I have a very important question.
In the 1980's, did the high school kids actually, you know, dance at house parties? As the classics* would have us believe? Cause we didn't dance at house parties. No way now how. I have been asking around, and so far no one can give me a definitive confirmation. (IE maybe they did in Chicago, but, not in Detroit...)
*movies. You know. Brat Pack movies. Valley Girl, etc.
image from Valley Girl via
in the laaaate eighties, in sf, we did not dance at parties. (and we never called them "house parties.") we did, however, make out in hot tubs and empty master bedrooms.
ReplyDeletegod no. we just lounged around getting drunk and smoking clove cigarettes. maybe there was drunk happy dancing if good music came on, like the violent femmes, which requires you do the twist and hold an invisible microphone while you sing along.
ReplyDeleteoh and I concur with the above comment about making out in hot tubs. that did in fact happen my junior year.
ps. the brat pack wiki page is the. best.
ReplyDeletei cannot comment on the eighties, but late nineties high school parties in tempe most certainly did not have any dancing. keg stands, lots of pot, and the aforementioned making out in empty bedrooms. training ground for all the frat houses my h.s. guy friends joined. *shudder* oh, and someone inevitably wound up in the pool. however, house parties circa 2010 *definitely* feature at least one serious dancing segment. at least.
ReplyDeletewe danced at concerts. at house parties we watched monty python movies and shared, like, the one beer we could find. #beingadebatenerdsucked
ReplyDeleteoh, and that was the mid-late-nineties, in so cal, which was also very jesustastic. yay, orange county! #ornot
ReplyDeletenope. no dancing here.
ReplyDeleteat least not in california circa 1987.
i just realized you were asking about the 80s. nevermind. I'm dumb. duh!
ReplyDeleteTeenagers never dance if they don't have to...never have, never will.
ReplyDeletei am pretty dissapointed.
ReplyDeletei should have never pressed the issue, and just went on asking ben if kids danced at parties when he was in h.s. in the "laaaate eighties" (while assuming that he was just going to the *wrong* parties when he said no).
stupid shattered image.
No dancing for us either. My experience was more like esb's. Sad.
ReplyDeleteI don't have an answer for dancing in the 80s at house parties, but we sure as hell danced at college house parties in the early to mid 00s! We still have moments where we dreamily query, "Remember the Summer of '04?" as we reminisce about the "Year of the Dance".
ReplyDeletewell in 1997 we did at my house! not my house partied but my brothers. maybe not detroit but south of detroit did! :)
ReplyDeleteDuring college and post-college we definitely dance(d) at the house parties. I didn't go to parties in high school...just hung out at my friends' older boyfriends' apartments, drank beer and smoked cigarillos. Maybe the cool kids were dancing at their parties but I have no idea.
ReplyDeleteuhmmm, i was doing a shit ton of dancing in 1987.
ReplyDeletethen again it was in my bedroom, alone, i was seven, and obsessed with madonna.
My friends and I had house parties that were ALL dancing up until about four years ago. We were all in our mid-twenties and the host would just made the best ipod playlists ever, you couldn't even resist shaking your bootie!
ReplyDeleteI'm from New York and there was always dancing at our house parties in the late 80s early 90s as teenagers and definitely as a twenty somethings. That was back before DJ ipod and you lived for making mix tapes.
ReplyDeleteumm, we can re-do this. we can dance at house parties. we can. with a lot of alcohol and low lights. done.
ReplyDeleteI went to high school in San Diego in the early 80's and band=dancing. No band, no dancing.
ReplyDeletehave you noticed that hs and college kids still dance in movie houseparties to this day? i have never once been to a party like that in my life. it's one of those lies that the film industry makes up about what our lives are supposed to be like.
ReplyDeletehouse party dancing? YES. But we were about nine. We turned up the tunes, turned down the lights and one of us was the designated flashlight turned strobe light operator. And our mothers were playing mah-jong in the other room. does that count?
ReplyDeletein the late eighties, we mainly danced at school dances...i have some rad pics from 1986 remind me to show you...
ReplyDeletebut then i went punk/ska and hung out at the gilman in berkeley & drank beer and moshed to bands like fishbone & faith no more. (probably with esb, btw)...
i can only comment on the 90s, but yeah..no one danced at house parties. we just sat around drinking and smoking and playing beer pong and telling stories and one time, getting into an epic fight with my friend don, because he thought ronald reagan was awesome. what?
ReplyDeletealso, why do i think of kid and play everytime i hear the term house party? am i the only one who will admit to having seen that movie? i'll stop talking now.
In Adelaide, Australia, we always danced at house parties.
ReplyDelete