80s better than the 90s??

One of my Aunts posted a question on facebook, what is your favourite song of the 80s? I think like most people when I see this I immediately think of the cheesy pop songs that are so much associated with the 80s. But then I thought about it, and some of my favourite music is from the 80s. Think about it , Metallica, Guns and Roses, Public Enemy, The Cure.

 I finished school in the early 90s and from that time the 80s have been very much maligned in terms of the contribution to the music library. This is to be expected though as the most uncool thing you can be is the thing that was cool two things ago. I also know that I am not the only one who finds the revival of 80s fashion and to some extents the music more than a little ageing and very odd.

You think I am joking??

Regardless of a revival which was better? 80s or the 90s?

Well let's look at those bands that spanned both periods. You have The Cure, with most of their output in the 80s to be fair, but if you compare their two high points. Disintegration and Wish. Well Wish is better, but it is a very close run thing.

Guns and Roses? Undoubtedly, Appetite is better that Use your Illusions. No question. If you do disagree, I need some very strong arguments please.

Metallica, well again this is pretty straightforward. Their first four albums are by far their best work. Even if you throw in the 700 billion selling Black album, it doesn't even come close. Load? Re-load? Please, they are nothing as good as the others.

So then so far the 80s are coming out in front. As I have said on numerous occasions I do not know much about popular music in so far as it occurs in the pop charts. That said , I do know that Michael Jackson at his pomp was better than the Spice Girls, or Alanis Morrisette, The BackStreet boys. Ricky Martin . . . I am sorry but Billy Jean is still a great song. Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson were great together.

Didn't turn out so well did it. Oh well, let's be honest, it wasn't a massive shock really.

I really hated the whole boy band thing. I really hated it. This stopped me listening to the radio until the advent of itunes and internet radio. Think about that for a moment. I write a music blog, clearly reasonably into my music by most standards, and I stopped listening to the best source of new music. I hated the dancing, the impeccable way each one of the four , five or six chaps was chosen exclusively for their look. i.e. this is what teenage girls will go for, at least one of them. Who is to blame for this? New kids on the Block - damn you, damn you to hell .

On a much more interesting theme, the alternative and eventually the mainstream were far far more interesting. In the 80s, you have Janes Addiction. Husker Du, Fugazi, The Smiths , Dead Kennedys. and The Pixies in the 80s.

In the 90s you have , Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, The Smashing Pumpkins, the Tea Party, Stone Temple Pilots, Radiohead and of course the mighty, mighty Tool.

Tool videos take some getting used to.

I would put it this way for the comparison. The 80s music was more avant guard. There was more going on in a lot of it. One thing I notice is that while a lot of the bands I listed from the 80s were properly alternative the ones I listed for the 90s were very much part of the mainstream. In so far as the mainstream involves selling a lot of albums.

Although it is interesting that despite how big they all were, none of them had the biggest selling album of a year. It shows that no matter how big you think something is, there are a whole lot of people out there buying the music I am not so fond of. I guess this makes me alternative, although looking at the list above that came off the top of my head, I don't think I am that alternative.

Perhaps the point is though, that a lot of people were able to experiment a lot more in the 80s. Much more than in the 90s when the music machine really took over. It was not until the advent of the torrent and bit sites that the people took the music back.

 The 90s was a terrible time for metal, which was a pity. It was better for the angst ridden alternative rock. It did however lack the free spirit nature of 80s. Everything seemed a lot more serious when it comes to looking back on it all. Perhaps the world was a more serious place and the music reflected this? That could just be me though.

Which was better? well depends what mood you were in.

Sometimes a laugh

Sometimes a cry

Any thoughts?