I had to explain the concept of Vaporwave to my father, a musician who was active throughout the '80's. I told him it's zeitgeist for an era that never actually happened. So I think this hits the nail on the head.

There are similar, albeit less ᴀ ᴇ s ᴛ ʜ ᴇ ᴛ ɪ ᴄ, notions for other decades as well.

Everyone thinks the 1950's were a nonstop sock hop and an episode of Leave it to Beaver.

Everything thinks the entirety of the 1960's was Woodstock.

Everything in the 1970's was brown and orange, or wood grain, and had a ridiculous mustache on it.

...But then, everything that everyone knows happened didn't actually happen in the decade everyone thinks it did anyway.

I'd think the wording should be more like

'... back to the way they never got the chance to be'

I’d love a pre Big Bang universe

80s/90s according to tv: You live in a large house with a huge bedroom and own everything anyone at the time would have wanted.

80s/90s reality: You more than likely owned almost nothing. Except for the lucky few, you were most likely broke and everyone you knew were broke too. You did happen to own a piece of shit VCR.

Is this c/fascistaeathetics now