Retro Hell: Life in the '70s and '80s, from Afros to Zotz

by Darby Romeo, Ben is Dead Magazine, Bruce Elliott (Introduction)

Valley girls. Quaaludes. Howard Cosell. K-tel Records. In today's pop -culture spin cycle, the seventies and eighties rule -- as evidenced by everything from reruns on Nickelodeon and VH-1 to Brady Bunch movies and New Wave theme parties.Now, at last, there's Retro Hell -- a sassy, knowing travelogue through the best and worst of these unforgettable decades. Orchestrated by the editor of Ben Is Dead, winner of the Firecracker Alternative Book Awards 1995 Best 'Zine of the Year, Retro Hell both sends up and celebrates the cultural landscape of our misspent youth. Thirty Ben Is Dead writers and hundreds of readers helped assemble the nearly 1,000 sharply opinionated alphabetical entries and loopily authoritative sidebars. The icons, the eccentricities, the excesses, the kitsch -- it's all here, from alligator shirts, breakdancing, Earth Shoes, and Farrah Fawcett to bumper stickers, eight-tracks, Schoolhouse Rock, and John Travolta.

Illustrated throughout with 100 black-and-white photographs and illustrations, Retro Hell is the definitive compendium of recent pop-culture arcana -- a fresh, funny look back for everyone who survived the seventies and eighties.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

Reviews

[CHAD HADEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as a 17 year old and love it even more as a 44 year old

[HeavyReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I get really depressed, I read this book. It reminds me of being a kid. That doesn't always make me feel happy, but it does distract me.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super Super fun encyclopedia of pop culture from late 60's to late 80's. Even more fun if you remember the old 'zine it came from "Ben is Dead"

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like there were so many books like this in the late 90's that informed my obsession with Gen X stuff that I was waaaaaaaay too young to actually remember. I blame Ben is Dead and Sassy for infecting me with false nostalgia and desire for things I don't know about like Blythe dolls.

[Professor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Retro Hell is a series of reprints from an old Zine, full of the pop culture, trends and ephemera of the '70s and '80s, amusingly cataloged. In some ways it is quite dated, though, as the book was published in 1997, and in some ways it's yesterday's news, since shows like the I Love The series have thoroughly and completely mined much of the material. It might also be best read by women of the age to remember both decades, as a lot of the focus is on fashions and style, and quite a bit more of the early 1980s and 1970s are covered than the mid-1980s to late-1980s. Still, brought back a lot of memories and was an amusing quick read.

[Craig Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are between the ages of 20-sometihng and 40, go get this now or you will be poked in the eye.

For real.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super cute dictionary of pop cultural references. Done with humor, though it might be a little too flip and insider. It almost seems written for the clique of people who wrote it.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

An A to Z of pop culture for old fart Gen Xers, culled from the much missed “Ben Is Dead” magazine. This book always cracks me up, even if it never got over the prom.