The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989.

A Brief Introduction To The 1980's

The 1980s was a period of prolific boom in the economy with red braces and pin stripe suits making appearances all over our screens! Coupled with this boost in the economy, the 1980s was also an era of tremendous population growth around the world, surpassing even the 1970s and 1990s for arguably being the largest in human history.

This growth occurred not only in developing regions but also developed western nations, where many newborns were the offspring of Baby Boomers. 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.

Margaret Thatcher was the UK Prime Minister throughout the 80s and formed a close relationship with US President Ronald Reagan who held a similar tenure in office across the Atlantic. Thatcher supported the US led war on drugs in the early 80s with the “Just Say No” campaign that was well broadcast in the UK.

Chasing cheap labour, a lot of global manufacturing relocated into Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, China and Eastern Europe, away from traditional manufacturing strongholds. New middle class economies were beginning to emerge in the old Soviet bloc countries and other parts of the world, and Islamic fundamentalism began to assert itself in the Middle East.

Rubik's Cube

Social attitudes toward minorities began to ease in the 80s. Baby boomers, who first began to enter positions of power during the 1980s, likely did much to effect this change. During the late 1980s, public bigotry became largely a thing of the past and racial prejudice lost moral acceptance; thus the popularized concept of multiculturalism, particularly in advertising, first appeared.

In the early 1980s, the first generation of computer, video, and arcade games produced the popular Space Invaders arcade game (first released in 1978), followed by many others. Computer technology also began to enter mainstream culture and appeared in movies such as Tron (1982) and WarGames (1983), using then-state of the art special effects that would go on to have a major impact on movie making.

New toys that appeared in the 1980s included the Rubik’s cube craze, Cabbage Patch kids, and Trivial Pursuit.

Television became much more diverse in the 80s with some revolutionary changes in technology and broadcast content. In the early 80s exclusive music channel, MTV launched, changing the way the music business worked forever, and consigning any number of popular radio bands who didn’t look good on video, to history!

By the end of the decade satellite television channels had launched which were to change the way we viewed television services forever.

Rap music began to break into the mainstream, resulting in a string of breakdancing movies. Boomboxes became widespread among inner city music listeners and especially breakdancers, for which the device became a vital element to the ritual. "Breakdance battles" were a more peaceful alternative to gang fights and became popular in music videos.