25+ Music Memes Transporting You to the 70s and 80s (October 12, 2026)

JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor

Oct 12, 2026 4:30 PM EDT

If you're tuning into the classic rock station on the radio, these memes are for you.

Music taste is an intensely personal thing. We all have different relationships with music, and we wouldn't have it any other way. You relationship with the songs that you love says so much about who you are, and it's a fascinating thing to get to know about someone. How many friendships in your life have been deepened through a shared love of music? I know a lot of relationships in my life have been. It's more than just liking the same thing, it's being on the same page about the stuff that moves you the most. The songs that quiet your heart and stir your soul. The 70s and 80s happened to produce a lot of them. I don't know what was in the water in that moment in time, all I know is that I'm glad that we still have the music, and it still guides our hearts. It stays with us long past its expiration date.

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Different eras of music have different moods about them, and they're all tied to different moments in history and different moments in our lives. For me, the music of the 2000s and early 2010s is intensely nostalgic, because that's the era I grew up in. The Black Eyed Peas were playing at every middle school dance, and now when I hear those songs I feel like that 13-year-old girl again. One whiff of a Ke$ha song and I'm on the school bus with my iPod. The power of music to transport us to a different time cannot be overstated.

If you are part of an earlier generation, or even just have a broader appreciation of different decades of music, all sorts of genres can have this effect on you. I get it. The music of the 70s and 80s was particularly evocative, marking a new era in pop and rock where songwriters were really feeling the groove. They were laying down funky bass lines and making no apology for it. It was an era of disco, funk, classic rock, hard rock, hair metal, glam, and more. Some of music's most iconic figures came about in this time, so it's only natural that we'd enjoy some memes about them.

If you're anything like me, the genre known as Yacht Rock holds a particular power in your life. This meme list is admittedly a little biased towards the Doobie Brothers and the Steely Dans of the world. There's just something about a male tenor and a clean guitar line that moves my soul and makes me grateful to be alive. I can picture myself on a boat with a cool beverage in hand, feeling optimistic about life and all that it has in store. If that sounds up your alley, then you're in the right place. We've got memes all about this golden age in music history that will transport you right back to your youth, or someone else's youth, if you weren't there to experience it yourself. So scroll on and get lost in the memes. And get funky with it.
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