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Devo

Devo

Devo (pronounced either DEE-vo or de-VO, sometimes spelled Dev-O) is a Midwestern music band originating from Akron, Ohio, generally associated with the Eighties despite being musically active since 1974. Their style has been variously classified as punk, new wave, industrial and rock, but are most often considered to be the 70s/early 80s New Wave band that ushered in the synth pop of the 1980s, along with other acts such as Gary Numan and the B-52s. Devo's music and stage show mingle kitsch science fiction themes, deadpan surrealist humor, and mordantly satirical social commentary in sometimes-discordant pop songs that often feature unusual synthetic instrumentation and time signatures. Their work has proved hugely influential on subsequent popular music, particularly new wave, alternative and grunge music. Definitive Nineties rock band Nirvana claimed to be influenced by Devo.

History

Devo first performed as the "Sextet Devo" at Kent State University in 1973. Co-founders Gerald Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Bob Lewis were students at Kent State at the time the National Guard shot and killed students at a protest against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia--the 'pivotal moment' in their founding, according to Casale. The original inspiration for the band's name and underlying philosophy came from Oscar Kiss Maerth's "The Beginning Was the End", a pseudoscientific anthropological thesis which attributes the rise of man as an evolutionary accident caused by a species of sex-crazed, cannibalistic apes who developed tools to exploit each other sexually and feed on each others' brains (See devolution). This metaphor is carried throughout Devo's work as a commentary on modern society. Only Mark Mothersbaugh, the band's lead singer and synthesizer player, and Gerald V. (Gerry) Casale, the group's bassist have been members of Devo since its inception. The first lineup included Gerald Casale (bass), Mark Mothersbaugh (keyboards), Bob Lewis (lead guitar), Bob Casale (rhythm guitar), Rod Reisman (drums) and Fred Weber (vocals). Later versions of the band added Bob Mothersbaugh (lead guitar) and Jim Mothersbaugh (drums). Devo's big break came in 1976 when their short film The Truth About De-Evolution won a prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival; it was then seen by David Bowie and Iggy Pop, who championed them and enabled Devo to secure a recording contract with Warner Brothers Records. By this time Alan Myers had replaced Jim Mothersbaugh as drummer. After David Bowie backed out due to previous commitments, their first album, "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!" was produced by Brian Eno and featured a radical cover of the Rolling Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and the controversially titled "Mongoloid". In 1978, Lewis successfully sued the band for theft of intellectual property. Although they started out with a mixture of traditional rock instruments and electronic effects, during the early 1980s Devo adopted mostly or entirely synthetic instrumentation, becoming one of the first American acts to perform on stage using only synthesizers; they were also one of the first groups in the world to regularly use radio microphones and microphone headsets on stage. Devo actively embraced the Church of the SubGenius in the early 1980s. In concert, Devo sometimes performed as their own opening act, pretending to be a Christian soft-rock group called "Dove (the Band of Love)". They also recorded "E-Z Listening Muzak" versions of their own songs to play before their concerts. In 1982, they appeared in the Neil Young film "Human Highway." Devo remained popular in many countries—for instance, they had a large and loyal following in Australia. The nationally broadcast '70s-'80s pop TV Countdown was one of the first programs in the world to broadcast their video clips, and they were given consistent radio support by Sydney-based non-commercial rock station Double Jay (2JJ), which was one of the first rock stations outside America to play their recordings. The late night music programme "Nightmoves" provided a showing of The truth about de-evolution. Devo went on to produce the albums New Traditionalists (1981), Oh, No! It's Devo (1982), Shout (1984), and Total Devo (1988). After the release of Smooth Noodle Maps in 1990, the band stopped recording and full scale touring, although it has been revived on several occasions for one-off performances and short tours including those in 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2005. In 2001, members of Devo formed the surf band The Wipeouters, claiming that it was actually a reunion of the first garage band they started while in their early teens. Mark Mothersbaugh has gone on to considerable success writing and producing music for television programs (starting with Pee Wee's Playhouse and perhaps most famously with Rugrats), video games, cartoons and movies. In 1985, he released an elaborately packaged solo cassette, "Musik for Insomniaks," which was later expanded and released as two CDs. His company, Mutato Muzika, provides employment for Devo guitarists Bob Mothersbaugh and Bob Casale: the former works as a composer, and the latter as a recording engineer. Gerry Casale has directed rock videos by other bands, including Rush and Foo Fighters. Recently they allowed a version of "Whip It" to be used in Swiffer television commercials, a decision they have said they regret. The band is currently working on a project with Disney known as Devo 2.0. Details are scarce, but it seems that a band of child actors (among them Nathan Norman [http://www.nathannorman.net/pages/news.htm]) has been assembled and will be either re-recording Devo songs or pretending to play them. A quote from the [http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/living/12412576.htm Akron Beacon Journal] elucidates, "Also Devo recently finished a new project in cahoots with Disney called Devo 2.0, which features the band playing old songs and two new ones with vocals provided by children. Mothersbaugh doesn't rule out the idea of the band gathering in the studio, eventually, to record a new Devo album."

Style and Influence

Devo is probably as well known for their image as for their music, donning uniforms that mocked industrial culture and pop consumerism, such as the yellow chemical-protection suits during the early Q: Are We Not Men? period, matching Reaganesque plastic hairpieces, masks and the signature "flower pot" hats (energy domes) for Freedom of Choice--which were intended (according to the band) to channel their sexual energy into their voices. Mark Mothersbaugh also donned a baby mask to create his famous alter-ego, Booji Boy (pronounced "Boogie Boy"), said by some to symbolize the infantile regression that Devo saw in American culture. The character featured in many stage performances and video clips, as did Booji Boy's father, General Boy (played by Mothersbaugh's father Robert Mothersbaugh), who satirised American authority figures. For their performance at the 1996 Sundance Festival, they wore black-and-white-striped prisoners' uniforms. In their more recent shows, they have returned to the hazmat outfits and energy domes of their earliest days. Devo were pioneers of the music video, thanks in part to their frequent early collaborator, director Chuck Statler. The video for "Whip It" became an early staple of MTV, and their many promotional films and video clips are important landmarks in the development of this genre. They also pioneered the use of long-form promotional video cassettes with releases such as The Truth About De-Evolution and The Men Who Make The Music, which mixed self-produced conceptual video clips with live performance footage and mock-documentary segments. Devo created and directed many of their own videos, and the band has cited the video for the song "Beautiful World" as their favorite example of their video work. The video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's Devo tribute song "Dare to be Stupid" consists of elements inspired by, and directly parodying, various Devo videos. Some hear influences from Krautrock in Devo's music, such as Neu!, Can and the production work of Conny Plank. Other influences are said to include American rock iconoclasts Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and the Residents. Gerald Casale was strongly influenced by American Blues music. Devo were one of the first American groups to use the services of noted British producer, musician and artist Brian Eno, who produced several landmark New Wave music groups including Talking Heads and Ultravox. In the liner notes of their "Greatest Hits" album, there is a transcript of a late 70's interview in which the band describes their music as "industrial", underscoring the dehumanization (devolution) of their art. (In this context, the term predates the posthumous application of the label to 70's avant-garde noise bands such as "Throbbing Gristle.") Their extensive mechanization of popular music through synthesizers helped to inspire the more modern industrial pop acts of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Line Up

