1980s

The 1980s (pronounced "nineteen-eighties", shortened to "the '80s" or "the Eighties") was the decade that began on January 1, 1980, and ended on December 31, 1989.
The decade saw a dominance of conservatism and free market economics, and a socioeconomic change due to advances in technology and a worldwide move away from planned economies and towards laissez-faire capitalism compared to the 1970s. As economic deconstruction increased in the developed world, multiple multinational corporations associated with the manufacturing industry relocated into Thailand, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. Japan and West Germany saw large economic growth during this decade. The AIDS epidemic became recognized in the 1980s and has since killed an estimated 40.4 million people (as of 2022). Global warming theory began to spread within the scientific and political community in the 1980s.
The United Kingdom and the United States moved closer to supply-side economic policies, beginning a trend towards global instability of international trade that would pick up more steam in the following decade as the fall of the USSR made right-wing economic policy more powerful.
The final decade of the Cold War opened with the US-Soviet confrontation continuing largely without any interruption. Superpower tensions escalated rapidly as President Reagan scrapped the policy of détente and adopted a new, much more aggressive stance on the Soviet Union. The world came perilously close to nuclear war for the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, but the second half of the decade saw a dramatic easing of superpower tensions and ultimately the total collapse of Soviet communism.
Developing countries across the world faced economic and social difficulties as they suffered from multiple debt crises in the 1980s, requiring many of these countries to apply for financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Ethiopia witnessed widespread famine in the mid-1980s during the corrupt rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam, resulting in the country having to depend on foreign aid to provide food to its population and worldwide efforts to address and raise money to help Ethiopians, such as the Live Aid concert in 1985.
Major civil discontent and violence occurred, including the Angolan Civil War, the Ethiopian Civil War, the Moro conflict, the Salvadoran Civil War, the Ugandan Bush War, the insurgency in Laos, the Iran–Iraq War, the Soviet–Afghan War, the 1982 Lebanon War, the Falklands War, the Second Sudanese Civil War, the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency, and the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Islamism became a powerful political force in the 1980s and many jihadist organizations, including Al Qaeda, were set up.
By 1986, nationalism was making a comeback in the Eastern Bloc, and the desire for democracy in socialist states, combined with economic recession, resulted in Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika, which reduced Communist Party power, legalized dissent and sanctioned limited forms of capitalism such as joint ventures with companies from capitalist countries. After tension for most of the decade, by 1988 relations between the communist and capitalist blocs had improved significantly and the Soviet Union was increasingly unwilling to defend its governments in satellite states.
1989 brought the overthrow and attempted overthrow of a number of governments led by communist parties, such as in Hungary, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in China, the Czechoslovak "Velvet Revolution", Erich Honecker's East German regime, Poland's Soviet-backed government, and the violent overthrow of the Nicolae Ceaușescu regime in Romania. Destruction of the 155-km Berlin Wall, at the end of the decade, signaled a seismic geopolitical shift. The Cold War ended in the early 1990s with the successful Reunification of Germany and the USSR's demise after the August Coup of 1991.
The 1980s was an era of tremendous population growth around the world, surpassing the 1970s and 1990s, and arguably being the largest in human history. During the 1980s, the world population grew from 4.4 to 5.3 billion people. There were approximately 1.33 billion births and 480 million deaths. Population growth was particularly rapid in a number of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian countries during this decade, with rates of natural increase close to or exceeding 4% annually. The 1980s saw the advent of the ongoing practice of sex-selective abortion in China and India as ultrasound technology permitted parents to selectively abort baby girls.
The 1980s saw great advances in genetic and digital technology. After years of animal experimentation since 1985, the first genetic modification of 10 adult human beings took place in May 1989, a gene tagging experiment which led to the first true gene therapy implementation in September 1990. The first "designer babies", a pair of female twins, were created in a laboratory in late 1989 and born in July 1990 after being sex-selected via the controversial assisted reproductive technology procedure preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Gestational surrogacy was first performed in 1985 with the first birth in 1986, making it possible for a woman to become a biological mother without experiencing pregnancy for the first time in history.
The global internet took shape in academia by the second half of the 1980s, as well as many other computer networks of both academic and commercial use such as USENET, Fidonet, and the bulletin board system. By 1989, the Internet and the networks linked to it were a global system with extensive transoceanic satellite links and nodes in most developed countries. Based on earlier work, from 1980 onwards Tim Berners-Lee formalized the concept of the World Wide Web by 1989. Television viewing became commonplace in the Third World, with the number of TV sets in China and India increasing by 15 and 10 times respectively.
The Atari Video Computer System console became widespread in the first part of the decade, often simply called "Atari". The 1980 Atari VCS port of Space Invaders was its first killer app. The video game crash of 1983 ended the system's popularity and decimated the industry until the Nintendo Entertainment System re-established the console market in North America. The hand-held Game Boy launched in 1989. Super Mario Bros. and Tetris were the decade's best selling games. Pac-Man was the highest grossing arcade game. Home computers became commonplace. The 1981 IBM PC led to a large market for IBM PC compatibles. The 1984 release of the Macintosh popularized the WIMP style of interaction.
