1980-1989: The Eighties
The 1980's, also known as the “eighties”, is the decade between January 1, 1980 through December 31, 1989. The population of the United States was roughly 226,546,000, salaries averaged about 15,500 a year, and a BMW was only $12,00. Video games, aerobics, minivans, VCRs, and talk shows became important aspects of the daily life. The symbol of the decade was the “yuppie”: a baby boomer with a college education, a well-paying job and expensive taste. Jimmy Carter's term ended in 1981, Ronald Reagan was the president from 1981-1988, and George W. Bush Sr. won the election in 1988. There were several changes in this decade, many of which still affect our culture today. In this research, the topics of fashion, technology, entertainment, sports, and disasters will be discussed and how they affected the decade.
Technology made a big appearance in the 1980's. Arcade games became popular in the late 1970's and by the 1980's, they had become a part of everyday life. Atari, a Japanese gaming company, owned majority of the gaming industry with games like . From 1983-1985, games sales decreased by almost 95 percent. This crash was caused by an increase in home computing systems. The first IBM model was created in 1981, followed by the Commodore 64 in 1982. This system produced over 17 million systems in this decade and came to be one of the best-selling computer systems of all time. Apple released their first Macintosh personal computer in 1984, which was known as the first successful system to use a graphical user interface and a mouse. High definition television, HDTV, was first created in this decade but didn't become popular until the 2000s. Walkman and Boomboxes also became more popular in this decade. It was common to find teenagers walking around the streets with headphones in their ears or Boomboxes on their shoulders. VHS, video home systems, were preferred over their competing Betamax standards and ability to record shows and watch...