{"id":7139,"date":"2022-05-10T19:00:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T19:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=7139"},"modified":"2022-07-25T19:12:49","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T19:12:49","slug":"more-culture-wars-and-pop-culture-of-the-1980s","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/chapter\/more-culture-wars-and-pop-culture-of-the-1980s\/","title":{"raw":"More Culture Wars and Pop Culture of the 1980s","rendered":"More Culture Wars and Pop Culture of the 1980s"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Describe the AIDS pandemic<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Examine pop culture changes and developments of the 1980s<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"fs-idm217401936\" data-depth=\"1\">\r\n<h2 class=\"mceTemp\">Demographic Changes and the Culture Wars<\/h2>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm471903184\">Demographic trends also changed the United States. In keeping with economic deindustrialization, the nation saw a continued shift of population from the Rust Belt states of the Northeast and Midwest to the Sun Belt states of the South and West as people moved in search of jobs and opportunity. There was also a new burst of immigration, this time from Latin America and Asia. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was a compromise reform that gave amnesty to illegal immigrants then in the United States and imposed penalties on businesses for hiring illegal immigrants in the future. A few years later, the Immigration Act of 1990 attempted to connect immigration more closely to job skills by easing the way into the country for more highly educated workers.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm473577008\">The ongoing \u201cculture war\u201d between liberals and conservatives over social values was multifaceted. The debate over abortion continued, with two Supreme Court decisions,\u00a0<span id=\"term758\" data-type=\"term\"><em data-effect=\"italics\">Missouri v. Webster<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1989) and\u00a0<span id=\"term759\" data-type=\"term\"><em data-effect=\"italics\">Planned Parenthood v. Casey<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1992), narrowing but not overturning\u00a0<span id=\"term760\" data-type=\"term\"><em data-effect=\"italics\">Roe v. Wade<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1973), which had legalized abortion. A debate over family structure and single motherhood erupted when Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the television show\u00a0<em data-effect=\"italics\">Murphy Brown<\/em>\u00a0for featuring a single mother. The emergence of AIDS in the 1980s brought to the forefront questions about society\u2019s acceptance of homosexuality. College campuses became ground zero in battles over diversity, multiculturalism, the teaching of western civilization courses, and affirmative action, which had been an object of controversy even before the Supreme Court\u2019s\u00a0<span id=\"term761\" data-type=\"term\"><em data-effect=\"italics\">Regents of the University of California v. Bakke<\/em><\/span>\u00a0decision in 1978.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">The AIDS Crisis<\/h2>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp174681200\">In the early 1980s, doctors noticed a disturbing trend: Young gay men in large cities, especially San Francisco and New York, were being diagnosed with, and eventually dying from, a rare cancer called Kaposi\u2019s sarcoma. Because the disease was seen almost exclusively in male homosexuals, it was quickly dubbed \u201cgay cancer.\u201d Doctors soon realized it often coincided with other symptoms, including a rare form of pneumonia, and they renamed it \u201cGay Related Immune Deficiency\u201d (GRID), although people other than gay men, primarily intravenous drug users, were dying from the disease as well. The connection between gay men and GRID\u2014later renamed human immunodeficiency virus\/autoimmune deficiency syndrome, or <strong>HIV\/AIDS<\/strong>\u2014led heterosexuals largely to ignore the growing health crisis in the gay community, wrongly assuming they were safe from its effects.<\/p>\r\nThe Reagan administration met the issue with indifference, leading liberal congressman Henry Waxman to rage that \u201cif the same disease had appeared among Americans of Norwegian descent . . . rather than among gay males, the response of both the government and the medical community would be different.\u201d[footnote]Self, All in the Family,387\u2013388.[\/footnote]\u00a0Some religious figures seemed to relish the opportunity to condemn homosexual activity; Catholic columnist Patrick Buchanan remarked that \u201cthe sexual revolution has begun to devour its children.\u201d[footnote]Ibid., 384.[\/footnote]<sup>\u00a0<\/sup>The federal government also overlooked the disease, and calls for more money to research and find the cure were ignored.\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Stigma's Role in the AIDS Crisis<\/h3>\r\nStigma and homophobia played a large role in the U.S. government's and the nation's response to the AIDS epidemic. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yAzDn7tE1lU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">This video shares disturbing audio from White House Press Briefings<\/a>\u00a0that features White House staff making homophobic jokes disparaging gay Americans when asked about progress on combatting the AIDS epidemic.