1980s America – Popular Culture



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1980s America – Popular Culture and Social History

Content Skill – Identify and explain characteristics of 1980s popular culture

C-3 Gather and organize information and data

Directions: Answer the following questions as you visit each of the stations describing 1980s America.

Station 1A - –Articles from “Glued to the Set” about TV shows

Choose one of the articles below (if time, read more). Please write down any 5 main ideas about the significance of each of the following shows from the articles:

“Dallas” --

“Wheel of Fortune” --

“The Cosby Show” --

Station 1B –Television - Use the Ipads - Go to these websites and list on the space provided some other popular TV shows of the decade. Which ones have you watched?





Station 2 – Cartoons

1. Choose five different cartoons and, based on their description, explain how they were a product of, or reflected, the 1980s. (Example: G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero- represented return to hero status of American soldier –post Vietnam– in Cold War era of good [US] vs. evil [USSR], generally encouraged patriotism)

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

Station 3 – Fashion and Fads – wall and website:

1. What fashions and fads have been reborn since the 1980s?

2. Which fashions and/or fads are you unfamiliar with? Find a classmate who can describe that fashion and/or fad.

3. Which fashions and/or fads of the 1980s were just plain bad ideas?

Station 4 – Movies

What facets of 1980s society did each of the following movies reflect? (The Breakfast Club is completed as an example.)

A. E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial

B. The Breakfast Club- Depicts complex, evolving relationships among and between

teenagers coming of age in a decade known for individuality and selfishness.

C. Rambo: First Blood Part II

D. Wall Street

E. Do The Right Thing

F. See Mr. Palmatier for additional examples of 80s values as reflected through movies:

AND check out this link for more examples--

Station 5 – Slang

Create three sentences that incorporate as many 1980s slang terms as possible.

A.

B.

C.

Station 6 A – MTV: Music Television

1. Read two articles on MTV

“MTV’s Original VJs: 32 Facts” and the MTV article from “Glued to the Set” that you received for HW

…and write down as many specific ways that MTV changed the music industry in the 1980s:

2. How does former VJ Martha Quinn link MTV to the Cold War?

3. How did Michael Jackson’s music videos –especially Thriller –influence MTV programming?

4. Provide evidence of MTV’s influence on popular culture (according to former VJ Mark Goodman).

Station 6 B – MTV, Madonna, and Miami Vice

1. How did MTV change the music industry in 1981?

2. How did music videos influence motion pictures in the 1980s?

3. How did Madonna take advantage of MTV’s music revolution?

Station 7 –Yuppie Culture

1. What were key characteristic traits of yuppies?

2. Why did the term yuppie carry negative connotations by the end of the decade?

Station 8 – Music





1. List 5 facts from either or both of these websites:

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2. What songs from the 1980s do you like?

Station 9 1920s/1950s/1980s Decade Comparisons

List all the similarities you can think of about each decade. See Mr. Palmatier for help

1980s Popular Music

Throughout the station activity, please record –

How many song titles and/or artists can you identify?

Which songs do you think Mr. Palmatier had on cassette tape?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

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