So, this post will really show my age

As y'all know, I've been listening to lots of 80's tracks in the last year because I'm getting bored with the stuff we have now (I still listen to current hits, but just not all the time).

Anyway, every now and then I'll come across lyrics in certain songs that I know are slang from the 80's era that aren't really used anymore or have a different meaning in present times. I can always guess what the slang words/phrases mean, but sometimes I just really want to know the sense of these slang words.

For example, I haven't found this in any song yet, but I know a common phrase used to express disgust with something back in the 80's was "Gag me with a spoon". No one says this today.


In another example, we have the word "Nasty". Now, one slang meaning of "Nasty" implied that someone (usually a woman) was freaky in the bedroom. That meaning was around back in the 80's and still exists today.
-another meaning of "Nasty" that was used back then (which implied a badass coolness), isn't used so much today.
-additionally, today, the word "nasty" is often used to describe someone/something that is considered to be gross, and this meaning didn't exist in the 80's.

So here's my question of the moment. One term that we find in a TON of 80's r&b songs BUT that isn't used in present times is the phrase "Turn out/turn you out/turn me out". I know this doesn't mean the same thing as "turn on/turn you on/turn me on".
I looked up the meaning of "turn out" in urbandictionary.com http://www.urbandictionar...turn%20out and I think the first 2 definitions make the most sense to me. Those 2 meanings, however are extremely provocative, so I'm asking those of you around in the 80's, do the first 2 definitions found in urbandictionary match the meaning of "turn you out/turn me out" back in the 80's, or has the meaning changed over time?

I'm asking this because if the answer is yes, then damn the r&b 80's songs were filled with adult content , and I would be surprised if people back then allowed songs to have those lyrics if they knew they were that so sexually suggestive! I mean I'm not just talking about singers who purposely wrote explicit stuff-the phrase "turn out" was a commonly used lyric for many singers/groups who weren't overtly or explicitly sexual.

Here are just a few songs that use some version of "Turn out/turn you out/turn me out":

-Jody Watley: "Some Kind of Lover"
-Vanity: "Undress"
-and the song I just found that I love: Pointer Sisters "He Turned Me Out" for the Action Jackson soundtrack. Here's the video-check out Vanity and Carl Weathers (he was HOT back then!) flirting and playing pool in a bar: http://new.music.yahoo.co...t--2160314

oh and by the way, if anyone wants to add any other 80's slang words/phrases to this post, feel free to do so for those of us who were babies back then

mimi2 said:

Gag me with a spoon is from Valley Girl by Frank Zappa and his daughter Moon Unit. I think it was in the movie of the same name. Plus to be honest I don't think it was used in everyday slang, i think it was more kinda of a parody. Granted I didn't grow up in the valley, but no one in the Midwest actually used it. Hopefully.

Now Rad was popular.

To "turn (someone) out" in this context means to give them a great sexual experience. Seems to me the male is always the turner and the female the turnee.

And how could you forget:

I wanna turn you on, turn you out, all night long, make you shout

mimi2 said:

Word/Word up: "You can say that again."

Bad/Badass: Edgily cool.

Ace said:

I was stunned to learn that people don't say "bad" meaning "good" anymore. I still say "bad" like that and I'm SEVENTEEN.
I musta picked it up from my dad...
I'm still gon' say it.

lazycrockett said:

Thanks!

Ace said:

I'm not surprised about Vanity singing about that-but Jody and the Pointer Sisters? those were some "bad" bitches!

Ace said:

yup-we still use "word" in that sense. The "up" is usually omitted these days.

Ace said:

We also still use badass a lot in that sense. Even non-native English speakers use that and think it's new slang . "Bad" doesn't really mean "cool" anymore, but more of a sense of someone being "naughty".

ToraToraDreams said:

How about "Down By Law"?

"Clean" as in dressed real nice. "In The Mix" as in you got me confused with someone else...."you got me in the mix".

Throwdown
Jam The Box

namepeace said:

what does this mean?

vainandy said:

thanks! I haven't come across "in the mix" yet...

vainandy said:

I know "throwdown", but what does "Jam the box mean"? Is that telling someone to turn up the volume?

mimi2 said:

I'm only 23 and I'm fairly certain that nasty has always had the meaning of being gross. Using nasty as a way of saying the girl was a sexual freak is just like using bad to mean good.

mimi2 said:

He is cool, and its like it's a law how cool you are....ugh that sounded horrible...like explaining it to an old man.

Kinda. It's hard to explain because it could be various things. The "box" was the radio or sound system that people had. "Jammin'" was playing the hardest, most funkiest jams that could really get the asses shakin'. If someone was "jammin' the box", they were throwin' down the baddest jams at a volume so high it could bust your eardrums.

paisleypark4 said:

"He Turned Me Out" by the Pointer Sisters is a HOT song for sure. I love it. The track also appears on the Pointer Sister's 1988 CD - SERIOUS SLAMMIN' which is HOT. It is full of late 80's R&B jams that still hold up today.

mimi2 said:

fresh
dope
fly
word

that"s all you need to know