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"195\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203435\/CNX_History_31_02_Silence.jpg\" alt=\"A graphic features a pink triangle on a black background. At the bottom are the words \u201cSILENCE = DEATH.\u201d\" width=\"195\" height=\"294\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. The pink triangle was originally used in Nazi concentration camps to identify those there for acts of homosexuality. Reclaimed by gay activists in New York as a symbol of resistance and solidarity during the 1970s, it was further transformed as a symbol of governmental inaction in the face of the AIDS epidemic during the 1980s.[\/caption]\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp172913504\">Even after it became apparent that heterosexuals could contract the disease through blood transfusions and heterosexual intercourse, HIV\/AIDS continued to be associated primarily with the gay community, especially by political and religious conservatives. Indeed, the religious right regarded it as a form of divine retribution meant to punish gay men for their \u201cimmoral\u201d lifestyle. President Reagan, always politically careful, was reluctant to speak openly about the developing crisis even as thousands faced certain death from the disease.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp293049632\">With little help coming from the government, the gay community quickly began to organize its own response. In 1982, New York City men formed the Gay Men\u2019s Health Crisis (GMHC), a volunteer organization that operated an information hotline, provided counseling and legal assistance, and raised money for people with HIV\/AIDS. Larry Kramer, one of the original members, left in 1983 and formed his own organization, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), in 1987. ACT UP took a more militant approach, holding demonstrations on Wall Street, outside the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and inside the New York Stock Exchange to call attention and shame the government into action. One of the images adopted by the group, a pink triangle paired with the phrase \u201cSilence = Death,\u201d captured media attention and quickly became the symbol of the AIDS crisis.<\/p>\r\nOthers sought to humanize AIDS victims; this was the goal of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a commemorative project begun in 1985. By the middle of the decade the federal government began to address the issue haltingly. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, an evangelical Christian, called for more federal funding on AIDS-related research, much to the dismay of critics on the religious right. By 1987 government spending on AIDS-related research reached $500 million\u2014still only 25 percent of what experts advocated.\u00a0In 1987 Reagan convened a presidential commission on AIDS; the commission\u2019s report called for antidiscrimination laws to protect people with AIDS and for more federal spending on AIDS research. The shift encouraged activists. Nevertheless, on issues of abortion and gay rights\u2014as with the push for racial equality\u2014activists spent the 1980s preserving the status quo rather than building on previous gains. This amounted to a significant victory for the New Right.\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/5805b006-25a5-4c91-a28b-d8cb51e27310\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><section id=\"fs-idm217401936\" data-depth=\"1\">\r\n<h2 align=\"center\"><span id=\"IX_Culture_Wars_of_the_1980s\">Popular Culture of the 1980s<\/span><\/h2>\r\nPopular culture of the 1980s offered another venue in which conservatives and liberals waged a battle of ideas. The militarism and patriotism of Reagan\u2019s presidency pervaded movies like\u00a0<em>Top Gun<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0<em>Rambo<\/em>\u00a0series, starring Sylvester Stallone as a Vietnam War veteran haunted by his country\u2019s failure to pursue victory in Southeast Asia. In contrast, director Oliver Stone offered searing condemnations of the war in\u00a0<em>Platoon<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Born on the Fourth of July<\/em>. Television shows like\u00a0<em>Dynasty<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Dallas<\/em>\u00a0celebrated wealth and glamour, reflecting the pride in conspicuous consumption that emanated from the White House and corporate boardrooms during the decade. At the same time, films like\u00a0<em>Wall Street<\/em>\u00a0and novels like Bret Easton Ellis\u2019s\u00a0<em>Less Than Zero<\/em>\u00a0skewered the excesses of the rich.\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Link to Learning<\/h3>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=122&amp;v=YvvEpKjFE2I&amp;feature=emb_logo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">This video quickly recaps some of the biggest pop cultural aspects of the 1980s<\/a>, including famous musicians, Michael Jackson, <em>Back to the Future<\/em>, Indiana Jones, PacMan, the <em>Simpsons<\/em>, Nintendo, MTV, Rocky, Madonna, and more.