Walking down the hallways, I notice two hairstyles in particular. One, the back hair boldly falling down the neck with the front stiffer and muted— the mullet. Second, the hair winds itself into a million little curls crowding the head—the perm. Any mullet or perm you see today is very different from the ones of the past, but its influence comes from one particular era—the 1980s.

Eccentric hairstyles aren’t the only thing being brought back into fruition: style and music have begun to overcrowd the current media. Unless you’ve skipped the internet in general, I’m sure you’ve heard of the TV show “Stranger Things.” It centers around a group of young teenagers in the ’80s, navigating innocence and terrifying supernatural events. I knew it was one of the biggest shows ever, but to see it constantly in social media, day-to-day conversations, I really saw the vast impact it has had.

People hated the hairstyles in season 4, but now, many people have imitated those exact styles. Personally, I think there is a certain way to perfect these looks, but when you bring in more people, expand the audience, it’s less fashionable.

Being just completely surrounded by the ’80s builds this romanticism and misconception of that certain preserved image. That’s what I don’t like—how much it changes and how that change is usually for the worse.

And now, I turn to music, possibly the worst part of the trend. The Stranger Things soundtrack alone has brought so many names back to the surface. Some as big as Metallica and Madonna, but also some of the formally more obscure (at least her style of music) like Kate Bush. According to CBS News, her daily streams increased by 8000% after the release of the fourth season that frequently uses the opening track of “Hounds of Love” and “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God).” 

Now, if you were to come up to me and say, “You know, I kind of like that “Running Up that Hill” song”,  I think I would scream because these are the same people that would take a song from an artist like Kate Bush and make it a beat drop. If these people were to listen to her album “The Dreaming”, they would probably call her a freak.

I understand this is all very hypocritical considering I am part of the younger generation, but it’s because I listen to similar music and have a genuine love for that style of music. You don’t have to know every song of hers, just don’t go recycling and diluting it into this weird aestheticized mush.

I know this is extremely negative, but that doesn’t mean I won’t watch and re-watch all four seasons of Stranger Things. I enjoy watching these “retro” current movies as much as the next person, but I’m still going to complain about it, naturally. I think history is extremely important and remembering these decades. I just don’t think it needs to be discussed and remolded as much as it is.