Listen to 1985
There's a particular kind of tired that doesn't have a name yet. It's not the tired you feel after a long day at work. It's the tired that comes from being needed in three directions at once – by a parent who can't manage their own hospital appointments anymore, by a grown child who's back in their old bedroom because rent has become a joke, and by a job that still expects you to show up as if none of it is happening.
That's the feeling behind 1985.
Where the song started
Most of us who grew up in the 1980s remember a version of childhood that seems almost unbelievable now. We left the house after breakfast and came home when the streetlights came on, and nobody needed to know exactly where we'd been. We recorded songs off the radio, waiting with a finger over the pause button for the DJ to stop talking. We knocked on doors instead of sending a text. There was no tracking, no passwords, no sense that every move was being logged somewhere.
It wasn't a perfect world. But it was a lighter one.
We were told a simple story: work hard, buy a house, raise a family, and things would feel secure. For a lot of us, that story has quietly stopped adding up. Somewhere between then and now, security became something you apply for, wait for, or hope for – not something you arrive at.
Stuck in the middle
1985 was written for the people who find themselves in the middle of it all. Not old enough to be done, not young enough to be starting out. Just in between – filling in forms for ageing parents, worrying about adult children who can't get a foothold, and trying to hold their own life together in whatever's left over.
There's a line in the song that sums it up:
"Kids don't leave bedrooms, parents fade in care, and we're somewhere in the middle, breathing recycled emf air."
It's not meant to be dramatic. It's meant to be recognisable. If you've ever sat in a hospital corridor answering emails, or lain awake wondering how your kids will ever afford a home of their own, you already know the feeling this song is trying to name.
Nostalgia without the rose tint
It would be easy to write a song like this as pure nostalgia – "everything was better back then." That's not quite what 1985 is doing. It's less interested in going backwards and more interested in asking a harder question: what did we actually lose along the way, and was any of it necessary?
Some of what's changed has made life better. Nobody's pretending otherwise. But somewhere in the trade-off between convenience and connection, a lot of us ended up more watched, more processed, and more alone than the world we grew up in ever felt.
George Orwell gets a nod in the lyrics, half as a joke, half as a warning nobody quite heeded:
"George said, 'Big Brother's watching you.' We laughed like it was science fiction. Now it's glowing in our hands."
Made by people who feel it too
This isn't a song written from a distance. It came out of a shared feeling among the team who made it – the sense of standing between two generations, doing your best for both, and rarely getting asked how you're doing in the process.
- Lyric Vision: Belinda Scott
- Music & Vocal Production: Jason Jackson
- Video Direction & Edit: Jane Davis
Created for NAVO, a re:human project – made by real humans, for the very human experience of holding a family together across two generations at once.
Who this is for
1985 is for anyone who's booked a parent's medical appointment and a graduate job interview in the same week. For anyone who remembers a simpler kind of freedom and isn't sure how to explain it to their own kids. For anyone exhausted, not by one big thing, but by the quiet accumulation of small ones.
It's not a song asking you to go back to 1985. It's asking what we build from here – something a little more human than where we've ended up.
Frequently asked questions
What is 1985 about? 1985 is a song about being caught between two generations at once – supporting ageing parents through hospitals and paperwork, while also supporting adult children facing rising rents, student debt and an uncertain future. It contrasts the freer, more analogue childhood of the 1980s with the always-connected, always-tracked world of today.
Who wrote and produced 1985? Lyric vision by Belinda Scott, music and vocal production by Jason Jackson, and video direction and edit by Jane Davis. It was created for NAVO, a re:human project.
Where can I listen to 1985? You can listen to and watch 1985 here: https://listen.meetnavo.com?v=1985
Is 1985 a nostalgic song? It draws on nostalgia, but it isn't asking listeners to long for the past as if it were perfect. It's using the contrast between then and now to ask what's been lost along the way, and what kind of future is worth building from here.
Who is 1985 for? It's for anyone caring for an ageing parent, anyone worrying about their kids' future, and anyone quietly exhausted from holding both generations together at once.
Watch and listen to 1985: https://listen.meetnavo.com?v=1985