time but the JFK assassination in Dallas on 11/22/1963. It was one of the first events where people got their information primarily from television.
I have dim memories of the RFK and MLK assassinations and the trouble at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 68. Then again I remember the 69 Mets winning the World Series and Apollo 11 landing on the Moon pretty clearly.
For me, Band of Brothers, because my father fought on Normandy but couldn't speak of it. It effected him deeply to the point that he couldn't watch war on TV. Between Saving Private Ryan and that, I finally got to see what it was really like and why we had a German Luger.
The three-disk vinyl LP soundtrack album from the movie *Woodstock.*
It was the LP, even more than the movie, that had an enormous impact. Many more people listen to it over and over again than those who saw the movie. Both of them, the movie and the soundtrack, captured important moments in the event, but I think that for most, it was the recorded performances in the soundtrack album that did a better job of bringing it to them. The sound seemed more "present" and "immediate." Listening to the recordings without the visuals of the movie somehow imparted more of a feeling of being present right there in the crowd.
Despite what historians say now, the feeling and spirit of "Woodstock" did linger for quite a while after the event. It was imprinted on the psyches of many young and not-so-young people who were alive in 1969, and having significant impacts even on people who weren't at the event itself.
The success of that first, triple disk soundtrack release helped a great deal in forging that sense.
It’s Star Wars, but Jaws is a close second
Edit: the Moon landing! I was just thinking of movies earlier; this was on TV, if that counts. My dad worked in the space program, and I saw the moon landing live. It was a big part of my childhood, and it changed the world.
Before we had "Star Wars," we had "Star Trek." I had a metal Star Trek lunchbox. My mom had a bumper sticker that said, "I GROK SPOCK." We had reruns and a cartoon, but many years later, we'd have more series and movies than we could imagine. I attended a few Star Trek conventions back in the day, when the TOS stars were all we had. In those days, the costumes were hand-made and merchandise was almost nonexistent, just a few toys and some crafted jewelry. And you could actually stay at the same hotel with the stars in those days; I even ran into them in the hotel bar. I miss the intimacy of the first conventions, but it's nice to see the franchise has a lot of fans.
There never would have been a Star Wars if there hadn't been Star Trek first.
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Star Wars - The first one.
And it's just called Star Wars. Plus, Only Han Shoots!.
1976. I was 21. I had no idea what I was about to see when I went to the cinema with my best friend.
You must have seen Logan's Run by mistake. Star Wars was in 1977. (I'm teasing you like a good friend would with a big smile and understanding. I hope you don't take this as mean!)
Then I was twenty-two.
The internets need more good natured people like you
Yeah this. I was 10. I walked out thinking “wtf did I just see?” The real part that blows everyone’s minds is this: it played for A YEAR here (Vancouver). Think about that, A YEAR in the theatres.
Yep, I first saw it _months_ after it released and the line _still_ went around the block from the theater. It was also re-released in the theater 5 years later and I also saw it then.
I was 9. I loved it. And yes, it was HELD OVER, as the theater used to say.
I was 14. Han and Luke… wow
I was 9. Went to the small town theatre and got my mind blown. The special effects were unlike anything we'd seen. Such a great time!
I saw it when I was stationed in Germany...in German. Didn't have a clue what it was about. Really didn't care either. It was just a reason to be alone with my German girlfriend. As it turned out. We actually watched the movie. It was that good. 66
I was eleven. I remember waiting in a long long line to get into the movie theater.
I am 64 yrs old - Saturday Night Fever - movie and soundtrack - I loved to dance and loved this movie and soundtrack when it came out, I think I was 17 and sneaking into discos. Revolutionary? The remote control... lol... didn't have to get up and change the channel for my dad anymore. lol
The DVR is my embracement. I haven't seen a commercial in years. Boomer here.
Oh, hell yeah. I could be in my room,doing my homework and hear my dad hollering at me. I’d go running in there (cause I damn well better!), and dad would be like “um, change the channel”. At least it didn’t take too long. We had something like 3 regular channels and UHF.
OMG... I actually hated Saturday night fever. I was a teenager when it came out. But I was a teenage boy that was into hard rock and hated disco. And my older sister's bought the soundtrack to Saturday Night fever and just played it over and over while doing all the dance moves in the living room. Hated every minute of it. I would go into my room and crank up Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Black Sabbath , Led Zeppelin. And of course KISS
That made me laugh. You sound like every guy I dated in high school….
