What was in in the 1980s

Rubik’s cube hit the shop shelves Christmas 1980 and over 100 million Rubik's Cubes were sold in the period from 1980 to 1982. Invented in Hungary in 1974, for most people the only way to solve the puzzle was to restick the coloured stickers back to their place or dismantle the cube. For those who cracked it and learnt the solution there were countless competitions as to who can do it the fastest.

New romantics emerged in the UK in the early 80s as a direct backlash against the punk movement. The new romantics celebrated glamour and ostentatious clothes. Bands, such as Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Japan, Culture Club, Visage and the Human League, walked around wearing make-up and frilled shirts, building on the slightly androgynous look of glam rock stars, however instead of guitars they used electronic music.

As VHS format came out victorious in the battle with Betamax which took place in the late 1970s video recorders became more affordable. Although bulkier, the VHS tapes lasted 2 hours (compared to 1 hour of Betamax tape), long enough to record a film. Video recorders became a sign of the nation’s prosperity, when Margaret Thatcher famously proclaimed that UK has the largest ownership of video players per population.

MTV was launched on August 1, 1981, as the first channel with the only purpose of showing music videos, and it changed music forever. Appropriately, the first music video shown on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. As the popularity of the network rose, and record companies recognized the potential, increasingly more elaborate clips appeared made specifically for the network. Some of the most popular singers of the 80s, such as Madonna, rose to fame due to MTV.

Part of the promotion of "Relax" single of Frankie Goes to Holywood, which had been banned by the BBC for its explicit lyrics, included the iconic "Frankie Say Relax Don't Do It" T-shirts, which were credited to Morley but were based on designs by Katharine Hamnett, who had produced similarly minimalistic black-on-white shirts depicting positive slogans such as "Choose Life" and "Go Go", as worn by Wham! "Frankie Say..." T-shirts would become the must-have garment in the UK during the summer of 1984.

1980s was the decade of the BMX bike. Chopper bikes of the 1970s were no longer in and every child longed to have a BMX with which they tried to jump over steps and do all sort of tricks. The result was usually a visit to the hospital or a broken bike. The main thing though was to fit an appropriate horn that sounded like a siren and perhaps some metal bits into the back wheel to make it sound like a motorbike.

Live Aid, which consisted of sixteen hours of live music from around the world, featuring many of the biggest stars of the time, was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure following Michael Buerk's BBC documentary about the famine in Ethiopia. The event was opened by Status Quo who played to Wembley arena, packed with a crowd of 72,000, and TV pictures, co-ordinated at BBC Television Centre, have been broadcast to over 1.5 bn people in 160 countries in the biggest broadcast ever known. Simultaneous concert was held at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia.

Only Fools and Horses, the best ever British sitcom hit the screens in 1981. The Trotters Independent Traders have traded their way into our hearts through seven series and numerous specials which were made until 2003. Showing the funny side of the Thatcher era, the series chronicled the lives of market trader Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter and his younger brother Rodney and their futile attempts to become millionaires. Words such as Plonker, Cushty, Lovely jubbly, used by Del Boy, are now part of the popular culture.

Launched in 1982, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was one of the most popular home computers of the 80's. Two models were launched: one with 16 kb RAM and one with 48 kb RAM. One of its most "interesting" characteristics was its keyboard. Some keys had more than five functions. It was impossible to type BASIC keywords letter by letter, instead you have to use function keys. Programs developed for ZX Spectrum were distributed on audio cassette tapes and it loaded the software from your cassette recorder.

First introduced in 1982, "My Little Pony" became a great hit during the 1980s, at one point even outselling Barbie. These toy ponies in a range of rainbow colours were the girl’s dream. Living in Ponyland Blossom, Minty, Butterscotch, Cotton Candy, Blue Belle, and Snuzzle as the original ponies were soon joined by Pegasus and Unicorns and even sea ponies. The original toy line inspired animated television series.

After the release of Fame in 1980 and Flashdance in 1983, leg warmers, which had been long worn by professional dancers, were everywhere in the 1980s. Women usually wore them with miniskirts, over Lycra leggings or over jeans. They were usually coordinated with something else the girl wore - red warmers with a red sweater, for instance. Some girls wore two or three short pairs at a time.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, E.T., which hit the screen in 1982, was a box office hit, surpassing Star Wars to become the most financially successful film released to that point. It brought generation of children to tears as E. T. was dying in the hands of the sceintist, while taking their parents back to the age of innocence when riding the bike was a pleasure and the only thing on your mind was to embark on an adventure with your friends.