Big 80s

Featured Songs

  • What I Like About You
  • Material Girl
  • Ghostbusters
  • Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
  • We Will Rock You
  • Motorman
  • Eye of the Tiger
  • Video Killed The Radio Star
  • I’ve Had the Time of My Life
  • Don’t Stop Believin’

Preview

Reviews

Newspaper write-up about school performance of BIG 80s

Study Guide

Click here to go to study guide for this show

Big 80s

The decade when the personal computer and other new technology changed our lives.

 

Available formats

  • Full band for in-school assembly

Keywords

American History American History Technology Computer Graphics Media Studies

About The Show

Big hair, big guitar solos, big cell phones.  Everything about the 80s was BIG!.

It was also the decade when technology came home.

Products and processes originally developed to benefit business or the military were integrated into consumer electronics, such as the personal computer and the cell phone.  Even everyday products like automobiles, cameras and toys were upgraded with newly affordable computer chips.

Indeed, most of the tech products that today’s children now take for granted were originally introduced in the 1980s.

Our program is “sponsored” by 1980s Technology, whose slogan is:  “We’re moving in, we’re taking over.”   A series of commercials spotlights various aspects of technology that transformed life in the 1980s:  personal computing, CGI movies, computer-embedded toys like Speak ‘n’ Spell, and cable TV.

Between the commercials, SQUEAKY CLEAN performs a series of iconic 1980s songs.  Power Pop (“What I Like About You”) and Heavy Metal (“We Will Rock You”) are represented along with signature songs by Madonna and Cyndi Lauper.  The program even features a song that Suzanne and Glenn performed with their band Combo Limbo back in the 1980s.

For the song “I’ve Had The Time of My Life,” we invite school personnel to email us photos of themselves as they appeared in the 1980s.  We project these images onscreen as we perform the song, to the delight of all.

And the program concludes with “Don’t Stop Believin”,” which always has the entire audience singing along as they view inspirational photos from the decade (Berlin Wall comes down, Statue of Liberty bicentennial).

The program ends with a touching tribute to the Challenger astronauts.