Boombox: 9 Wild Facts About the 80s Ghetto Blaster
The boombox ruled the 1980s — from the JVC RC-M90 to hip-hop park jams. 9 wild facts about the ghetto blaster and why it never really died.
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Purple Rain Movie: 9 Wild Facts About Prince’s 1984 Hit
The Purple Rain movie made Prince a superstar in 1984. Nine wild facts about the film, the album, Apollonia, and that famous motorcycle.
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Public Enemy: 9 Reasons They Changed Hip Hop Forever
In 1988, the FBI’s Assistant Director, Milt Ahlerich, sent a letter to N.W.A.’s record label complaining about a song. The letter is famous — every rap fan knows about it. What gets forgotten is that the rap group whose actual catalog scared federal agents the most was Public Enemy, and Chuck D had been telling…
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Pour Some Sugar on Me: The Unlikely Anthem That Saved Def Leppard
By the spring of 1987, Def Leppard had spent more than three years, somewhere north of four and a half million dollars, and the better part of their twenties trying to finish a single record. The band had survived a drummer losing his left arm, a producer abandoning the project mid-sessions, a near-fatal car crash…
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Parental Advisory Sticker: 9 Wild Truths from the PMRC War
The parental advisory sticker was born from the 1985 PMRC Senate hearings — Tipper Gore vs Frank Zappa, Dee Snider, and John Denver. Nine truths the Filthy Fifteen mythology forgets.
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Grunge vs Punk: The Family Feud That Reshaped Rock
Grunge vs punk wasn’t a sound clash — it was a family feud over selling out, fashion, and who really owned rock’s angry soul.
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Miami Vice: 9 Reasons the 1984 Show Defined 80s Cool
Miami Vice premiered Sep 16, 1984 and rewired 80s style, music, and TV. Inside Crockett, Tubbs, the Ferrari, and why it still pops.
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Purple Rain: How Prince Bent the 80s Into a Single Color
For one impossible summer in 1984, Prince owned the No. 1 movie, album, and single in America at the same time. Forty years later, Purple Rain still hasn’t loosened its grip on pop culture.
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The Night Hip Hop Was Born: What Really Happened in the Bronx
The history of hip hop begins on one specific night: August 11, 1973, in the recreation room of an apartment building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the West Bronx. An 18-year-old Jamaican kid named Clive Campbell — who the neighborhood would soon know as DJ Kool Herc — hooked up two turntables, grabbed a microphone,…
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Death of Disco: 7 Ways It Became 80s New Wave
The death of disco was never a clean ending. Here is how the 1979 backlash turned into new wave, synth-pop, house, and the sound of the 80s.
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Sony Walkman: The Portable Cassette Player That Changed How We Listen to Music
There’s a moment every Gen X kid remembers. You’re walking down the street, foam headphones clamped over your ears, the orange sponge pads slightly sweaty against your skin. A mixtape is playing — maybe one you made yourself, maybe one your crush made for you. The world outside is moving, but you’re in your own…
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Marvin Gaye Killed by Father: April 1, 1984
April 1, 1984. April Fool’s Day. The cruelest joke the calendar ever played on the music world came not from a prankster, but from a .38 Special revolver — fired by a man who should have loved the person he was shooting. One day before his 45th birthday, Marvin Gaye — the Prince of Soul,…
