The Role Of 1980's In American Culture

When looking back at American culture in the recently past decades, many will fondly recall the neon era of the 1980’s. The Berlin Wall was no longer and the Cold War paranoia that had plagued the previous generation had drifted out of mind. Not only was the world stage dramatically changing in this decade, the 1980’s were also a significantly important time period for pop culture. One of the most quintessential and iconic feature of the 80’s was the teen movie. As one pictures their favorite John Hughes flick, or any other teen cult classic, there’s almost certainly always one common thread, besides attractive white people falling in love, the mall. It would seem that the shopping mall was the epicenter of teen life, and this is a trend that can be seen in film as late as the early 2000s. …show more content…
Just based on what is portrayed in popular culture, one could be lead to believe that the mall had been the end all be all of the hangouts for the coolest teens since the dawn of time, but something in American culture is drastically changing. For most large retailers, the process of getting back to pre-recession numbers has proved to be more than a little difficult. As time goes on, and people become more reliant on online one-stop-shops such as Amazon, classic retail establish, especially department stores, are suffering. This may not seem like a pressing issue, but one has to take into account that retails salesperson is the most common position held by working Americans. Salespeople account for 4 million members of the American working class, only closely revealed by cashier, another retail-oriented job (Lam). When looking at the bigger picture, the biggest problems affecting malls is a mirror image of the biggest problem affecting working-class