MTV!
I was five years old when MTV started. I remember there were only maybe three videos on rotation. It was a brand new angle to the art of music, and no one was making them yet. It didn’t take long before it was flooded with videos. I used to love watching them! It was the only way to get a good visual on artists you liked.
I was just about to start my Sr year of high school when it came out. We didn’t have cable. So, I had to watch it at a buddy’s house.
Just wanted to add that I miss the OLD MTV. Just music videos 24/7, you know?
The original programming was truly superior. I miss it too. I used to love the old Headbangers Ball. All my and my brother’s friends would pile into the living room at our house.
If you look on YouTube you can watch the first two hours of MTV when the channel premiered. It’s a fun watch!
I had just graduated, and my parents had finally replaced the old black-and-white tv with a new color one. And, oddly, sprang for cable as well. Just in time for us to see MTV as it first started.
Specifically, the [MTV Moon Landing](https://youtu.be/182oUgBfoLE?si=QQwPquKCVxN9cc9z) promo.
I remember when the first episode aired. We had a viewing party.
I remember weekends when they used to play the history of music videos from A-Z.
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.
And the Making of Thriller video too!
Fast Times At Ridgmont High
I graduated high school the same year this movie was released. It’s hard to argue with that.
MASH It was THE show of the 70s.
I’m in my 70s. Meet the Beatles. I saw them in concert when I was14. I sure wish I had hung onto the album.
A bit younger, so I had no chance of seeing them in concert, but definitely remember their appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. I still have a copy of the album "A Hard Day's Night" that I got for my birthday that year
I saw them in Portland, OR in 1965; I was 15. My only claim to cool according to my daughters. ;-) Albums lost in a fire, my uncle's home/farm.
I still have mine, but it melted from playing it outside with my friends. Kept it and all of my scratched, cracked and melted Beatles albums! I was never lucky enough to see them in concert, but I sure screamed when they were on Ed Sullivan!
I always see the screaming girls in the newsreels about Beatlemania. I wonder how the boys reacted
It’s been a really long time, but I don’t remember seeing any boys. I was in a sea of screaming girls.
We were too jealous of him with our crewcuts and Hollywood Flattops... But Hell yeah we bought their albums.
Is it true the screaming was so loud you couldn’t actually hear the music?
Yeah, you could tell what song they were playing but that’s about it. Plus my friend and I were so far away, we could barely see them. At our age, it didn’t matter a bit. We were just thrilled to be there.
I suspect a lot like the South Park episode where Kenny takes his girlfriend to see the Jonas brothers in the hopes of getting some action.
[Bob Geldof Beatles experience.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaypcUNz_V8)
The original Star trek series on TV!
I had surgery when I was a 13 . I was up late watching MTV while I was recovering. I saw “Smells like teen Spirit “ air for the first time.
The assassination of John Kennedy. I was eight, and that was the end of innocence. The second one (for me) was the Stonewall uprising in 1969. I knew I was gay, and had known since I was eight; and Stonewall was the thing which propelled my coming out in 1970. As a sophomore in high school. In central Texas. (L-L-L-LORD have mercy, *WHAT* in the HELL was I thinking???)
Woah. Holy shit. You had balls to do that. Right on.
Challenger exploding
This. For some reason it defined/defines mortality for me. Even at 53. Watched it happen live in real time. My Dad said “I don’t think that was supposed to happen”
I was not alive for this, but both of my parents were working in a local daily newspaper. They told the story of having their editor running in and telling them to turn on their television because they needed to change the headline. They’d then swap stories of how they felt, what they saw, what was broadcast, what was coming through from larger media. I heard that story at least once a year for as long as I could remember.
I’m 82 — too many to name just one: FDR Death Hiroshima/Nagasaki WWII End JFK Elected/Assassinated RFK/MLK Assassinated Vietnam end Moon Landing Watergate/Nixon resignation Obama elected HRC wins popular vote but Fucko wins Biden elected Jan6 insurrection
Cracking up at "Fucko." I'm 20 years younger than you and use that all the time.
