Like so many of you, I am a child of the 80s. I grew as a teenager in the 80s and as such much of the music I heard then had a lasting impact on me. It seems at the moment as well there is a revival in the early to mid 80s fashion and a post ironic like of the music. Seriously, I saw a guy getting his final school results in a 'choose life' t-shirt. The Wham one, not something more sinister about birth control. I have to admit that this sort of thing makes me laugh ,and die just a little bit inside because I am now old, as I am not so sure it is actually ironic at all.
Why do we have this revival of the pop culture? Well, I think a part of it is the laziness of people in actually coming up with new things, let's not forget this
Also , a lot of the music was , dare I say it, quite good. As always there is a lot of rubbish. The early to mid 80s in particular have often been lambasted by the music geeks such as myself as being a comparative wasteland of decent music. It is all relative and if we take 80-85 it doesn't really compare that favourably to the 60s or the 70s , early 90s does it? We should not forget though that perhaps the greatest post Beatles pop song came out of this period
Ah Michael. His death was a little surprising wasn't it? I am not sure quite how I feel about it. When Billy Jean, Thriller etc came out I was still pretty young and as such thought it was great. But by the time Bad came out I was a long way past pop and heavily into metal, alternative, punk etc and so it was the anathema of what I thought represented me as a music lover. I do think it is sad just how warped his life became.
There was a lot of other good music that came of this period. A lot of it came from the new Romantic synth pop movement from the UK. I must admit, that when I think of the 80s pop scene this is very much what I come back to. I have always had a small, OK tiny, place in my music collection for Duran Duran. Now that I have admitted perhaps my greatest musical shame I need to go through the whole processes and also put out there that I, alternative, metal , punk, electronica guy, have a vinyl picture disc of the Duran Duran Arena album. Now that is out, I need to have a little lie down. Here is a song from them whilst I regain my equilibrium.
What are they wearing?seriously wtf? The somewhat suspect imagery aside, that is a pretty good pop song. Let's be honest we know it wasn't meant to move the goal posts in terms of musicianship and change the direction of music. It is a pop song designed to sell records and tap into the current mood and perhaps direct that a little bit.
The new romantic scene took itself extremely seriously on the surface of things. Sure a lot of it was , with hindsight, visually ridiculous and surely tongue in cheek? Actually no. The purveyors of it thought it was very much the cutting edge and they felt they were trying to influence fashion as well as music. People like Adam Ant particularly were extremely serious about the whole thing. Thanks for that.
Over in the States there was a more fun feel about a lot of the pop music, take for example this gem from the Go-Gos
I do like that as a pop song. It is extremely catchy, and it conveys having a lot of fun. Apparently the Go-Gos were a pretty wild bunch of girls. It is interesting that in this period a lot of women performers became much more accepted in mainstream music. I am not in anyway suggesting that the 80s saw the beginning of women in pop, but there is a definite cross over into the very mainstream areas. Before that it was either the very serious, like Joni Mitchell or the rebel type, think The Runaways.
It does occur to me at this stage that pop in the 80s is actually a huge subject. One that a single post could not possibly cover in full without being very long. So perhaps just a couple more and if you want more then please comment and I can explore more of the areas.
A lot of the music reflected the separation of music as an artistic outlet and went into the somewhat banal, not necessarily bad as such, but not really doing much except filling up radio time
This is as it always was, I know. That is what pop music is supposed to do. But it doesn't mean that it can not be good. for example this is a good song and I love the earnestness of the whole idea
As with many songs of that time, there are two videos for that song. That is the US version which is frankly much better.
So the 80s, not a complete wasteland. As I said though, let me know about your favourite moments and if there are some more gems I will put them out there for public discussion.
The ironic aspect of liking the '80s would only have worked in the early '90s when alternative swept the airwaves clean. And then only if it was a cheesy music group. That kid now has no idea! He's going by 3rd or 4th hand information.
ReplyDeleteMy '80s. Out of principle, I refused to get into Thriller because my sister was totally into it, and she was a victim of all the worst fashion and musical styles of the decade. That includes Corey Hart and Wham! I own Thriller now and would never turn off "Careless Whispers". However that IS the only Wham song I like. The rest is bobbins.
My '80s was high school in the first half. I spent a lot of time bouncing between groups in school. The classic rock/ prog kids. I especially liked the punk group and the big ones at the time were DK, Pistols, Buzzcocks and Public Image. And the new wave gang. Big fan of early Simple Minds, XTC, there's too many to mention. And I had the heavy metal friends with their brand new concert t-shirts of the "Piece Of Mind" or the "Born Again" tour. And ALL of that music nestled comfy dumfy in my collection.
Oh yeah, my immediate best friends were the Beatles fans and I was in the cult of U2 quite early in their career.
I actually think that the '80s was quite rich in musical depth. I find that the immediate aftermath of grunge destroyed the diversity of the '90s so that there was none (I think). That to me was the real start of the industry strangling the life out of creativity side of music and it didn't get any better until the internet came along and threatened them. Things began to pick up again in the noughties a bit.
The second half of the '80s was the beginning of my 20s and it was crammed full of The Cure, Love & Rockets, The Smiths and on and on... and listening to the independent radio around here, I discovered Jane's Addiction in early '88. I heard "Ted, Just admit it" and I was hooked. I also discovered a marvy Kiwi group from the early '80s called The Gordons and realised that you don't even have to play the right notes at all! Sonic Youth and some of the current New York scene was big.
On my first trip to UK in '88 I picked up a bunch of cool albums that I couldn't find in Canada at the time. And a couple of new releases. I got Cocteau Twins' Blue Bell Knoll, so that album always reminds me of my first trip abroad on my own. I got a couple of Cocteaus and Cure picture discs. I discovered Nick Cave "Tender Prey" at Tower Records, Piccadilly. And at Tower Records, I found the BBC Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The galaxy box set radio program and since I was a big fan of the books....
Because the '80s covered my life from 13 to 23, there was A LOT of music to happen to me and I remember it as being a decade of great depth and I only had a hard time finding good new stuff around '88 or '89 and was relieved when grunge initially broke.
I could go on forever but you have a job and have to commute in London traffic (by Battersea).
I only ever tried to get around overground once and decided that the underground was the way to go. I was staying in Mill Hill of course, so it was the most reasonable way to travel to all the central areas.
Oh the 80’s! I’m really just a Wham & Duran Duran fan at heart so I’m delighted to hear that there is a tiny space in your eclectic collection for a little Le Bon. Some fantastic tunes here and they all make me happy, couldn’t ask for more. Great post – encore!
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