Southern Illinois University - Obelisk Yearbook (Carbondale, IL)

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photo by Doug Janvnn : DS 3 DS A new American sub-culture was born in 1983. A 41-year-old singer and his 14-year-old daughter tthe latter, known as Moon Unitl were driving force in the tvalley girls' movement. The leaders of this new ultra fad created a new wave of jargon, dress and mannerisms. Phrases like tlferr sure? 1ttotally awesome, ltgrody to the max, and tlbarf outll became the vernacular everywhere, only years after they were coined in Californials valley region. This new culture reintroduced head bands, mini-skirts, flat heeled shoes, and ankle socks to the American scene. Frank and Moon Zappals hit thrived on the youngls tendency to be different. However, unlike many of its predecessors, the Valley movement thrived long and better on commer- cial wealth. Wearing designer Shoelaces, leg warmers, owning a personal home computer, tuning into a micro-sized walkman for music and entertaining yourself with a small leather bag called a hack sackl were all status symbols in 1983emore appropriately fads. Most are as doomed to a short life as were their predecessors: Rubikls Cube, wearing designer blue jeans and wearing safety pins through the cheeks. This phenomena is nothing new. It probably existed from the y ancient Roman emperors to the surfs of medieval Europe. It is doubtful that the surfs or emperors would have had a personal home computer sitting in their living rooms as a family of the 80s might very well have. . The personal home computer may well be on its way to a place next to the family television in every Ameri- can household. Already an indispen-

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Fads

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sable tool in business and industry, a personal home computer may also soon play a critical role in the every- day lives of families. Already it controls family finances, stores records and recipes, teaches kids to read, write, multiply and divide and entertains its users. According to Clive Smith, a senior analyst for the Boston-based market- ing research firm Yankee Group, 1982 personal home computers sales reached 2 million units, compared to 340,000 computers sold the previous year and 140,000 in 1981. Half of those computers purchased in 1982 ranged in price from $200 to $500. The most popular, lower-priced home computer was the Timex Sin- clair 1000, the first computer to sell for less than $100. As for the future of home units, Smith predicts that 3.5 million to 5 million of the computers Will be sold next year alone. Prices will continue to decline, and by most estimates, nearly half of all American homes will soon have the powers of 6 the computer age within their reach. There is a direct tie between the computer craze and the $5.7 billion video game industry. The games have evolved from Pac Man to Ms. Pac Man, from Donkey Kong to Donkey Kong J unior and the list goes on. Many kids as well as kids-at-heart perfect their games to a point that they, like 18-year-old national cham- pion Ned Troide, can play a game such as Defender for 62.5 consecutive hours on one quarter. Aside from the evolution of existing games, industry leaders like Atari and Intellivision have begun to pro- duce several bizzare fascimilies of popular music groups and movies. One example is a cartridge known as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in which the player is a psychopathic killer on the loose who racks up points by chopping heads off the fig- ures that wonder onto the screen. When the video game industry first became popular many prominent physicians blamed them for what photo by Mark Crost they called video elbow and arcade. arthritis. Since that time, in the late 70s, many hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers have started using the games as a source of restoring coordination to victims of strokes and hand-eye coordination to persons who have undergone eye surgery. Moving to the sounds of Beethoven, Kenny Rogers and groups like the BeeGees were all part of the new Dancercise fad. To one extreme Dan- cercise got an estimated 20 million Americans-mostly adolescent fe- maleseout of their seats and dancing excessive baggage off. To the other extreme, the new dance craze was like the sounds of disco that died in the late 70s. Again, dancercise was a commer- cial monster; sending many bored housewives and weight conscious teens to stores to buy multi-colored danskins, legwarmers, sweats and headbands. All of which are neces- sary and proper equipment for danc- Features