I love looking through old magazines and just got one from December 1981 on Ebay. The tagline of "Entertainment for Men" will probably give you an idea of the contents although it does feature articles on Cars and history. The advertising agencies obviously thought that some of the 327000 mainly male readers might be interested in audio gear as the adverts I have just scanned show. Sanyo obviously thought the lady in a man's life might like a personal stereo In the recent Sharp GF8 thread I commented on how high tech Digital Tuning was considered to be. Pye (a Philips subsidiary) compared it to the UKs main satellite Communications station. For 2019 prices multiply by 3.8 so that car radio cassette was £450 in today' s money. I remember them being popular as well. Pioneer thought the future of car audio was separates, and the future of clothing PVC. Panasonic, Technics, and Philips were all advertising home audio Only the Phlips could dim the lights though. Finally for people who were wondering what to play on their newly purchased audio gear Jean Michel Jarre's latest album was being advertised I suspect the early 1980s were the peak for audio advertising. I also bought a copy of the same magazine from the mid 1980s and although the same companies are advertising, the adverts are for TVs, videos and large camcorders.
So is electronics. Last week I bought a new, boxed Pay As You Go mobile phone complete with colour screen, camera SD card slot (presumably for playing MP3s) and charger for 99p. It was actually cheaper than buying a SIM to replace one I have mislaid. In contrast I was recently reading about the history of mobile phone. In 1980s Sweden market research indicated that 10% of people who could afford a second home could probably justify the cost of a mobile phone, thus making the investment required to set up a network worthwhile.
