Well I don't know about the biggest star. The 80's was pretty much pre-internet. So there weren't "stars" like today. We had local stars then on video ...we just devoured videos of Fifi, Lucy, Mona, Nagwa Fouad, Soheir Zaki and a very young Dina. The Lebanese dancers started to make their name....Amani, Samara, Hwada Hachim. But the Egyptian style was very much in vogue. So were elaborate costumes with long fringe. The full circle skirt was still very popular in the 80's especially the early 80's but the late 80's the straight look that is popular today just barely started to make it's appearance. It really didn't come into fashion though until the mid-late 90's. Some of the most classical musicales surfaced int the 80's such as Mashaal, Sit El Hassan. The American Greek Clubs were still in full swing. The 80's just rocked for belly dancing but really marked the end of an era. . But here's a couple 80's videos for you:

Classic:
www.youtube.com/watch

American Greek Caberet
www.youtube.com/watch

What I remember about the 80's (having started lessons in '85), was the very obvious split in popular style from east coast to west coast. East coast was big on cabaret, particularly Egyptian; and west coast had more "tribal" which wasn't really called tribal that I heard, but "ethnic-y". That is in terms of dance style, costume, and music. We even heard of dancers who had tattoos!!! shock!! lol pretty much unfathomable.
The magazines were a great source of wondrous info back then. I didn't have a tv/vcr till the '90's so can't tell what vids were widely available, but the ones I did see at my teacher's or at workshops were amazingly inspirational.

I started dancing in my first year of college 1979/80. The first classes were pretty full. Eventually, tho, everyone quit except me.

At first I got loads of newsletters advertizing seminars and weekend retreats, but I traveled a lot for work and couldn't afford them anyway. But, they gradually stopped coming. And when I reached a point in life where I could afford to attend and had the time, the seminars and workshops had all but vanished. Belly dance was just plain out of style. Salome of Columbus told me that Belly Dance was everywhere until Saturday Night Fever hit the theaters. Then the popularity of belly dance plumented, and the seminars and workshops began to disappear. That's why she started offering her semi-annual seminars. I miss her and her seminars.

My teacher gave me some old magazines. MEDECA was one, I think.. I remember reading passionate debates about weight, scholarly articles on history of the dance, anguish over the general public confusing belly dance with stripping and what to do about it, costume how-tos, and finger pointing over what was, and wasn't belly dance. Some people felt quite firmly that ATS was NOT belly dance. Some people still do. In general, about the only thing that's changed is that some people feel quite firmly that Tribal Fusion is NOT belly dance :)

Cabaret style was just plain Belly Dance. Donning a sheer, lurex and pailette caftan, tying a fringed scarf on your head and another on your hips was "ethnic" or "folksy". We called the West Coast ATS stuff "Desert Style".

Live music here was a mish mosh mostly from the Greek -Turkish region. We didn't have ipods or even Walkmans! We had cassettes and lps. The ONLY way to preview music was to find someone who had that lp and listen to it. As a general rule of thumb, the cheesier the album cover, the better the music. And music wasn't cheap. I could walk into the Kent Community Store and buy a top 10 lp for about $6. They charged about $36 to special order belly dance lps. The lowest price was from a mail order company in FL that charged about $20 per album, plus shipping. A dollar was worth a lot more back then so a poor music choice was a costly mistake. Imagine paying $40 - $60 per cd today!

Costuming was a make-it-yourself thing, but a few dancers paid $1200+ for professionally made custom costumes. Even the piecy-parts for costumes were pricey. Coins were either "real", as in genuine coins or the heavy Saroyan coins. Or they were what I called Aluminum Foil Coins, because they were so thin and flimsy you could bend them between your fingers. Today even the cheapest fake coins and belts are pretty sturdy. Back then, you could not touch a new, beaded Egyptian bra and belt for under $300, they were comparable to todays $90 Isis Exchange sets.

A lot of belly dance supplies were mail order only. That's a lot different from internet shopping. First, I had to find the vendors ads in the back of the magazines I borrowed from my teacher. Then I had to write to them, on paper, and drop it in the mailbox, with a stamp. Then wait for the catalog to arrive. When I was ready to order, only about half the companies accepted charge cards. So I usually had to add it all up, write a check, put it in an envelope with a stamp and drop it in the mail. A few days later it reached the vendor, and two weeks after that it finally cleared the back and the vendor could ship. That's a far cry from Amazon's Buy It With One Click button!!

The typical costume was a bra, belt, and slit circle skirt or fabulous harem pants. Dancers liked to layer a chiffon circle skirt over lame. Another popular style was two ruffled skirts, with the lower skirt pulled through the slits in over skirt, and tucked into the belt. Fringe tended to be short, mostly because dancers beaded it themselves :). Some dancers dressed quite modestly, with sheer blouses over decorated bras, sometimes exposing the midrift and sometimes extending to the hip. Full chiffon sleeves were popular, actually full sleeves of any sort. Other dancers went quite bare, with 6" or wider gaps between the rear panel of the skirt and the front panel, positioned over the front of each leg. The skirt was often sheer with a metallic trim at the hem, and bras often had cut outs at the side panels and in between the girls in front.

Silk veils were few and far between. We used a lot of fake China Silk, Silkessence, chiffon with trim, lame, lycra, etc.