The most prominent armed conflicts of the decade include:
The most notable wars of the decade include:
The most notable internal conflicts of the decade include:
The most notable terrorist attacks of the decade include:
The most prominent coups d'état of the decade include:
Africa
Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:
The 1980s had many fundamental advances in medicine and biology. The first surrogate pregnancy of an unrelated child took place on 13 April 1986, in Michigan. The first genetically modified crops, tobacco (Nicotiana) plants were grown in China in 1988.
Gene therapy techniques became established by the end of the 1980s, allowing gene tagging and gene therapy to become a possibility, both of which were first performed in human beings in May 1989 and September 1990, respectively.
Arcade and video games had been growing in popularity since the late 1970s, and by 1982 were a major industry. But a variety of factors, including a glut of low-quality games and the rise of home computers, caused a tremendous crash in late 1983. For the next three years, the video game market practically ceased to exist in the US. But in the second half of the decade, it would be revived by Nintendo, whose Famicom console and mascot Mario had been enjoying considerable success in Japan since 1983. Renamed the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), it would claim 90% of the American video game market by 1989. The 1980s are considered to be the decade when video games achieved massive popularity. In 1980, Pac-Man was introduced to the arcades, and became one of the most popular video games of all time. Also in 1980, Game & Watch was created; it was not one of the best known game systems, but it facilitated mini-games and was concurrent with the NES. Donkey Kong, released in 1981, was a smash arcade hit and market breakthrough for Nintendo. Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, The Legend of Zelda, and the Mega Man series would become major hits for the console.
The personal computer experienced explosive growth in the 1980s, transitioning from a hobbyist's toy to a full-fledged consumer product. The IBM PC, launched in 1981, became the dominant computer for professional users. Commodore created the most popular home computers of both 8-bit and 16-bit generations. MSX standard was the dominant computer platform in Japan and in most parts of Asia. Apple Computer superseded its Apple II and Lisa models by introducing the first Macintosh computer in 1984. It was the first commercially successful personal computer to use a graphical user interface (GUI) and mouse, which started to become general features in computers after the middle of the decade. Electronics and computers were also at the forefront of the advertising industry, with many commercials like "1984" from Apple achieving acclaim and pop-culture relevance.
Walkman and boomboxes, invented during the late 1970s, became very popular as they were introduced to various countries in the early 1980s, and had a profound impact on the music industry and youth culture. Consumer VCRs and video rental stores became commonplace as VHS won out over the competing Betamax standard. In addition, in the early 1980s various companies began selling compact, modestly priced synthesizers to the public. This, along with the development of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), made it easier to integrate and synchronize synthesizers and other electronic instruments, like drum machines, for use in musical composition.
High definition television (HDTV) of both the analog and digital variety were first developed in the 1980s though their use did not become widespread until the mid-2000s.
In 1981, Hayes Microcomputer Products started selling the Smartmodem. The Smartmodem paved the way for the modern modems that exist today, mainly because it was the first modem to transform what had previously required a two-stage process into a process involving only one stage. The Smartmodem contributed to the rise in popularity of BBS systems in the 1980s and early 1990s, which were the main way to connect to remote computers and perform various social and entertainment activities before the Internet and the World Wide Web finally became popular in the mid-1990s.
The 1980s witnessed a rapid expansion in the communications industry. Almost a decade after Martin Cooper, then an employee of Motorola, made the first mobile phone call in 1973, Millicom Inc., a telecommunications agency, and E.F. Johnson & Co., introduced the first portable cellular phone commercially available for use on a cellular network, the "Lunch Box" in 1981. Two years later, Motorola launched the DynaTAC 8000X or the "Brick," the first commercially available handheld mobile phone weighing 3 pounds (1.4 kg). While revolutionary, these early products were bulky and challenging to handle. This led to fierce competition in the market, with companies vying to produce a lighter, more portable phone, setting the stage for the future of mobile technology.
The race for a slimmer version of the portable cell phone was underway, and technology entrepreneur Jan Stenbeck was determined to lead the charge. Stenbeck founded the tech start-up Technophone with a singular goal in mind: to create a lightweight, pocket-sized mobile phone. In 1986, under the guidance of Technophones chief executive officer, Nils Martensson, the company unveiled the first pocket-sized mobile phone, the Excell PCT105.
American interplanetary probes continued in the 1980s, the Voyager duo being the most known. After making a flyby of Jupiter in 1979, they went near Saturn in 1980–1981. Voyager 2 reached Uranus in 1986 (just a few days before the Challenger disaster), and Neptune in 1989 before the probes exited the Solar System.
No American probes were launched to Mars in the 1980s, and the Viking probes, launched there in 1975, completed their operations by 1982. The Soviets launched two Mars probes in 1988, but they failed.
The arrival of Halley's Comet in 1986 was met by a series of Soviet, Japanese and European Space Agency (ESA) probes, namely Halley Armada.
