{"id":1747,"date":"2026-06-30T17:51:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/musiclegacy\/?page_id=1747"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:56:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:56:39","slug":"class-of-1986","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/musiclegacy\/class-of-1986\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of 1986"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

In the summer of 1985, the entire world was united and glued to their TVs on July 13th<\/sup>, 1985 when Bob Geldorf of the Boom Town Rats and Midge Ure of Utravox mobilized 1.9 billion viewers in 150 countries for Live Aid.  The dual concert performed simultaneously in London and Philadelphia with an estimated 162,000 fans in attendance, raised over $150 million for Ethiopian famine relief.  Called the \u201cGlobal Jukebox,\u201d Live Aid changed the world by creating a template for global charity initiatives used today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a follow-up to Live Aid, on September 22nd<\/sup> 1985, the 1986 Cortland senior class was just settling in for their last year when they were treated to the very first televised Farm Aid concert.  During his Live Aid performance in Philadelphia, Bob Dylan said to the audience “I hope that some of the money that’s raised for the people in Africa, maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe one or two million, maybe, and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on some of the farms that the farmers here owe to the banks.” Watching on his tour bus was Willie Nelson. He was so moved, he began contacting music friends, John Mellencamp and Neil Young and in just 2 months, they put on the first Farm Aid concert!  Dylan performed at that first show with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 19th<\/sup>, 1985, Tipper Gore, wife of Senator Al Gore (later Vice President), headed a group of 4 women known as \u201cThe Washington Wives,\u201d pressured the music industry to create a rating system on so-called \u201cporn rock.\u201d A Senate hearing was held on behalf of the PMRC (The Parents Music Resource Center) with a goal to increase parental control over children\u2019s access to music deemed to have violent, drug-related or sexual themes.  The group went after Prince, AC\/DC, Twisted Sister, Madonna, Def Leppard, Black Sabbath and Cyndi Lauper. Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, Frank Zappa and John Denver showed up to testify.  On November 1st<\/sup>, 1985, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) agreed to put Parental Advisory labels called the \u201cTipper Sticker\u201d on selected releases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before streaming, there was an explosion of home entertainment consumption featuring home movie rentals. On October 19th<\/sup>, 1985, the very first Blockbuster video store opened in Dallas, Texas.  The stores revolutionized Friday night movie nights by offering affordable, immediately available home rentals with massive inventories.  At its peak in 2004, the company operated over 9,000 stores across 25 countries and employed more than 84,000 people worldwide. As consumer habits changed due to the introduction of streaming and digital services, the chain was forced to file for bankruptcy and closed all of its stores in 2013 except for one remaining store in Bend, Oregon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as 1986 seniors were starting their last semester at Cortland, students witnessed the devastating explosion of the NASA Space Shuttle Challenger as it unfolded live on television.  On January 28th<\/sup>, 1986, after just 73 seconds after takeoff, the entire world held its collective breath watching the shuttle break up into a plume of smoke and fire. The day of takeoff was an unusually cold day and NASA engineers warned flight administrators that the O-rings could be vulnerable at low temps. The subsequent investigation revealed that the O-ring seal on Challenger\u2019s solid rocket booster, which had become brittle in the cold temperatures, failed. All seven astronauts including 37-year-old Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire, were killed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few months later, on April 26th<\/sup>, 1986, the world once again witnessed a traumatic disaster in the once Soviet Union not far from Kyiv.  The Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant had a catastrophic accident when a routine safety test went horribly wrong due to a flawed reactor design and human error. The reactor overheated, causing massive steam explosions that blew the roof off the building and exposed the radioactive core to the open air. The Soviet government tried to keep the accident a secret. However, radiation alarms as far away as Sweden went off, forcing Russia to admit what happened. Around 100,000 people living near the plant were evacuated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The music of 1985 and 1986 continued to be dominated by MTV which shaped both global music and video trends as well as youth fashion. MTV also had a major effect on radio stations who were scrambling to keep listeners. Many stations were forced to change formats to gain a larger audience while large corporations bought up regional radio stations to consolidate their media footprint and playlists.  Cause related singles like \u201cWe Are The World\u201d and \u201cThat\u2019s What Friends Are For\u201d united the world, while synth-pop Brits were topping the charts with hits from Wham and Tears For Fears. The MTV music generation was characterized by sky-high, heavily sprayed hair, neon colors, spandex, and dramatic makeup.  Power Ballads from Whitney Houston, Journey and Foreigner relied on soaring vocals and Hip-Hop artists Run DMC and LL Cool Jay broke through to multi-racial audiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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