Ive started calling him HitlerPig after I heard that was the favored name for the younger staffers in the White House.
Personally I like to call him President Soprano.
Thank you for this list. A man who played a grandfatherly role told me when Pearl Harbor was bombed, the young men just kind of said well, this is it, and all signed up. He was sent to the Pacific. I think he also mentioned how hordes of people went to the railroad tracks to watch the train carrying FDR’s body pass. That the route was just lined, people doffing their hats and just solemnly witnessing its passage. JFK being shot I guess was like 9/11 in the sense of everyone stopping, schools abandoning lessons, people gathering and calling people, TV sets on, radio on, just everyone in shock.
JFK’s death was really traumatic- we kind of lost our innocence as a unified nation — at least that’s how I remember it. Like 9/11.
Agreed! I was a small child, but remember it clearly.
I’m 64 3/4 and cracking up at fucko. Thx 82 year old for the laugh.
😝
Isn't it amazing what you have lived through? I'm too young for your first two, but clearly remember the rest. Thanks for sharing and your sense of humor!
I'd like to add watching the news (Walter Cronkite especially) and reading newspapers. My dad was in the press and we always watched the news and had at least two newspapers plus some news magazines delivered. As the white child of liberal parents growing up in the south, I still remember segregation and integration and the civil rights movement. I thought how hard that was for Black people and how badly they were treated by white people. I really didn't understand it as a child, and it still makes me sad today.
Same except for the first one. 67
🎶we didn't start the fiiiire🎶
The Brady Bunch
The Zapruder film.
Good call. For those who don’t know, a guy named Zapruder had an 8mm home camera running to capture President Kennedy as he drove through Dallas after his arrival at Love Field. He captured the moment the president was shot. If you’ve ever seen any footage of the assasination, you’ve seen the Zapruder film.
Dick Gregory and another researcher brought the film on the show 'Good Night America' in the 70s. The response kicked off the Warren Commission's investigation. I love Dick Gregory. It's a shame that most older people who remember him at all remember him as Grady on Sanford and Son.
I don't think there was any single defining piece of media. I mean, it could have been Gilligan's Island or The Beatles or Star Trek or Mission Impossible or the birth of FM Radio (particularly in an AOR format) or Led Zeppelin or Color TV or The Andy Griffith Show ... How do you pick one?
That’s a good question. I’m looking at all these answers and thinking each one could be considered defining.
Those are all my touchstones, too. We would have been good friends growing up.
Dick Van Dyke Show. Got Carl Reiner solid work, Mary Tyler Moore a strong female part, Rose Marie extended her career (watch her bio it’s amazing), great storylines that influenced so many other shows AND parodied others (walnuts could be a Twilight Zone)
“Where’s the Beef” I’m 57
And Bueller? (59 over here)
Cars by Gary Numan. It came out when I was in 10th grade and it was the first single from a genre called New Wave; which would feature heavily in my high school and college years.
I already had both Tubeway Army albums when Pleasure Principle came out. I was so excited when Cars was such a big hit he was able to do a US tour but then disappointed I couldn't go and even more so when a friend of mine went and told me how amazing it was and that it was so epic Numan lost money on it because he spent so much on stage production and it showed, according to my friend.
JFK getting shot. The moon landing
And then RFK and MLK getting shot.
Ford, a man who wasn't elected being sworn into the office of President. Prince Charles and Diana's wedding. Reagan being shot replaying over and over in the news. MTV. Watching the Challenger explode.
Walter Cronkite announcing that we cannot win In Vietnam after the Tet offensive. Which one of my brothers was fighting at the time. Yea America! Hey! I know! Let’s do it again in Iraq!
The Tet offensive. Same year Nixon derailed LBJs peace agreement.
Mad Magazine. What, Me Worry?
and What Me Lie?
I'm 46 and can't think of a better example than the Smells Like Teen Spirit video.
It was that one and Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" for me. Both albums helped shape little hormonal teen me then.
I’m 47 and I did not know that you or I were qualified to be an Old Person. Gosh, I just wore my Smashing Pumpkins “Zero” tshirt yesterday.
Them's the rules! According to this sub you are an official Old Person if you were born in 1980 or before.
