History UsefulNotes / The80s

* Western pop music began to draw from WorldMusic after two albums in 1980 featured prominent African influences: Music/TalkingHeads' ''Music/RemainInLight'' and Music/PeterGabriel's third SelfTitledAlbum, nicknamed ''Melt'' by fans. Music/PaulSimon had a CareerResurrection with 1986's ''Music/{{Graceland}}'', but the controversy over Simon breaking a cultural boycott in South Africa over Apartheid by recording there with black musicians [[GenreKiller put a damper on the trend]], exposing the UnfortunateImplications of white rock musicians [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy appropriating African music]].

* In live theater, the 1980s was the decade of the "megamusical" -- lavish productions with premises ranging from whimsical (''Theatre/{{Cats}}'', ''Theatre/StarlightExpress'') to highly dramatic (''Theatre/LesMiserables''), but all marked by scores that mixed pop sounds with "traditional" and operatic styles and a tendency towards BIG emotions and BIG showstoppers. The theatrical equivalents of the SummerBlockbuster, and often regarded with just as much disdain by professional critics, SceneryPorn and CostumePorn were the order of the day in these shows. Many were the musical work of British composer Creator/AndrewLloydWebber, and most premiered in London's West End before launching sister productions in New York City and elsewhere. Lloyd Webber's career and the megamusical as a whole reached a peak with 1986's ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', with the media hype surrounding the show's Broadway debut in 1988 comparable to that of any Hollywood blockbuster of the era.

* Western pop music began to draw from WorldMusic after two albums in 1980 featured prominent African influences: Music/TalkingHeads' ''Music/RemainInLight'' and Music/PeterGabriel's third SelfTitledAlbum, nicknamed ''Melt'' by fans. Music/PaulSimon had a CareerResurrection with 1986's ''Music/{{Graceland}}'', but the controversy over Simon breaking a cultural boycott in South Africa over Apartheid by recording there with black musicians [[GenreKiller put a damper on the trend]].

* [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] and SynthPop became two of the signature sounds of the '80s, starting in the Britain in the '70s but really garnering popularity in the United States around this decade. Artists such as A Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, Music/TalkingHeads, The Buggles, Music/NewOrder and Music/DepecheMode garnered big hits.

** Creator/UnitedArtists merged with Creator/[[MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]] in 1981. UsefulNotes/TedTurner would purchase their film library in 1986 to get material for his "Turner Network Television" cable channel.

* Series also started experimenting with settings -- no longer were the standard dramas and comedies confined to the three biggest cities. ''Series/EightIsEnough'' was set in Sacramento, for example, while DuelingShow ''Series/{{Family}}'' was set in Pasadena. Later on, UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco became very popular in this respect.

* EightiesHair tended towards the big and foofy. This was true for men, too -- though never as big as women's hair, men's hair was longish by today's standards, and buzz cuts were extremely rare. Especially in the early '80s, 'fros (afros) hung on from the '70s. Side ponytails and big neon scrunchies were popular among little girls and teenagers. Crimping irons with swappable plates were a must-have, including [[http://i54.tinypic.com/rhjvo4.jpg some]] that did not work at all as intended, unless you turned your hair into a sheet of hairspray and then didn't move.

* Horror cinema had one of its periodic boom eras.
** The first wave of [[SlasherMovie Slasher Movies]] crested and broke, with long-running franchises spun around such heavies as [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]], [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]], and [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]]. In the U.K., this tied into the supposed scourge of VideoNasties.
** Creator/StephenKing, being both popular and prolific, saw many of his horror novels and short stories adapted to the big screen in this decade with mixed results. (One of his ''non''-horror stories, "The Body", became the basis for the much-loved ''Film/StandByMe'' as well.)
** A class of innovative filmmakers -- Creator/JohnLandis, Creator/JohnCarpenter, and Creator/JoeDante especially -- took advantage of emerging special effects technologies to create films that often drew upon, [[Film/TheBlob1988 if not outright remade]], the horror films and stories of the 1930s to '50s. Often DarkerAndEdgier, BloodierAndGorier, and sometimes HotterAndSexier, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]], [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghosts]] and sundry other monsters (both established and original) became A-list after years of being relegated to BMovie fare as they finally were adapted to modern times.

* Disney launched a distribution label called Creator/TouchstonePictures. Touchstone which was meant to handle films that were aimed at mature audiences which tended to be darker than the films branded under Creator/WaltDisneyPictures which tended to stick with more family friendly fare. The success of Touchstone was key in establishing Disney as a bonafide major Hollywood studio.