Classic line-up Devo's line up during their most commercially successful period (1977-1985) (?) was:
- Mark Mothersbaugh: lead vocals, keyboards/synthesizers, occasional guitar
- Gerald (Jerry) Casale: lead vocals, bass guitar, synthesizers
- Robert Mothersbaugh ("Bob 1"): lead guitar, vocals
- Robert Casale ("Bob 2"): rhythm guitar, synthesizers
- Alan Myers: drums Note: as the group's sound evolved, it became more common for the members to use synthesizers and drum machines over their orignal bass guitar, guitars and acoustic drum kit.

Discography

Discography:
- Be Stiff EP (1977)
- Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978)
- Duty Now for the Future (1979)
- Freedom of Choice (1980)
- Dev-o Live (1980) (re-released in a expanded, limited (5000 copies) edition by Rhino Handmade in October, 1999)
- New Traditionalists (1981)
- Oh, No! It's Devo (1982)
- Shout (1984)
- E-Z Listening Disc (1987)
- Total Devo (1988)
- Now It Can Be Told: DEVO at the Palace (1989)
- Smooth Noodle Maps (1990)
- DEVO Live: The Mongoloid Years (1992)
- Adventures of the Smart Patrol (1996)
- DEVO Live 1980 (2005) (Dual-Disc Format Release) Compilations:
- Devo's Greatest Hits (1990)
- Devo's Greatest Misses (1990)
- Hardcore Devo 1974-77, Volume 1 (1990) (previously unreleased 4-track demos)
- Hardcore Devo 1974-77, Volume 2 (1991) (previously unreleased 4-track demos)
- Pioneers Who Got Scalped (2000)
- Recombo DNA (2000) - a compilation of music demos and rarities (only available through Rhino Handmade)
- The Essentials (2002) - Features digitally remastered audio
- Whip It and Other Hits (2003) As a backup band for others:
- Hugh Cornwell & Robert Williams: Nosferatu (1979) (Mark Mothersbaugh & Bob Mothersbaugh co-wrote and performed on the track Rhythmic Itch)
- Jermaine Jackson: Let Me Tickle Your Fancy (1982) (backup on title song)
- Toni Basil: Word of Mouth (1983) (backup on covers of Devo's own Space Girls, Be Stiff and Pity You)
- David Byrne: Feelings (1997) (backup on Wicked Little Doll)
- Martini Ranch: Holy Cow (1988) (Bob Casale produced "How Can the Labouring Man Find Time for Self-Culture?" while Mark Mothersbaugh contributed backup vocals.) As The Wipeouters:
- P'Twaaang!!! (2001) Mark Mothersbaugh, some solo and soundtrack releases:
- Musik for Insomniaks, Volumes 1 and 2 (1988)
- Joyeux Mutato (1999), Christmas music (released in two different versions)
- Rushmore (1999)
- The Royal Tenenbaums
- The Rugrats Movie
- Mystery Men
- Music for Edward Gorey, a private release of 300 handmade CD-R discs
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2005)

Singles

- 1976 - "Mongoloid" (Booji Boy Label)
- 1977 - "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (Booji Boy Label)
- 1978 - "Be Stiff" (Stiff Records)
- 1978 - "Come Back Jonee"
- 1979 - "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize"
- 1979 - "Secret Agent Man"
- 1979 - "Flimsy Wrap"
- 1980 - "Girl U Want"
- 1980 - "Whip It" (#14 US)
- 1980 - "Gates of Steel"
- 1980 - "Freedom of Choice"
- 1981 - "Through Being Cool"
- 1981 - "Working in a Coalmine" (#43 US)
- 1981 - "Beautiful World" (Picture Disc)
- 1982 - "Jerkin' Back 'n' Forth"
- 1982 - "Peek-a-Boo!"
- 1983 - "That's Good" (Picture Disc)
- 1983 - "Theme from Doctor Detroit"
- 1984 - "Are You Experienced?"
- 1985 - "Here to Go"
- 1985 - "Shout"
- 1988 - "Disco Dancer"
- 1988 - "Baby Doll"
- 1990 - "Post Post-Modern Man"

External links

- [http://www.clubdevo.com Club DEVO] - Official web site
- [http://www.huboon.com Devo Live Guide] - Comprehensive guide to Devo's live performances.
- [http://www.DEVObook.com DEVOBook.com] - a book about the history and development of Devo, made without their input and rejected by them as inaccurate
- [http://www.mutato.com Mutato Muzika]
- [http://www.gocodon.org/artistmonthpage.htm Mark Mothersbaugh talks about DEVO, his visual art, science, and Hollywood on www.gocodon.org.]
- [http://www.rhinohandmade.com Rhino Handmade]
- [http://www.devo-obsesso.com Michael Pilmer's DEVO Collection] - The largest collection of DEVO memoribilia, anywhere
- [http://www.forte-intl.com/~ronald/devo/ Devo lyrics and the Devo Print Archive in PDF format]
- [http://www.sanspoint.com/basement/ Booji Boy's Basement] - band-sanctioned site for trading live recordings and demos
- [http://www.chaoscontrol.com/content_article.php?article=devo Mark Mothersbaugh interviewed ] - Mark talks about DEVO, soundtrack work and the Wipeouters side-project. Category:American musical groups Category:New Wave groups Category:Post-punk ja:ディーヴォ

Midwestern

:This article is about the Midwestern region in the United States. For the similarly translated region in Brazil, see Center-West Region, Brazil.

the Midwest
Center-West Region, Brazil Red states show the core of the Midwest, states shown as pink may or may not be included in the Midwest, and thus their inclusion or exclusion varies from source to source.

