FACTS About This Decade

FACTS about this decade. Population: 226,546,000 1980 - 1989 Unemployed in 1980: National Debt: 1980 - $914,000,000,000 National Debt: 1986 - $2,000,000,000,000 Average salary: $15,757 Life Expectancy: Male 69.9 Female 77.6 Minimum Wage: $3.10 BMW was $12,000; Mercedes 280 E was $14,800 Attendance: Movies 20 million/week Daily 100 - Interactive quotes from the 80s

The 1980s became the Me! Me! Me! generation of status seekers. During the 1980s, hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts, and mega-mergers spawned a new breed of billionaire. Donald Trump, Leona Helmsley, and Ivan Boesky iconed the meteoric rise and fall of the rich and famous. If you've got it, flaunt it and You can have it all! were watchwords. Forbes' list of 400 richest people became more important than its 500 largest companies. Binge buying and credit became a way of life and 'Shop Til you Drop' was the watchword. Labels were everything, even (or especially) for our children. Tom Wolfe dubbed the baby- boomers as the 'splurge generation.' Video games, aerobics, minivans, camcorders, and talk shows became part of our lives. The decade began with double-digit inflation, Reagan declared a war on drugs, Kermit didn't find it easy to be green, hospital costs rose, we lost many, many of our finest talents to AIDS which before the decade ended spread to black and Hispanic women, and unemployment rose. On the bright side, the US Constitution had its 200th birthday, Gone with the Wind turned 50, ET phoned home, and in 1989 Americans gave $115,000,000,000 to charity. And, Internationally, at the very end of the decade the Berlin Wall was removed - making great changes for the decade to come! At the turn of the decade, many were happy to leave the spendthrift 80s for the 90s, although some thought the eighties TOTALLY AWESOME. EVENTS AND TECHNOLOGY

PRESIDENTS Science and technology made terrific strides in the eighties. Large numbers of Americans began using personal 1981 Ronald Reagan computers in their homes, offices, and schools. Columbia, 1984 Ronald Reagan America's first reusable spacecraft was launched in 1981. A 1989 George Bush sad day in our history was January 28, 1986, when space shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds after liftoff at Cape Canavaral, Florida killing all seven astronauts, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe. Research money allowed for studies and new treatments for heart, cancer, and other diseases. Major advances in genetics research led to the 1988 funding of the Human Genome Project. This project will locate the estimated 80,000 genes contained in human DNA. (Try the Timeline)

During this decade Wayne Williams was arrested in Atlanta for the murders of 23 black children, Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman Supreme Court Justice, 52 hostages were released from their 444 days of captivity in Iran, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial inscribed with 57,939 names of American soldiers killed or missing in Vietnam was dedicated, income climbed more than 20 percent, Ivan Boesky of Drexel Burnham Lambert made headlines with insider trading scandals, Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman presidential candidate, Jesse Jackson was the first black candidate, the stock market tripled in 7 years yet survived the 1987 crash, and televangelist Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45 years for selling bogus lifetime vacations. The sexual revolution encountered a major adversary when Rock Hudson died of AIDS in 1985. Prisons overflowed and violent crime rates which, in 1980, had tripled since 1960, continued to climb with the appearance of crack in 1985. From 1985 to 1990 the use of cocain addiction was up 35 percent, though the number of users had declined. Nancy Reagan's Just Say No campaign had great influence. Toward the end of the decade, President Bush called for a kinder, gentler nation and volunteerism and contributions reached an all time high.

Families changed drastically during these years. The 80s continued the trends of the 60s and 70s - more divorces, more unmarrieds living together, more single parent families. The two-earner family was even more common than in previous decades, more women earned college and advanced degrees, married, and had fewer children.

