Sure, I hated Reagan, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and a sinister new movement in music called 'Rap', but were they really that bad?
When I first started to listen to music in the late 70's and all my older friends were listening to what is now known as 'Classic Rock' (only it was new then - I remember when 'The Wall' came out.. ) I used to think I was so much more evolved than them by listening to jazz fusion and this new kind of rock music that was being played on KUNV, from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Jazz from noon til 8 pm, Rock Avenue till10 the next morning.
Then Madonna came along. And Culture Club. And, Oh God, Dexy's Midnight Runners. Commercial radio turned to crap! Yet my friends still listened to the same songs they were listening to 20 years earlier and I was laughing at them for doing it.
KUNV held fast on a quirky, always wavering path towards music left of center and I listened all the way. Remember where you were when you first heard Talking Heads? B-52's? Black Flag? The Sugarcubes? Those were the days, my friends, I thought they'd never end.
Of course they did. Right after an 'Alternative Rock' station came to town. The publicly funded KUNV, forced to compete for pledge money, turned to the only listeners who actually pledged real money - the old time jazzers. (You must remember - a lot of the old be-boppers and hep cats moved to LV to play in the shows. There were jams at the local musicians union hall that would bring tears to your eyes. Never recorded)
So now, at 36, with wife, kid, mortgage, what do I want to listen to? The music of 20 years ago - I've turned into one of them!!!
What are your memories of the Eighties? Favorite radio station? But most importantly - what are you listening to now, online, when you want to hear eighties music like it was played back then - not just the hits.
ok,
erix