SMELLS LIKE GEN X BLOG
Explore the written archive for 70s nostalgia, 80s nostalgia, and 90s nostalgia across music, movies, TV shows, toys, fads, commercials, trends, and the weird pop-culture debris that never fully left your brain.
Use this page as the main written gateway into Smells Like Gen X: start with a decade hub, follow a topic lane, search the archive, or jump straight into the latest post.
Looking for a specific year, song list, movie countdown, TV ranking, toy post, fad archive, commercial rewind, or category lane? Search the archive directly instead of scrolling the whole feed.
The blog works best when you use the decade hubs as your map. Start with the 70s, jump into the flagship 80s hub, or head into the expanding 90s archive.
Start here for 70s songs, movies, TV, toys, and the slower, stranger, more analog version of Gen X memory.
Big hooks, bigger movies, iconic toy aisles, prime-time TV, mall culture, and now the full 1980–1989 fads archive in one decade hub.
Alt-rock, sitcom empires, CDs, snack-branding overload, holiday toy panic, and the polished late-era Gen X archive.
These topic lanes route into the main category hubs, so visitors can browse the archive by what they actually care about.
Start here for year-end countdowns, chart rewinds, radio nostalgia, and the songs that permanently colonized your brain.
Dive into year-by-year movie countdowns, box office rewinds, poster-wall nostalgia, and video-store-era comfort watches.
Network giants, sitcom empires, Nielsen-era countdowns, forgotten shows, and the TV memories that still feel weirdly personal.
Holiday toy panic, weird products, year-by-year toy posts, and the kind of childhood plastic that still lives in your head rent-free.
Schoolyard crazes, mall fads, bad hair decisions, logo flexes, and the short-lived obsessions that defined everyday Gen X life.
Dive into classic commercial rewinds, catchphrases, mascots, cola wars, beer ads, Super Bowl spots, and the campaigns that completely colonized Gen X memory.
These are the strongest written entry points into the current Smells Like Gen X archive.
The strongest decade page on the site right now, with clear paths into songs, movies, TV, toys, fads, commercials, and broader 80s nostalgia.
One of the most distinctive lanes on the site now that the full 1980s fad run is live. Great for fast nostalgia hits and everyday-memory weirdness.
Classic ad campaigns, mascots, cola wars, beer slogans, and the TV spots that got so big they stopped feeling like ads.
Fresh nostalgia, deep cuts, countdowns, weird trends, and beautifully unnecessary rewinds across the Gen X archive.
From Blazing Saddles and The Towering Inferno to Young Frankenstein, Earthquake, and The Godfather Part II, these were the biggest box office hits of 1974 ranked by North American gross for films first released that year
Read more →From The Exorcist to American Graffiti, these were the biggest box office hits of 1973. This Smells Like Gen X countdown ranks the top 10 movies of the year by North American box office for films first released in 1973.
Read more →From The Godfather to The Poseidon Adventure, Cabaret, and Deliverance, here are the top 10 movies of 1972 ranked by North American box office, with deeper nostalgia, cast highlights, and why these films still matter.
Read more →From Fiddler on the Roof to The French Connection, Dirty Harry, and A Clockwork Orange, here are the top 10 movies of 1971 ranked by North American box office, with deeper nostalgia, cast highlights, and why these films still matter.
Read more →From Love Story to Airport, MASH*, and Woodstock, here are the top 10 movies of 1970 ranked by North American box office, with deeper nostalgia, cast highlights, and why these films still matter.
Read more →From “My Sharona” to “Bad Girls,” “Le Freak,” and “Y.M.C.A.,” here are the Top 10 Songs of 1979 ranked by Billboard’s Hot 100 year-end chart, with chart stats, nostalgia, and deeper context on the hits that defined the year.
Read more →From “Shadow Dancing” to “Night Fever,” “Stayin’ Alive,” and “Three Times a Lady,” here are the Top 10 Songs of 1978 ranked by Billboard’s Hot 100 year-end chart, with chart stats, nostalgia, and deeper context on the hits that defined the year.
Read more →From “Tonight’s the Night” to “I Just Want to Be Your Everything,” “Best of My Love,” and “Evergreen,” here are the Top 10 Songs of 1977 ranked by Billboard’s Hot 100 year-end chart, with chart stats, nostalgia, and deeper context on the hits that defined the year.
Read more →From “Silly Love Songs” to “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” “Disco Lady,” and “Play That Funky Music,” here are the Top 10 Songs of 1976 ranked by Billboard’s Hot 100 year-end chart, with chart stats, nostalgia, and deeper context on the hits that defined the year.
Read more →From “Love Will Keep Us Together” to “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “Philadelphia Freedom,” and “Shining Star,” here are the Top 10 Songs of 1975 ranked by Billboard’s Hot 100 year-end chart, with chart stats, nostalgia, and deeper context on the hits that defined the year.
Read more →From “The Way We Were” to “Seasons in the Sun,” “Love’s Theme,” and “Come and Get Your Love,” here are the Top 10 Songs of 1974 ranked by Billboard’s Hot 100 year-end chart, with chart stats, nostalgia, and deeper context on the hits that defined the year.
Read more →From “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” to “American Pie,” “Lean on Me,” and “Alone Again (Naturally),” here are the Top 10 Songs of 1972 ranked by Billboard’s Hot 100 year-end chart, with chart stats, nostalgia, and deeper context on the hits that defined the year.
Read more →DON’T MISS THE REWIND
Countdowns, forgotten media, weird rabbit holes, and peak Gen X nostalgia across every category.