why these days music from the 80s is intolerable to listen to

[2leftears]

When I started getting into head fi few years ago, it was on a thought that I will be able to enjoy music from the 80s, I was very naïve with my thought.

most of the 80s bands I adored when I was in my teen years, listening to them now is impossible to enjoy, but I remember in my teen years in the 80s I just had a cassette player and some unknown headphones or speakers, and I used to literally enjoy the sound recording of those bands.

Now its literally impossible for me to even think to listen to them. I wonder why?

examples
1- the cure
2- depeche mode
3- def leppard
4- new order
5- ultravox

and the list goes on

nowadays I ventured into different music, as listening to those bands and their albums released in the 80s is not giving me any joy, the recording quality is so anemic and kills the buzz to enjoy them.

duration is too long maybe?

Well, tastes change over time of course, but the first 5 are very mainstream, popular at the time, so @Sound Eq's experience doesn't surprise me.

I rarely listen to mainstream, and I don't really have an issue with the recording quality of the 80's (or 70's & 90's) bands I do listen to; even back then they weren't great stand-out recordings. With the bands I listen to, for me their music somehow always transcends the considerations about recording quality; what matters most for me is composition and arrangement, instrumental and vocal phrasing, as well as creativity in mixing up genres. A good recording quality is a bonus.

If a particular music's appeal relies on (what is at the time considered to be) impressive production/technology, it is more likely to fail the test of time I think. But if the fundamentals of composition & arrangement (& performance) are strong, it will fare better.

One wild diversion is to look up live albums. Now this goes the opposite of what you may think. Meaning how could a live album sound better? It doesn't normally, but the songs are played a totally different way..........especially with this Paris album. To where the songs are somehow both remembered as correct, but the freedom of live means that they get played back way different, in almost sounding like a Cure garage band.

Not a surprise at all; with live albums the performance itself is a great contributor to the enjoyment of the music; recording quality becomes far less important. Again, this stands the test of time better.

 

[gregorio]

If a particular music's appeal relies on (what is at the time considered to be) impressive production/technology, it is more likely to fail the test of time I think. But if the fundamentals of composition & arrangement (& performance) are strong, it will fare better.

We have to be somewhat careful here because when it comes to popular music genres, the separation between production/technology and composition/arrangement is very blurred. We’ve all probably heard tracks where the production/technology is pretty much the only thing going for it, the end result is poor because the fundamentals of composition & arrangement were poor to start with and no amount of production/technology is going to overcome that issue as far as longevity is concerned because the production/technology, particularly from the late 1950’s to early 2000’s, was constantly being superseded. On the other hand, some of the fundamentals of composition & arrangement for popular genres were developed in response to, and only exist because of the production/technology. Phil Spectre’s “Wall of sound” being one of the first and most influential examples, which was only possible due to the production/technology of multi-track tape.

G

 

[2leftears]

We have to be somewhat careful here because when it comes to popular music genres, the separation between production/technology and composition/arrangement is very blurred. We’ve all probably heard tracks where the production/technology is pretty much the only thing going for it, the end result is poor because the fundamentals of composition & arrangement were poor to start with and no amount of production/technology is going to overcome that issue as far as longevity is concerned because the production/technology, particularly from the late 1950’s to early 2000’s, was constantly being superseded. On the other hand, some of the fundamentals of composition & arrangement for popular genres were developed in response to, and only exist because of the production/technology. Phil Spectre’s “Wall of sound” being one of the first and most influential examples, which was only possible due to the production/technology of multi-track tape.

G

Absolutely, particular genres relying heavily on production is not necessarily a bad thing, but it becomes more precarious if it is the only thing going for it.

Take e.g. some of the 90's (and in Japan still very current) shoegaze/dream-pop genre, one of my favourites. Some are two person-bands who absolutely need tonnes of production technology to make their product work (live they use support artists or backing tracks). There you can also find many bands whose productions sound impressive at first creating that familiar shoegaze/dream-pop soundscape, until after checking out more of their songs you realise their composition/arrangement skills are lacking a bit in creativity. On the other hand there are shoegaze/dream-pop bands who do have great fundamental composition & arrangement skills to keep their music interesting even after decades.

Likewise there are some niche bands in other fusion genres who use a lot of production in their music, perform live with backing tracks, but who have are nevertheless highly creative with great compositional skills.