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nThe most significant aspects of popular culture in the 1980s, however, was its lack of politics altogether. Steven Spielberg\u2019s\u00a0<em>E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial<\/em>\u00a0and his Indiana Jones adventure trilogy topped the box office. Cinematic escapism replaced the social films of the 1970s. Quintessential Hollywood leftist Jane Fonda appeared frequently on television but only to peddle exercise videos. Television viewership\u2014once dominated by the big three networks of NBC, ABC, and CBS\u2014fragmented with the rise of cable channels catering to particularized tastes. Few cable channels so captured the popular imagination as MTV, which debuted in 1981. Telegenic artists like Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson skillfully used MTV to boost their reputations and album sales. Conservatives condemned music videos for corrupting young people with vulgar, anti-authoritarian messages, but the medium only grew in stature. Critics of MTV targeted Madonna in particular. Her 1989 video \u201cLike a Prayer\u201d drew protests for what some people viewed as sexually suggestive and blasphemous scenes. The religious right increasingly perceived popular culture as hostile to Christian values.\r\n\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\r\n<h3>Enter Scene: Personal Computers<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3939\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"319\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2015\/08\/03214517\/800px-Apple_IIc_with_monitor.jpg\"><img class=\"wp-image-3939\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2015\/08\/03214517\/800px-Apple_IIc_with_monitor-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"This image shows the Apple IIc.\" width=\"319\" height=\"319\" \/><\/a> <strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. The portable Apple IIc, shown here with a monitor, was one of the first personal computers when it was released in 1984.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FxZ_Z-_j71I\">Apple II computer<\/a>, introduced in 1977, was the first successful mass-produced microcomputer meant for home use. Apple II had the defining feature of being able to display color graphics, and this was why the\u00a0<a class=\"mw-redirect\" title=\"Apple logo\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Apple_logo\">Apple logo<\/a>\u00a0was designed to have a spectrum of colors.\u00a0It was soon followed by new models, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7Y4Vh_ZLIYs\">Apple IIc<\/a> in 1984 as Apple's first compact, portable computer.\r\n\r\nOther companies competed with Apple. Notably, IBM responded to the success of the Apple II with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VslekgnIXDo\">IBM PC<\/a>, released in August 1981. Like the Apple II, it was based on an open, card-based architecture. The first model used an audio cassette for external storage, though there was an expensive floppy disk option.\u00a0The IBM PC typically came with PC DOS as its operating system. In 1980, IBM turned to Bill Gates, who was already providing the ROM BASIC interpreter for the PC. Gates offered to provide 86-DOS, developed by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products. IBM rebranded it as PC DOS, while Microsoft sold variations and upgrades as MS-DOS.\r\n\r\nThe impact of the Apple II and the IBM PC was fully demonstrated when Time named the home computer the \"Machine of the Year\", or Person of the Year for 1982 (3 January 1983, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=T33Z0eJ3bO4\">\"The Computer Moves In\"<\/a>). It was the first time in the history of the magazine that an inanimate object was given this award.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/2b82b2b0-3423-4bf3-b089-362043bc6129\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\r\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\r\n<section>What were some of the primary values of the Moral Majority?\r\n[reveal-answer q=\"433125\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"433125\"]Jerry Falwell\u2019s Moral Majority believed the country was drifting ever further toward immorality. The evidence they cited included the legalization of abortion, the feminist movement, and sex education in public schools.[\/hidden-answer]<\/section><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\r\n<strong>HIV\/AIDS:\u00a0<\/strong>a deadly immune deficiency disorder discovered in 1981, and at first largely ignored by politicians because of its prevalence among gay men\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Describe the AIDS pandemic<\/li>\n<li>Examine pop culture changes and developments of the 1980s<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<section id=\"fs-idm217401936\" data-depth=\"1\">\n<h2 class=\"mceTemp\">Demographic Changes and the Culture Wars<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fs-idm471903184\">Demographic trends also changed the United States. In keeping with economic deindustrialization, the nation saw a continued shift of population from the Rust Belt states of the Northeast and Midwest to the Sun Belt states of the South and West as people moved in search of jobs and opportunity. There was also a new burst of immigration, this time from Latin America and Asia. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was a compromise reform that gave amnesty to illegal immigrants then in the United States and imposed penalties on businesses for hiring illegal immigrants in the future. A few years later, the Immigration Act of 1990 attempted to connect immigration more closely to job skills by easing the way into the country for more highly educated workers.