The 80s Were a Wild Time—And Lionel Richie Proves It

The 80s Were a Wild Time—And Lionel Richie Proves It

by Andy Lee

The other day at work, I walked into the breakroom, and one of my coworkers greeted me with a cheerful, singing “Hello.” Without missing a beat, I responded, “Is it me you’re looking for? I can see it in your eyes.”

Thankfully, she wasn’t so young that she thought of Adele instead of Lionel Richie. I breathed a sigh of relief and said, “I’m glad you got that and didn’t think of the Adele song.” We laughed, joked about it, and then I asked the real question:

“Have you ever seen the video? Because… it sends some serious stalker vibes.”

She hadn’t.

So I tried to explain it: “Okay, so the girl in the video is blind. It looks like it takes place in a high school, and Lionel Richie is just… always there, watching her, singing to her, following her down the halls. And that’s not creepy at all.”

She pulled it up on her phone, watching in real-time as 80s weirdness unfolded before her. When the infamous clay sculpture of Lionel Richie’s head made its appearance, I pointed at the screen: “See?! He’s been obsessing over her this whole time, and she’s sculpting his face! This was normal to us?!”

We laughed at the absurdity of it all.

Then, a younger coworker in her 20s chimed in, dead serious: “And no one thought to flag this as inappropriate?”

I had to control my laughter before answering. “Oh no, this was the 80s. We didn’t have ‘inappropriate.’ It was the Wild West.”

And it really was.

Gen X: Raised by the Wild West of Pop Culture

If you grew up in the 80s, you know exactly what I mean. The idea of “problematic” wasn’t even in our vocabulary. We watched movies where teenagers got away with everything. Our parents weren’t hovering over us, filtering our music, or worrying about the “message” behind a music video.

We grew up with MTV, where borderline creepy music videos were just artistic choices. We had movies where teenagers threw raging house parties, skipped school with elaborate schemes, and somehow had no consequences. We listened to songs on the radio that, in hindsight, make us go, Wait… we were singing along to that when we were 10?!

And yet, we turned out fine. (Well, mostly.)

Now, everything is scrutinized. A music video like Hello would be dissected, debated, and probably inspire a dozen think pieces about power dynamics and boundaries. But back then? It was just a love song. A weird, slightly unsettling love song—but a love song nonetheless.

The Difference Between Then and Now

I don’t say all this to knock today’s generation. In a lot of ways, they’ve got things right—awareness is higher, boundaries are healthier, and let’s be honest, some of the things we thought were normal probably should have been flagged. But at the same time, there was a certain freedom in growing up when we did.

We didn’t overanalyze everything. We weren’t constantly bombarded with news, debates, and internet outrage. We just lived—sometimes recklessly, often hilariously, and always with the kind of unfiltered, slightly feral energy that only Gen X truly understands.

So yeah, Lionel Richie’s Hello music video? Definitely questionable. But would I trade the experience of growing up in an era where no one batted an eye at it? Not a chance.

Because the 80s? The 80s were a time.