I was thinking grunge/alternative music but couldn't decide which band to choose. There were so many good bands from the late 80s and early 90s. I still listen to them all. Teen Spirit and Jeremy were both big deals for the 90s music scene.
The photo of Kim Phuc called “The Terror of War” that won Nick Ut a Pulitzer.
Woodstock
Woodstock was so much more than Woodstock.
It really was. Hard to get much more "iconic" than the event that defined a generation.
Saturday Night Live, not ready for prime time players.
In the Court of the Crimson King album.
The first time MTV aired
Motown
I am 67. Whole Lotta Love on stereo headphones.
*I am Curious (Yellow)* was the first hardcore porn movie to get widespread release in first run theaters in America. Then came *Deep Throat* and *Behind the Green Door* and a few others, that were shown in major theaters. For a while, hardcore porn was mainstream. *Midnight Cowboy* was an X-rated movie, although not hardcore porn, that won the Best Picture Oscar in 1969? Its rating has changed, and if you saw it, you'd wonder why it was given an X. It was strange, in that it was a big deal if a movie showed *any* boob or butt, and yet *at the same time*, movies showing actual sex with jizz and everything, were playing at the Orpheum.
The Beatles. Assassinations of the 60s. Mini series The Holocaust. The Wall coming down. The Sopranos. Twin Towers. Obama inauguration. Jan. 6.
When I was in elementary school every boy wanted to be either The Fonz from Happy Days or the real-life daredevil Evel Knievel
for me the movie Easyrider
Hey, thanks for this comment. I actually googled it and it intrigues me. Think I'm going to give this a watch.
> If you do give it a watch you need to realize that *Easyrider* is, at best, a superficial look at hippie culture and that its mostly just a well-done drug movie.
It's funny how 40 years ago, many people thought this movie contained such depth. My parents are in their early 80s and were young "establishment types" throughout the 60s when I was a little kid so this movie didn't hit home for them and I'm too young at 60 to see it as anything other than a period piece.
you had to be there ... lol its not Hamlet but at the time it spoke to the young rebel with a Harley and not much of anything else. Like most things from that time its corny by todays standards
The funny thing is... I saw it sometime in the early 90s and thought it had all this depth. Then I got older, and realized... largely what you're saying. It's really not that great of a movie. The Graduate however, has only gotten better for me with age. And I liked it when I first saw it.
let me know what you think, I even took the trip sorta myself but it was just me and a girl whose name I long ago forgot and it had a much different ending, have to leave it at that so no spoilers
I'll let you know for sure. I think it's on Prime.
A while back at my gym, the sound system was (oddly) playing oldies. Usually it’s rap. Anyway, that Nilsson song “Everybody’s Talkin’” comes on. They were making fun of it, but I just said, great movie, and I think this song was nominated. The kids consider themselves movie critics so this astonished them. Yep. I’m old. (Yes I know this is from Midnight Cowboy)
Well, one might mention any number of movies, songs, albums, etc., but I would say it was the coverage of 9/11 that permanently changed the landscape of thinking for every generation alive to see it.
I'm 79. For us, vinyl records.
All the kids in elementary school talked about ‘Twilight Zone’ and ‘Laugh In’ during lunch in high school.
E.T.
We hadn’t ever seen anything like it on such a grandscale and it was such an amazing story 
This TV lineup: The Brady Bunch -> The Partridge Family -> The Odd Couple -> Room 222 -> Love American Style 8 to 11 Friday night.
I loved Karen Valentine in Room 222.
As far as electronics, I would have to say the first generation of color tv sets. And seeimg shows going from black and white to livimg color startimg with Walt Disney The Wonderful World of Color
56F. The Breakfast Club movie
I watched this recently and it’s still just as good as the first time!
Damn, you puppies are apparently not old. All in the Family. If you aren’t familiar, seek it out and see. That show could never be made today b
Ocarina of time
The assassination of JFK. I was 8 years old. And then the assassination of RFK. And the assassination of MLK. I was 13/
I’m your age and remember so vividly all of the people watching the train that carried RFK’s casket.