The Midwestern United States (or Midwest) is a region of the north-central and northeastern United States of America. The term is now somewhat archaic, as this region was the "Middle West" of the United States before the Louisiana Purchase. Presently, this region is primarily neither the middle nor the west of the United States (see map). More accurate regional terms for these locations are the East North Central States and the West North Central States, as defined by the United States Census Bureau.

Terminology

The term "Middle West" originated in the 19th century, followed by "Midwest" and "Heartland", and referred to generally the same areas and states in the region. The heart of the Midwest is bounded by the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, the "Old Northwest" (or the "West"), referring to the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin, which comprised the original Northwest Territory. This area is now called the East North Central States by the United States Census Bureau. The Northwest Territory was created out of the ceded English (formerly French and Native American) frontier lands under the Northwest Ordinance by the Continental Congress just before the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery and religious discrimination, and promoted public schools and private property. As Revolutionary War soldiers from the original colonies were awarded lands in Ohio and migrated there and to other Midwestern states with other pioneers, including many immigrants from central and northern Europe, the area became the first thoroughly "American" region. The Midwest region today refers not only to states created from the Northwest Ordinance, but also may include states between the Appalachian Mountains to the Rocky Mountains and north of the Ohio River. The term West was applied to the region in the early years of the country. During this time, the vast majority of the population lived east of the Appalachian Mountains, but the country's borders stretched west all the way to the Rocky Mountains. Later, the vast region west of the Appalachians was divided into the Far West (now just the West), and the Middle West. Some parts of the Midwest have also been referred to as North West for historical reasons (for instance, this explains the Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines and the former Norwest Bank, as well as Northwestern University in Illinois), so the current Northwest region of the country is called the Pacific Northwest to make a clear distinction. The Midwest term is used sometimes interchangeably with the Heartland term to refer to "Mid-America" and its citizens, "Mid-Americans". Heartland states would seem to increasingly include states like Arkansas and Oklahoma, whom Atlanta-based CNN referred as the location of the "tragedy in the Heartland".

Definition

Though definitions vary, any definition of the Midwest would include the Northwest Ordinance "Old Northwest" states and often includes many states that were part of the Louisiana Purchase. The states of the Old Northwest are also known as "Great Lakes states". Many of the Louisiana Purchase states are also known as Great Plains states. The Midwest is defined, by the U.S. Census Bureau as these 12 states:
- Illinois: Old Northwest, Ohio River and Great Lakes state
- Indiana: Old Northwest, Ohio River and Great Lakes state
- Iowa: Louisiana Purchase
- Kansas: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state
- Michigan: Old Northwest, and Great Lakes state
- Minnesota: Old Northwest, and Great Lakes state; western part Louisiana Purchase
- Missouri: Louisiana Purchase
- Nebraska: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state
- North Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state
- Ohio: Old Northwest (Historic Connecticut Western Reserve), Ohio River and Eastern Great Lakes state. Also a Northeastern Appalachian state in the SE.
- South Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state
- Wisconsin: Old Northwest, and Great Lakes state Chicago is the largest city in the region and the third largest in the nation; other important cities in the regions include Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Small cities and farming areas in Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska loom an imaginative description of the traditional Midwestern soul. Northeast Ohio is a region stuck in a middleground-state. The region includes Rustbelt cities that strikingly resemble Eastern cities like Buffalo and Pittsburgh. Cleveland Akron and Youngstown have a combined population of approximately 4 million. The people, depending on the specific city or subregion in NEO (Northeast Ohio) even argue about their regional preference or regional affiliation. The area's political views lean towards the Labor-Liberal persuasion. The NEO region is part of the Eastern Standard Time Zone, the Rustbelt, and cannot accurately be considered a part of the "Midwest," the Heartland, nor the Great Plains. A book was published in the mid-1990s labeling Cleveland as the city where "The East Coast Meets the Midwest." The author (Peter Jedick) claims that topographically the Great Plains do not begin until crossing westward over the Cuyahoga River which runs through central Cleveland. Although one of the original thirteen colonies, and situated in the Mid-Atlantic States, Pennsylvania is sometimes referred to as a Midwestern state, but in reality, only the western part of the state, around Pittsburgh shares any culture with the so-called Midwest. In actually, even Pittsburgh is a post-industrial, old Eastern/Appalachian city in rennaissance. Western Pennsylvania is much more a Rustbelt Region than one attached in anyway to the ideas and identity of the Heartland. The eastern half of the state of Pennsylvania, around Philadelphia undoubtedly identifies more with East Coast culture and the Megalopolis. In the West: the prairie parts of Montana, Wyoming, and especially Colorado are sometimes considered part of the Midwest, especially to people in the Great Plains which are closer to the geographic middle of the country, additions as such would be considered incorrect to most people in the Great Lakes region as many people near the Great Lakes don't even consider the Plains states to be the Midwest as much of those states are ranchland. Despite the seemingly obvious boundary that is the Ohio River, the Midwest and South do not have a clear boundary: many people in Kentucky would like to be considered Midwestern and Missouri has much of a Dixie element and has only been considered Midwest as of the 20th Century. Also, southern Illinois and Indiana are culturally influenced by the Southern centers of Memphis and Louisville while northern Kentucky near Cincinnati is almost always considered Midwestern. Often people from the Coasts act as if any area that is not near the Ocean or in the Deep South is the Midwest, lumping states like Idaho and Utah into the region. As this would add immense area to the Midwest, not to mention do injustice to the cultural differences that occur in different parts of the nation's interior, this would be incorrect if not insulting. See Middle America.

Geography

Despite the tendency to sometimes (quite deservingly) denigrate the states as being relatively flat, there is a measure of geographical variation. In particular, the eastern midwest lying within the foothills of the Appalachians, and the Great Lakes basin and northern parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa demonstrate a high degree of topographical variety. Prairies cover most of the states west of the Mississippi with the exception of southern Missouri and eastern Minnesota. Illinois lies within an area called the "prairie peninsula," an eastward extension of prairies that borders deciduous forests to the north, east, and south. Rainfall decreases from east to west, resulting in different types of prairies, with the tallgrass prairie in the wetter eastern region, mixed-grass prairie in the central Great Plains, and shortgrass prairie towards the rain shadow of the Rockies. Today, these three prairie types largely correspond to the corn/soybean area, the wheat belt, and the western rangelands, respectively; virgin hardwood forests were logged of in the late 1800s. The majority of the midwest can now be categorized as urbanized areas or pastoral agriculture. Areas in northern Michigan and Wisconsin, such as the Porcupine Mountains, and the Ohio river valley are largely undeveloped. Among the westernmost states of the Midwest, residents of the wheat belt generally consider themselves part of the Midwest, while residents of the remaining rangeland areas usually do not. Of course, exact boundaries are nebulous and shifting.

