1980s

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s - 1980s - 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s

Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

• Assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan
• Reaganomics
• Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism dominate British politics.
• Falklands War Britain fights off Argentine invasion of Falkland islands in 1982
• Political correctness
• President Tito of Yugoslavia dies.
• Solidarity movement in Poland eventually topples the country's Communist regime.
• Revolution in Romania, end of the communist period
• Glasnost and Perestroika in the Soviet Union
• Fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of Germany
• Bulletin board system popularity
• Popularization of personal computers
• Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial hits theaters
• Release of Americans held hostage in Iran
• Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988 kills one million people.
• Iran-Contra Scandal
• Soviet Union ends its disasterous millitary campaign in Afghanistan.
• "People Power" in the Philippines topples Marcos dicatorship; inspired a trend of peaceful revolts worldwide
• Salman Rushdie wanted dead by Iranian leader Khomeini
• Students protest on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China
• Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland
• Largest one-day stock market drop, on October 19, 1987
• Space Shuttle Challenger explodes
• Hip hop began to achieve mainstream success in the United States, with artists like Kurtis Blow and N.W.A.; hip hop's spread outside of New York City, especially to Los Angeles, accelerates
• Rise of cable television
• Fall of economic security in the United States
• 24 hour television news channels (e.g., CNN)
• Music videos (and MTV) begin to have an affect record industry in the United States

World Leaders

• Deng Xiaoping (People's Republic of China)
• President Anwar Sadat (Egypt)
• President Hosni Mubarak (Egypt)
• President François Mitterrand (France)
• Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India)
• Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (India)
• Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (Iran)
• President Saddam Hussein (Iraq)
• Prime Minister Menachem Begin (Israel)
• Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Israel)
• Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
• Pope John Paul II
• Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union)
• Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Union)
• Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (United Kingdom)
• President Jimmy Carter (United States)
• President Ronald Reagan (United States)
• Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (West Germany)
• Chancellor Helmut Kohl (West Germany)

Film

• Ghostbusters
• Meg Ryan
• Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator)
• Charlie Sheen[?]
• Matthew Broderick
• Phoebe Cates
• Tom Cruise
• Matt Dillon[?]
• Clint Eastwood
• Harrison Ford (as Indiana Jones)
• Michael J. Fox (Back to the Future)
• Mel Gibson
• Batman (Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson)
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• Brat Pack[?], John Hughes, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink[?], Hairspray[?]
• Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee[?])
• Top Gun
• Eddie Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop[?])
• Sean Penn
• Sylvester Stallone (Rambo: First Blood[?])
• Patrick Swayze[?] (Dirty Dancing[?])

Television

• The A-Team (including Mr. T)
• Saturday Night Live

Music

• see hip hop, old school rap, heavy metal music, twee pop, hair metal, New Wave music, New Romantic, shoegazing, jangle pop[?], alternative rock, dream pop, techno, house, acid house
• Aerosmith (Pump[?])
• Afrika Bambaataa (Planet Rock)
• Alabama (awarded ACM "Artists of the Decade")
• Anthrax (State of Euphoria)
• a-ha (Hunting High and Low[?])
• Public Enemy (It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back)
• The B-52's (The B-52's[?])
• Bad Religion (Suffer)
• The Bangles (All Over the Place[?])
• Beastie Boys (Licensed to Ill)
• Clint Black (Killin' Time)
• Black Flag
• David Byrne (The Catherine Wheel[?])
• Kurtis Blow (Kurtis Blow[?])
• The Cars (Heartbeat City[?])
• Celtic Frost (Into the Pandemonium)
• Tracy Chapman (Tracy Chapman[?])
• The Clash (London Calling)
• Cocteau Twins (Head over Heels)
• Phil Collins (Face Value[?])
• De La Soul (Three Feet High and Rising)
• Def Leppard (Pyromania)
• Devo (Freedom of Choice)
• Dokken (Tooth and Nail[?])
• Duran Duran (Rio)
• Embrace[?] (Embrace[?])
• Brian Eno (My Life in the Bush of Ghosts[?])
• Eric B. & Rakim (Follow the Leader)
• Faith No More (The Real Thing)
• Fields of the Nephilim ([Dawnrazor]])
• A Flock of Seagulls (A Flock of Seagulls[?])
• John Fogerty (Centerfield[?])
• Peter Gabriel (Peter Gabriel (3)[?]
• The Go-Go's (The Beauty and the Beat)
• Amy Grant (Straight Ahead[?])
• Guns n' Roses (Appetite for Destruction)
• Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five (The Message[?])
• Hüsker Dü (Zen Arcade[?])
• John Cougar Mellencamp (Scarecrow[?])
• Menudo (Reaching Out[?])
• Mercyful Fate (Don't Break the Oath)
• Michael Jackson (Thriller)
• Mission UK (The First Chapter[?])
• The Jam (Sound Affects[?])
• Jane's Addiction (Nothing's Shocking)
• Jesus & Mary Chain (Pyschocandy[?])
• Joy Division (Closer)
• Kraftwerk (Computer World[?])
• Cyndi Lauper (She's So Unusual)
• k.d. lang (Shadowland[?])
• LL Cool J (Radio)
• Madonna (Like a Virgin)
• Bob Marley (Uprising)
• Ministry (The Land of Rape and Honey[?])
• Sugar Minnott (Good Thing Going[?])
• Mötley Crüe (Shout at the Devil)
• My Bloody Valentine (Isn't Anything[?])
• My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult (I See Good Spirits & I See Bad Spirits[?])
• Nine Inch Nails (Pretty Hate Machine)
• N.W.A. (Straight Outta Compton)
• The Offspring (The Offspring)
• Quiet Riot (Metal Health)
• Augustus Pablo (Earth's Rightful Ruler[?])
• Pixies (Doolittle)
• Poison (Open Up & Say...Ahh![?])
• The Police (Synchronicity
• The Pogues (Rum Sodomy & the Lash[?])
• The Pretenders (The Pretenders)
• Prince (Purple Rain)
• R.E.M. (Murmur[?])
• Rainbow (Down to Earth)
• Red Hot Chili Peppers (Freaky Styley[?])
• The Replacements (Tim)
• Rick Springfield (Working Class Dog[?])
• Rockin' Sidney (My Zydeco Shoes Got the Zydeco Blues[?])
• Run DMC (Kings of Rock[?])
• Sepultura (Beneath the Remains)
• Simple Minds (Once Upon a Time[?])
• Sisters of Mercy (Floodland[?])
• Skinny Puppy ((VIVISect VI[?])
• Slick Rick (The Great Adventures of Slick Rick)
• The Smiths (The Queen Is Dead)
• Soft Cell (Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing[?])
• Sonic Youth (Daydream Nation)
• Sting (The Dream of the Blue Turtles[?])
• The Specials (More Specials)
• Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A.)
• Stryper (The Yellow and Black Attack[?])
• Talking Heads (Speaking in Tongues[?])
• Tina Turner (Private Dancer)
• Randy Travis (Storms of Life[?])
• Peter Tosh (Mama Africa[?])
• U2 (The Joshua Tree)
• Van Halen (Women and Children First[?])
• Violent Femmes (Violent Femmes[?])
• W.A.S.P. (F**k Like a Beast[?])
• Wham! (Make It Big[?])
• Whitesnake (Saints and Sinners[?])
• Yellowman (Mister Yellowman[?])
• Y La Tengo[?] (New Wave Hot Dogs[?])
• Dwight Yoakam (Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.[?])
• ZZ Top (Afterburner)

• Various artists - C-86[?]

See also: 1980s music groups, List of rock and roll albums in the 1980s