** A class of innovative filmmakers -- Creator/JohnLandis, Creator/JohnCarpenter, and Creator/JoeDante especially -- took advantage of emerging special effects technologies to create films that often drew upon, [[Film/TheBlob1988 if not outright remade]], the horror films and stories of the 1930s to '50s. Often DarkerAndEdgier, BloodierAndGorier, and sometimes HotterAndSexier, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]], [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghosts]] and sundry other monsters (both established and original) became A-list after years of being relegated to BMovie fare as they finally were adapted to modern times. There were PG options -- Spielberg produced ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'', '''Disney''' experimented with chilling content in such films as ''Literature/SomethingWickedThisWayComes'', and there was even a run of horror/comedy hybrids starting with ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' and climaxing with ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. On the other side of the coin, Creator/DavidCronenberg turned BodyHorror into a hard-R art form.

** A class of innovative filmmakers -- Creator/JohnLandis, Creator/JohnCarpenter, and Creator/JoeDante especially -- took advantage of emerging special effects technologies to create films that often drew upon, [[Film/TheBlob1988 if not outright remade]], the horror films and stories of the 1930s to '50s. Often DarkerAndEdgier, BloodierAndGorier, and sometimes HotterAndSexier, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]], [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], ghosts and sundry other monsters (both established and original) became A-list after years of being relegated to BMovie fare as they finally were adapted to modern times. There were PG options -- Spielberg produced ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'', '''Disney''' experimented with chilling content in such films as ''Literature/SomethingWickedThisWayComes'', and there was even a run of horror/comedy hybrids starting with ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' and climaxing with ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. On the other side of the coin, Creator/DavidCronenberg turned BodyHorror into a hard-R art form.

** A class of innovative filmmakers -- Creator/JohnLandis, Creator/JohnCarpenter, and Creator/JoeDante especially -- took advantage of emerging special effects technologies to create films that often drew upon, [[Film/TheBlob1988 if not outright remade]], the horror films and stories of the 1930s-'50s. Often DarkerAndEdgier, BloodierAndGorier, and sometimes HotterAndSexier, werewolves, vampires, ghosts and sundry other monsters (both established and original) became A-list after years of being relegated to BMovie fare as they finally were adapted to modern times. There were PG options -- Spielberg produced ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'', '''Disney''' experimented with chilling content in such films as ''Literature/SomethingWickedThisWayComes'', and there was even a run of horror/comedy hybrids starting with ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' and climaxing with ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. On the other side of the coin, Creator/DavidCronenberg turned BodyHorror into a hard-R art form.

** A class of innovative filmmakers -- Creator/JohnLandis, Creator/JohnCarpenter, and Creator/JoeDante especially -- took advantage of emerging special effects technologies to create films that often drew upon, [[Film/TheThing1982 if not outright remade]], the horror films of the 1930s-'50s. Often BloodierAndGorier and sometimes HotterAndSexier, werewolves, vampires, ghosts and sundry other monsters (both established and original) became A-list after years of being relegated to BMovie fare as they finally were adapted to modern times. There were PG options -- Spielberg produced ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'', '''Disney''' experimented with chilling content in such films as ''Literature/SomethingWickedThisWayComes'', and there was even a run of horror/comedy hybrids starting with ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' and climaxing with ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. On the other side of the coin, Creator/DavidCronenberg turned BodyHorror into a hard-R art form.

** At home, however, things were not as well as they seemed - many people were tired of living in a strict, postwar society, many people were ''not'' part of the economic boom or were only so much as working 20 hour days, and while, at the time, Japanese technology was at the top of the world, it would become obsolete. {{Yakuza}} and other criminals infested nearly every part of business and politics and all of the other expanding industries, and the amount of people who were the ObstructiveBureaucrat or outright corrupt involved in every part of the bubble businesses were too numerous to even be counted, as was the financial fraud at nearly every point of it, which often got a pass due to CultureJustifiesAnything and cultural ignorance overseas (meaning someone could run an outright {{Ponzi}}, for example, and say it was Japanese business practice, and a lot of more gullible overseas financial industry people would happily shovel in money, not realizing that native Japanese would spot the scam instantly.) Many disaffected young men became ''bosozoku'' (biker gang members) or ''yankii'' (JapaneseDelinquents), and occasionally bosozoku, yankii, and Visual bandmen (all of whom readily mixed as subcultures drawing from each other) would get into truly violent and dangerous fights involving knives, baseball bats, fists, improvised weapons, and occasionally fire via Zippo lighters and occasionally pyrotechnics. Mental illness was often unrecognized and untreated (or poorly treated), working conditions could best be described as "hell on earth," and the use of alcohol and tobacco was irresponsible and off the charts by almost anyone who was an adult, and some who weren't - and the country and several subcultures in it, including the bosozoku, experienced the first "speed boom," with first diverted pharmaceutical pill methamphetamine and soon crystal methamphetamine becoming somewhat available for the first time via the yakuza since postwar times. AIDS denialism existed as ''national policy'' and as many people's personal belief, that no Japanese could or would contract HIV/AIDS.