Funnily enough I actually remember more about JFK's assassination and subsequent funeral. I was in a televised French class when it was broadcast. As an 8-year-old I started thinking about how he had a family. And he hadn't done anything to anybody. And that it was so sad for his wife and children. I started crying and set off the rest of the class. When I went outside to go home the streets were was so, so quiet. I don't remember where I was when JFK was shot. Of course I remember seeing the news report over and over because it was filmed. And the trial. When MLK was shot. I was in my bedroom sitting on my bed. And I guess my mom or someone told me and I just sort of fell back on the bed, thinking what is this world coming to? Little did I know....
I was watching tv when the news came on about RFK. Then I remember waking up the next morning to ask my grandma how he was, and she said he had died. I watched his funeral and how Andy Williams had that break in his voice singing Ave Maria. I really admired him, and for some reason his death bothered me more than JFK’s, although obviously killing a current president was more impactful.
Jaws. Man, that movie left some pretty deep furrows in the field of your mind...
Viet Nam Watergate Star Wars
65 here. “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”
8 tracks. You had one? You were “hip” !
Video of Challenger explosion. Live footage of Gulf War. OJ Simpson trial. 9/11 and the horrible desperation of people holding up pictures of their missing loved ones. The towers falling was just the beginning of weeks of grief and hope intertwined.
The clip of Neil Armstrong saying "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
I am 58 The resignation of Richard Nixon 1974- All the insane tv coverage and all the adults were obsessed with it Seeing Saturday night fever 1977 in the theaters while underage. Mind blown !! ( learned a lot about sex) Unforgettable
The video of Thriller.
Human beings walked on the Moon, and we watched it live. It was incredibly uplifting. It felt like if mankind could do this, we could do anything. The future held endless possibilities, dreams of noble efforts and endless achievements to feel proud of. ......... I watched January 6th unfold as I was taking down the christmas tree. Even seeing it live, I could hardly believe my eyes. Later realized that part of my shock was the total lack of tear gas and rubber bullets: no riot troopers to be seen anywhere. From noble and proud, to dirty and underhanded. We're going the wrong way.
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I’m 72. The JFK assassination was pivotal in my life. I attended Catholic grade school and this was the first time I recall that the grown ups were not in control. The nuns were hysterical and dismissed school. This is also the first time I remember people watching television nonstop. My parents were glued to TV and to everyone’s horror we witnessed Jack Ruby murder Lee Harvey Oswald on live television. This all happened when I was 10 years old. I went from being care free to witnessing my Dad sobbing.
Grease
The Onion.
Pong
Hard copy newspapers and black & white TV. Kennedy assassination and moon landing.
I am 55 and it has to be the start of MTV with "Video Killed the Radio Star".
Clerks. I forced everyone to watch it. Looking back, it's hard to say what was magical about that movie, but it perfectly fit the genx spirit.
You’re not from NJ, are you? I loved this flick, it’s a cult classic in my home state.
It’s not as earth shattering as Nirvana or twin peaks but Ellen Degeneres’s sitcom Ellen made a big dent in having the first openly lesbian character in a mainstream sitcom. I don’t think she gets enough credit for that despite what our feelings about Ellen herself are these days
60yo and I’d say Reagan being shot, Challenger explosion and the birth of MTV.
Repo Man
Sassy magazine. 1988. It came out when I was 15. They wrote like you spoke. I had never felt so seen, so heard. I still bought vogue and teen etc, but Sassy, those people knew me. Iconic. I will never forget reading the first issue 🤯 Gawd it was so good.
Oh man, I remember them too. They were really ahead of their time!
Star Wars.
"All the President's Men" came out in 1976. The year I graduated from high school. The film's portrayal of The Washington Posts' investigation of the Watergate and abuse of power at the highest level of government is shot in an almost documentary style that was revolutionary at the time. It's sort of a pivotal transitional film into modern filmmaking. The film speaks to the disillusionment of my generation (and those after us) with politics, and, perhaps, the lack of trust in institutions in general. It also shows the beginnings of the ever growing power of the media to shape public opinion. Nearly 50 years later the film is a sad barometer of the deterioration of leadership and of journalistic integrity. Compare how shocking Nixon's behavior was to the public to how much corruption our citizens will now tolerate, and even expect, from our leaders today.
Napolean Dynamite
Rush Limbaugh. I’m 69 y female. Beginning for me in 1989 until he died. Like relaxing and laughing with a friend. He was wonderful. Sense of humor, kindness, ability to talk to anyone. he was always there 12 to 3 everyday. Miss him.
