pear. The main factor in the arcades’ decline was the
development of Nintendo Entertainment System
(NES), which quickly became the top-selling toy or
game, surpassing such classic favorites as Barbie,
GI Joe, and Monopoly. By the end of the decade,
Nintendo controlled over 85 percent of the home
video-game market, with Nintendo systems in more
than 30 million American homes.
In 1986, a board game was introduced that quickly
became a home favorite: Pictionary, a variation on
charades in which teams had to guess a word
based on drawings rather than pantomime. By 1988,
Pictionary was one of the best-selling games in the
nation. Other popular toys and games of the 1980’s
included Cabbage Patch Kids, unique soft-body dolls
with homely plastic faces that came with adoption
papers; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a major mer-
chandising franchise spun off from a low-budget in-
dependent comic book; Hacky Sack; Wacky Wall
Walkers; Dungeons and Dragons; Transformers, toy
robots that could be turned into toy vehicles; Trivial
Pursuit, a card-based, question-and-answer game in-
vented in Montreal but introduced at the Interna-
tional Toy Fair, New York, in 1982; and Rubik’s Cube,
a fad of the 1980’s, a multicolored, hand-held puzzle.
Cinema In the early 1980’s, break dancing emerged
in New York City and quickly spread to the streets of
Los Angeles. Break dancing was improvised dancing
to hip-hop music that incorporated acrobatic spins. It
was a series of Hollywood films, however, that most in-
fluenced contemporary dance styles. In 1980,Urban
Cowboykicked off a renewed interest in country two-
step dancing boots, whileFlashdance(1983) triggered
a different fashion trend that included leg warmers,
tank tops, and workout clothes.Dirty Dancing(1987),
set in a Catskills resort during the early 1960’s, be-
came a cultural phenomenon. It renewed interest
in older dances, such as the cha-cha and mambo;
sparked new interest in the lambada, a sensual Latin
dance involving close pelvic contact between part-
ners; and spurred a Broadway show, a nationwide
tour, a short-lived television series, and a sound-track
album that sold more than ten million copies.
Nine of the top ten movies of the decade in terms
of their box-office rental fees were either science-
fiction or fantasy movies, including the film with
highest rentals,E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial(1982) at
$228 million; followed byThe Return of the Jedi(1980)
at $168 million;Batman(1989) at $150 million;The
Empire Strikes Back(1983) at $141 million;Ghost-
busters(1984) at $130 million;Raiders of the Lost Ark
(1981) at $115 million;Indiana Jones and the Last Cru-
sade(1989) at $115 million;Indiana Jones and the Tem-
ple of Doom(1984) at $109 million; andBack to the Fu-
ture(1985) at $104 million. (These films’ domestic
grosses were all substantially higher than their rent-
als alone, and considering their total revenues would
produce a different list.)
Music and Theater In 1984,A Chorus Line(pr. 1975)
broke the Broadway endurance record set byGrease
(pr. 1972), and when it finally closed in 1990, after
6,137 performances, it was the longest-running show
in Broadway history. Three other shows opened dur-
ing the decade that would go on to surpass the
record set byA Chorus Line:Cats(pr. 1982),Les
Miserables(pr. 1987), andThe Phantom of the Opera
(pr. 1988).
Two musical artists who achieved phenomenal
success in the music video era of the 1980’s were pop
singers Madonna and Michael Jackson. In 1982,
Jackson released elaborate music video productions
in conjunction with his albumThriller. Sales of the al-
bum were boosted by the resulting MTV exposure,
andThrillersold more than 25 million copies, be-
coming the top-selling individual album of all time.
Another musical artist who benefited from music
video exposure was Bruce Springsteen, who sold
more than 13 million copies of hisBorn in the USA
(1984). His subsequent nationwide concert tour at-
tracted more than five million fans. In 1987, the
heavy metal-hard rock hybrid band Guns n’ Roses re-
leasedAppetite for Destruction, which sold more than
12 million copies. Musical artists also worked to raise
awareness of the hungry and destitute and for many
other charitable causes. On April 5, 1985, musical
artists from all genres joined to sing “We Are the
World” and to promote the USA for Africa program,
which helped provide food and supplies for starving
people in Africa. The song sold more than seven mil-
lion copies, and it along with its companion video
were in continuous rotation on MTV and on radio
stations worldwide.
Healthy Participation A 1987 study published by
theJournal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance
revealed that in the early 1980’s, participation rates
at health clubs and in activities such as bicycling,
fishing, hiking, skiing, and swimming were higher
among those twenty-five to fifty-five years of age than470 Hobbies and recreation The Eighties in America