#1980s-revival

#1980s-revival

Iceboxes were large lined, insulated wooden cupboards built to store ice, food, and drinks. The ice would usually be placed on the upper shelf, with the food and drinks below, and the cool air from the melting ice would help to keep everything nice and chilled.

Before the availability of the tape recorder and during the 1950s, when vinyl was scarce, ingenious Russians began recording banned bootleg jazz, boogie woogie and rock 'n' roll on exposed X-ray film salvaged from hospital waste bins and archives.

Digital typewriters are carving out a niche for a more focused writing experience, stripping things back to the essentials: just you, a keyboard, and your words.

Over the years, there have been Populists, Progressives, Farmer-Laborers, Unionists, Constitutional Unionists, Unconditional Unionists, Know-Nothings, Nullifiers, Readjusters, and more. My favorite party with a presence in the chamber is the Silver Party, founded to support a platform of bimetallism, or backing the country's money with silver as well as gold.

Cool Spot first appeared in 1987 to try to refresh the brand's image. The character was essentially an anthropomorphic version of the red dot in the 7Up logo. In commercials, the dot transformed into a tiny animated figure with sunglasses, sneakers, and a very cool 'tude. His chilled-out personality fit neatly into the brand's long-running "Uncola" positioning, which sought to frame 7Up as the cool and quirky alternative to traditional colas.

R&B in the 21st century has been in a constant state of flux, tugged between safe traditionalism and blurry attempts at progression. For the last decade-plus that "progression" has seen R&B music become more indebted to trap records and the moody atmospherics of alternative bands like Radiohead, Coldplay, or My Bloody Valentine.

The lyrics have a rather annoying quality to them, similar to the way that other songs like "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen, "Fireflies" by Owl City or even "Friday" by Rebecca Black did in their time - songs that gained rapid popularity and, just as quickly, sparked rapid backlash from many due to overexposure to them.

Physical media sales, DVDs especially, are experiencing a new burst of popularity. After a decade of freefall, enthusiasm among Gen Z halved a 20 percent sales decline in 2024 to just 9 percent in 2025. Stores have noticed. The Times' Karla Gachet spoke with staff at cultural hubs like Cinefile and Vidiots to discover why 2026 is already shaping up to be their biggest year, with the latter renting a surprising 1,000 DVDs a week.

A dark gel base creates depth, layered with a silver cat-eye polish that's magnetized so the shimmer pools toward the center like a glowing orb. On top, an iridescent chrome powder creates that signature color shift. Of course, none of these techniques are new - chrome powders and cat-eye gels have both been trending on their own recently - but paired together, they deliver a nail design that feels surprisingly fresh.

Beleaguered Louvre president Laurence des Cars quits after a historic heist under her watch. The next morning, a new leader is announced. It's Christophe Leribault from the Palace of Versailles, a true museum animal who ran a few during his career.

Usually, my handbag is a medley of digital devices and life essentials my phone, iPad, chargers, keys, tampons. But lately, you're likely to also find a half-done newspaper crossword, a ton of stationery, the book I've restarted three times, and whatever scraps and trinkets I've picked up throughout the day to put in my scrapbook. Analog is back, and it feels like we need it more than ever.

We photograph people obsessively, but we rarely capture the everyday spaces where life actually happens. And when those spaces disappear, something profound goes with them. The furniture was never just furniture—it was the stage where decades of family life played out. Every scratch, stain, and worn patch told a story.

My father kept manuals for products we hadn't owned in years, filed alphabetically in a cabinet. When I asked why, he looked at me like I'd suggested burning money. "What if we need to look something up?" The concept of finding any manual online in seconds just doesn't compute for a generation that had to rely on these paper lifelines.

We might be exposed to more ads and commercials today than ever before in human history, but the idea of advertising itself is certainly not a new concept. According to Instapage, the first signs of advertisements actually appeared in ancient Egyptian steel carvings from 2000 BC. Meanwhile, the first printed ad was published in 1472, when William Caxton decided to advertise a book by posting flyers on church doors in England.

To fill the void, one ambitious fan has launched a free website called MTV Rewind, featuring archival content from throughout the network's history. As of publishing, MTV Rewind hosts 27,293 total classic music videos and vintage commercials pulled from YouTube. The site is organized into multiple channels, taking viewers on a chronological journey starting with "1st day" content from the network's 1981 launch through the 2020s. As a welcome bonus, the site includes archives from the landmark hip-hop show Yo! MTV Raps and heavy metal program Headbangers Ball.

What telling people to touch grass ignores, in part, is that grass is not all that good to touch. It's itchy and sticky - there could be bugs in there. There's a far more profoundjoyin touching machines, as is shown again and again in Albert Birney's Obex, which functions as both a shrine to and warning about our reliance on technology.

Every micro-trend is swiftly dubbed ("Italian summer nails" or some such), and the most elaborate looks are often confined to the wearer's own home - all dolled up and nowhere to go. But before some of today's beauty influencers were born (the late '80s and '90s, let's say), full beats were meant to be flaunted in public. In those years, no group burned brighter than the club kids, whose visual rebellion through makeup signaled a sense of freedom against the somber backdrop of the AIDS epidemic.