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idm473577008\">The ongoing \u201cculture war\u201d between liberals and conservatives over social values was multifaceted. The debate over abortion continued, with two Supreme Court decisions,\u00a0<span id=\"term758\" data-type=\"term\"><em data-effect=\"italics\">Missouri v. Webster<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1989) and\u00a0<span id=\"term759\" data-type=\"term\"><em data-effect=\"italics\">Planned Parenthood v. Casey<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1992), narrowing but not overturning\u00a0<span id=\"term760\" data-type=\"term\"><em data-effect=\"italics\">Roe v. Wade<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1973), which had legalized abortion. A debate over family structure and single motherhood erupted when Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the television show\u00a0<em data-effect=\"italics\">Murphy Brown<\/em>\u00a0for featuring a single mother. The emergence of AIDS in the 1980s brought to the forefront questions about society\u2019s acceptance of homosexuality. College campuses became ground zero in battles over diversity, multiculturalism, the teaching of western civilization courses, and affirmative action, which had been an object of controversy even before the Supreme Court\u2019s\u00a0<span id=\"term761\" data-type=\"term\"><em data-effect=\"italics\">Regents of the University of California v. Bakke<\/em><\/span>\u00a0decision in 1978.<\/p>\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">The AIDS Crisis<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fs-idp174681200\">In the early 1980s, doctors noticed a disturbing trend: Young gay men in large cities, especially San Francisco and New York, were being diagnosed with, and eventually dying from, a rare cancer called Kaposi\u2019s sarcoma. Because the disease was seen almost exclusively in male homosexuals, it was quickly dubbed \u201cgay cancer.\u201d Doctors soon realized it often coincided with other symptoms, including a rare form of pneumonia, and they renamed it \u201cGay Related Immune Deficiency\u201d (GRID), although people other than gay men, primarily intravenous drug users, were dying from the disease as well. The connection between gay men and GRID\u2014later renamed human immunodeficiency virus\/autoimmune deficiency syndrome, or <strong>HIV\/AIDS<\/strong>\u2014led heterosexuals largely to ignore the growing health crisis in the gay community, wrongly assuming they were safe from its effects.<\/p>\n<p>The Reagan administration met the issue with indifference, leading liberal congressman Henry Waxman to rage that \u201cif the same disease had appeared among Americans of Norwegian descent . . . rather than among gay males, the response of both the government and the medical community would be different.\u201d<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Self, All in the Family,387\u2013388.\" id=\"return-footnote-7139-1\" href=\"#footnote-7139-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Some religious figures seemed to relish the opportunity to condemn homosexual activity; Catholic columnist Patrick Buchanan remarked that \u201cthe sexual revolution has begun to devour its children.\u201d<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Ibid., 384.\" id=\"return-footnote-7139-2\" href=\"#footnote-7139-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a><sup>\u00a0<\/sup>The federal government also overlooked the disease, and calls for more money to research and find the cure were ignored.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Stigma&#8217;s Role in the AIDS Crisis<\/h3>\n<p>Stigma and homophobia played a large role in the U.S. government&#8217;s and the nation&#8217;s response to the AIDS epidemic. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yAzDn7tE1lU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">This video shares disturbing audio from White House Press Briefings<\/a>\u00a0that features White House staff making homophobic jokes disparaging gay Americans when asked about progress on combatting the AIDS epidemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 205px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203435\/CNX_History_31_02_Silence.jpg\" alt=\"A graphic features a pink triangle on a black background. At the bottom are the words \u201cSILENCE = DEATH.\u201d\" width=\"195\" height=\"294\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. The pink triangle was originally used in Nazi concentration camps to identify those there for acts of homosexuality. Reclaimed by gay activists in New York as a symbol of resistance and solidarity during the 1970s, it was further transformed as a symbol of governmental inaction in the face of the AIDS epidemic during the 1980s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idp172913504\">Even after it became apparent that heterosexuals could contract the disease through blood transfusions and heterosexual intercourse, HIV\/AIDS continued to be associated primarily with the gay community, especially by political and religious conservatives. Indeed, the religious right regarded it as a form of divine retribution meant to punish gay men for their \u201cimmoral\u201d lifestyle. President Reagan, always politically careful, was reluctant to speak openly about the developing crisis even as thousands faced certain death from the disease.