After a six-year hiatus, American space flights with astronauts resumed with the launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia in April 1981. The shuttle program progressed smoothly from there, with three more orbiters entering service in 1983–1985. But that all came to an end with the tragic loss of the Challenger (STS-51-L) on 28 January 1986, taking with it seven astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, who was to have been the first teacher in space. In full view of the world, a faulty O-ring on the right solid rocket booster allowed hot gases to burn through the external fuel tank and cause it to explode, destroying the shuttle in the process. Extensive efforts were made to improve NASA's increasingly careless management practices, and to make the shuttle safer. Flights resumed with the launch of Discovery in September 1988.
The Soviet program with cosmonauts went well during the decade, experiencing only minor setbacks. The Salyut 6 space station, launched in 1977, was replaced by Salyut 7 in 1982. Then came Mir in 1986, which ended up operating for more than a decade, and was destined to be the last in the line of Soviet space stations that had begun in 1971. One of the Soviet Union's last "superprojects" was the Buran space shuttle; it was only used once, in 1988.
The American auto industry began in the 1980s in a thoroughly grim situation, faced with poor quality control, rising import competition, and a severe economic downturn. Chrysler and American Motors (AMC) were near bankruptcy, and Ford was little better off. Only General Motors (GM) continued with business as usual. But the auto makers recovered with the economy by 1983, and in 1985 auto sales in the United States hit a new record. However, the Japanese were now a major presence, and would begin manufacturing cars in the US to get around tariffs. In 1986, Hyundai became the first Korean auto maker to enter the American market. In the same year, the Yugoslavian-built Yugo was brought to the US, but the car was so small and cheap, that it became the subject of jokes. It was sold up to 1991, when economic sanctions against Yugoslavia forced its withdrawal from the American market.
As the decade progressed, cars became smaller and more efficient in design. In 1983, Ford design teams began to incorporate aerodynamic styling to decrease drag while in motion. The Thunderbird was one of the first cars to receive these design changes. In 1985, Ford released the Taurus with a design that was revolutionary among domestic mass market automobiles.
GM began suffering significant losses in the late 1980s, partially the result of chairman Roger Smith's restructuring attempts, and partially because of increasingly dated cars. An example were customers who increasingly purchased European luxury cars rather than Cadillacs. In 1985, GM started Saturn (the first new American make since the Edsel), with the goal of producing high-quality import fighters. Production would not begin until 1990.
Chrysler introduced its new compact, front-wheel drive K-cars in 1981. Under the leadership of Lee Iacocca, the company turned a profit again the following year, and by 1983 paid off its government loans. A succession of models using this automobile platform followed. The most significant were the minivans in 1984. These proved a to be popular and they would dominate the van market for more than a decade. In 1987, Chrysler purchased the Italian makes of Lamborghini and Maserati. In the same year, Chrysler bought AMC from Renault laying to rest the last significant independent US automaker, but acquiring the hugely profitable Jeep line and continuing the Eagle brand until the late 1990s.
The DMC DeLorean was the brainchild of John DeLorean, a flamboyant former GM executive. Production of the gull-winged sports car began in Northern Ireland in 1981. John DeLorean was arrested in October 1982 in a sting operation where he was attempting to sell cocaine to save his struggling company. He was acquitted of all charges in 1984, but too late for the DeLorean Motor Company, which closed down in 1983. The DeLorean gained renewed fame afterward as the time machine in the Back to the Future film trilogy.
The imposition of corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) fuel-mileage standards in 1979 spelled the end of big-block engines, but performance cars and convertibles reemerged in the 1980s. Turbochargers were widely used to boost the performance of small cars, and technology from fuel injection began to take over from the widely used application of carburetors by the late 1980s. Front-wheel drive also became dominant.
The 1980s marked the decline of European brands in North America by the end of the decade. Renault, Citroën, and Peugeot ceased importation by the end of the decade. Alfa Romeo would continue until 1993. Fiat also ceased imports to North America in the 1980s.
In the United States, MTV was launched and music videos began to have a larger effect on the record industry. Pop artists/bands such as Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Prince, Cyndi Lauper and Madonna mastered the format and helped turn this new product into a profitable business. At the beginning of the decade new wave fell from favor with the rise of the New Romantic, new pop and synthpop genres developed by many British and American artists, popular phenomena throughout the decade especially in the early and mid-1980s. Music grew fragmented and combined into subgenres such as house, goth, and rap metal. Famous music videos include those of Peter Gabriel.
The advent of numerous new technologies had a significant impact on 1980s music, and led to a distinct production aesthetic that included synthesizer sounds, drum machines and drum reverb.
Duran Duran, the biggest band of the 1980s, were leaders in the Second British Invasion, with a level of fame similar to Beatlemania by 1984. Their debut single was "Planet Earth" (1981). Their breakthrough album was Rio (1982). The single "Hungry Like the Wolf" was number 1 in Canada. UK number 1 singles include "Is There Something I Should Know?" and "The Reflex", which was the band's most successful single and was also number 1 in the US and on the Eurochart Hot 100. "A View to a Kill", theme song of the James Bond film, was number 1 in the US. "Notorious" was number 1 in Italy, Spain and Canada. "The Wild Boys" was number 1 in West Germany and South Africa. The band went on to sell over 100 million records and win Brit, Grammy and MTV awards.