History

The Midwest is a cultural crossroads. Starting in the 1790s, American Revolutionary War veterans and settlers from the original Thirteen Colonies moved there in response to Federal government of the United States land grants. The Ulster-Scots Presbyterians of Pennsylvania (often through Virginia) and the Dutch Reformed, Quaker, and Congregationalists of Connecticut were among the earliest pioneers to Ohio and the Midwest. By the time of the American Civil War, European immigrants bypassed the East Coast of the United States to settle directly in the interior: German Lutherans to Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, and eastern Missouri, Swedes and Norwegians to Wisconsin and Minnesota, and Poles, Hungarians, and German Catholics and Jews to Midwestern cities. Many German Catholics also settled throughout the Ohio River valley and around the Great Lakes. In the 20th century, African American migration from the Southern United States into the Midwestern states changed cities dramatically, as factories and schools enticed families by the thousands to new opportunities. The region's fertile soil made it possible for farmers to produce abundant harvests of cereal crops such as corn, oats, and, most importantly, wheat. In the early days, the region was soon known as the nation's "breadbasket". Two waterways have been important to the Midwest's development. The first and foremost was the Ohio River which flowed into the Mississippi River. Spanish control of the southern part of the Mississippi, and refusal to allow the shipment of American crops down the river and into the Atlantic Ocean, halted the development of the region until 1795. The river inspired two classic American books written by a native Missourian, Samuel Clemens, who took the pseudonym Mark Twain: Life on the Mississippi and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Today, Twain's stories have become staples of Midwestern lore. The second waterway is the network of routes within the Great Lakes. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 completed an all-water shipping route, more direct than the Mississippi, to New York and the seaport of New York City. Lakeport cities grew up to handle this new shipping route. During the Industrial Revolution, the lakes became a conduit for iron ore from the Mesabi Range of Minnesota to steel mills in the Mid-Atlantic States. The Saint Lawrence Seaway later opened the Midwest to the Atlanic Ocean. Inland canals in Ohio and Indiana constituted another great waterway, which connected into the Great Lakes and Ohio River traffic. Because the Northwest Ordinance region, comprising the heart of the Midwest, was the first large region of the United States which prohibited slavery (the Northeastern United States emancipated slaves in the 1830s), the region remains culturally apart from the country and proud of its free pioneer heritage. The regional southern boundary was the Ohio River, the border of freedom and slavery in American history and literature (See: Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe; Beloved, by Toni Morrison). The region was shaped by the relative absence of slavery (except for Missouri), pioneer settlement, education in one-room free public schools, and democratic notions brought with American Revolutionary War veterans, Protestant faiths and experimentation, and agricultural wealth transported on the Ohio River riverboats, flatboats, canal boats, and railroads. The canals in Ohio and Indiana opened so much of Midwestern agriculture that it launched the world's greatest population and economic boom foreshadowing later "emerging markets". The commodities that the Midwest funneled into the Erie Canal down the Ohio River contributed to the wealth of New York City, which overtook Boston and Philadelphia. New York State would proudly boast of the Midwest as its "inland empire"; thus, New York would become known as the Empire State. The Midwest was predominantly rural at the time of the American Civil War, dotted with small farms across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, but industrialization, immigration, and urbanization fed the Industrial Revolution, and the heart of industrial progress became the Great Lakes states of the Midwest. German, Scandinavian, Slavic and African American immigration into the Midwest continued to bolster the population there in the 19th and 20th centuries, though generally the Midwest remains a predominantly diverse, Protestant region. Large concentrations of Catholics are found in larger cities like Chicago, Cleveland, and St. Louis because of Irish, Italian, and Polish immigration in the 19th century. Cleveland also has one of the nation's highest Jewish-American populations per capita of all major U.S. cities.

Culture

Education is another of the region's strongest legacies. The region contains numerous highly-regarded universities, both public and private. Notable public schools include Indiana University Bloomington, Purdue University, Ball State University, Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, The Ohio State University, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the main Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin, and the main campus of the University of Minnesota located in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Notable private institutions include the best-known Catholic university in the United States, the University of Notre Dame; Northwestern University; and the University of Chicago, with which more Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated than with any other university in the world except Cambridge in the UK. A cluster of top-ranking liberal arts colleges in the Midwest include the University of Evansville, Oberlin College, Carleton College, Macalester College, Grinnell College, Kenyon College, Knox College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Denison University, The College of Wooster and Earlham College. The University of Michigan is considered one of the Public Ivies. Youngstown State University is home to the original American Center for Working-Class Studies, not to metion one of the oldest and most prestigious non-conservatory schools of music in the United States (The Dana School of Music). Midwesterners are alternately viewed as open, friendly, and straightforward, or stereotyped as unsophisticated and stubborn. The former values probably stem from the freedom-loving heritage of the free states in the region, and from belief in widespread education and tolerance. The latter values probably stem from the stalwart Calvinist heritage of the Midwestern Protestants and pioneers who settled the area, and in the mind of people on the coasts, this continuing religious appeal strikes many as anti-intellectual. For the religious adherents, though, this heritage is loving and inspirational. The Midwest remains a melting pot of Protestantism and Calvinism, mistrustful of authority and power. The Bible Belt, some say, starts in the South and ends in the Midwest. In fact, religious attendance is lowest in the United States in the Industrialized Midwest and in the Southeast, and highest in coastal cities like Boston, New York, and Los Angeles, due to strong Catholic and African American congregations there, and in the Southern and Midwestern strip from Texas to the Dakotas, where socialization in rural communities often starts at church services. Hence the "Bible Belt" going "across the middle of the country" is an archaic description of what is in fact a "Bible strip" going North to South in the Plains, and two "Bible Buckles" on the coasts. The rural heritage of the land in the Midwest remains widely held, even if industrialization and suburbanization have overtaken the states in the original Northwest Territory. Given the rural, antebellum associations with the Midwest, further rural states like Kansas have become icons of Midwesternism, most directly with the 1939 film, the Wizard of Oz. Midwestern politics tends to be cautious, but the caution is sometimes peppered with protest, especially in minority communities or those associated with agrarian, labor or populist roots. Due to 20th-century African American migration from the South, a large African American urban population lives in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Toledo, Dayton, and other cities. The combination of industry and cultures, Jazz, Blues, and Rock and Roll, led to an outpouring of musical creativity in the 20th century in the Midwest, including new music like the Motown Sound and techno from Detroit and house music from the south side of Chicago. Rock and Roll music was first identified as a new genre by a Cleveland radio DJ, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is now located in Cleveland. See also Music of the Midwest/Motown, Detroit, 70s Soul Music, Ohio Players, Kool and The Gang, and Dayton.

