It’s another Awesome 80’s Long Weekend, brought to you by Garrison Brewing!

But, what WERE the 80’s?? Besides amazing, totally awesome and the best music EVER!!

Here are some tubular 80’s facts this Awesome 80’S Long Weekend, compiled from Best Life!!!

  • TV first hit the air in 1981 … While MTV has been a part of our lives for decades at this point, many ’80s kids will remember tuning into its first broadcast on August 1, 1981. And while the channel’s programming may be more teen-pregnancy-oriented than focused on music these days, at one point, MTV lived up to its name, kicking off its first day on air with a broadcast of The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
  • Pac Man was created. It stands for “Program and Control.”
  • A billion people tuned in to see Prince Charles and Lady Diana get married …. While royal and celebrity weddings are still a big ratings hit to this day, they pale in comparison to Diana and Charles‘ wedding in 1981. In fact, over a billion people around the globe tuned in for the July 29th wedding. To give some context to that figure, just 10.5 million viewers watched Kim Kardashian’s2011 wedding to Kris Humphries.
  • The first commercial U.S. cell phone weighed two pounds … Though the first analogue cellular phone system was introduced in Japan in the late 1970s, it wasn’t until 1983 that Americans could get their hands on one of these devices. The Motorola DynaTac 8000X had a waiting list thousands of people long, despite its high price point and low functionality. The phone could only store 30 numbers, charging it took 10 hours, it only offered 30 minutes of talk time, it weighed two pounds, and came with an exorbitant price tag: $3,995—or $9,410 in today’s dollars.
  • Customs agents seized 20,000 counterfeit Cabbage Patch dolls in 1984 …The Cabbage Patch doll craze hit fever pitch in the 1980s, to the point that parents were getting into knock-down, drag-out fights with each other at malls across the country to get their hands on one of these chubby-cheeked toys. In fact, the trend was so huge, 20,000 fake Cabbage Patch dolls—many containing volatile compounds that generally don’t make their way into doll stuffing—were seized by Customs agents before Christmas in 1984.
  • Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” was the decade’s most popular song … You could hardly turn on a radio, go to a mall, or tune into MTV without hearing or seeing Olivia Newton-John’s hit song, “Physical.” In fact, the 1981 tune was the year’s most popular song, spending 10 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, beating out Kim Carnes‘ “Bette Davis Eyes,” and the Diana Ross/Lionel Richie megahit “Endless Love,” both of which stayed atop the chart for just nine weeks apiece.
  • And, to no one’s surprise … And Michael Jackson was the decade’s most popular artist … While Newton-John may have had the 1980s’ most popular song, her popularity was still trumped by Michael Jackson, the most popular artist of the entire decade. Throughout the 1980s, the King of Pop maintained his spot atop the Billboard charts for a staggering 27 weeks, beating his next-closest competitor, Lionel Richie, by a full six weeks.
  • The personal computer was the “Machine of the Year” … Before the 1980s, with the exception of a few models, computers were largely machines that took up entire rooms and were predominantly used by astronauts, scientists, and government officials. However, by the 1980s, the personal computer was gaining traction in homes around the world, with companies like IBM launching their own mass-market PCs. In fact, in 1982, Time magazine awarded the personal computer its “Machine of the Year” honor—two years before the Apple Macintosh hit shelves.
  • The first widely-used disposable camera hit the market in 1986 … Though the instant camera had been around for some time by the time the ‘80s rolled around, the invention of the disposable camera as we think of it today didn’t come until 1986. That year, Fujifilm distributed its first mass market disposable camera, with companies like Kodak, Canon, and Konica following suit later in the decade.
Filed under: 1980s, Awesome 80s Long Weekend, Fun Facts, Garrison Brewing, Labour Day Weekend, music, trivia