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idp293049632\">With little help coming from the government, the gay community quickly began to organize its own response. In 1982, New York City men formed the Gay Men\u2019s Health Crisis (GMHC), a volunteer organization that operated an information hotline, provided counseling and legal assistance, and raised money for people with HIV\/AIDS. Larry Kramer, one of the original members, left in 1983 and formed his own organization, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), in 1987. ACT UP took a more militant approach, holding demonstrations on Wall Street, outside the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and inside the New York Stock Exchange to call attention and shame the government into action. One of the images adopted by the group, a pink triangle paired with the phrase \u201cSilence = Death,\u201d captured media attention and quickly became the symbol of the AIDS crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Others sought to humanize AIDS victims; this was the goal of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a commemorative project begun in 1985. By the middle of the decade the federal government began to address the issue haltingly. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, an evangelical Christian, called for more federal funding on AIDS-related research, much to the dismay of critics on the religious right. By 1987 government spending on AIDS-related research reached $500 million\u2014still only 25 percent of what experts advocated.\u00a0In 1987 Reagan convened a presidential commission on AIDS; the commission\u2019s report called for antidiscrimination laws to protect people with AIDS and for more federal spending on AIDS research. The shift encouraged activists. Nevertheless, on issues of abortion and gay rights\u2014as with the push for racial equality\u2014activists spent the 1980s preserving the status quo rather than building on previous gains. This amounted to a significant victory for the New Right.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_5805b006-25a5-4c91-a28b-d8cb51e27310\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/5805b006-25a5-4c91-a28b-d8cb51e27310?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_5805b006-25a5-4c91-a28b-d8cb51e27310\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"fs-idm217401936\" data-depth=\"1\">\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span id=\"IX_Culture_Wars_of_the_1980s\">Popular Culture of the 1980s<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Popular culture of the 1980s offered another venue in which conservatives and liberals waged a battle of ideas. The militarism and patriotism of Reagan\u2019s presidency pervaded movies like\u00a0<em>Top Gun<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0<em>Rambo<\/em>\u00a0series, starring Sylvester Stallone as a Vietnam War veteran haunted by his country\u2019s failure to pursue victory in Southeast Asia. In contrast, director Oliver Stone offered searing condemnations of the war in\u00a0<em>Platoon<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Born on the Fourth of July<\/em>. Television shows like\u00a0<em>Dynasty<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Dallas<\/em>\u00a0celebrated wealth and glamour, reflecting the pride in conspicuous consumption that emanated from the White House and corporate boardrooms during the decade. At the same time, films like\u00a0<em>Wall Street<\/em>\u00a0and novels like Bret Easton Ellis\u2019s\u00a0<em>Less Than Zero<\/em>\u00a0skewered the excesses of the rich.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Link to Learning<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=122&amp;v=YvvEpKjFE2I&amp;feature=emb_logo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">This video quickly recaps some of the biggest pop cultural aspects of the 1980s<\/a>, including famous musicians, Michael Jackson, <em>Back to the Future<\/em>, Indiana Jones, PacMan, the <em>Simpsons<\/em>, Nintendo, MTV, Rocky, Madonna, and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The most significant aspects of popular culture in the 1980s, however, was its lack of politics altogether. Steven Spielberg\u2019s\u00a0<em>E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial<\/em>\u00a0and his Indiana Jones adventure trilogy topped the box office. Cinematic escapism replaced the social films of the 1970s. Quintessential Hollywood leftist Jane Fonda appeared frequently on television but only to peddle exercise videos. Television viewership\u2014once dominated by the big three networks of NBC, ABC, and CBS\u2014fragmented with the rise of cable channels catering to particularized tastes. Few cable channels so captured the popular imagination as MTV, which debuted in 1981. Telegenic artists like Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson skillfully used MTV to boost their reputations and album sales. Conservatives condemned music videos for corrupting young people with vulgar, anti-authoritarian messages, but the medium only grew in stature. Critics of MTV targeted Madonna in particular. Her 1989 video \u201cLike a Prayer\u201d drew protests for what some people viewed as sexually suggestive and blasphemous scenes. The religious right increasingly perceived popular culture as hostile to Christian values.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Enter Scene: Personal Computers<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_3939\" style=\"width: 329px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2015\/08\/03214517\/800px-Apple_IIc_with_monitor.