Cue the big hair, shoulder pads and leg warmers and get ready for a fascinating debate!
For the first time, Chicago Public Radio Personalities and nationally respected rock critics, Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot of WBEZ's Sound Opinions will examine the year-in-music for 1984 on the stage of the Raymond Moore Auditorium at Lake Forest High School. The year 1984 (famously imagined in George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four) was a time of Rondal Reagan, the first availability of the Apple Macintosh computer in stores, and a pop music hit list including Prince's Purple Rain and Michael Jackson's Thriller that reached a wider audience than ever thanks to the dominance of MTV. At the same time hip-hop and indie rock were laying the groundwork for a musical revolution. Both Rolling Stone and Billboard magazines have dubbed 1984 "pop music's best year ever." But is it really?