 

[71 dB]

I wasn't interested much about music until in late 80s when I was in high-school. That's because almost all music I heard was mainstream stuff and my music taste isn't very mainstream. I didn't know there is also a lot of marginal music to be found. That was until I heard Acid House in 1988! However, I missed the 80s music almost completely. For me music started around 1987.

After high school I went to university and I met my best friend who plays violin and told me how classical music has very cool melodies and can sound epic. I found this interesting, because I was in the naive/stupid belief that music that old is incompatible to modern ears that have heard modern electronic dance music! Who cares about Prokofiev when we have The Prodigy to listen to? Anyway I got interested of classical music. Better check it out before writing if off as "obsolete" music. So I got into classical music around 1996 listening to classical FM radio all day long finding what I hear interesting and fascinating until in December 1996 I heard Elgar's Enigma Variations on radio and my mind is blown. The last years of the 90's were about exploring classical music like there was no tomorrow!

After year 2000 I became interested of other kind of music. My music taste broadened and I realised almost any music genre potentially has something to offer for me. I even got into Scandinavian pop music that was played on Nordic MTV around 2001. I discovered New Age couple of ears later. I got interested to explore music from the 80's and 70's. This led to the massive discovery of Tangerine Dream (proper discovery as I knew about them before) and King Crimson in 2008. I was stunned about how good music the 70s and 80s had to offer if you just find the right stuff for yourself. In 2011 I got into Carly Simon, a kind of artist I had thought I would never enjoy. At this point I really understood how important it is to be openminded about music. At that time pop music became really interesting for my ears as American producers used influences of Eurodance in pop music (+ a lot of autotune for cool effect!). I found myself liking artists like Katy Perry and Kesha (formelly known as Ke$ha). Pop music in general has become much less attractive to my ears since, but there's so much music to explore! I discovered "funky" artists like Herbie Hancock, Rose Royce and also Miles Davis' electronic period (my father is or was because his hearing is so bad he can't sadly enjoy music anymore into jazz, but hated electronic music and only listened to pre 70s jazz, mostly jazz from the 50s).

In the 2020s I have discovered for example Sunshine Pop (Mama Cass Elliott, Maureen McGovern, The Carpenters). I kind of needed to find this music as the World has been such a dark place recently.

The 80s has been the most challenging for me, because so much of the music from that period feel just stupid for me. The music from that era lacks the compositional sophistication of the 70s music, but it also a bit cumbersome in the respect of music technology. The 90s (1988 onwards) at least gave a lot of interesting genres and subgenres of modern dance music. 80s synth music is cool, but the good stuff is not easy to find and the music of early 80s can be difficult to find on CD because the format was just coming on the market.

For me the sound quality of the music from 70s and 80s is part of the charm. I hear most of this music only now in the context of 21st century. Without crossfeed a lot of this music would be pure torture to listen to on headphones. I try to enjoy the music for what it is, product of its time...

 

[2leftears]

I was fortunate to have friends at Uni who were very much into non-mainstream music. I learnt quickly that the really interesting stuff is out there (a lot of it in fact), but it takes effort and time to discover.

I also learnt that the chances of being able to share your interest in niche bands with others drops off a cliff. Listen to how people in general talk about (popular) music and bands/artists. They talk about the bands/artists more than the actual music, and it is clear that for many the attraction of (popular) music is primarily the social element of it, sharing the experience of music (bands) they all like. I suspect that is a significant factor behind popularity of artists like Taylor Swift; it is social glue, more than pushing the boundaries of creativity. That doesn't make it a bad product at all, as long as you realise what the product is (and isn't).

 

[71 dB]

Social glue is a nice term to describe the most popular artists.

 

[2leftears]

Incidentally, if the OP @Sound Eq likes the sound of Depeche Mode but is looking for updated production values; there are bands that try and do that (I came across this band from Japan, but they sing in English):

Lillies and Remains - BODY


Lillies and Remains - Neon Lights
​

 

[TwizzyTonkaa]

With modern listening gear you can tell that the microphones of the time weren't up to modern standards

 

[bigshot]

The 80s music I listen to sounds good. Maybe the haircut bands didn’t have the budget for top quality engineering. I have a recording from 1954 that sounds fantastic. I don’t think it’s technology.