Political trends

The Midwest gave birth to one of America's two major political parties, the Republican Party, which was formed in the 1850s and included opposition to the spread of slavery into new states as one of its agendas. The rural Midwest is a Republican stronghold to this day. Hamilton County, the home of Cincinnati, is the only urban county in America which has voted predominately Republican at the close of the 20th century. From the Civil War to the Depression and World War II, Midwestern Republicans dominated American politics and industry, just as Southern Democrat planters dominated antebellum rural America and as Northeastern financiers and academics in the Democratic party would dominate America from the Depression to the Vietnam War and the height of the Cold War. In some upper midwestern states, such as Illinois, the story is quite different. Illinois is currently dominated heavily by the Democratic Party, and has voted blue in the past 5 elections. Minnesota was actually the only state among the 50 states of the U.S. to vote for Walter Mondale over Ronald Reagan in 1984. (Although Washington D.C. also voted for Mondale.) Youngstown, Ohio (Little Chicago/The Hoboken of Ohio) has remained a Democratic and cultural microcosm throughout history. It is the birthplace of, James Traficant. The city just elected its first African-American mayor, Independent Jay Williams. This is the first non-Democratic mayor the city has seen in over 80 years. Cleveland, Ohio was the first major U.S. city to elect a Black mayor (Stokes). From Buffalo to Cincinnati, the middle-eastern U.S. is the heart of the historic Underground Railroad. Around the turn of the 20th century, the region also spawned the Populist Movement in the Plains states and later the Progressive Movement, which largely consisted of farmers and merchants intent on making government less corrupt and more receptive to the will of the people. The Republicans were unified anti-slavery politicians, whose later interests in invention, economic progress, women's rights and suffrage, freedman's rights, progressive taxation, wealth creation, election reforms, and temperance and Prohibition eventually clashed with the Taft-Roosevelt split in 1912. Similarly, the Populist and Progressive Parties grew out intellectually from the economic and social progress claimed by the early Republican party. The Protestant and Midwestern ideals of profit, thrift, pioneer self-reliance, education, democratic rights, and religious tolerance eventually manifested into different political beliefs, and no matter the current political reallignment, the Midwest remains a political battleground over thoroughly American ideas and ideals. Perhaps because of their geographic location and heritage of pioneers and Revolutionary War veterans, many Midwesterners have been sometime adherents of Washington's ideal of isolationism, the belief that Americans should not concern themselves with foreign wars and problems. Protectionism was also promoted by Midwestern politicians to protect native industry from free trade. Other Midwesterners, though, led to America greater internationalism, and eventually, belief in free trade. In the current era, Midwesterners wrestle with free trade beliefs along with protecting industrial jobs. The decline of industry in the Midwest led to the "Rust Belt" era when productivity stagnated and employment declined. The loss of jobs among union households and the plight of the unemployed in the inner cities in the Midwest led to greater demands to protect jobs.

Linguistic influence

The accents of the region are generally distinct from those of the American Northeast and South. They are considered by many to be "standard" American English, and are preferred by many national radio and television broadcasters. Prominent broadcast personalities of the mid 20th century - such as Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson, John Madden and Casey Kasem - came from this region and so influenced this perception. However, in some regions, particularly the farther North one goes, a definite accent is detectable, usually reflecting the heritage of the area. For example, Minnesota and Wisconsin both have a strong Scandinavian accent, which intensifies the farther north one goes. Parts of Michigan have noticeable Dutch-flavored accents. Also, residents of Chicago are recognized to have their own distinctive nasally accent which adds to the uniqueness of the city. A similar accent is sensed throughout some parts of Michigan, Cleveland, and Western New York State. The sounds may have arguably dervived from heavy Eastern European influences in the Great Lakes Region.

The Midwest today

Today, the wealth of the coastal regions and the growth of the Sunbelt have contributed to a sense of unease in the Midwest. The abandonment by many industries of the Midwest, in favor of the South, has led some to refer to the Midwest as the Rust Belt. As the East, South, and West retain colonial memories, the Midwest mainly remembers its American pioneer heritage. The Midwest remains, with the South, a disproportionately large source of servicemembers for the United States military, and remains a thoroughly patriotic and American center. Today the population of the Midwest is 64,482,997. Though its pioneer, religious, and economic heritage tends toward libertarianism and freedom, its geography in the center of America causes Midwesterners to be disproportionately concerned with the future of the federal government and America in general — East, South, and West. Conversely, the nation looks to the central and centrist Midwest to implicitly solve the inevitable political and geographic arguments of the wide-ranging nation.

1980s

The 1980s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1980 and 1989. The decade was one of frantic change. It was also an era of political and economic decentralisation, especially in countries with mixed and command economies. Political events and trends of the 1980s culminated in the toppling of military governments and authoritarian regimes, including every communist Warsaw Pact state in Eastern Europe, bringing to a close the decades-long Cold War. The 1980s also saw very rapid developments in numerous sectors of technology which have defined the modern consumer world, particularly electronics like Personal Computers, gaming systems, the arrival of the first commercially available hand held mobile phones (the first being the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X in 1983) and various audio technologies such as the compact disc, which are still prominent well into the 2000s. The population of the world increased more dramatically in the 1980s than any other decade in human history, adding nearly one billion new people in the course of the decade. This is an important fact as such astronomical growth of the human race is unlikely to ever be repeated in the future due to current population trends, which are consistently showing a decline in birth rates across the globe. Children born in the 1980s are likely to have an extremely prominent position in world business and government affairs from the 2020s all the way through to the 2050s due to their immense population and potential voting powers.

Criticism/Backlash

Coined the "me decade," this decade has been somewhat derided since as early as 1989 for its perceived greediness among Yuppies, certain clothes/music/hairstyles which seem outlandish by modern standards, and of course the discovery of the AIDS virus in the early part of the decade, unlike the 1990s which have had a very positive receiving into the 21st Century despite criticism for the 90s' "slacker" image.

