{"id":1633,"date":"2024-06-27T13:10:46","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T13:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/musiclegacy\/?page_id=1633"},"modified":"2025-07-08T19:48:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:48:16","slug":"1633-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/musiclegacy\/1633-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of 1985"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Times<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1985 students returned to campus with a rude awakening.  On July 17, 1984, just one month before, Ronald Reagan signed into law the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, moving up the drinking age from 19 to 21 in New York State (in 1982 the drinking age in New York went from 18 to 19).  Except for seniors, the rest of the student body could no longer drink legally.  Well that must have distressed the owners of the Dark Horse!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 6, 1984, incumbent Ronald Reagan and his Vice President, George H. W. Bush were elected in a landslide victory carrying 49 of 50 states winning a second term and beating Walter Mondale and his running-mate, Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run for Vice President. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With African famine concerns reaching a tipping point, Boomtown Rats front man, Bob Geldof needed to do something, so he put together a supergroup called \u201cBand Aid\u201d made up of 40 UK musicians to combat famine in Ethiopia.  Recording \u201cDo They Know It\u2019s Christmas,\u201d the future  hit single featured Sting, Phil Collins, Duran Duran, George Michael, U2, and Boy George (who caught a Concorde from the USA to get to London.) The recording studio donated their time but gave the group only 24 hours to record and mix the song. Geldof intended for every penny to go to the cause and had to publicly stand up to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who refused to waive the VAT tax. In the end the British government waved the tax and because of that, the single, released on December 3rd, 1984, shot up to Number 1, selling over 3 million copies in just 5 weeks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the success of Band Aid, Harry Belafonte \u2013 inspired by the late Harry Chapin\u2019s legacy of battling world hunger – had a similar idea and put together a charity called USA for Africa. Produced by Quincy Jones, the song was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson. \u201cWe Are The World\u201d was recorded overnight at A&M Studios in Los Angeles on January 28th<\/sup>, 1985, and timed perfectly to shuttle the 46 superstars to the recording studio following the American Music Awards. How do you get Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, Daryl Hall, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson and many other major artists in one room to play and sing quickly together?  Leave it to Quincy Jones who put a sign at the entrance: \u201cLeave Your Egos At The Door!\u201d  In less than one month, \u201cWe Are The World\u201d sold more than 7 million copies and raised $63 million for USA For Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The music in 1985 continued as a tale of two music genres. With the launch of VH1 as the \u201colder\u201d sister of MTV, videos were mostly classic rock from Bruce Springsteen, Hall and Oates, Phil Collins, David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Tina Turner.  MTV focused more on the videos of flashier artists like Wham! Madonna and Prince along with British synth-pop imports like Duran Duran, Eurythmics and Tears for Fears who dominated MTV with a more highly stylized glamourous image. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Notable Events<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n