As you school the kid in the finer points of early 80's synth hits like Ebn Ozn ["AEIOU and sometimes Y"], The Buggles, and "Shock The Monkey," you'll need to teach him about the Fairlight, the first digital sampling synthesizer.
Why not just roll this Sesame Street clip from around 1983 and let Herbie Hancock explain it for you?
Herbie Hancock Demonstrates The Fairlight On Sesame Street [youtube via musicthing]
FYI, the Tatyana Ali that Herbie is talking too grew up to be the youngest daughter on that show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
Double cool! Thanks for the clip. Hancock rules!
[d'oh, tom did mention that on musicthing; nice catch, esp. considering there was a Fresh Prince reference in one of the Bizarre Book reviews, too -ed.]