Technology

21st Century] 21st Century]
- Bulletin board system popularity.
- Popularization of personal computers, Walkmans, VHS videocassette recorders, and cassette players .
- Introduction of the IBM PC in 1981.
- Home video games become enormously popular, most notably Atari until the market crashes in 1983; the rise of Nintendo brings about full recovery.
- The first Space Shuttle mission, STS-1, launched in 1981.
- Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.
- The Soviet Union launches the space station Mir in 1986.
- Apple Macintosh, first commercially successful GUI, is released in 1984.
- Accident at Chernobyl nuclear reactor, April 1986.
- Framework (office suite) launched
- Internet actively used by geeks in late 1980s
- First commercial hand-held mobile phone - Motorola DynaTAC 8000X 1983.

Science

- Discovery of the W and Z bosons at CERN.
- Development of the scanning tunneling microscope by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer.
- English computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web at CERN, Switzerland.

War, peace and politics

Switzerland]
- Cold War peaks; fall of the Iron Curtain.
- Jimmy Carter announces a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow; Eastern Bloc countries boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
- Solidarity movement in Poland launched in 1981. It eventually topples the country's Communist regime.
- Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi tackles with a growing Sikh insurgency and the Khalistan Movement. She orders Operation Blue Star on the holy Golden Temple. She is assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.
- Ronald Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative, derided as "Star Wars." Deploys Pershing missiles in Western Europe to counter the Soviet SS-20, to some protests.
- Soviet fighters down Korean Air Flight 007 in 1983, leading to a high point in international tensions.
- Three Soviet Premiers die in rapid succession: Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, and Konstantin Chernenko.
- Gorbachev introduces Glasnost and Perestroika in the Soviet Union.
- Fall of the Berlin Wall in East Germany in 1989, preparing the way to German reunification.
- Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia.
- Revolution in Romania, execution of Ceauşescu.
- Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism dominate British politics.
- The "Reagan Revolution", beginning with the election of 1980, introduces so-called neoconservatives to Washington.
- In 1981, François Mitterrand becomes France's President, the most politically successful Socialist in French history.
- Helmut Kohl is elected in West Germany in 1982, leading to the defeat of the anti-deployment movement; he becomes the longest serving Chancellor so far.
- Falklands War; Argentina invades the Falkland islands in 1982 but defeated by the United Kingdom.
- Israel invades Lebanon in 1982, . A suicide bomber kills 241 U.S. marines stationed there as peacekeepers.
- Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988 causes the deaths of at least hundreds of thousands.
- Over 120,000 flee Cuba in 1980 during the Mariel Boatlift, during which Fidel Castro released many criminals into American harbors.
- P.W. Botha suppresses anti-apartheid activists; international boycotts of South Africa continue.
- King Juan Carlos of Spain prevents a military coup in 1980. Spain joined NATO in 1982; it joined the European Union with Portugal in 1986.
- In 1989 students protest on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China and are eventually suppressed.
- Large protests in the Philippines topples the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship; military rule ends after protests in Argentina and South Korea.
- Augusto Pinochet forms a new constitution, holds a referendum on rule and loses. Democracy is restored.
- The Soviet Union ends its disastrous military campaign in Afghanistan.
- Former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim is exposed as a former Nazi
- Vietnam continues its military occupation of Cambodia.
- In Europe, rise of alleged neo-fascist parties (Le Pen in France, Schönhuber/Republikaner in Germany, Haider in Austria), parallel to a rise of Green parties.
- Political correctness becomes a concern in mainstream politics.
- Ronald Reagan decides to invade Grenada in 1984 and depose the nascent hard-line communist government.
- The Reagan administration bombs Libya in 1986 in response to alleged Libyan support for attacks on U.S. servicemen in Europe.
- Under George H. W. Bush, the U.S. invades Panama in 1989 to overthrow Manuel Noriega.
- The Reagan Doctrine implements support for anti-communist or anti-Soviet insurgencies most notably in Nicaragua, Angola, Cambodia, and Afghanistan. This leads to continued civil war, the deposition of several regimes, some democratization, but also the Iran-Contra scandal.
- The United States launches a covert war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and is condemned by the World Court for mining Nicaragua's harbour, an authority and judgment the U.S. administration did not recognize.
- President Tito of Yugoslavia dies.
- Release of Americans held hostage in Iran.
- Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa urging the killing of Salman Rushdie.
- Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, UK.
- In 1985, A radical PLO offshoot called Palestine Liberation Front hijacks the Achille Lauro and shoots the wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer, throwing him overboard.
- Terror groups Abu Nidal and Hezbollah rise to prominence in Western attention.
- Dark years for Malta and its politics. Violence is culminated by the murder of Raymond Caruana and blocking entry to Nationalist supporters into the southern village of Zejtun.
- The Rainbow Warrior is sunk by French secret service agents.

Economics

secret service 1987 through 19 January 1988)]]
- Reaganomics, Thatcherism and Rogernomics.
- In the United States the longest bull market in history begins in 1983; Dow Jones Industrial Average passes 2000 point milestone January 8, 1987.
- OPEC controls slip; petroleum prices collapse below $10 per barrel by mid-1986, devastating oil-producing nations such as Mexico.
- U.S. Midwest Farm Crisis 1981–1985.
- East Asian Tigers' share of world trade rises significantly.
- U.S. balance of trade falls into chronic deficit; populists criticize trade relations with Japan.
- Stockmarkets across the world crash on Black Monday, October 19, 1987. The New York Stock Exchange suffers its largest one-day stock market drop.
- Late 1980s recession

Trends and Fashions

- The video game console begins to outstrip the arcade game.
- The Rubik's cube, Cabbage Patch Kids, "Baby on Board" signs, and Trivial Pursuit fads capture the interest of the American public.fad]
- Nerds are popular subject.
- Alcohol education expands.
- Hair becomes big and poofy, or otherwise eccentric. Examples include the Mullet and the Flock of Seagulls cuts.
- Power Dressing was a major fashion statement of the decade, characterised by the use of increasingly large shoulder pads - the origins of this trend are often attributed to the American television series "Dynasty" and, specifically to one of its stars - the British actress Joan Collins.
- Pop stars of the era such as Duran Duran and television shows like Miami Vice brought the trend to the male fashion world, often accompanied by "designer stubble" and blonde highlights.
- Women's Liberation movement increases women's role in the workplace, and establishes new precedents for US women. As a carry-over from the 1970s, more and more women take to calling themselves "Ms." versus "Mrs." or "Miss"
- No-Fault divorce laws pave the way for increased divorce rate, as depicted in the movie, Irreconcilable Differences. No-Fault divorce catapults record numbers of women and children into the throes of poverty. The increase in single parent homes and, perhaps more significantly, homes in which both parents work leads to the phenomenon of Latch-key children, where children come home to an empty house and watch a lot of television.
- Neo-prohibitionism grows in popularity.
- Ninja and martial arts mania sweeps North America due to the popularity of Kung Fu Theater and Ninja Movies. Many instructional books are published and sold by many authors claiming to be experts. This is also often blamed as the beginning of the McDojo trend.

