Is it a sinister government experiment, designed to brainwash children?
January 24, 2013 9:44 AM   Subscribe

Digging up long forgotten memories for a generation who spent their formative years glued to the boob tube, Memorex is a veritable nostalgia nuke for children of the 80s. Endless beach parties, Saturday morning cartoons, claymation everything, sleek cars, sexy babes, toys you forgot existed, station idents, primitive computer animation, all your favorite sugary cereal mascots, and so much more. An ode to the hyper consumerism and sleek veneer of a simpler time. (previously)
posted by eric1halfb (27 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh, the 80s. I had so many home dubbed vhs tapes as a kid - star wars trilogy taped with vintage commercials off of television, circa 1987, etc. Wish I wouldn't have said "fuck this VHS shit," and tossed them all around ten years ago. Sigh.
posted by stenseng at 10:00 AM on January 24, 2013


This is totally. Tubular.
posted by bayani at 10:01 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


There aren't enough fist fights on TV dramas anymore.
posted by Kabanos at 10:12 AM on January 24, 2013


Wish they'd publish the EDL. it'd be great to be able to identify the source of every single frame.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:13 AM on January 24, 2013


Man this video makes me nauseated to watch. Motion sickness galore. Weird.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:13 AM on January 24, 2013


Originally, I just liked the movie. But eventually, my favorite part of It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was the Where's the Beef commercials.
posted by DU at 10:14 AM on January 24, 2013


The number of things I recognized instantly was somewhat disturbing.

The editing style felt all wrong, though, lots of fast cuts, which doesn't fit the 80s aesthetic at all.
Needs more star wipes!
posted by madajb at 10:20 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


If you like this, but need some longer clips without the soundtrack added, I suggest:

Lost and found Video Night, volumes 1-9
TV Carnage
The '70s Dimension
Viva VHS
Everything is Terrible
American Dream, American Nightmare series (not the A&E series)

but...
posted by chambers at 10:22 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


I was surprised at how FEW I recognized, actually. Possibly because they were so short.
posted by DU at 10:22 AM on January 24, 2013


of a simpler time.

The Cold War
Dawn of AIDS in the U.S.
Acid Rain
High Interest Rates
The Savings & Loan Crisis
Recession
etc.

How was this simpler?
posted by Doohickie at 10:41 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]




An impressive effort that I would like about 1000% more if they'd let any given clip roll for longer than 500 microseconds.
posted by usonian at 10:47 AM on January 24, 2013


Maybe the OP means "simple" as in a romanticized representation, a stereotype. Sort of like our image of the 1950s Happy Days which never actually existed.
posted by stbalbach at 11:10 AM on January 24, 2013


I like this so so much!
posted by hellphish at 11:20 AM on January 24, 2013


Damn I miss Night Flight.
posted by Splunge at 11:22 AM on January 24, 2013 [6 favorites]


"Maybe the OP means "simple" as in..."

The words are not mine. They're from the description provided by the creators.

Though, in my opinion, the years in which these images were seared into my brain were simpler because I was too young for the Cold War, AIDS, acid rain, etc to be my concerns.
posted by eric1halfb at 11:35 AM on January 24, 2013


Logos don't make me nostalgic, seeing as we still have logos around. This isn't that old!
posted by raysmj at 11:36 AM on January 24, 2013


Frosted Mini Wheats and Ronald McDonald. Also still with us. Etc., etc.
posted by raysmj at 11:39 AM on January 24, 2013


Logos don't make me nostalgic, seeing as we still have logos around. This isn't that old!

For me, they themselves are not the nostalgia, they are fingers pointing to old memories and moments I would never have actively remembered, both good and bad.

Wait a minute. Great, now I have to apologize to my brother for spilling chocolate milk on the Atari all over again. Damn you, Saturday Supercade!
posted by chambers at 11:45 AM on January 24, 2013


It started to put me into a trance after about twenty minutes. I think the score had something to do with that. I love old advertising and logos and recall a lot of this. The 80's tv aesthetic feels very old to me, now.
posted by marimeko at 11:53 AM on January 24, 2013


There is an AskMe from 20th Jan that is about this if anyone is interested ? here
posted by stuartmm at 12:21 PM on January 24, 2013


Too much repetition, not enough nuclear doom. But still great.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:28 PM on January 24, 2013


Depending on your age and point of view this is either a nostalgia inducing trip down memory lane or a crushing indictment of the Boomers who ruined everything and their all too willing Generation X victims. That said, if you're in the right frame of mind it's a surprisingly solid 50 minutes of entertainment.

If you enjoyed this, the video from the previously link "Skinemax" is similarly entertaining. It's an exploration of the movies that people of a similar demographic watched over and over again such as Big Trouble in Little China.
posted by ob1quixote at 1:09 PM on January 24, 2013


Amazing Video Weirdness
posted by February28 at 1:20 PM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]


An impressive effort that I would like about 1000% more if they'd let any given clip roll for longer than 500 microseconds.

Really? I felt the opposite. Each clip was just long enough for me to have a gasp of joyful recognition.

Sort of like our image of the 1950s Happy Days which never actually existed.

This is interesting, because I again had the opposite reaction. Since all these clips were from commercials, shows and movies, some more obscure than others, that were real and actual, if anything the video felt hyper-real to me.

As a teenager in the 80s, the feeling I had about the decade was that everyone was trying with all their might to live in the future. I don't know how else to put it.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:33 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


I was also a teenager in that decade. I'd agree that everyone was trying to live in the future, but I think part of it was the desperate hope there would be a future since Reagan did an excellent job in creating an overwhelming sense of doom, at least among the young, in his first term.

And then there was an enormous revulsion towards the excesses and gloominess of the seventies which fueled the forward push as well.

At least in the US, the eighties were a weird mixture of "we're all going to die in the fire" vs. "things are great, America kicks ass again, and we're gonna make a lot of money."
posted by honestcoyote at 7:39 PM on January 24, 2013


In Maine, it was the '80s until about 1997.

What aspects of modern pop culture are going to get turned into videos like this, 20 years down the road?
posted by dunkadunc at 9:27 PM on January 24, 2013


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