Curated playlist
1980s fads and trends
- House musicFrankie Knuckles began splicing records because the music ran out before dancers wanted to stop.
- MTVMTV's first image was Moon landing footage with its logo on the flag.
- Slasher filmEvery major studio turned down the film Halloween, and one executive said it was not scary.
- Gangsta rapGangsta rap first went by a different name: reality rap. Schoolly D and Ice-T said they described a world they knew.
- Shopping mallVictor Gruen, architect of Southdale Center, came to despise the malls it inspired.
- New wave musicMTV filled its early hours with British new wave because most American hits had no videos.
- Amusement arcadeBarcade, a Brooklyn bar that opened in 2004, paired a full bar with classic arcade machines.
- Electronic dance musicGhost production means a hired producer makes a track that a DJ releases under their own name.
- BreakdancingA teenager threw a back-to-school party in the Bronx in 1973, and breakdancing grew from it.
- Pac-ManPac-Man was first called Puck Man, until executives feared vandals would change the P to an F.
- The SmurfsThe Smurfs, a colony of small blue creatures from Belgian comics, owe their name to a lapse of memory. The cartoonist Peyo, whose real name was Pierre Culliford, was eating a meal on the Belgian coast with his friend and fellow cartoonist…
- Chuck E. CheeseChuck E. Cheese, the American pizza and arcade chain, owes its name to a costume that turned out to be the wrong animal. While his first animatronic show was being assembled, Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, discovered that the outfit…
- Trivial PursuitThe board game Trivial Pursuit was invented in 45 minutes on a cigarette carton.