When your grandpa or old friend tells you stories of their youth, some of the events are unbelievable. However, their tales give you a glimpse into life as it was back then. Stories, like those told by Barratt Through The Decades, tell of iconic historical events that every generation needs to hear.
The first moon landing
If you are a Gen Z or a millennial, it is natural to assume technological advancements and the excitement about space are recent. However, space has been of interest for decades. The first human landed on the moon in 1969.
Technology has undoubtedly improved significantly since then. However, the spaceflight at the time was sufficient to land two astronauts on the moon safely.
The Concorde first flight
On March 2nd 1969, the world was introduced to a plane that tested the boundaries of the flights at the time. The supersonic Concorde was in the air for 27 minutes, but this was enough to show that its speed, more than twice that of sound, surpassed all the other modern planes.
This British-French supersonic airliner, seating between 92-128 passengers, operated between 1976 and 2003.
The rise of pop music
The 60s and 70s were the decades when people worldwide danced to iconic music from the Beatles and ABBA.
The Beatles was an English rock band made up of four people. Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison formed the group in 1957. Their music became a hit in the 60s.
ABBA, a Swedish group, was established in 1972. Two years later, the world was singing along to Waterloo, the group’s first album.
The successive formation of these two iconic music groups meant that their music was on the airwaves for years. Today, when a song by ABBA or Beatles comes on, it is not surprising to see people from different generations singing along.
The 1980s – The decade of the digital revolution
Cheesy sitcoms, big hair and pop music may have been huge in the 1980s, but the most extraordinary event was the digital transformation. Today’s technology is fantastic. However, landmark technology breakthroughs of the 80s were phenomenal and possibly unexpected.
CDs suddenly replaced the cumbersome VHS tapes. Mobile phones, electronic music, video games, and automated teller machines took the world by storm. This was the era when films and commercials first used the computer-generated imagery (CGI) application.
As if this was not enough, Microsoft Windows traces its roots to 1985, when Windows 1.0 was released. Of course, computer operating systems are faster and more diverse today. However, for millennials, baby boomers, and Gen X, the birth of computers was a game changer!
The 90s – The era of pop culture and blockbuster films
Many iconic music bands and artists gained fame in the 1990s. The sounds that hit the airwaves in the 90s were poetic. Boy and girl bands, like Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls, released hits that were on the lips of people around the world.
Grunge and punk rockers genres dominated the music scene. Blockbuster films, like the Harry Potter series, were also a hit in the 90s.
Some of the iconic events of the last 70 years were fascinating. However, there is no doubt that some of the transformations paved the way for the technological advancements that we see today.