Live Aid, global pop and the peak of MTV culture
1985 brought together the decade’s superstar system on a global stage. Live Aid symbolized both the scale of pop celebrity and the growing power of satellite television, while synth-pop, arena rock and contemporary R&B continued dominating the charts.
Live Aid
The concerts in London and Philadelphia gathered many of the decade’s biggest stars and became one of the defining broadcast events in popular music history.
Pop goes fully global
Artists such as Madonna, Phil Collins, Dire Straits, a-ha and Tears for Fears reached enormous international audiences through a combination of radio, MTV and large-scale touring.
Why 1985 matters
The year demonstrated how completely music had become a global visual medium as well as an audio one.