(Requires NY Times login) It was probably inevitable. The pop music and fashion industries depend on recycling their own history, and the retro styles of the 1960's and 70's had been strip-mined to the point of exhaustion. Anyway, pop cult revivals tend to arrive punctually after roughly 20 years just long enough for a period to acquire the charm of remoteness. In the 80's themselves, rock groups like R.E.M. and Jesus and Mary Chain harked back to the Velvet Underground and the Byrds of the 60's. So, in the 00's, the 80's have returned, right on time. Dance clubs devoted to 80's pop culture have been springing up from Chicago to London, from Berlin to Brooklyn, all of them echoing with the thumping sound of 80's synth-pop groups like Human League and Soft Cell. But the D.J.'s are not just spinning records culled from the bargain bins. They're also playing music by a raft of contemporary 80's-influenced groups like Fischerspooner, the Faint and Miss Kittin and the Hacker. w1ld: great article! The 70's Are So 90's. The 80's Are the Thing Now. | 
