11 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, December 13, 199 1981: Started in 1977, Apple Computers, Inc. brings the personal computer to the height of technology in the 1980s. Harvard University drop-out Bill Gates introduces Microsoft, making himself a billionaire along the way. 1982: "'Cause this is thriller, thriller night." Under a full moon, Michael Jackson turns werewolf, and the white-gloved King of Pop defines himself as a lasting symbol of '80s music. 9 MILLENNIUM- Iran Contra. Madonna. The fall of th computer. "Just say no." Garbage I The Challenger explosion. MTV. "Th The~V * .tookse enc the o -of ryone . ses , World ange uic Activism lives 1984: For eight seasons, viewers tune into The Cosby Show on NBC's powerhouse Thursday night line-u to follow the wholesome comedy and love of the progressive Huxtable family. on ' campus 1, Courtesy of Madonna Vison Madonna's changing facade is emblematic of how musicians gained control of their images in recent years. Decade brings. auteur theory to music 10"industry By Michael Grass Daily Staff Reporter The University has always been a center of collegiate activism. Although the the civil rights and anti- war protests of the 1960s and '70s made Ann Arbor famous, the rallying calls and demonstrations of the past 20 years were just as intense and fer- vent. . The University's investments in ple an ocean away, University stu- dents turned their activism for many years to their own rights. In March of 1988, students across campus were enraged by the regents' decision to approve interim University President Robben Fleming's proposal for the non-acad- emic Code of Student Conduct. Promising a quick response and calling for the downfall of the policy. 1984: Donnie Wahlberg and his. New Kids on the Block cohorts are "hang in' tough" with hordes of adoring teenage girls at every stop on the road. The Uintet emerges as Se leading boy .band of the decade. companies operating in South Africa pro-" vided focus for many protests in the early 1980s. University Investments in 1985: Motley Crue hit the creative v80s hair-band genre, with Vince Niel's blonde locks and the likes of Mick Mars, Nikki Six and Tommy Lee. By Jason Birchmeier Daily Arts Writer The 1990s has seen the rise of the auteur within the world of pop- ular music. One-man bands contin- ue to replace traditional bands such as the Beatles and Guns N' Roses. This trend toward one creative mind, instead of multiple minds, can be attributed to advances in technology, a changing market- place and a drive toward creativity. Just when it seemed like the '90s were going to be a decade of musi- cal collectives, the likes of the Bon Jovi and the Eagles, everything fell apart. Arena bands such as REM and U2 alienated their once mass audiences and most of the big groups such as Soundgarden and NWA broke up. It was at this point early in the decade that the concept of the auteur could finally be applied not just to cinema but also to music. A French term that surfaced in the 1950s to describe filmmakers such as John Ford, Howard Hawkes and Alfred Hitchcock, auteurs can be thought of as artists who possess complete creative control over their work, despite the traditionally collaborative nature of their chosen medium. There had been a few auteurs within popular music over the past few decades such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Prince, but by the late '80s, each of these artists was struggling with decreasing album sales and declining audiences. Two prominent auteurs came out of nowhere early in the '90s to dominate the music marketplace with their technological sounds and pave the way for others. The first of these two, Trent Reznor, released his first album as Nine Inch Nails in late 1989, "Pretty Hate Machine" The pinna- cle of the industrial rock move- ment, Reznor's debut was the work of one man and many machines, foreshadowing what was to come. Without anyone to interfere, Reznor took synthesizers, drum machines and overdriven guitars and combined them with pop rock song structures and catchy vocal hooks to create an innovative yet accessible album for the masses. While Reznor was changing the world of rock. Dr. Dre made similar innovations within the then expo- nentially expanding world of hip- hop. Alongside Ice Cube and Easy- E, Dre had spent the latter part of the '80s collaborating with a con- troversial group of.rappers known as NWA (Niggas Wit' Attitude). When the group broke up in 1991, Dre became free of his for- mer collaborators and returned in 1993 with an ambitious album called "The Chronic." The product of one man's vision and talents, "The Chronic" not only featured Dre's rhymes but also featured his production and a cast of rappers handpicked by Dre for his personal record label, Death Row. After producing an equally mas- sive follow-up album later that year, "Doggystyle" it became clear that the team setting of NWA had only held back his creativity. Many other auteurs followed the paths blazed by Reznor and Dre. Though they worked with a sup- porting cast similar to Dre's ensem- ble of co-starring rappers, Billy Corgan and Rza proved to be two of the '90s most successful auteurs. As the authoritarian