Important Historic and Cultural Events  Medicare - authored by Senator Ted Kennedy 1980

 Toxic shock syndrome caused by Tampons

ART & ARCHITECTURE:

Eighties was a huge decade for art, art museums, and artists. Artists included mostly moderns i.e, Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella. Andy Warhol did a few ads. Artists were trying new arenas and pushing the envelop. During the decade, huge numbers of people protested the Mapplethorpe exhibit at the Corcoran then at the Wadsworth Atheneum. Veterans protested a Chicago Art Institute exhibit that had the flag draped on the floor, Richard Serra's Tilted Arc was removed from NYC's Federal plaza, and Andrew Wyeth's Helga pictures were refused by some museums but in 1987, the Helga paintings were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, the gallery's first exhibition of works by a living artist.

Auctions of famous art works brought record prices. Early in the decade Picasso's 'Yo' brought 5.4 million. By 1987, Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' brought $39.9 million while 'Irises" brought $53.9 million dollars! The Museum of Modern Art reopened twice as large as previously, Joseph Hirshhorn left his works to the Hirshhorn Museum (Smithsonian), places like San Antonio built multi-million dollar museums. In March, 1990, in a nighttime art theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, thieves made off with 12 works of art, including paintings by Degas, Rembrandt, Renoir, and Vermeer, valued at $100,000,000 (now estimated $300,000,000 - 2008). Never recovered.

A few famous architectural feats of the 80s were the Menil Collection in Houston by Renzo Piano (wow), Trump Tower, High Museum in Atlanta, Union Station in Washington, and Sunshine Skyway Bridge in St. Petersberg. I.M. Pei, Philip Johnson, and Richard Meier were among the most renowned architects of the period. BOOKS & LITERATURE

American was reading. Popular fiction authors included espionage writers Ken Follett, Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth, Martin Cruz Smith, Tom Clancy, and John le Carre. Scott Turow turned the legal thriller around and paved the way for the mega legal thrillers of the 90s, when he wrote Presumed Innocent. Of 13 books which sold over one million copies, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and Danielle Steele wrote 10 of them. Tom Wolfe, Toni Morrison, Larry McMurtry, James Michener, John Irving, and Alice Walker were among the popular writers of the decade. Non fiction books became best-sellers. All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, (Robert Fulgham), The Beverly Hills Diet (Judy Mazel), Richard Simmons' Never Say Diet Book, and Miss Piggy's Guide to Life helped us get in touch with our inner and outer selves :-) Trump: Surviving at the Top and Iacocca: an Autobiography hit the bestseller lists. Two of my favorite contemporary poets wrote during this decade:

1. 2. To the left, 3. Don't worry, Don't kill that fly! haiku by spiders, Look- it's wringing Issa, 17th Afternoon cooking in the I keep house its hands, century poet fall sun casually. wringing its feet. Translated by who is more naked than Robert Haas. the man yelling,

Or the "Hey, I'm home!" to an beginning of empty house? 'Song' by Haas....

In Those Years In those years, people will say, we lost track of the meaning of we,of you we found ourselves reduced to I and the whole thing became silly, ironic, terrible: we were trying to live a personal life and yes, that was the only life we could bear witness to

But the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged into our personal weather They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and pinions drove along the shore, through the rags of fog where we stood, saying I.

~ Adrienne Rich ~ Published in 1991, but surely speaks to the 1980s generation.

Books That Define the Time

 Cosmos by Carl Sagan  Ironweed by William Kennedy, showing the seamier side of Kennedy's home town, Albany, NY.  In Search of Excellence by Thomas J. Peters & Robert H. Waterman, Jr. - best run companies  1984 - George Orwell's 1949 classic - cheating to mention this, but it was certaining a hot topic during the early decade.  Fatherhood by Bill Cosby - Cosby and Clancy made the big bucks this decade.  The Bonfire of the Vanities - Thomas Wolfe - sociologies use this book for a different 80s viewpoint  Cultural Literacy by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. listing what he believed American's should know to be 'culturally educated.'  The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom  Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow, legal thriller, paved the way for the likes of John Grisham, and brought the American courtroom to our attention.  Official Preppy Handbook - indicative of the fad-crazed logo-happy generation , this book spawned several paradies, and while intended to be satirical, it led the way for what was 'in' and what was 'out'.