Michael Jackson was one of the icons of the 1980s and his leather jacket, white glove, and Moonwalk dance were often imitated. Jackson's 1982 album Thriller became—and currently remains—the best-selling album of all time, with sales estimated by various sources as somewhere between 65 and 110 million copies worldwide. His 1987 album Bad sold over 45 million copies and became the first album to have five number-one singles chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Jackson had the most number-one singles throughout the decade (9), and spent the most weeks at number one (27 weeks). His 1987 Bad World Tour grossed over $125 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing world tour by a solo artist during the decade. Jackson earned numerous awards and titles during the 1980s, the most notable of which were a record eight Grammy Awards and eight American Music Awards in 1984, and the honor of "Artist of the Decade" by US President George H. W. Bush. Jackson was arguably the biggest star during this time, and would eventually sell more than one billion records around the world.
Prince was a popular star of the 1980s and the most successful chart act of the decade. His breakthrough album 1999, released in 1982, produced three top-ten hits and the album itself charted at number nine on the Billboard 200. His sixth studio album Purple Rain was an international success, boosting Prince to superstardom and selling over 25 million copies worldwide. The album produced the US number-one singles, "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" and sold 13 million copies in the US as of 1996. Prince released an album every year for the rest of the decade, all charting within the top ten, with the exception of Lovesexy. He went on to sell over 120 million records worldwide and win seven Grammy Awards.
Madonna and Whitney Houston were groundbreaking female artists of the decade. The keyboard synthesizer and drum machine were among the most popular instruments in music during the 1980s. After the 1980s, electronic instruments continued to be the main component of mainstream pop.
Synth pop and new pop musicians included the Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, Spandau Ballet, A Flock of Seagulls, INXS, Ultravox, Men Without Hats, Icehouse, Toni Basil, OMD, Visage, Alphaville, A-ha, Martha and the Muffins, Talk Talk and Depeche Mode. Pop rock bands included Tears for Fears and Transvision Vamp. Ska bands included Madness and The Specials.
Stock Aitken Waterman songs were sung by Bananarama, Dead or Alive, Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue and Donna Summer.
Hard rock, heavy metal, and glam metal became some of the most dominant music genres of the decade, peaking with the arrival of such bands as Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Poison, Europe, Megadeth, Slayer, Sepultura, Anthrax, and virtuoso guitarists such as Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen. The scene also helped 1970s hard rock artists and bands such as AC/DC, Heart, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Blue Öyster Cult, Deep Purple, Queen, Van Halen, KISS, Ronnie James Dio, Rush and Judas Priest reach a new generation of fans.
The 1980s were also known for song parodies becoming more mainstream, a trend led by parodic musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. He was best known for his Michael Jackson parodies "Eat It" and "Fat" as well as other parodies like "Another One Rides The Bus" (parody of "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen).
By 1989, the hip hop scene had evolved, gaining recognition and exhibiting a stronger influence on the music industry. This time period is also considered part of the golden age of hip hop. The Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Run-D.M.C., Grandmaster Flash, the Furious Five, N.W.A, LL Cool J, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Ice-T, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Tone Lōc, Biz Markie, The Sugar Hill Gang and others experienced success in this genre.
Country music advanced into a new realm of popularity with youth appeal and record-breaking marks. Groundbreaking artists such as Alabama, Hank Williams Jr., Reba McEntire, George Strait, Ricky Skaggs, Janie Fricke, The Judds, and Randy Travis achieved multiple platinum and award status, foreshadowing the genre's popularity explosion in the 1990s. Country legends from past decades, such as George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Conway Twitty, the Oak Ridge Boys, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Don Williams, Crystal Gayle, Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, and the Statler Brothers, remained popular and continued to score hits throughout the decade.
The techno style of electronic dance music emerged in Detroit, Michigan, during the mid to late 1980s. The house music style, another form of electronic dance music, emerged in Chicago, Illinois, in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino and gay communities, first in Chicago, then in New York City and Detroit. It eventually reached Europe before becoming infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide.
Leading punk rock bands included Black Flag, Minor Threat, Suicidal Tendencies and Minutemen. Punk rock gave birth to many subgenres like hardcore, which in turn gave birth to a few counterculture movements, most notably the Straight Edge movement which began in the early 1980s. College rock caught on in the underground scene of the 1980s in a nationwide movement with a distinct D.I.Y approach. Bands like the Pixies, R.E.M., The Replacements, Sonic Youth, XTC, The Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Stone Roses, The Jesus and Mary Chain etc. experienced success in this genre. The 1980s also saw the birth of the grunge genre, with the arrival of such bands as Soundgarden and Nirvana.
Siouxsie and the Banshees and Pigbag were post punk bands. New Order and U2 had post punk origins.
Former Beatle John Lennon and Yoko Ono released their joint number 1 album Double Fantasy in November 1980. This was Lennon's final album before his murder in December 1980. Led Zeppelin disbanded after drummer John Bonham's 1980 death. Brian Johnson became lead singer of AC/DC after predecessor Bon Scott died in 1980. Reggae musician Bob Marley died from a lentiginous skin melanoma in 1981. Motown singer Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his father in 1984. Airplane crashes killed Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist Randy Rhoads in 1982, and Kyu Sakamoto in 1985. Karen Carpenter died from complications of anorexia nervosa in 1983. Her death resulted in widespread attention and research into eating disorders and body dysmorphia. Other deaths include Tim Hardin in 1980, Harry Chapin in 1981, Metallica bassist Cliff Burton in 1986, Andy Gibb in 1988 and Hibari Misora in 1989.
