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__ The 1980s __


 * Håvard Loland | Michael Alfredsen | Odd Magnus Øvregaard | Timothy Jøraholmen |

**What happened in the 1980s?** Here are some headlines and news from this decade:

- Ronald Reagan becomes president, Republicans gain control of Senate.media type="file" key="news in the 1980s.wmv" width="267" height="225" align="right" - Peter Sutcliffe, "The Yorkshire Ripper," is arrested after 13 murders. - The Vietnam Veterans' War memorial is dedicated in Washington, bearing 58,000 names. - Martin Luther King Jr. Day becomes national holiday. - Two-year drought causes massive famine in Ethiopia. - AIDS virus is discovered. - A tidal wave kills 10,000 in southern Bangladesh. - Reagan admits to secret arms deal with Iran, the beginning of the Iran-Contra affair. - Bill Gates becomes the computer industry's first billionaire. - An earthquake in Armenia kills 80,000. - The Exxon Valdez spills eleven million gallons of oil in Alaska. - Bush authorizes $300 billion tax dollars to prop up the collapsing savings and loan industry. (Source: [])

**The 1980s in music:** 

The 80s saw the end of the disco-music, the sales was declining and the music industry was hunting for new artists, approximately 2500 persons lost their job. With more than 34 million units less sold in -79, the whole music industry was in crisis.media type="youtube" key="dVQF7N6w4lI" height="314" width="386" align="right" Their approach? - Those who were the youth in the 1960 and -70, were all grown up now. The music industry tryed an homogene approach to them, the artists began making some more 'soft' music and they were sounding more and more alike to eachother. There were some new concepts, as for example '//The Pretenders' and 'The Talking Heads'.// Many innovative bands were left in the dark by the label companies. Names as Madonna, Peter Gabriel, U2, Prince and Eurythmics dominated the dancefloors with their innovative music. 'Brass in Pocket' by //'The Pretenders',// became the first //'new wave'// top 20 hit. In those years the videodiscs had their entrance, along with the CDs. This products revolutionized the market and were largely used. Gary Newman had the honour to have the first videocassette with his music on the market, only a few weeks before Blondie made hers first one. In April, The //Beat's' '//Mirror In The Bathroom' became the first British single digitally recorded on a CD.

Written and edited by: Timothy J.