U.S. History 13.4a: The Culture of the 1980s

up. Guess they were morning people... Well the red white and blue summer of nineteen

eighty-four found its perfect soundtrack in (singing) born in the USA! [Footage of a beach]

Born in the USA was a chart-topping new album from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and if [Record player spins]

you haven't heard well you should. The title track in particular seemed to

capture the nationalistic spirit of the moment in its chorus yeah it's like [People stood proudly with the American flag]

(singing) Born in the USA! Alright we're not Bruce I wont do that again. Many listeners heard

in the music a rock and roll echo of Ronald Reagan's morning in America. [Girl lying on grass listening to music]

Even Reagan gave the song and the boss a shout out praising the full throttle

patriotism. What's funny about this is that though the chorus might seem like a

flag wavers dream the verses kind of tell the opposite story. The songs are [Person holding up the flag and shouting]

really about a disillusioned Vietnam vet trying to make it in a broken-down

America. The chorus is actually meant to be bitterly ironic, well that didn't stop [Veteran begging for food and a home]

patriotic masses from making it their anthem. You can't blame them Springsteen

does seriously mumble on those verses. Though meanwhile old-school hip-hop

artists were also capturing the dark underside of the Reagan era. In 1982 [Person break dancing]

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five produced, The Message. A lot of the album

is fun party music but the title track absolutely captures the raw desperation

of black urban life in the 1980s. Lyrics describing rats, junkies, [Police car pulls up next to black man]

broken glass and urine in the streets painted a picture that was more midnight in

America than morning. On the flip side some artists created songs that [Coin spinning]

captured the free market love and capitalistic spirit of Reagan's America

think Madonna's Material Girl where she sings (singing) "we're living in a

material world and i am a material girl." Well conservative America might not have [Cover art of Madonna's track]

liked her pointy undergarments but they stood behind her big wet kiss to [Madonna on stage in costume]

capitalism. One of the most iconic pop culture representations of Reaganism was

Alex P Keaton the character played by Michael J Fox on the hit sitcom family

ties. Well Alex Keaton was the teenage son of aging hippie parents who kept a [Photo of Family Ties cast]

portrait of Richard Nixon at his bedside, subscribed to The Wall Street Journal and

never went anywhere without his briefcase and a tie. Well the huge [Man walking with a briefcase]

generation gap between the ultra capitalistic Alex and his parents

provided family ties with comedy gold through seven primetime seasons on NBC. [Emmy award trophies]

President Reagan himself once named the show his favorite television program

although he may have had to resist calling up the cast and giving acting

tips. And over on the silver screen perhaps one of the best renditions of

the Reagan era zeitgeist was Oliver Stone's 1987 film Wall Street. Stone [Cover art for the film Wall Street]

intended it to satirize the free-market philosophies that dominated the 1980s. [Oliver Stone stood on a trading floor]

But ended up for many viewers glorifying them instead... While the film's most

magnetic character is a ruthless financier named Gordon Gekko, played by

Michael Douglas where greed is good all that. Well Douglas's riveting performance [Gordon Gecko sat in his office]

which won him an Oscar, stole the show transforming the character that Stone

intended to be a villain into a flawed but compelling hero. In one famous scene [Gecko wearing a mask]

Gekko delivers a monologue about the power of greed, declaring that greed is

honest good and empowering. Instead of shaking their heads at the horrors of

capitalism many audiences cheered. For many it was indeed morning in America [Crowd clapping]

and the pop culture of the time reflected that, but it's important to

note that not everybody's agreed on just how sunny of a morning it was and for [Girl wearing sunglasses]

non morning people it must have been the pits. [Guy holding coffee looking tired]