[donunus]

Bands people forgot to mention. The Care, Wild swans, China crisis. Awesome bands from liverpool.

 

[PSmith08]

The 80s were OK. I wouldn't be here without them.
The Final Cut was an 80s release. I guess I could be called a TFC fanboy, but the more I listen to the record, the more I appreciate it. It seems to encapsulate perfectly the rage and sorrow over two entirely different periods of time. By the time the record comes around to "The Final Cut," I am lost in it. It is the darkest PF release and manages to be pretty dark by Roger Waters' solo standards. No other record seems to 1) discuss the state of things in the early 80s in the same way and 2) sound the same. TFC is the child of The Wall, but it has more of an edge and more emotion than the last PF album.
Disintegration is a really good record, but I could never really get into it. It is lush, intense, and very emotional for me, on a whole host of levels, but it always put itself out of reach for me to like. I appreciate it. Perhaps that's the highest praise for music. Perhaps not.
As for classical music, I don't think anyone would say the 80s were devoid of anything. The Ring cycles of Boulez, Janowski, and Levine are among the best put to record. (I am tempted to throw Barenboim in with the group, but no). Herbert von Karajan made his last recordings, as did Leonard Bernstein. Carlos Kleiber continued making his wonderful music, including his Tristan und Isolde. However, I think the classical bit might be a touch OT.
Every decade has its gems and its flops. Some decades require a bit more sorting than others.

 

[SunByrne]

Lots of great points made here--good thread.

The thing I really liked (like) about the 80s has already been pointed out--the explosion of variety. In the 70s, there was a strong tendency for rock bands to have the same basic sound, because they generally had about the same lineup: drums, bass, (male) vocals, lead guitar, and often but not always rhythm guitar. That sameness in instruments drove a certain sameness in sound.

While there were a lot of people experimenting with electronic music in the 70s, that stuff didn't start to really influence the mainstream until the 80s. What was cool about the 80s was the experimentation: people tried all kinds of stuff. Yeah, sometimes the results were really, really horrible, but every decade had that. But sometimes the results were very cool and they often had the interesting property of not sounding like everything else. When you bought a new record, it really was new, not just in terms of new songs, but often a new kind of sound entirely.

I think one of the things people fail to appreciate now was how different the radio landscape was back then. Most radio stations actually allowed their DJs to pick what music they played, and DJs would often experiment and do wacky things like take live requests that weren't necessarily on any pre-specified "playlist." I think U.S. radio really died in the late 90s as a result of the change in FCC rules which meant most radio stations were owned by corporate holding companies rather than local folks, with programming decisions made by suits running focus groups rather than the people in the studio. Radio became so compartmentalized and bland with so-called "alternative" stations embracing the 1970s-style sound that the execs grew up with. Bleah. I completely gave up on commercial radio in the late 90s.

The cool recent development is the resurgence of non-corporate broadcasting enabled by the internet. Now if only I could get those broadcasts in my car...

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SunByrne The cool recent development is the resurgence of non-corporate broadcasting enabled by the internet. Now if only I could get those broadcasts in my car...

Absolutely.

In fact, see this funky collision of decades - Nouvelle Vague is a french bossanova outfit that covers Post-Punk/New Wave hits from the 80's - PIL, The Clash, New Order, The Cure, DEVO, Joy Division, etc - and they would never get play on mainstream radio. But on the internet? No prob! Here's a show, I think it's a streaming vid of their day on some alternative radio station out west-

http://kcrw.com/smil/mb050414Nouvelle_Vague.ram

 

[zoboomofo]

One of the double edged swords of today's music is the slick packaging. If you look back at the magazines, 80s rockers were freakin dorky looking and music videos were on par with adult video production values. They were misfits on a new frontier of music. Distribution was pretty bad for some of these bands, and great ideas were isolated within their own regions. But on the flip side, there were no product placements, focus groups or image consultants. Another good thing was that pre-fab bands were still quite campy, and usually laughable. Business interests didn't touch cool music, and The Jesus And Mary chain didn't have a beef with Reebok.

But I think I prefer today's approach to music publishing. Today, I think the music makers are more in tune with consumers. They'll give us what we want - good or bad. They'll promote, but they'll not insist on your mom's favorite MOR material. Indie labels are closely watched and subsidized by big labels. Musicians, too appear to better focus their influences into something contemporary - very quickly. Today's music just seems to catch the moment better for me. It makes it easier to identify with a band when it's style is relevant to me now, and the influences are wide and clear. It feels like a musical renaissance on the radio over here.

Picking music today is like going to a beer store with a rich and well developed selection and a good layout. Will that be a Punk, or a Punk-lite? We've got it all. Or, try the boy band. Me: no thanks, too watered down. I think I'll go for a local independent brew today, and maybe one of those exotic mixes in the import section tomorrow.

Trends have matured, and they're all familiar to and well sorted by the supplier. It's just harder to pick out the pretenders.

edit: whoa, talk about deja vu. Post 60. I didn't see your post, erix.

 

[crazyfrenchman27]

Any non-disco decade with Michael Jackson in it cannot be the worst decade, by its very definition.

Rest In Peace, Disco. The product of WAY too much drugs, I say...

-Matt

 

[kramer5150]

Did any one mention Big Country? I liked Stewart Adamsons guitar work and their bass player had some serious chops.

Didnt Men at Work take a lot of heat and criticism for Copying a lot of the harmonies and lyrical styles from the Police- Synchronicity?

Domo aregatto Mr Roboto!!!

Anyone remember back that far?

Garrett

 

[catachresis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramer5150 Did any one mention Big Country? I liked Stewart Adamsons guitar work and their bass player had some serious chops. Didnt Men at Work take a lot of heat and criticism for Copying a lot of the harmonies and lyrical styles from the Police- Synchronicity? Domo aregatto Mr Roboto!!! Anyone remember back that far? Garrett

I am Kilroy.

 

[Twombly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn it's too late for me. i already own linkin park's re-interpretation of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence," and i'm sucking my thumb.

Shinoda didn't F it up too badly.

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twombly Shinoda didn't F it up too badly.

personally i think the only one worse is KFDM redoing "Stripped" - it makes me giggle nervously. check out the Quad mix of Enjoy the Silence, that's epic.

 

[asmox]

the 80's spawned mr. bungle and watchtower.. therefore, the 80's do not suck (at least not completely) :O

~

 

[wali]

Dire Straits.

Enough said.

 

[augustwest]

Anyone interested in 80's music might consider checking out a site run by a friend of mine. It is called "IRS Corner", since it is devoted mostly to IRS Recording Artists. Here's a link:

< www.irscorner.com >

- augustwest

 

[rohorn]

I spent much of the '70's listening to Walter Carlos and other Moog wizards. What followed in the '80's was, for me, just a development of what I'd already heard.

 

[zoboomofo]

I cant believe it took you this long to think up a reply

Welcome back rohorn.