The 1980s became the Me



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.

Assignment:

Read through the following articles.

1. Why do you think the 1980s generation was dubbed the “Me Me Me!” generation?

2. Are any of the 1980s fashion trends back? Circle the trends that you think are in stores right now.

3. Why do the two 1980s events, the Challenger Explosion and Hands Across America, say about the nation?

1980s Fashion

The fashion trends of the eighties portrayed the freedom of expression which nominally characterized this decade. From the "Valley Girl/GoGos" look to the ripped sweatshirts initiated in the movie "Flashdance," clothes got brighter, gaudier, and just plain uglier in comparison to those of the sixties and seventies.

Through creative experimentation, music video, motion picture and television icons redefined style. Male rock groups like Bon Jovi and Poison challenged the established gender roles with skin-tight leather pants, make-up, and long teased hairstyles. Consequently, as the men became more feminine, women's fashions became more masculine. Annie Lennox, lead singer of the Eurythmics, sported an extremely short hairstyle while Madonna set the precedence for the "cheap, homeless" look with her layers of trashy, lacy, mis-matched outfits.

No social class was spared from the onslaught of eighties fashion faux pas. In the business world, the "yuppie" look quickly emerged. Small, skinny ties, especially black and leather, or knit ties were all the rage, while gaudy Rolex watches, Gucci loafers, suspenders and Argyle vests made lasting impressions.

With all of the adults sporting the latest fashion trends, it's no wonder the children of the eighties began their own sequence of fashion statements. Young girls sported neon colors, friendship pins, and silk vests while the boys wanted parachute pants, mesh muscle shirts and a Michael Jackson glove. And both sexes indulged in what was possibly the most memorable fashion disaster of the decade: pegged pants. Pegging involved pinching jeans by the ankle and rolling them to achieve a highly attractive tapered leg look. The rolls were so tight, they almost cut off circulation to the feet, and most definitely left lasting indentations on every child's ankle.

No one likes to see pictures of themselves from the eighties, but we were all in it together. Whether a Generation X'er or a Baby Boomer, we were all affected by the fashion transformations of the decade of greed. In case you have hidden, or possibly burned, all of your personal photos from the eighties, the following fashion trends may bring back some humorous memories of the once popular, yet extremely embarrassing fads from the eighties.

Hairstyles

• Banana clips - those bear trap-like contraptions that caught a girl's hair up in a wild, yet carefully constructed mop running the length of her head. A perfect model for this style would have been Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles.

• Mesh hair ties - girls tied a piece of black or white mesh in their hair to give them the "Madonna" look.

• The headband - wide and butch for guys or slim and corded for girls. John Travolta sported a headband in "Staying Alive," while Deena Freeman almost always had one on in the television sitcom "Too Close For Comfort."

• Crimping - basically, placing hair in a miniature waffle iron so it could look like it had been braided for a week.

• Big hair - poofing and teasing the hair, especially the bangs, with anything that would hold it in place during high winds. This saw the emergence of Bold Hold and Rave super hold hairspray, gel, and mousse.

• Rat-tails - long strips of hair on the back of the neck.

• Hair Art - mohawks, parallel or horizontal lines shaved into hair on the side of the head.

• Bleached Blond Streaks - obtained by using the product Sun In

• Pony tails - usually worn off-center on the side of the head.

On Top

1. Artistically torn workout top, allowing bare shoulders to show through. A perfect example would be Molly Ringwald in the 1984 movie "Sixteen Candles."

2. Slogan T-shirts with your favorite sports team, New Wave band, Spuds Mackenzie, Fido Dido or college. Also, name brand t-shirts like Ron Jon Surf Shop, Ocean Pacific, Panama Jack, Body Glove, Pacific Coast Highway, Vaurnet, IOU, or Banana Republic.

3. The Miami Vice Look - a simple, pastel jacket with narrow lapels worn over a solid-colored t-shirt.

4. Jackets - there were two varieties:

o The jean jacket with millions of buttons pinned on them.

o The Michael Jackson "Thriller" jacket which was a garish, candy-apple red leather jacket.

5. Blouses - had to have buttons, feathers, and/or rhinestones tracing a path up one side and down one sleeve.

6. Izod shirts - in every color of the rainbow, these shirts were to be worn with the collars turned up and, for maximum preppie impact, hang a sweater over your shoulders.

Below The Belt

1. Parachute pants - the loudest piece of clothing in your closet because people could hear you coming a mile away with the pant legs rubbing together and the zippers clanking.

2. Sweatpants - either tucked into tube socks or pulled up to your knees for a sort of "bermuda" sweatpant look.

3. Jeans - must have been made by Bonjour, Sasson, Chic, Calvin Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt, or Guess and had to either be ripped, have zippers all over them or at the bottom, and definitely must be stone washed or pinstriped.

4. Miniskirts - preferrably black leather or striped and must be very short.

5. Spandex pants - worn alone or with shorts over them, these came in a wide variety of colors. The pink and lavender with silver iridescence were particularly popular.

6. Shorts - either plaid bermuda or wildly colorful surfer shorts called jams.

7. Leg warmers - enough said.

8. Stirrup pants - worn as either comfort clothing or a dress-up outfit, these were very colorful and sometimes ribbed.

*No matter what you chose to wear, it probably clashed and was just plain outrageous with pinstripes, polks dots, and covered with various patterns such as paislies or geometric shapes...