Music

- Music videos (and MTV) begin to have an effect on record industry in the United States. Pop artists Michael Jackson and Madonna are pioneers; groups such as Duran Duran benefit.
- New Wave music, a form of synthesized pop-rock, popular throughout decade, esp in early 80s.
- House music - a new development in dance music mid-way through the decade, growing out of the post-disco scene early in the decade, later developing into acid house - a harder form of dance often associated with the developing late 1980s drug culture.
- Hair metal popular in late 80s
- Popular artists include Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, Madonna, U2, and a-ha.
- Massive sales for Ethiopian famine relief records by Band Aid ("Do They Know It's Christmas?") and USA for Africa ("We Are the World"), followed by Live Aid famine relief concert in London and Philadelphia. Other artists push for nuclear disarmament.
- The Hip hop scene evolves to become a powerful musical force, bringing with it several dance styles. Hip hop also brings artists like Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow and N.W.A.to the forefront; hip hop's spread outside of New York City, especially to Los Angeles, accelerates and then takes off beyond America's shores.

Television

- Television networks are challenged by cable television. In the U.S., Cheers and The Cosby Show top ratings and the Fox network is launched. CNN becomes the first 24-hour news channel.
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, the first animated children's television program built exclusively around a toyline, starts a new trend of increasing the connection between children's programming and toy advertising, alarming many parents and watchdog organizations; an explosive number of toy tie-in cartoons follow.
- Animation in North America begins a dramatic comeback in production values and mainstream popular appeal both in feature films and on television.
- Soap operas gain popularity among high-schoolers and college students in the United States, thanks in part to the supercoupling of Luke and Laura on the most popular soap of the day, General Hospital.
- MTV breaks out influencing pop culture.

Film

- Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial opens in 1982 and shatters records for box office gross receipts.
- Ridley Scott's Blade Runner opens in 1982.
- Teen flicks and horror movies reach a high
- Movie sequels very common

Others

- The AIDS epidemic is identified and named.
- Assassination of John Lennon and Olof Palme, attempts on Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II.
- Violent crime and drug trafficking soar to record levels in most large American cities.
- Research increases on alcohol and weight.
- Assymmetrical and bizarre hairstyles from about 1980 to 1993.
- Remove Intoxicated Drivers grows rapidly.

People

World Leaders

- Chancellor Bruno Kreisky (Austria)
- Chancellor Fred Sinowatz (Austria)
- Chancellor Franz Vranitzky (Austria)
- Prime Minister Bob Hawke (Australia)
- Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser (Australia)
- President João Figueiredo (Brazil)
- President José Sarney (Brazil)
- Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (Canada)
- Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (Canada)
- General Augusto Pinochet (Chile)
- Deng Xiaoping (People's Republic of China)
- President Chiang Ching-kuo (Republic of China on Taiwan)
- Prime Minister Poul Schlüter (Denmark)
- Erich Honecker (East Germany)
- President Anwar Sadat (Egypt)
- President Hosni Mubarak (Egypt)
- President Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua)
- President Mengistu Haile Mariam (Ethiopia)
- President Urho Kekkonen (Finland)
- President Mauno Koivisto (Finland)
- President François Mitterrand (France)
- Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou (Greece)
- Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India)
- Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (India)
- Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (Iran)
- President Saddam Hussein (Iraq)
- President Patrick Hillery (Ireland)
- Taoiseach Charles Haughey (Ireland)
- Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald (Ireland)
- Prime Minister Menachem Begin (Israel)
- Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Israel)
- Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
- Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone (Japan)
- Emir Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah (Kuwait)
- President Muammar al-Qaddafi (Libya)
- Pope John Paul II
- Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (Malaysia)
- Prime Minister Dom Mintoff (Malta)
- Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici (Malta)
- Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami (Malta)
- Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (Malaysia)
- President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado (Mexico)
- President Samora Machel (Mozambique)
- Prime Minister Robert Muldoon (New Zealand)
- Prime Minister David Lange (New Zealand)
- Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer (New Zealand)
- Queen Juliana (Netherlands)
- General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (Pakistan)
- General Manuel Noriega (Panama)
- President Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines)
- President Corazon Aquino (Philippines)
- President Wojciech Jaruzelski (Poland)
- President Nicolae Ceauşescu (Romania)
- Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore)
- President and Prime Minister P.W. Botha (South Africa)
- President Chun Doo-hwan (South Korea)
- Premier Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union)
- General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Union)
- King Juan Carlos (Spain)
- Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka
- Prime Minister Olof Palme (Sweden)
- Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms)
- Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (United Kingdom)
- President George H.W. Bush (United States)
- President Jimmy Carter (United States)
- President Ronald Reagan (United States)
- Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (West Germany)
- Chancellor Helmut Kohl (West Germany)
- President Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)
- President Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire)
- President Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)

Entertainers

- AC/DC
- Brat Pack
- David Brooks
- Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Glory)
- The Cars
- Phoebe Cates (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Gremlins)
- Tom Cruise (Top Gun, Rain Man, Risky Business, The Color of Money)
- Bo Derek
- Matt Dillon
- Dalida
- Emilio Estevez (The Breakfast Club, The Outsiders, Young Guns)
- Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones series, Star Wars series, Blade Runner, Witness)
- Jodie Foster
- Michael J. Fox (Back to the Future series, Teen Wolf)
- Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon series, Mad Max series)
- Debbie Harry (Blondie)
- Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee)
- John Hughes
- Chrissie Hynde (Pretenders)
- Michael Jackson (Thriller)
- Elton John
- Michael Keaton (Batman, Mr. Mom, Night Shift)
- Annie Lennox (Eurythmics)
- George Lucas (Indiana Jones series, Star Wars series, Captain Eo)
- Madonna (Material Girl)
- George Michael (Wham!)
- Motley Crue
- Eddie Murphy (Saturday Night Live, Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places)
- Jack Nicholson (Terms of Endearment, The Shining, Batman, Prizzi's Honor, Ironweed, Reds)
- Queen (band)
- Sean Penn
- Michelle Pfeiffer (Scarface, Dangerous Liaisons)
- Prince (Purple Rain, Sign O' the Times)
- Meg Ryan
- Charlie Sheen
- Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator, Predator, Conan the Barbarian)
- Sylvester Stallone (Rambo: First Blood)
- Patrick Swayze (Dirty Dancing)
- The Cure
- U2 (War, The Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum)
- Van Halen
- Sigourney Weaver