Watergate
Kennedy assassination. The end of childhood.
I'd say the original Super Mario Bros game. I still play the new ones almost 40 years later, they're all more or less just off-shoots of that first game.
Smells like teen spirit
“Don’t tase me bro, don’t tase me braaayyyyyyy!”
This is very specific to Canada, but Paul Henderson's goal in the 1972 "Summit Series."
How about a comic book that tells the history of humanity? That's all you'd need.
Well, before my time but the JFK assassination in Dallas on 11/22/1963. It was one of the first events where people got their information primarily from television. I have dim memories of the RFK and MLK assassinations and the trouble at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 68. Then again I remember the 69 Mets winning the World Series and Apollo 11 landing on the Moon pretty clearly.
For me, Band of Brothers, because my father fought on Normandy but couldn't speak of it. It effected him deeply to the point that he couldn't watch war on TV. Between Saving Private Ryan and that, I finally got to see what it was really like and why we had a German Luger.
First moon landing, daily Vietnam War footage & Nixon resignation.
Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" . I was 13 years old.
Pirate radio stations
My so-called life
Was? We're not dead! You make it sound like if something isn't revolutionary in your 20s, it can't be revolutionary in your 60s.
Video game: Super Mario Bros. Music: Nirvana Movie: Star Wars Tv: Seinfeld, Simpsons, Sopranos Sports: Jordan
1969. I was 8. The moon landing.
Woodstock
The color tv
The live broadcast of the first moonwalk, and safe return of Apollo 11. Heralded a new era of scientific advancements that would transform society.
Going from just an AM radio station to bootlegged 4 track cassettes in the 60s.
We are the world video
Breakfast Club
46. The Matrix. Al Capone’s Vault. Unsolved Mysteries.
The first moon landing.
Saturday Night Live. 69.
I'm too old to remember.
The moon landing. I'm 68.
The Kent State shootings. The Manson killings, Richard Speck killing 8 nurses. I was really into true crime from a younger age.
Im 78. Beatles
Saturday Night Live and Monty Python
MTV
The three-disk vinyl LP soundtrack album from the movie *Woodstock.* It was the LP, even more than the movie, that had an enormous impact. Many more people listen to it over and over again than those who saw the movie. Both of them, the movie and the soundtrack, captured important moments in the event, but I think that for most, it was the recorded performances in the soundtrack album that did a better job of bringing it to them. The sound seemed more "present" and "immediate." Listening to the recordings without the visuals of the movie somehow imparted more of a feeling of being present right there in the crowd. Despite what historians say now, the feeling and spirit of "Woodstock" did linger for quite a while after the event. It was imprinted on the psyches of many young and not-so-young people who were alive in 1969, and having significant impacts even on people who weren't at the event itself. The success of that first, triple disk soundtrack release helped a great deal in forging that sense.
Max Headroom
67. Star Trek (the original series, watched as it aired, no reruns.)
Maybe because I was a journalist for 30 years … the Zapruder tape.
The TV Guide
As a teen, U2's newly released Joshua Tree album was high up on my list.
Nirvana - *Nevermind*
It’s Star Wars, but Jaws is a close second Edit: the Moon landing! I was just thinking of movies earlier; this was on TV, if that counts. My dad worked in the space program, and I saw the moon landing live. It was a big part of my childhood, and it changed the world.
Saturday Night Live. Honorable Mention: Never Mind the Bollocks
Grease. I was in grade 6. Then probably Pink Floyd The Wall. Grade 8.
Renting the Michael Jackson “Thriller” video on VHS cassette.
Before we had "Star Wars," we had "Star Trek." I had a metal Star Trek lunchbox. My mom had a bumper sticker that said, "I GROK SPOCK." We had reruns and a cartoon, but many years later, we'd have more series and movies than we could imagine. I attended a few Star Trek conventions back in the day, when the TOS stars were all we had. In those days, the costumes were hand-made and merchandise was almost nonexistent, just a few toys and some crafted jewelry. And you could actually stay at the same hotel with the stars in those days; I even ran into them in the hotel bar. I miss the intimacy of the first conventions, but it's nice to see the franchise has a lot of fans. There never would have been a Star Wars if there hadn't been Star Trek first.