Raised on the 80s, life lessons from that decade of cinema, music and more

Somewhere between John Hughes, Aztec Camera, a business/self-help book and The Tao of Pooh lies Raised on the 80s.  30+ Unexpected Life Lessons is the main subtitle to the book and when you combine the two of them it provides a nice overview of the book. The family and I are going through the classic 80’s movies now, some of them we’ve seen before and others are being viewed for the first time. Raised on the 80s is a comprehensive look as movies, music, and culture that happened in the 80s, combining real-life stories from Chris Clews, and then give it some gas to make it relevant to today’s culture.

This could be the business lessons that are paralleled between the movie Roadhouse and Best Buy. They do exist and are ones that people, as well as, individuals can relate to on several levels. The Road House chapter has many facts about the gloriously cheesy, action-oriented, small bar with a corrupt city backbone Patrick Swayze film. Swayze’s character had some great lines and a couple of them are repeated in the book.

The second half of that chapter has some vignettes of Clews’ life at the time. These are life lessons about friends, family, and work that anyone who’s been through their first couple of years working will relate to. In some chapters, Clews brings in other 80’s cultural touchstones that echo a point that he’s working on, relative to the movie that’s being highlighted.

It gets worse before it gets better, is a quote that Swayze had in the film when one of his co-workers was commenting on the night’s work. Clews then segues into the business world, with real-life examples of how a situation was looking impossibly dire, only for the companies to blaze through the tough times to become commonplace sites of commerce today.

It’s the joy and ease in which Clews goes back and forth from his memories to 80’s music or movies, and then aligns it with something that even those 90’s people will enjoy. Think of Raised on the 80s as a guided self-help book for those who need an optimistic, encouraging cheerleader on your shoulder motivating you. If it were 100% accurate they’d be wearing leg warmers, bright-angled colors, shoulder pads for the ladies, and red, Polo shirts for the dudes.

When I spoke with Clews about Raised on the 80s I asked him about those who don’t find that decade to be endearing. He essentially said, and I agree, that the book is written and presented in a way that the lessons from the characters drive the lessons, not necessarily the music, movies or times. They’re instances that happen to everyone, regardless of when their sweet culture spot is, and because of that, they’re easily understood. A 20-something can pick up the book and learn lessons from Cocktail, just as easily as those who enjoyed it through a guilt-laden lens when it first came out.

Raised on the 80’s channels the same process as a graphic novel does in teaching non-fiction stories. In this case, it parries cultural touchstone moments against life lessons that you can learn from. It’s not an educational or business book per se, nor is it a memoir about growing up in the 80s. Instead, the book is its own creature that lives in a fun world that reminds, or introduces us to fun cultural moments, and imparts upon the reader what they can learn from it. I realize that still sounds like a self-help book, but it’s not. This is a fun, light-hearted book that you’ll read, grin a little bit at, learn a little bit from and discover some new music to listen to, or movies that you haven’t, but should see.     

Raised on the 80’s is by Chris Clews and is available on Silver Tree Publishing.

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