Paula Julie Abdul is an American singer, dancer, choreographer, actress, and television personality. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreographer for the Laker Girls, where she was discovered by the Jacksons. After choreographing music videos for Janet Jackson, Abdul became a choreographer at the height of the music video era and soon thereafter she was signed to Virgin Records. Her debut studio album Forever Your Girl (1988) became one of the most successful debut albums at that time, selling seven million copies in the United States and setting a record for the most number-one singles from a debut album on the Billboard Hot 100 chart: "Straight Up", "Forever Your Girl", "Cold Hearted", and "Opposites Attract". Her second album Spellbound (1991) scored her two more chart-toppers – "Rush Rush" and "The Promise of a New Day". With six number-one singles on Hot 100, Abdul tied Diana Ross for the third-most chart-toppers among female solo artists at the time.
New Kids on the Block is an American boy band from Dorchester, Massachusetts. The band consists of brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood. New Kids on the Block enjoyed success in the late 1980s and early 1990s and have sold more than 80 million records worldwide, and are often credited for paving the way for future boy bands such as Take That, Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. They won two American Music Awards in 1990 for Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group and Favorite Pop/Rock Album. In 1991, they performed the halftime show at Super Bowl XXV, a first for a popular music group.
Milli Vanilli was a German R&B music act from Munich. The act was packaged by Boney M. founder Frank Farian in 1988 and consisted of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus as the lip-syncing performers, with the two actual main studio singers, Brad Howell, John Davis and studio singers, Charles Shaw, Jodie Rocco, and Linda Rocco, with an unrelated touring band. Their debut album, as All or Nothing in Europe, and expanded, including "Baby Don't Forget My Number" and "Blame It on the Rain", composed by Diane Warren, as Girl You Know It's True in the United States, achieved international success and brought them a Grammy Award for Best New Artist on 21 February 1990.
I Love the '80s is a decade nostalgia television program and the first installment of the I Love the... series that was produced by VH1, based on the BBC series of the same name. The first episode, "I Love 1980", premiered on December 16, 2002, and the final episode, "I Love 1989", premiered on December 20, 2002.
Information Society is an American band from Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota, initially active from 1982 to 1997, primarily consisting of Kurt Harland Larson, Paul Robb, and James Cassidy; the latter two reconvened the band in 2006, initially with Christopher Anton as lead vocalist, then with Harland rejoining them as lead vocalist by 2008.
The 32nd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 21, 1990, and hosted by Garry Shandling. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.
Fabrice Maxime Sylvain Morvan is a French singer, dancer, and model who was half of the pop duo Milli Vanilli, along with Rob Pilatus. It was later revealed that the two had not actually sung on any of their recordings. After the scandal, the group reformed as Rob & Fab in the 1990s, with limited success. Morvan had a solo comeback in the 2000s, releasing the album Love Revolution in 2003.
Lip sync or lip synch, short for lip synchronization, is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals.
Robert Pilatus was a German singer, dancer, model, and rapper. He was a member of the pop music duo Milli Vanilli with Fab Morvan.
MC Skat Kat is an animated cat character who appeared with Paula Abdul in the video for her song "Opposites Attract" in 1989.
Anthony Terrell Smith, better known by his stage name Tone Lōc, is an American rapper. He is known for his raspy voice, his hit songs "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina", for which he was nominated for a Grammy Award, and for being featured in "We're All in the Same Gang", a collaborative single by the West Coast Rap All-Stars.
Bruce Gowers was a British television director and producer, best known for his work on large-scale live music and event productions.
"Wild Thing" is a single by American rapper Tone Lōc from his 1989 album Lōc-ed After Dark. The title is a reference to the phrase "doin' the wild thing," a euphemism for sex. According to producer Mario Caldato Jr., who engineered and mixed the song, producer Michael Ross was inspired by an utterance of Fab 5 Freddy “Come on baby let’s do the wild thing" in Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It, and asked Young MC to write the lyrics.
"(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me" is a song recorded by American singer Paula Abdul for her debut album Forever Your Girl (1988). Written and produced solely by producer Oliver Leiber, the song was originally released in its remix form as the second single from the album on August 2, 1988, by Virgin to minor success in the States. Following the breakthrough success of her next three singles, the song was re-released on September 15, 1989, under its original version to commercial success, becoming Abdul's fourth consecutive top three entry on the Billboard Hot 100 and to date, tying with "Straight Up" as her longest charting performance on the chart. The song, however, did not replicate the same success in the UK where it managed to peak at number seventy-four on the UK Singles Chart, thus becoming her lowest charting single in the region to date.
The running man is a street dance, consisting of "shuffling" and sliding steps, imitating a stationary runner. The dancer takes steps forward, then slides the foot placed in front backwards almost immediately, while moving their fists forwards and back horizontally in front of them. The fad dance was said to have been started in the mid-1980s.
The 1989 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 6, 1989, honoring the best music videos from April 2, 1988, to June 1, 1989. The show was hosted by Arsenio Hall at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.
Club MTV Party To Go volume 1 was the first album in the MTV Party To Go series. The album was certified Gold on May 25, 1994, by the RIAA.
The 1990 Soul Train Music Awards was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California and aired live in select cities on March 14, 1990, honoring the best in R&B, soul, rap, jazz, and gospel music from the previous year. The show was hosted by Patti LaBelle, Luther Vandross and Dionne Warrick.
Sean Spencer, better known by his stage name DJ Spen or Spen, is an American DJ, record producer, and record executive.
