Gimme a Beat

Barbie and The Beat Pkg.
 Image from Pintrest

     Tonight while cleaning I found some old cassette tapes that re-awakened my girlhood love of Barbie. The typical things were there,  radio mixes, the Grease movie soundtrack, the New Kids on the Block first album, but tragically missing was my "Macarena" cassingle tape.
* The Macarena tape was recovered two weeks later!*

     The other hidden gem in this collection was a hot 
pink cassette of singles from the fictional band Barbie and the Beat. I often called her Rocker Barbie (known as Disco Jeans Barbie publicly), but discovered is another Barbie known as Rocker Barbie). Nonetheless, she is one of the best and favorite dolls I have owned. Although Totally Hair Barbie makes it a close competition because you could cut her foot-length hair and style with DEP gel. Not only did my "Rocker Barbie" or "TB" for The Beat come in an awesome 80's outfit with denim jacket and skirt (a true denim suit), tons of pink skirts, a tube top and matching legwarmers, but she also had a tiny clip-in hat and big earrings!

My cassette
(c) PipPepPop

     The greatest part was her lime green plastic guitar! This instrument was tricked out in green and pink with a shiny strap that puts my ordinary acoustic to shame!  I found some images across the web to show barbie in all her glory. I tragically lost the denim suit on a plane ride in about '91 and was forced to dress Barbie in her pink cami top, mini skirt, and swirly crinoline, with matching leg warmers and pumps. Once her ponytail came out, she quit the music biz. My Barbie looks pretty beat these days.

     Best of all, there was an accompanying music cassette for her performances! There are 4 hit singles on this cassette full of girl power and attitude, and they sound very much like early Paula Abdul and a mid 80's Madonna (think Straight Up meets Get into the Groove meets Lucky Star. The cassette includes "Shine", "Jammin'", "The Beat" and one other that I can't read because the label is ripped.

'Robin Sparkles' Gif from
The Odyssey Online

Image from Ebay

     I could see an immediate visual comparison between "The Beat" Barbie and How I Met Your Mother's Robin Sparkles, as observed in this photo. But singing was just one of Barbie's many talents in the 80's Sheo also moonlighted as a Bangles-era Rocker Barbie. A list of her other careers can be found here, and another glorious rock star outfit. There were other videos, comics and movies that depicted Barbie's life as a rock star, and she even toured space in one animated movie, titled Barbie and The Rockers: Out of This World.

     My Barbie had the privilege of performing with  NKOTB's Joey McIntyre, who is apparently a rare 1990 collector doll selling for about $50.00 on Ebay. Unfortunately my Joe lost his ring, microphone, and cassette and was punished by my brother for cursing, resulting in a mouthful of soap.  Alas, the doll looks adorable and so does Joey, who just appeared in last week's Angel From Hell.