1. (Dancin’!) Barbie & the Rockers!
There was a time in the mid-80’s that Barbie n’ company’s stranglehold on the disproportionately-leggy plastic doll market was in danger of being usurped by the far rawkin’er Jem and the Holograms. Jem’s blonde mane was moussier than Barbie’s, she could swing a mean microphone cord, and she had the [...]

Barney Rubble Co-Opts Black Musician Culture To Steal Breakfast Cereal
In 1955, Pat Boone’s first Billboard number-one single was a constipated white-bread cover of Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That A Shame.” (True legend: Boone’s producers talked him out of titling his version “Isn’t That A Shame” in his unremitting disgust for Domino’s improper grammar.) The man’s [...]