program, particularly the influence of J. R. and
his relationships with women.
Hagman, Larry. “Hats Off to Ten Years ofDallas.”
People Weekly, April 4, 1988, 98ff. Hagman reflects
on his years playing J. R., as well as on other char-
acters and certain episodes of the show.
Kalter, Suzy.The Complete Book of “Dallas”: Behind the
Scenes at the World’s Favorite Television Program.New
York: Abrams, 1986. Includes background mate-
rial concerning the series, plot summaries from
the initial miniseries through the 1985-1986 sea-
son, and many photographs.
Liebes, Tamar, and Elihu Katz.The Export of Meaning:
Cross-Cultural Readings of “Dallas.”2d ed. Cam-
bridge, England: Polity Press, 1993. Examination
of the reception ofDallasin countries other than
the United States and of the meanings attached
to American culture when it circulates beyond
U.S. borders.
Marcia B. Dinneen
See also Business and the economy in the United
States;Dynasty; Reagan, Ronald; Soap operas; Televi-
sion;Wall Street.
Dance, popular
Definition Forms of dance made popular by films,
music, and other cultural elements
During the 1980’s, rapidly changing urban culture led to
new forms of popular dance, as the creations of that culture
spread throughout American society. Visual media aided
significantly in the dissemination of these new types of
dance.
During the 1980’s, several of the most popular main-
stream dances originated on the margins of society,
including break dancing, slam dancing, the lam-
bada, and vogue dancing. As a result of the decline
of disco, funk, and rock and the changing urban cul-
ture within the United States, by 1980 hip-hop had
gained recognition as a music genre and had begun
its entrance into mainstream American culture. The
middle of the decade saw a flourishing of the first
hip-hop artists to achieve financial success. Hip-hop
culture originated among the African American and
Hispanic youth of New York City, and it encom-
passed music, dance, and fashion. The most promi-
nent hip-hop dance was break dancing, which was
often learned and performed in everyday spaces in-
stead of dance studios or schools. Indeed, break
dancing was used as a nonviolent means of settling
gangs’ territorial disputes. A particularly acrobatic
form of dance, it often involved touching the ground
with one’s head or back. Dancers performed on
public streets wearing clothes made of slick materi-
als to enable sliding and hooded jackets or bandanas
to perform head spins and windmills. They often
used large sheets of cardboard in lieu of dance floors
and danced to music played on a nearby boombox.
While break dancing was performed to recorded
music, slam dancing was usually performed to live
music. The new dance form, also referred to as
moshing, reportedly began in Los Angeles in the
early 1980’s. Slam dancers jumped aggressively and
slammed into one another in a mosh pit to the beat
of heavy metal or punk music. Dancing to different
forms of music would result in different methods of
moshing. For instance, moshing to hardcore punk
music was faster and to an extent more strategized or
arranged, while moshing to the more popular metal
music was less choreographed and often took place
in a much larger pit. Criticized as violent and dan-
gerous, the dance was also recognized positively for
its influence in helping dancers form communal as-
sociations. Skank, another form of slam dancing,
also emerged during the 1980’s and was performed
to ska music, which originated in Jamaica.
In addition, the 1980’s saw the emergence of the
lambada, which originated in Brazil, evolving from
such other dances as the forró, sayas, maxixe, and
carimbó. The lambada became associated with the
idea of “dirty dancing,” because partners swayed
quickly with their hips in close contact. In 1987,
the filmDirty Dancing, starring Patrick Swayze and
Jennifer Grey, greatly enhanced the popularity of
the lambada.Influence of Visual Media Motion pictures and the
new format of music videos both greatly facilitated
the dissemination of the new 1980’s dance forms,
first throughout America and then around the rest
of the world. In 1981, cable television channel MTV
began broadcasting music videos twenty-four hours
a day. By the mid-1980’s, music videos played a cen-
tral role in popular music marketing, and they came
to reach a sizable, mass audience. When videos fea-
turing break dancing, slam dancing, and the lam-
bada were broadcast, millions of viewers encoun-The Eighties in America Dance, popular 271