Was 1986 one of the biggest years for music ever? If it wasn't, it sure was close, as it's the year that gave us a defining heavy metal album, two defining hip-hop albums, a pop standout, and one of the last albums from a jazz legend.

But there was so much more: two breakaway solo artists, two huge soundtracks, and the era-defining album that gave us two of the biggest songs of all time. 1986 had a bit of everything, and all of these albums are now officially 40 years old...

Spotify Playlist: 1986 Albums

• Aliens Movie Review: Patreon.com/80s

Before "Zelda" became a household name, it began as "Adventure Mario," a game that started out as giant sketches on long pieces of draft paper. But things quickly changed...

This new video game would be nothing like Super Mario Bros. It would be a vast and seemingly limitless world. A world based around a legend, and a world filled with fantasy and adventure -- a world based on the childhood of its creator.

Today, we go back to 1986 to witness the origins of The Legend of Zelda, a game originally developed for the Nintendo Famicom in Japan. But the Famicom eventually became the NES, and the Legend of Zelda became the creation that changed the history of video games forever...

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VHS and Beta weren't the only ones trying to capture our loyalty in the 1980s; the same thing was happening in the world of... bubblegum.

Heading into the 80s, bubblegum -- an industry that didn't even really exist five years earlier -- turned into a full-on battleground. The target? Kids everywhere...

But now, led by the Big Three bubblegum brands, variety stores everywhere were about to get filled with many competitors -- all looking for their piece of the market.

From companies that went back more than a hundred years, to new players with origins in baseball dugouts, the 1980s Bubblegum Wars came about at the perfect time, as bold flavors, ads, and Saturday morning cartoons made simple bubblegum a billion-dollar industry.

• Check out new episodes early and ad-free: Patreon.com/80s