Hello everybody.

Last night I was watching the first part of a miniseries about the '80s on the Nat Geo Channel (I still have every issue from the '80s in my basement made by them). It discussed several key issues and I recommend it to those who not only want to refresh what the '80s were about but also for those under 30 who have little or no firsthand experience of the decade. It talked about how Reagan's assisnation attempt was much more critical than the media had believed and how CNN took a risk by sharing White House footage in order to expand and make the 24-hour news program a reality. It also discussed about the Apple/PC wars including how the Macintosh, popularizing the Super Bowl commercials led to it success. There was also a piece on how Rap/Hip-Hop first seemed worse than disco to the WASP suburbanities and then how Aerosmith teamed up with RUN-DMC to promote "Walk This Away" and making Rap music come on age. It also talked about the development of MTV and how it began with only 120 videos in rotation. The TV series Dallas was also discussed. In cased you missed last night, there are two more parts of this series airing the next two nights.

"Walk This AwWay"


Wat.

4B_UYYPb-Gk

FTFY.

That said, the documentary's pretty cool.

I've been watching.  It's interesting, but like a lot of these types of shows, it jumps around too much, and sometimes contradicts itself. 

Hello everybody.

There was also a piece on how Rap/Hip-Hop first seemed worse than disco to the WASP suburbanities and then how Aerosmith teamed up with RUN-DMC to promote "Walk This Away" and making Rap music come on age.

Yes, I've been watching it, and though its a hell of a lot more detailed than the "I Love the 80's" crap on MTV or VH1 it plays fast and loose with a lot of what was really happening.

The bit on fall of disco and the rise of rap bugged me. F'instance, Nat Geo makes it sound as if "disco" was "black music" and everything else was white music and that whites hated disco so much that backlash against disco is what brought out rap emergence in the 80's.
Truth be told disco was no more "black" than any other type of music, and disco had just as much "white" artists and bands as their were black ones. In addition to the fact that rap was well established by the late 70's in may urban areas and Run-DMC was well known and very successful in their own right. King of Rock, Its Like That and others were hits long before they recorded "Walk this Way".
If anything Run-DMC revived Aerosmiths career, rather than Aerosmith somehow bringing rap to the masses.

Overall I'm liking it, I just wish it was a little bit more focused and didn't throw around facts and memories so loosely. Some of the topics are a little lightweight in the backstory, but that's to be expected for TV.

Very good points.  I think my problem with shows like this is they constantly make everything seem so extreme.  Like saying that nobody wanted to buy anything until the 80's??  Not everything has to be sensationalized and groundbreaking.