In 1984, the British supergroup Band Aid was formed to raise aid and awareness of the economic plight of Ethiopia. In 1985's Live Aid concert, featuring many artists, promoted attention and action to send food aid to Ethiopia whose people were suffering from a major famine.
During the 1980s, Japan had the second largest music market in the world. Popular music included kayōkyoku, idols, new music, rock and techno-pop. Artists and bands included Seiko Matsuda, Akina Nakamori, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Tomoyo Harada, Yōko Oginome, Yoko Minamino, Chisato Moritaka, Wink, Saki Kubota, Rebecca, the Southern All Stars, Eiichi Ohtaki and Yellow Magic Orchestra. The song "Hana" by Shoukichi Kina, was a hit overseas, and sold 30 million copies.
Artists singing in Italian included Al Bano and Romina Power and Matia Bazar. Rondò Veneziano were a baroque pop outfit.
Artists who topped the US annual album chart included Pink Floyd, REO Speedwagon, Asia, Bruce Springsteen, George Michael and Bobby Brown. Artists who topped the US annual singles chart included Blondie, Kim Carnes, Olivia Newton-John, The Police, Wham!, Dionne & Friends (which consisted of Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder) and The Bangles.
The UK best selling album of the 1980s was by Dire Straits. The best selling single was by Band Aid. Artists who topped the UK annual singles chart included The Human League, Dexys Midnight Runners, Culture Club, Jennifer Rush, The Communards, Cliff Richard and Black Box. Artists who topped the UK annual albums chart included ABBA, Adam and the Ants, Barbra Streisand and Jason Donovan.
Other famous and popular female singers included Belinda Carlisle, Bette Midler, Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion, Debbie Gibson, Deniece Williams, Diana Ross, Gloria Estefan, Janet Jackson, Joan Jett, Kate Bush, Kim Wilde, Laura Branigan, Martika, Nena, Pat Benatar, Paula Abdul, Samantha Fox, Sheena Easton, Tiffany Darwish and Tina Turner. Other famous and popular male singers included Billy Joel, Billy Ocean, Bob Dylan, Bryan Adams, David Bowie, Don Henley, Frank Sinatra, Freddie Mercury, George Harrison, Nik Kershaw, Paul McCartney, Paul Young, Phil Collins, Rick Springfield, Robert Palmer, Sting and Terence Trent D'Arby. Other famous and popular bands included Bee Gees, Boston, Cheap Trick, The Cure, Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Genesis, Hall & Oates, Imagination, The Jackson 5, KC and the Sunshine Band, Kool & the Gang, Lipps Inc., Miami Sound Machine, Mike and the Mechanics, Men at Work, Motörhead, New Kids on the Block, The Pointer Sisters, The Rolling Stones, The Stranglers, Tight Fit, Toto, UB40, Whitesnake, Yes and ZZ Top.
Other artists with US number 1 singles included John Cougar, Captain & Tennille, Rupert Holmes, Eddie Rabbitt, Stars on 45, Air Supply, The J. Geils Band, Steve Miller Band, Patti Austin, James Ingram, John Waite, Huey Lewis and the News, Ready for the World, Jan Hammer, Mr. Mister, Marilyn Martin, Falco, Simply Red, Peter Cetera, Amy Grant, Steve Winwood, Patti LaBelle, Michael McDonald, Bruce Hornsby, Gregory Abbott, Billy Vera, Club Nouveau, Aretha Franklin, Cutting Crew, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Atlantic Starr, Los Lobos, Bob Seger, Siedah Garrett, Billy Idol, Exposé, Bobby McFerrin, Richard Marx, The Beach Boys, The Escape Club, Will to Power, Sheriff, Roxette, Fine Young Cannibals, Michael Damian, Milli Vanilli and Bad English.
In theatre, the decade paved the way for what are now known as the megamusical, with examples such as Cats, Starlight Express, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, and Miss Saigon.
Other artists with US number 1 albums include Journey and Stevie Nicks.
French musicians included Florent Pagny, F.R. David, France Gall, Jean-Jacques Goldman, Johnny Hallyday, Julie Pietri, Michel Berger, Patrick Bruel and Renaud. Austrian, Dutch and German musicians included C. C. Catch, Dschinghis Khan, Joy, Modern Talking and Sandra Cretu. Other popular musicians included Bad Boys Blue, Baltimora, Demis Roussos and Ryan Paris.
Other artists contributing music to cinema films included Vangelis, Limahl, Ray Parker Jr., Survivor, Starship, Simple Minds, Kenny Loggins, Azumi Inoue, Michael Sembello, Lindsey Buckingham and John Parr.
Other musicians included Earth Wind & Fire, Frank Zappa, Gloria Gaynor, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Luther Vandross, Paul Anka, Queensrÿche, Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Talking Heads, Twisted Sister and the Village People.