** Anime and manga were first introduced to the world on a wide scale as something other than adapted "kid stuff," including what was widely recognized as the first mature dramatic animated film, ''Manga/{{Akira}}'', and of course, {{hentai}}. Japanese companies widely owned entertainment as well, from TV and music including Sony having bought out Columbia Pictures (having been spun off into it's own company by Coca-Cola after a number of high-profile flops), and purchasing record labels globally as well.

** It was the first and only time until ''much'' later on that Japanese music acts toured widely outside the country with the HairMetal/proto-visual act Music/{{Loudness}} touring with Motley Crue and filming in the US, the HairMetal/proto-visual act [[Music/MasakiYamada EZO]] getting signed to Geffen Records and performing in the US, and even Music/XJapan trying for what would be (for [[FrivolousLawsuit various reasons]]) an abortive attempt at performing in the US and still filming within it anyway.

* Society was ambivalent about yuppies even at the time. It's true that the "self-made man" (read: greedy, rapacious bastard) was idolized, but yuppies were viewed in roughly the same way that the dot com millionaires of the '90s were: a class of smart, driven young men and women who made vast fortunes nearly instantly by trading on mumbo-jumbo that nobody else understood. They came in for plenty of ribbing as self-interested, too, much as {{hipster}}s are today.
* The screws really got turned on smoking as the threat of second-hand smoke became fully accepted and gave the tobacco companies the ultimate PR nightmare: It's one thing to manipulate their addicts to rationalize what they are doing to their own bodies, but it's quite another to deal with non-smokers who are being threatened by smoking as innocent bystanders. While cigarette vending machines were still a common sight in the U.S. at the beginning of the decade, they were long gone before its end.

* Horror cinema had one of their periodic boom eras.

** A class of innovative filmmakers -- Creator/JohnLandis, Creator/JohnCarpenter, and Creator/JoeDante especially -- took advantage of emerging special effects technologies to create films that often drew upon, [[Film/TheThing1982 if not outright remade]], the horror films of the 1930s-'50s. Often BloodierAndGorier and sometimes HotterAndSexier, werewolves, vampires, ghosts and sundry other monsters (both established and original) became A-list again years of being relegated to BMovie fare as they at last adapted to modern times. There were PG options -- Spielberg produced ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'', '''Disney''' experimented with chilling content in such films as ''Literature/SomethingWickedThisWayComes'', and even there was even a run of horror/comedy hybrids starting with ''Film/Ghostbusters1984''. On the other side of the coin, Creator/DavidCronenberg turned BodyHorror into an art form.

** A class of innovative filmmakers -- Creator/JohnLandis, Creator/JohnCarpenter, and Creator/JoeDante especially -- took advantage of emerging special effects technologies to create films that often drew upon, [[Film/TheThing1982 if not outright remade]], the horror films of the 1930s-'50s. Often BloodierAndGorier and sometimes HotterAndSexier, werewolves, vampires, ghosts and sundry other monsters (both established and original) became A-list again years of being relegated to BMovie fare as they at last adapted to modern times. There were PG options -- Spielberg produced ''Film/Poltergeist1982'', '''Disney''' experimented with chilling content in such films as ''Film/SomethingWickedThisWayComes'', and even there was even a run of horror/comedy hybrids starting with ''Film/Ghostbusters1984''. On the other side of the coin, Creator/DavidCronenberg turned BodyHorror into an art form.

** Literature/StephenKing, being both popular and prolific, saw many of his horror novels and short stories adapted to the big screen in this decade with mixed results. (One of his ''non''-horror stories, "The Body", became the basis for the much-loved ''Film/StandByMe'' as well.)
** A class of innovative filmmakers -- Creator/JohnLandis, Creator/JohnCarpenter, Creator/JoeDante, and Creator/DavidCronenberg especially -- took advantage of emerging special effects technologies to create films that often drew upon, [[Film/TheThing if not]] [[Film/TheFly1986 outright remade]], the horror films of the 1930s-'50s. BloodierAndGorier and sometimes HotterAndSexier, werewolves, vampires, and sundry other monsters all firmly arrived in the modern age after years of being relegated to BMovie fare.

* The first wave of [[SlasherMovie Slasher Movies]] crested and broke in this decade, with long-running franchises spun around such heavies as [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]], [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]], and [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]]. In the U.K., this tied into the supposed scourge of VideoNasties.
* Cinemas risked TestosteronePoisoning as [[ActionGenre action stars]] like Creator/SylvesterStallone, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, and Creator/ChuckNorris toplined A and B-movies rife with StuffBlowingUp. However, by the end of the decade Creator/BruceWillis and his mega-smash action hit, ''Film/DieHard'', paved the way for a more human kind of action hero to predominate even if DieHardOnAnX became a regular formula plot. Well some previous action films were successful, this is the decade they became a dominant genre in Hollywood.

