The Complete, Cross-Referenced Guide to the Baby Buster Generation's Collective Unconscious

A dictionary covers 1980s popular culture

These two books guide the user through the cultural trivia of the last two decades with surprisingly little duplication. Both have plenty of See references to lead readers from "Erasure" to "Synth-Pop" to "Aerobics" to "Leg Warmers." Contributors to the long-running Ben Is Dead, a Los Angeles-based alternative culture magazine, have compiled their favorite memories of the Seventies and early Eighties. The signed entries include more general trends ("Orange: Important color when we grew up") as well as the expected "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," and often two or more people contribute annotations for the same entry. This format works well because the writing has a distinctly personal touch; the essay on PBS's Electric Company has as much to do with the impression the show had on one viewer as with the facts of the show's production. Journalists Gaslin and Porter offer a more factual?and more boring?take on the people, TV shows, and hit songs of the 1980s. Their short entries occasionally take a stab at humor or remind us of some forgotten connection but mostly list a singer's top hits or an actor's most memorable parts. As reference sources, both these books are comprehensive and well organized enough to answer the basic questions about one-hit wonders and sitcom stars and would do well in medium and large public libraries. Retro Hell also has some value as a cultural history and should be in public and academic circulating collections.?Eric Bryant, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.