Critically acclaimed films and thespians
The film industry
The 1980s saw the return of studio-driven films, coming from the filmmaker-driven New Hollywood era of the 1970s. The period was when 'high concept' films gained popularity, where movies were to be easily marketable and understandable, and, therefore, they had short cinematic plots that could be summarized in one or two sentences. The modern Hollywood blockbuster is the most popular film format from the 1980s. Producer Don Simpson is usually credited with the creation of the high-concept picture of the modern Hollywood blockbuster. In the mid-1980s, a wave of British directors, including Ridley Scott, Alan Parker, Adrian Lyne and Tony Scott (with the latter directing a number of Don Simpson films) ushered in a new era of blockbusters using the crowd-pleasing skills they had honed in UK television commercials.
A significant development in the home media business is the establishment of The Criterion Collection in 1984, an American company "dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality". Through their releases, they were able to introduce what is now a standard to home video: letterboxing to retain the original aspect ratio, film commentaries and supplements/special features.
Live-action films
The 1980s saw the golden age of teen films. Class, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Risky Business, Mannequin, Porky's, Valley Girl, and John Hughes directed or written Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful, were popular teen comedies, and their stars include Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Andrew McCarthy, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Matthew Broderick, Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage. Other youth dramas include Stand by Me and Francis Ford Coppola directed The Outsiders and Rumble Fish. Their stars include River Phoenix and Mickey Rourke. The Brat Pack films are said to include The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire. Musical dance films include Footloose, Dirty Dancing and Flashdance, and their stars include Kevin Bacon and Patrick Swayze. Other musicals include Annie.
Horror films were a popular genre during the decade. Among the most popular horror franchises of the 1980s were the Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Child's Play, Hellraiser, and Poltergeist franchises. Their casts include Jamie Lee Curtis, Robert Englund, Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon and Brad Dourif. The Shining was initially met with mixed reviews from critics, and even from the author of the book, and was moderately financially successful, but later became very popular and critically acclaimed. The concept of the B horror film gave rise to many horror films that went on to earn cult status, such as The Evil Dead, which was directed by Sam Raimi. Comedy horror films included Beetlejuice, Gremlins, Little Shop of Horrors and The Lost Boys. Their stars include Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Corey Feldman, Corey Haim and Kiefer Sutherland.
Comedies included The Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, Stir Crazy, Private Benjamin, 9 to 5, Trading Places, Splash, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Three Men and a Baby, Harry and the Hendersons, Throw Momma from the Train, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Twins, The 'Burbs and two Ghostbusters films, and their stars included Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Goldie Hawn, Jane Fonda, Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Danson, Steve Guttenberg, Tom Selleck, John Lithgow, Danny DeVito, Billy Crystal, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis, Steve Martin and John Candy. Romcoms include Look Who's Talking, starring John Travolta. Good Morning, Vietnam is a war comedy starring Robin Williams and Forest Whitaker. Action comedies include 48 Hrs., Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile. Their stars include Nick Nolte and Kathleen Turner.
The most popular action film franchises introduced during the 1980s were the Indiana Jones, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and Rambo franchises. Other popular action films from the decade include The Terminator, Aliens, Mad Max 2, Escape from New York, Red Dawn, Predator, RoboCop, the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact and Cobra. Stars of these films included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Charlie Sheen, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Gary Busey, Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Kurt Russell, Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen and Brian Dennehy. Hong Kong action cinema and martial arts films were revolutionized by a new wave of inventive filmmakers that included Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Tsui Hark, and John Woo. American martial arts films had actors such as Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal, and included The Karate Kid. Sports drama included The Natural and the two Rocky films, whose stars included Carl Weathers and Dolph Lundgren.
Five more James Bond films were released, with Roger Moore continuing in the role in For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and A View To A Kill, before handing over the role to Timothy Dalton who starred in The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill.
The post-2000 popularity of blockbuster superhero films is attributed in part to the start such blockbuster films gained in the 1980s, starting with Salkind's Superman film series 1978–1987 and bookended at the end of the decade with Tim Burton's 1989 Batman. Their stars include Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger and Jack Nicholson.
The popularity of science fiction films in the 1980s is attributable to the popularity of the Star Wars original trilogy (1977–1983). Science fiction films include Blade Runner, Outland, The Return of Godzilla, The Dead Zone, The Fly, The Abyss, The Running Man, Flash Gordon, Innerspace, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Back to the Future. Their stars include Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, James Earl Jones, Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, Jeff Goldblum, Max von Sydow, Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Keanu Reeves. Sword and sorcery films include Excalibur and Conan the Barbarian. Other fantasy films include Time Bandits, The Dark Crystal, The NeverEnding Story and The Witches of Eastwick, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon.
Westerns include Urban Cowboy, The Man from Snowy River and Mother Lode. Period dramas include The Bostonians. Historical epics include The Right Stuff, Kagemusha and Ran. War films include Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Das Boot. Their stars include Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Modine and Jürgen Prochnow. Romances include An Officer and a Gentleman, starring Richard Gere, Debra Winger and Louis Gossett Jr.