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3939\" class=\"wp-image-3939\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2015\/08\/03214517\/800px-Apple_IIc_with_monitor-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"This image shows the Apple IIc.\" width=\"319\" height=\"319\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-3939\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. The portable Apple IIc, shown here with a monitor, was one of the first personal computers when it was released in 1984.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FxZ_Z-_j71I\">Apple II computer<\/a>, introduced in 1977, was the first successful mass-produced microcomputer meant for home use. Apple II had the defining feature of being able to display color graphics, and this was why the\u00a0<a class=\"mw-redirect\" title=\"Apple logo\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Apple_logo\">Apple logo<\/a>\u00a0was designed to have a spectrum of colors.\u00a0It was soon followed by new models, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7Y4Vh_ZLIYs\">Apple IIc<\/a> in 1984 as Apple&#8217;s first compact, portable computer.<\/p>\n<p>Other companies competed with Apple. Notably, IBM responded to the success of the Apple II with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VslekgnIXDo\">IBM PC<\/a>, released in August 1981. Like the Apple II, it was based on an open, card-based architecture. The first model used an audio cassette for external storage, though there was an expensive floppy disk option.\u00a0The IBM PC typically came with PC DOS as its operating system. In 1980, IBM turned to Bill Gates, who was already providing the ROM BASIC interpreter for the PC. Gates offered to provide 86-DOS, developed by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products. IBM rebranded it as PC DOS, while Microsoft sold variations and upgrades as MS-DOS.<\/p>\n<p>The impact of the Apple II and the IBM PC was fully demonstrated when Time named the home computer the &#8220;Machine of the Year&#8221;, or Person of the Year for 1982 (3 January 1983, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=T33Z0eJ3bO4\">&#8220;The Computer Moves In&#8221;<\/a>). It was the first time in the history of the magazine that an inanimate object was given this award.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_2b82b2b0-3423-4bf3-b089-362043bc6129\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/2b82b2b0-3423-4bf3-b089-362043bc6129?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_2b82b2b0-3423-4bf3-b089-362043bc6129\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\n<section>What were some of the primary values of the Moral Majority?<\/p>\n<div class=\"qa-wrapper\" style=\"display: block\"><span class=\"show-answer collapsed\" style=\"cursor: pointer\" data-target=\"q433125\">Show Answer<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"q433125\" class=\"hidden-answer\" style=\"display: none\">Jerry Falwell\u2019s Moral Majority believed the country was drifting ever further toward immorality. The evidence they cited included the legalization of abortion, the feminist movement, and sex education in public schools.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\n<p><strong>HIV\/AIDS:\u00a0<\/strong>a deadly immune deficiency disorder discovered in 1981, and at first largely ignored by politicians because of its prevalence among gay men<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-7139\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Modification, adaptation, and original content. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Benjamin Lawson for Lumen Learning. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>US History. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: OpenStax. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history\">http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction<\/li><li>Apple_II, IIc, History of personal computers. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikipedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Apple_II,%20https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Apple_IIc,u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/History_of_personal_computers\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Apple_II,%20https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Apple_IIc,u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/History_of_personal_computers<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>The Triumph of the Right. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The American Yawp. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/29-the-triumph-of-the-right\">https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/29-the-triumph-of-the-right<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section><hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-7139-1\">Self, All in the Family,387\u2013388. <a href=\"#return-footnote-7139-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-7139-2\">Ibid., 384. <a href=\"#return-footnote-7139-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":29,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"US History\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"OpenStax\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Apple_II, IIc, History of personal 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