 The Cycles of American History by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Newbery Award Winner - Began in Caldecott Award Winner - Began in 1938 1922 (most distinguished children's (most distinguished children's picture book book of the previous year) of the previous year) 1980: A Gathering of Days: A New 1980: Ox-Cart Man, illustrated by Barbara England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Cooney; text: Donald Hall Joan W. Blos 1981: Fables by Arnold Lobel 1981: Jacob Have I Loved by 1982: Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg Katherine Paterson 1983: Shadow, translated and illustrated by 1982: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Marcia Brown; original text in French: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Blaise Cendrars Travelers by Nancy Willard 1984: The Glorious Flight: Across the 1983: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice & Martin 1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Provensen Cleary 1985: Saint George and the Dragon, 1985: The Hero and the Crown by illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman; text: Robin McKinley retold by Margaret Hodges 1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia 1986: The Polar Express by Chris Van MacLachlan Allsburg 1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid 1987: Hey, Al, illustrated by Richard Fleischman Egielski; text: Arthur Yorinks 1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography by 1988: Owl Moon, illustrated by John Russell Freedman Schoenherr; text: Jane Yolen 1989: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two 1989: Song and Dance Man, illustrated by Voices by Paul Fleischman Stephen Gammell; text: Karen Ackerman

EDUCATION

A 1980 study by UCLA and American Council on Education indicated that college freshmen were more interested in status, power, and money than at any time during the past 15 years. Business Management was the most popular major.

 American education came under fire during the 1980s. Liberals cried out against budget cuts and rising student costs. School districts offered teachers exams and exit exams became a part of graduating for Education majors. Conservatives like E.D.Hirsch, Jr. and William Bennett advocated a return to the classics for college students and back to the basic skills for public school students. An attempt was made to improve the teacher quality by raising salaries slightly. Efforts to censor books tripled in the eighties. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , The Grapes of Wrath, and Catcher in the Rye were among books banned in New York State. Roget's Thesaurus banned sexist categories: mankind becamehumankind; countryman became country dweller. Columbia University, the last all male Ivy League school, began accepting women in 1983. President Reagan endorsed a constitutional amendment to permit school prayer. It was defeated.

FADS, FASHION, & LIFESTYLES

Team sports for kids were really popular beginning in the seventies and going through the present. Eighties' mothers ran carpool after work, kids had after school and week end cheerleading, baseball, football, soccer, gym, dance, jazz, you name it!

Nerd's became a hot commodity in the 1980s. Wealthy and brainy computer wizards like Stephen Wozniak helped. So did movies like Revenge of the Nerds, Lucas, Stand by Me, and Peggy Sue Got Married. TV joined the nerd ranks with ABC's hit series Head of the Class. Food of the 80s included the popular fast food places like Taco Bell and McDonald's McDLT and McRib. Kids loved Sweetarts, Skittles, Nerds, Runts, Hubba Bubba Chewing Gum, and Five Alive.

Collectibles were big in the 80s. Smurf and E.T. paraphernalia, Cabbage Patch dolls, camcorders, video games (Nintendo, Pac Man, Game Boy), Rubik's Cube, Teenage Mutant Nija Turtles, and Barbies (now Hispanic, Black, Asian) were big. New were discount air fares, lite foods, aerobics, minivans, talkshows, and Valley Girls (grody to the max).

The combination of Nancy Reagan's elegance and Princess Di's love of fashion, stimulated a return to opulent clothing styles. Power dressing was in. Madonna was a big influence on young fashion. Anne Klein, Perry Ellis, Donna Karan, and Calvin Klein were designers for the 80s. Film continued to influence and inspire clothing. The Flashdance look had young and old in tank tops, tight-fitting pants or torn jeans, and leg-warmers. Teens not wearing designer clothes opted for Michael Jackson's glove or Madona's fishnet stockings, leather, and chains. Older women wore the Out of Africa look popularized by Meryl Streep. Image won over reality and tanning salons thrived. Sneakers were so popular (and necessary) and the price so high that the Los Angeles Police Department accused shoe companies of cashing in on the easy drug money picked up by inner city kids. The shoe companies, like Nike, claimed the cost of high technologies needed to create the shoes was responsible for the huge jump in price. Kids like to do their own thing - see hairdos in pictures as evidence!