Neo-noir films include Blow Out and Blue Velvet. Mob films include Once Upon a Time in America, Scarface and The Untouchables. Their stars include Al Pacino and Kevin Costner.
Sailor Suit and Machine Gun is a satirical yakuza film. Other popular Japanese films included Imperial Navy, Antarctica, Legend of the Eight Samurai, The Burmese Harp, The Adventures of Milo and Otis, Hachikō Monogatari and The Silk Road.
Gérard Depardieu starred in the French films La Chèvre, The Last Metro, Danton, Police and Jean de Florette. Luc Besson directed The Big Blue. Jean-Jacques Annaud directed Quest for Fire and The Bear.
Animated films
After leaving Disney in 1979, Don Bluth formed his own studio and went on direct The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time and All Dogs Go To Heaven. The Disney studio was almost bankrupted after The Black Cauldron bombed at the box office. They began to recover with the modest success of Ron Clements and John Musker directed The Great Mouse Detective. The live-action animated hybrid Robert Zemeckis directed Who Framed Roger Rabbit co-produced with Steven Spielberg was successful, and the Disney Renaissance began with The Little Mermaid, starring Jodi Benson.
Animated films based on popular works include Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!), Heavy Metal, The Adventures of Mark Twain, The Care Bears Movie, The Transformers: The Movie and The Chipmunk Adventure; while original films include The Last Unicorn, The Plague Dogs, Rock & Rule, Fire and Ice, Abra Cadabra, The Brave Little Toaster, The BFG, and the first Wallace & Gromit film, A Grand Day Out.
The 1980s also saw a surge of Japanese anime films: Hayao Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind were successful and led to the foundation of Studio Ghibli, which produced the successful Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies and Kiki's Delivery Service in the 1980s. Other well-known anime films of that decade include Golgo 13: The Professional, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Lensman, Vampire Hunter D, Akira, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland and the Urusei Yatsura film series. The first theatrical animated franchise, the Doraemon film series began in 1980 with the release of Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur.
Music video channel MTV was launched in the United States in 1981 and had a profound impact on the music industry and popular culture, especially in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The 1980s was a decade of transformation in television. Cable television became more accessible and therefore, more popular. By the middle of the decade, almost 70% of the US population had cable television and over 85% were paying for cable services such as HBO or Showtime. People who lived in rural areas where cable TV service was not available could still access cable channels through a large (and expensive) satellite dish, which, by the mid-1990s, was phased out in favor of the small rooftop dishes that offer DirecTV and Dish Network services.
CNN and Bravo began in 1980; Channel 4, Rete 4 and Italia 1 in 1982; RTL and Canal+ in 1984; Fox in 1986; M6 in 1987; Turner Network Television in 1988; CNBC and ProSieben in 1989.
New prime-time soap operas included Dallas, its spin-off Knots Landing, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, EastEnders and Neighbours. Their stars included Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, Patrick Duffy, Victoria Principal, John Forsythe, Joan Collins, Linda Evans and Heather Locklear.
During the 1980s, sitcoms were popular, including Bosom Buddies, Family Ties, Newhart, Too Close for Comfort, The Cosby Show, Night Court, Full House, The Wonder Years and Married... with Children. Sitcom Cheers starred Kirstie Alley, Woody Harrelson, Shelley Long, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger, George Wendt. Taxi starred Marilu Henner, Judd Hirsch, Tony Danza and Andy Kaufman. Who's the Boss? starred Judith Light and Alyssa Milano. The Golden Girls, was the first comedy ever to feature four older women in title TV roles. Designing Women starred Dixie Carter, Annie Potts and Delta Burke. Marla Gibbs starred in The Jeffersons and 227, which also starred Jackée Harry. Other sitcoms included Growing Pains and the British Blackadder, 'Allo 'Allo!, The Young Ones and Only Fools and Horses.
Sketch comedy and variety show Saturday Night Live experienced turbulence for much of the 1980s. Its cast members included Jim Belushi, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Martin Short, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Other comedy sketch shows included Not the Nine O'Clock News, The Kenny Everett Television Show and the influential and popular Oretachi Hyokinzoku [ja] (sometimes called "We Are Wild and Crazy Guys").
Legal dramas included Matlock, which starred Andy Griffith as Matlock, and also starred Nancy Stafford and Clarence Gilyard Jr.. Cop shows included Dempsey and Makepeace, Miami Vice, Cagney & Lacey, 21 Jump Street, Hill Street Blues and The Bill. Other crime shows included Murder, She Wrote. Their stars included Don Johnson, Philip Michael Thomas, Tyne Daly, Sharon Gless, Johnny Depp and Angela Lansbury.
Science fiction included Blake's 7, V, Buck Rogers, Star Trek: The Next Generation (starring Patrick Stewart), Red Dwarf, ALF, Airwolf, Knight Rider and Quantum Leap. Adventure series included The A-Team, Robin of Sherwood, The Dukes of Hazzard and Remington Steele.
Musicals included Fame. Television magicians included David Copperfield and Paul Daniels. Stand-up comedians included Steven Wright, Andrew Dice Clay and Sam Kinison. Dancers included Gregory Hines.