Sports figures

- Alexis Arguello (Nicaraguan boxer)
- Marco van Basten (Dutchsoccer player)
- Wilfred Benitez (Puerto Rican boxer)
- Larry Bird (U.S. basketball player)
- Allan Border (Australian cricket captain/batsman)
- Ian Botham (Somerset & England cricket all-rounder)
- Mike Brearley (Middlesex & England cricket captain/batsman)
- George Brett (U.S. baseball player)
- Julio Cesar Chavez (Mexican boxer)
- Roberto Duran (Panamanian boxer)
- Paulo Roberto Falcão (Brazilian soccer player)
- Ric Flair (U.S. wrestler)
- Mike Gatting (Middlesex & England cricket captain/batsman)
- Sunil Gavaskar (India cricket opening batsman)
- Wilfredo Gómez (Puerto Rican boxer)
- Gordon Greenidge (West Indies cricket opening batsman)
- Wayne Gretzky (Canadian ice hockey player)
- Florence Griffith Joyner (U.S. track and field athlete)
- Richard Hadlee (New Zealand cricket fast bowler)
- Marvin Hagler (U.S. boxer)
- Alan Hansen (Liverpool & Scotland footballer))
- Thomas Hearns (U.S. boxer)
- Hulk Hogan (U.S. wrestler)
- Larry Holmes (U.S. boxer)
- Bo Jackson (U.S. American football and baseball player)
- Imran Khan (Pakistani cricket player)
- Jahangir Khan (Pakistani squash player)
- Earvin "Magic" Johnson (U.S. basketball player)
- Michael Jordan (U.S. basketball player)
- Jarmila Kratochvílová (Czech track and field athlete)
- Greg LeMond (U.S. cyclist)
- Sugar Ray Leonard (U.S. boxer)
- Carl Lewis (U.S. track and field athlete)
- Wally Lewis (Australian Rugby League player

Punk

Punk may refer to:

Culture

- Punk culture, movement or rebellion against some styles of music which existed in the 1970s
- Punk rock, an anti-establishment music movement that began around 1975
- Punk fashion, a fashion style largely associated with the punk culture movement
- Punk ideology, a set of social and political beliefs, morals and standards that indicate an absolute rejection of conformity

Other uses

- Donny the Punk, a nickname for Stephen Donaldson, founder of Stop Prisoner Rape, Inc
- Punk, the penguin character often making sarcastic remarks in Pat Oliphant strips
- Punk'd, an American television show on MTV

New Wave music

:This article is about the 1980s musical movement New Wave. For other meanings, see New Wave. New Wave is a term that has been used to describe many developments in music, but is most commonly associated with a movement in American, Australian, British, Canadian and European popular music, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, growing out of the New York City punk rock scene, itself centered around the club CBGB. The genre was most popular during the 1980s, but became somewhat popular again during the 2000s. The term itself is a source of much confusion. Originally, Seymour Stein, the head of Sire Records, needed a term by which he could market his newly signed CBGB's veteran bands. Because radio consultants in the US had advised their clients that punk rock was a fad (and because many stations that had embraced Disco had been hurt by the backlash), Stein settled on the term "new wave". He felt that the music was the aural equivalent of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s. Like those film makers, his new artists (most notably Talking Heads) were anti-corporate, experimental, and a generation that had grown up as critical consumers of the art they now practiced. Thus, the term "new wave" was interchangeable with punk rock. Very soon, listeners themselves began to see these musicians as different from their compatriots. Music that followed on from The Ramones (the Sex Pistols and all who followed them) was distinguished as "punk", while music that followed from the artistic and poetic experimentation of Talking Heads, Television, Patti Smith and Blondie were called "new wave". However, those artists were all originally classified as punk. Eventually, the term was applied indiscriminately to any punk band that did not embrace the loud-fast ethos, whether they were reggae, ska, or experimental. Thus, The (English) Beat, R.E.M., and The Police were equally New Wave, even though these bands would have as little in common with each other as they would with nominally punk bands such as The Clash. Later still, New Wave came to imply a less noisy, poppier sound, and to include acts manufactured by record labels, while the term post-punk was coined to describe the darker, less pop-influenced groups. Although distinct, punk, New Wave, and post-punk all shared common ground: an energetic reaction to the supposedly overproduced, uninspired popular music of the 1970s. Many groups fit easily into two or all three of the categories over their lifespan. New Wave is also commonly used to describe the style and fashion associated with New Wave music. Examples include hairstyles of the band A Flock of Seagulls and Kajagoogoo, and Elvis Costello's bi-colored glasses poster. As fashion, there were two major components of New Wave adornment. First, there was an eclectic revivalism. Paisley prints (from the 1960s), very thin neckties and pleats (from the 1940s), and simple colors were one part. The other part was a desire to embrace contemporary synthetic materials as a protest and celebration of "plastic". This involved the use of spandex, bright colors, and mass-produced (or apparently mass-produced) and tawdry ornaments. Men's and women's fashions thus split from one another dramatically, and men wearing spandex and bright colors were ridiculed (and became emblematic of the mass marketing of New Wave in department stores). As a fashion movement, then, New Wave was both a post-modern belief in creative pastiche and a continuation of Pop Art's satire and fascination with manufacturing. New Wave is generally considered to have died by about 1986, although it still influenced pop music production up to about 1992. Between about 1993 and 2002 New Wave became a thing of the past and underground scene, but in the first decade of the 21st Century, however, many newly formed "indie rock" bands once again popularized the New Wave genre with varying success, most importantly Franz Ferdinand and The Killers. (See Post-punk revival)

New Wave bands and artists (past & present)

New Wave music styles

- New Romantic
- Synthpop
- Two-Tone ska revival
- Power pop
- Mod Revival
- 198