1982 was a very weird time for the music industry. MTV had just gone on the air, and the new station was hungry for content. But many established stars still hadn't quite figured out the power of this new medium – so MTV filled long stretches of airtime with bizarre bands from Europe. Suddenly, heavily accented singers with names like Taco and Falco were scoring massive singles in America. Beauty standards for pop stars were changing quickly, too: As recently as the late 1970s, it had still been possible for a bunch of mustached dudes with huge beer bellies to rule the charts, but now guys like that were competing with fashion-forward trendsetters like A Flock of Seagulls. Here's a look back at some of the biggest acts of that strange year – from Tommy Tutone and Toni Basil to Asia and the Alan Parsons Project – and an update on what they're doing these days.

By Andy Greene