* The PG-13 rating was introduced in 1984 as a response to the controversy over violent content in ''Gremlins'' and ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'', which had gone out with PG ratings.
* The decade was also known when a number of successful films were given sequels. While there had been some successful film series like the long running Franchise/JamesBond, this was the decade where it became very common for sequels to emerge as many began to retain some of the box office success of the original films, ultimately leading to various results commercially and critically. It was particularly common with Action and Horror films. At the end of the decade, 4 of the top 10 grossing films of the decade were sequels with 5 other films on the list getting at least 1 sequel.

* The early part of the decade saw the fall of the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood era. While the 70s saw the success of a number of director controlled films with minimal interference from the major studios that invested in them, it eventually saw a number of [[BoxOfficeBomb Box Office Flops]]. These included Film/HeavensGate (which contributed huge losses to Creator/UnitedArtists, leading it to get sold to [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]]) and One From The Heart, both of which also [[CreatorKiller derailed the careers]] of [[Creator/MichaelCimino their]] [[Creator/FrancisFordCoppola directors]]. The failure of some of these later films along with the commercial opportunities that Blockbusters provided led to cutbacks on ‘’Auteur’’ driven films and instead led to the establishment of UsefulNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood.

** Creator/UnitedArtists merged with Creator/{{MGM}} in 1981. UsefulNotes/TedTurner would purchase their film library in 1986 to get material for his 'Ted Turner Classics' cable channel.
** Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox was bought by the oil tycoon Marvin Davis in 1981 with publisher Rupert Murdoch buying a 50 percent stake in 1985.
** Creator/ColumbiaPictures was purchased by the Coco Cola Company in 1982 and was sold to Creator/{{Sony}} in 1989 to form Creator/SonyPictures.

** Warner Communications, the parent of Creator/WarnerBros, began its merger with [[Magazine/TimeMagazine Time Inc]] in 1989 which was completed in 1990 with new joint company being called ''Time Warner''.

* TheEighties were the decade of the CharityMotivationSong and AllStarCast charity concert as topflight acts banded together to raise money for the worthy causes of the moment: Ethiopian famine relief, [=AIDS=] research and treatment, struggling American farmers, etc. This reached a peak in 1985 with "Music/WeAreTheWorld" for songs and Live Aid for concerts.

* Cinemas risked TestosteronePoisoning as action stars like Creator/SylvesterStallone, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, and Creator/ChuckNorris toplined A and B-movies rife with StuffBlowingUp. However, by the end of the decade Creator/BruceWillis and his mega-smash action hit, ''Film/DieHard'', paved the way for a more human kind of action hero to predominate even if DieHardOnAnX became a regular formula plot. Well some previous action films were successful, this is the decade they became a dominant genre in Hollywood.

* Society was ambivalent about yuppies even at the time. It's true that the "self-made man" (read: greedy, rapacious bastard) was idolized, but yuppies were viewed in roughly the same way that the dot com millionaires of the '90s were: a class of smart, driven young men who made vast fortunes nearly instantly by trading on mumbo-jumbo that nobody else understood. They came in for plenty of ribbing as self-interested, too, much as {{hipster}}s are today.

* While makeup in the decade was truly bold, expressive, and outrageous, in contrast to the bare-faced tanned look of the '70s, makeup in the 1980s wasn't always in neon, like some makeup tutorials, which results as if a unicorn farted rainbows in their faces than actual makeup in the decade. Makeup for everyday women, especially in the workplace, favoured pastel shades or the throwback look of TheForties and TheFifties, and updated them to the decade with blush overlapping the temples and red glossy lips.

* While Don Bluth used to work for [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney Animation Studios]], he left in 1979, feeling that Disney they was sacrificing quality in order to save money. He then formed his own animation studio in 1980 with some other former Disney employees. His films tended to have dark sequences and emphasis the quality of animation. While his debut WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNimh ended up doing poorly commercially despite positive critical reception, it did gain the attention of businessman Mark Sullivan who moved the studio to Ireland in exchange for a huge grant from the Irish Government. They teamed up with Steven Spielberg to create WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail and WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime, both of which performed very well at the box office [[note]] former was the highest grossing animated film in initial release at the time while the latter outgross Disney’s Disney/OliverAndCompany worldwide despite being released on the same day [[/note]] and received positive critical reception. Bluth cut ties with Spielberg after he kept making changes to the films due to disagreements over what was appropriate for children. Bluth’s success convinced Disney animation that they needed to step up their game. They responded with Disney/TheLittleMermaid which proved to one of their most successful films in years. While Bluth’s work in this decade helped kickstart the UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation that would occur throughout the 90s, his fourth film, WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven poor box office performance (due to being released at the same time as the Little Mermaid) [[note]] it would later find huge success on VHS [[/note]] began a string of flops for Bluth that would cause his studio to collapse in the 90s.