leader of the Smashing Pumpkins, Corgan seemed to only treat his fellow band members as necessary obsta- cles in 1993's "Siamese Dream" and 1995's "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" The backbone to the mon- strous Wu-Tang Clan, Rza pro- duced all the music for the clan's countless early solo albums by artists such as Method Man and 01' Dirty Bastard. Beginning with 1993's "Enter the Wu Tang," Rza crafted a unique musical style of his own, an east-coast idiosyncratic fantasy version of Dre's West Coast G-funk. As once underground genres such as alternative rock, rap and electron- ic music become increasingly main- stream, there may soon be no need for traditional bands. Within the worlds of alternative rock and rap, auteurs such as Tori Amos, Beck, Puff Daddy and Master P are now selling many albums. Many students felt that investing in a country that embraced apartheid r was harmful. focus f The day before the University Board of 1 0 Regents was getting ready to vote on the rotes future of the University's invest- ments in South Africa, students gath- ered in front of the President's House on South University Avenue, where the regents met informally with then- University President Harold Shaprio to discuss divestment over dinner. When protestors, holding placards and wearing black armbands as a symbol of solidarity, blocked the regents' way, regents had to push through the angered students whose voices rang into the President's House. John Powell, head of Trotter House, knelt near the front door of Shaprio's residence. "To kneel is to accept the provi- dence of justice and to accept that people do not have conscience," Powell said in an article printed in The Michigan Daily April 14, 1983. In a 6-2 vote the following day, the regents decided to divest from South Africa-- the largest such action by any public institution in the nation. After fighting for the rights of peo- Africa for student ts. Michigan Daily. But more than 10 years later and after numerous battles with the administration, the Code, although revised, remains. Despite the revisions, it appears the Code will continue to govern 0 the student body, current MSA President Bram Elias said, student activism has played a large role in Code reform. Elias said changes to the code could be approved by University President Lee Bollinger in March. Elias with two lawsuits challenging the University's use of race as a factor in admissions and the fight against sweatshops as top campus issues, stu-___ dents have been able to organize bet ter. "Students are always active and passionate, but students have been able to better organize because we've been more privy to informa- tion on these issues," Elias said. "If we want something to change, we have to push the administra- tion. We have to act." anti-Code activists , were gearing up for a fight with the admin- istration. "The regents are in for a big surprise if they think the code battle is over," said Michigan Student Assembly Student Rights com- mittee chair Michael Phillips in a written statement in the March 19, 1988 edition of The 1985: Run DM.C. is one of the first to infuse rap into. mainstream music. The group is best known its collaboration with the band Aerosmith on the hit "Walk this Way" in 1986. 1986: Millions watch in shock as the Challenger spaceshuttle d explodes off the coast of Cape Canaveral Fla., ~ shortly after take-off on ]an. 8. The accident kills all seven astronauts. WHAT WERE WE Fads dominate youth culture By Hanna LoPatin Daily Staff Reporter For this generation of University students - the same pre-teens and early adolescents explor- ing the definition of personal style in the late 1980s and early 1990s - memories of bangle bracelets, M.C. Hammer jam pants and hair sprayed high into the sky are scary reminders of fads and styles of the time. "I remember those huge bangs." LSA junior Cathy Blueteau said. And side ponytails? '"I did do those" she said. "The crimper. I'm sad to say I did that once, too." LSA first-year student Julie Morelli laughed as she recalled the brightly colored fashions. "I have so many pictures of me in fluorescent outfits." she said. Rhtian and her friends Kinisieoloov iunior Johnson, who defined a trend as being a "drive to identify with a phantom public by having rela- tions mediated through things," explained this pop culture concept. Trends often are new versions of fads and styles from the past. In the 1890s and early 20th Century, trends drew from the neo-classical era that occurred hundreds of years earlier, said Johnson, whose expertise is in late 19th Century American culture. Trends of the past 20 years have been "citations of decades that are far more approximate," he explained. The '80s saw a resurgence of pop culture from the 1950s while fashion of the '90s drew from the '60s and '70s. "When I see Fiona Apple (singing) on a shag carpet, it reminds me of growing up as a child," Johnson said. What strikes me as odd is "for the 1y989: The Berlin Wall falls, bringing East and West Berlin together -after 28 years of division. Germans breaking off pieces of 'the graffiti-covered stone structure mark an end to Communist rule 14n tho rmintru ________________.:,....,I.