During the eighties, Americans continued to travel around their own country - using every mode of transportation. Trips to Colorado for a mountain vacation were popular in summer as well as winter. Traveling was often in RVs.

MUSIC & MEDIA

Cable was born and MTV, orginally intended to be promos for albums, had an enormous impact on music and young people. The digital compact disc (cd) revolutionized the music industry. Dances learned on MTV included slam dancing, lambada, and break dancing. Harlem's gay, black, and Latino males imitated the beautiful jet set with their (then underground) Vogueing, a 'pose' dance popularized by Madonna incorporating the struts and stances of high fashion models.

Pop, rock, new wave, punk, country, and especially rap or hip hop became popular in the 80s. Rap was new in the late 80s and 90s. Rap had started in prison 20 years earlier by jailed black inmates who, in the absense of instruments, turned poetic meter into musical rhythm. The early rap heard on ghetto streets was abrasive and laced with hostility toward society. Early important groups are Milli Vanilli, M. C. Hammer , Vanilla Ice, and L.L. Cool J. There are great links on the Internet for music of the 80s listed below. Here are a very few favorites from the top hits of the decade:

YEAR TITLE ARTIST 1980 Please Don't Go - single K.C. and the Sunshine Band 1980 The Wall - album Pink Floyd 1981 Woman in Love - single Stevie Wonder 1981 Greatest Hits- album Kenny Rogers Paul McCartney & Stevie 1982 Ebony & Ivory - single Wonder 1982 Tattoo You - album Rolling Stones 1983 Let's Dance - single David Bowie 1983 Flashdance - album Sound Track To All the Girls I've Loved Before - 1984 Julio Iglesias, Willie Nelson single 1984 An Innocent Man - album Billie Joel 1985 Night Shift - single The Commodores 1985 Born in the U.S.A.- album Bruce Springsteen 1986 Group

1986 Whitney Houston - album Whitney Houston 1987 Give me Wings - single Michael Johnson 1987 The Joshua Tree - album U2 1988 Got My Mind Set on You - single George Harrison 1988 Dirty Dancing - album Soundtrack 1989 Better Man - single Clint Black 1989 Nick of Time - album Bonnie Raitt

THEATER, FILM, & TELEVISION

In 1981, VCR sales rose 72% in 12 months. By 1989, 60 percent of American households with televisions received cable service. Huge or memorable movies of the decade included On Golden Pond, Tootsie, Arthur, Stephen Spielberg Movies like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, The Big Chill, Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Out of Africa, Back to the Future, Cocoon, The Breakfast Club,Platoon,Star Trek, Good Morning Vietnam, Fatal Attraction, Rain Man, and Driving Miss Daisy.

Broadway revivals were important during the 80s. Revival musicals like West Side Story, The Music Man, Anything Goes, Me and My Gal, Brigadoon, Grand Hotel, Gypsy, and The King and I all did well at the box office. Sell-out musicals were ahead for La Cage aux Folles, Sunday in the Park with George, Andrew Lloyd Webber's mega hits Cats, Starlight Express, Les Miserables, and The Phantom of the Opera. Dramas included M. Butterfly, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and Walk in the Woods. In 1980, the American Ballet Theater turned 40 and Mikhail Baryshnikov became director.

TV innovations and trends included anti-family sitcoms like Roseanne and Married...with Children ; tabloid tv with Geraldo, Phil, Sally, and Oprah; stand-up comics included Gary Shandling, Jane Curtin, George Carlin, Jackie Mason, Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld, and Tracy Ullman; info-tainment included Nightline with Ted Koppel, CNN Cable News,and 20/20 with Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters. 60 Minutes which had first aired in 1968 was bigger than ever. It was a media decade with superstars. The decade of the sitcom, here is a list of the top ten TV shows of 1989.

Cosby A Different America's Funniest Home Cheers Roseanne Show World Videos Golden The Wonder Empty 60 Minutes Unsolved Mysteries Girls Years Nest