Shoes

1. Dr. Dexter or "Dex"/decks - preferably worn without socks these shoes came in dark brown, tan white, navy, or maroon.

2. Pricey sneakers - Reeboks, Vans & Airwalks (for the skaters), PUMA, British Knight, Converse, L.A. Gear, and Adidas. The tennis shoes were either high-tops and clunked around because they were never tied or they were velcro.

3. Penny loafers - you MUST have the pennies in them.

4. Jellies - a sort of plastic sandal.

Decorations

1. Lots of makeup - blue eye shadow, blood-red lipstick, roll-on lip gloss, and thick mascara in black, purple, blue or green.

2. Sunglasses - Either Ray Bans, sleek sunglasses like the ones worn by Tom Cruise in the 1983 movie "Risky Business," or Oakleys.

3. Pierced Ears - multiple pierces for girls and double pierces for guys. However, guys could opt for a single earring in the left ear if they were straight and in the right ear if they were gay. Also, for the upper ear, silver ear cuffs were worn. Girls usually opted for multiple stud earrings or huge hoop earrings.

4. SWATCHES - a brand name watch with rubber Swatch guards.

5. Bracelets - usually plastic and worn hundreds at a time or white, braided sailor bracelets.

6. Bandanas - not around your head but tied around your ankle or knee.

7. Freezy Freakies - winter gloves that showed a design when they got cold.

8. Belts - usually wide and long and worn around extra-long sweaters or shirts.

9. Purses - either name brand Jordache purses, Sportsacs, or clear platic purses.

Brand Names

• Esprit

• Coca-Cola

• Benetton

• Laura Ashley

• Bugle Boy

• Ralph Lauren

• Armani

• Polo

• Members Only

• Z. Cavaricci

Hands Across America

On May 25, 1986, 5-1/2 million people joined hands in a 4,124-mile-long line from New York to Los Angeles. For fifteen minutes they held hands and sang “Hands Across America” in Hands Across America, an event to raise money for America’s poor and homeless.

The event was the brainchild of Ken Kragen, founder of USA For Africa, and a New York public relations executive named Geoff Nightingale. After its conception in April of 1985, the Hands project faced the problem of overcoming the mistakes of a similar event a decade earlier.

In that instance, a Chicago group had attempted to form a human chain across America as part of the 1976 Bicentennial celebration. The event was all voluntary, even to the point of being organized by volunteers. It failed completely and never took place.

For Hands Across America, it was decided that corporate sponsorship was the way to go. With big-time corporate funding from corporations such as Citibank, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Safeway; Hands Across America was able to finance both the publicity blitz and the enormous organization needed to pull off the event. Video feeds and coverage were donated by ESPN and MTV.

To actually raise the money for the poor and homeless, people were asked to donate at least $10 each to stand in the line, and corporations could sponsor lengths of the line at $15,000 to $50,000 per mile. Corporate sponsors would be responsible for organizing their sections of the line, and could sell t-shirts and memorabilia throughout their areas. In all, 5,442,960 people and several hundred corporations signed up. (In addition, an estimated 1,500,000 people who didn’t or couldn’t participate formed their own separate lines.)

Because of the massive scale of the project, the line was broken into about 200 mini-lines, each 20 miles long. Each mini-line had its own organizers, who worked in conjuction with each other to connect the 200 separate lines into the massive coast-to-coast line.

In many places it appeared that the line would not succeed, ttendance was sparse at first, but in the final minutes the real flood of participants began to pour in, filling many of the gaps. Not all were filled, however. There were several gaps ranging in size from one to several miles, especially in the desert regions. Some of these gaps remained empty, others were filled with balloons and ribbons to stand in for people.

It is not known exactly how much money was raised by Hands Across America, but the event brought together people of all races, creeds, and religions for a 15-minute period of harmony.

The Challenger Explosion

"The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God'."

-- U.S. President Ronald Reagan, January 28, 1986

[pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic]

There are certain events that so rip away our illusion of invulnerability that the moment is burned into our memories and replayed in our minds for the remainder of our lives. For some, it was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. For others, the assassination of John F. Kennedy. But for the millions of people watching from their classrooms, their living rooms, the stands at the launch pad, or the monitors in mission control -- the image is of the fireball and the two spiraling trails in the sky. In that one instant, shortly after 11:40 a.m. EST on January 28, 1986, a nation to whom spaceflight had become routine was drastically humbled.

The explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, 73 seconds after liftoff, claimed the lives of all seven crew members: Michael Smith, Francis Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and First-Teacher-in-Space Christa McAuliffe. The tragedy was the worst incident involving a U.S. spacecraft since the 1967 Apollo-1 capsule fire that killed three astronauts on the ground.

Since the begining of the space shuttle program, space flight had become so flawless and routine that most people would not have been watching that particular liftoff had it not been for Christa. America's attention was captured because the flight was to be the culmination of a two-year project to send a school teacher into space. We all shared in the excitement as Christa McAuliffe was selected from over 11,000 candidates, we all watched her as she took part in training and preparation for the flight, and we were all watching as she boarded the Challenger and lifted off with the intention of broadcasting educational lessons from space.

The tragic loss of these fine pioneers should be remembered for though the accident taught us that we should not be complacent, we also should carry on the dream that these seven had and continue the quest to expand our understanding of this universe in which we live.

The '80s Server extends its warmest sympathies to the families and friends of the Challenger crew.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download