I am spending the week with a friend and they have been on this killer 80's music kick. Every time we enter their car and put on some tunes, to when they are coloring in a poster—80's music graces our eardrums. Each tune brings me back to the awkward glory days of my middle school self.
I had a black I-pod classic that was secretly stored with an unhealthy amount of Sting and Foreigner, while my classmates listened to Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. I also watched Saved By The Bell because I had a huge crush on Jessie Spano and secretly wished I had a trench coat like John Bender from The Breakfast Club. The point is, I'm a 90's baby with a tendency to lean more towards the 80's. However, I feel as though it is under appreciated for its social,political,and cultural history in America.
The 80's represented a time that many Americans embraced a new conservatism in social, economic and political life influenced by the policies of Ronald Reagan. Despite all odds, there were some successful social movements that are still significant to this day. Some of these movements include when the African American community joined with student groups to form a powerful movement to end government and corporate collusion with the apartheid (racial separation) regime in South Africa. In the mid-80s, they held rallies and sit-ins to pressure campuses and city councils to leave companies doing business on the backs of black South Africans. By kicking out the U.S. supporting apartheid, they could claim part of the credit for the final collapse of the white dictatorship, and the 1994 election that brought the African National Congress (ANC) to power.
Some more crucial events happened within the LGBT community. The Democratic Rules Committee stated that "it will not discriminate against homosexuals." At their National Convention on August 11-14, the Democrats became the first major political party to endorse a gay rights platform. On March 2, 1982, Wisconsin became the first U.S. state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In the early stages of the HIV epidemic, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) began to use creative direct actions to create public awareness, using the slogan “Silence = Death.”
This act helped direct some government resources toward medical research, and slightly alleviated the homophobic ostracism that patients received. "Act Up" became the most visible example of the larger LGBT movement, and sparked more organizing within the community. Such as, on October 11, 1987, thousands of activists took part in the National March on Washington to demand that President Ronald Reagan address the AIDS crisis.
In the literary sphere, there were significant academic and grass roots impact. This included Bell Hooks' Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism, Barbara Smith's Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, and Paula Giddings' When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. Also African American authors, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, gained international recognition after winning Pulitzer Prizes for their novels in 1983 and 1986.
The 80's also represented the rise of the “yuppie,” an emergence of blockbuster movies, and the rise of cable networks like MTV. The 80's had its own charm that seems to be dismissed. To conclude this mini history lesson, here are some of my favorite underappreciated 80's tunes that seemed to not ring through the radio as much:
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