TV talk shows expanded in popularity; The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson remained popular into its third decade, and some of the most viewed newer shows were hosted by Geraldo Rivera, Arsenio Hall and David Letterman.
TV documentary shows of the 1980s that were popular included Frontline, Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days, Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack, and Rescue 911 with William Shatner.
The Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer was watched by an estimated global television audience of 750 million people in 1981.
Scandal rocked TV evangelism when in 1987 evangelist Jim Bakker, founder of PTL and Heritage USA, was defrocked for having an affair years earlier and later sent to prison for fraud. One year later, evangelist Jimmy Swaggart was defrocked for allegedly having sexual relations with a prostitute.
The 1980s was prominent for spawning popular animated shows such as The Smurfs, ThunderCats, The Transformers, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Henry's Cat, Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, Alias the Jester, Yakari, Lucky Luke, Heathcliff (Mel Blanc's final series), Masters of the Universe, Inspector Gadget, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Bananaman, Thomas & Friends, Muppet Babies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Babar, The Raccoons, DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Dennis the Menace, M.A.S.K., Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, Garfield and Friends, Pingu, Postman Pat and Fireman Sam.
The earliest The Simpsons shorts aired on The Tracey Ullman Show, and the earliest series of The Simpsons appeared. In 1980, Astro Boy was remade in color. Other anime series from the 1980s include Wowser, Ulysses 31, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Dominion, Voltron, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Fist of the North Star, Gundam and Star Blazers.
Popular video games include Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, Metroid, Mega Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Dig Dug, and Tetris. Pac-Man was the first game to achieve widespread popularity in mainstream culture and the first game character to be popular in his own right.
Handheld electronic LCD games was introduced into the youth market segment. The primary gaming computers of the 1980s emerged in 1982: the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. Nintendo finally decided in 1985 to release its Famicom (released in 1983 in Japan) in the United States under the name Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was bundled with Super Mario Bros. and it suddenly became a success. The NES dominated the American and Japanese market until the rise of the next generation of consoles in the early 1990s, causing some to call this time the Nintendo era. Sega released its 16-bit console, Mega Drive/Genesis, in 1988 in Japan and in North America in 1989. In 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy, a monochrome handheld console.
The beginning of the decade saw the continuation of the clothing styles of the late 1970s and evolved into heavy metal fashion by the end. However, fashion became more extravagant during the 1980s. The 1980s included teased and colourfully-dyed hair, ripped jeans, neon clothing and many colours and different designs which at first were not accepted.
Significant hairstyle trends of the 1980s include the perm, the mullet, the Jheri curl, the hi-top fade, big hair and the Seiko-chan cut.
Significant clothing trends of the 1980s include shoulder pads, jean jackets, leather pants, leather aviator jackets, jumpsuits, Members Only jackets, skin-tight acid-washed jeans, Izod Lacoste and "preppy" polo shirts, leggings and leg warmers (popularized in the film Flashdance), off-the-shoulder shirts, and cut sweatshirts (popularized in the same film).
Miniskirts returned to mainstream fashion in the mid-1980s after a ten-year absence, mostly made of denim material. From that point on, miniskirts and minidresses have remained in mainstream fashion to this day.
Makeup on the 1980s was aggressive, shining and colourful. Women emphasised their lips, eyebrows and cheeks with makeup. They used much blush and eyeliner.
Additional trends of the 1980s include athletic headbands, Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses (popularized in the film Top Gun), Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses (popularized in the films Risky Business and The Blues Brothers and the TV series Miami Vice) and Swatch watches. Girls and women also wore jelly shoes, large crucifix necklaces, and brassieres all inspired by Madonna's "Like a Virgin" music video.
The New Romantic movement was a British style in fashion and music influenced by futurist disco.
The Rubik's Cube became a popular fad throughout the decade. Toys include G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.
Some sources claim the existence of a "long 1980s". Dates given include, for example, mid 1970s to early 1990s, 1976 to 1993 or 1994, and 1979 to 1990 or 1991 or after 2000.
The Chicago Sun-Times declared the 1977 Star Wars as the first movie of the eighties. A shift in television happened in the late 1970s as well: of the top shows considered to be "shows of the 1980s", more began 1978–1979 than began 1980–1981. 1977 also saw the introduction of ROM cartridge-based video game consoles, with the Atari Video Computer System, the Fairchild Channel F, and the Bally Astrocade, as well as seeing the introduction of the first mass-produced home computers, with the Apple II, the TRS-80, and the Commodore PET.
Some consider the 1980s to have ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, or with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Reagan's last day in office 20 January 1989, marked the "end of an era". Music saw a change, with the premier of Yo! MTV Raps on 6 August 1988, which was coincidentally the same date as the last broadcast of Casey Kasem hosting American Top 40. On the religious front, 1988 also saw the "unraveling of the decade's conservative dominance" with the release of The Last Temptation of Christ and the three televangelist scandals of Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Oral Roberts. The years 1988–1993 were a cultural bridge between the politically conservative 1980s and the Internet boom of the 1990s, which was kicked off by the release of Mosaic in 1993.
There is 1980s nostalgia in Germany, Japan, the UK, the US and elsewhere.
The following articles contain timelines for each year of the decade:
1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989