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Totally, because every other decade was all about the content and not style/image?
Seriously, the 60's 70's 80's 90's and 2000's all had great bands and lots of trash and pop (and I used "pop" to mean anyone about "making it" or "being big" over music).
Besides the 80's had lots of great stuff! Just some here may not realize it since they can only listen to prog rock. If any decade really sucked it was the 2000s
The human race has really tapped the well dry by this point and ALL genres of music, metal, rap, punk, country are not true to themselves and have gone "pop". Hell even pop is worse now! 13 year olds with rich families are literally being made pop stars, being autotuned to hell and singing about stuff years away from em!
Fair comment and I would concede that as far as music goes there has been plenty of junk and riches in every decade. (It just seems that in some decades the good stuff is much harder to find? maybe I'm lazy)
I really meant that the entire mainstream entertainment industry during the 80's appeared to be particularly obsessed with appearance/surface at the expense of content. This manifest itself in cinema,TV and videos - a golden age of the poseur if you will
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Posted: June 22 2011 at 10:34
ExittheLemming wrote:
I really meant that the entire mainstream entertainment industry during the 80's appeared to be particularly obsessed with appearance/surface at the expense of content. This manifest itself in cinema,TV and videos - a golden age of the poseur if you will
While it is true for the 80s, it is also true for the 90s and 00s. Nothing much has changed. We target the 80s because that was the big change but 90s being an amazing revival which dispensed of all the flaws of the 80s is a big myth. The obsession with looks remains to date. Refer Friends jokes about Metallica, for example. And what was the whole non descript flannels look about but style ultimately? Only, unlike 70s or 80s, the 90s lacked capacity to dream and impose its own personality. People sought refuge in being as far away from un-cool as possible and that unfortunately rubbed off on mainstream music with generic preferences, lifeless singing devoid of personality and a sore lack of oomph of any kind. Even if the 80s epoch is terribly dated especially in comparison to the decade immediately preceding it, it at least tried to have an epoch of its own, which is more than can be said of the 90s or the next two decades thereafter.
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Posted: June 22 2011 at 10:50
ExittheLemming wrote:
The 80's - a victory for style over content
I'd say that was the beginning. (And I wouldn't date the start until '83.) While I'm pontificating I'd say that the '90's (esp. later) pulled back from that, but we are once again in full style mode now.
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Posted: June 23 2011 at 00:06
You can't classify music styles via decades. When people say "80s music," they are likely thinking of stuff from around 77-78 to 86-87. (Much like "70s music" could be taken to mean stuff from 67-68 to about 76 and the advent of disco, punk and new wave. Musicians don't all just suddenly change as decades change: "Oh, it's January 1st, 1980. Let's abandon everything we've done up until now, and totally reinvent our music." It doesn't work that way.
In any case, I enjoyed LOTS of music made at that time. The 80s (my 20s) were very rich for me, musically. I found music to be quite diverse then: Cure, Smiths, Clash, The Damned, Fripp, Belew, Bowie, Crimson, Simple Minds, Steel Pulse, U2, Echo & The Bunnymen, XTC, REM, Devo, Stranglers, Jane Siberry, Talk Talk, Talking Heads, Madness, The Specials, English Beat, Ian Dury, The Jam, Psychedelic Furs, Chameleons UK, Police, Ultravox, Japan, Dire Straits, UB40, Cramps, The The, Joe Jackson, Los Lobos, Mental As Anything, Midnight Oil, Shriekback, Lloyd Cole, Robyn Hitchcock, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Elvis Costello, etc, etc, etc.
I vastly preferred all of that to the vacuous disco which predated it. The late 70s to early 80s saw an explosion of original new bands on the airwaves, and on record labels. We danced, partied, had fun, sang along, and grinned a lot.
No, as at any time, it wasn't all good -- but there was PLENTY of good to be found. Commercial radio or one person's mainstream collection does not even scratch the surface.
Edited by Peter - June 23 2011 at 00:43
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy.
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Posted: June 24 2011 at 04:44
rogerthat wrote:
ExittheLemming wrote:
I really meant that the entire mainstream entertainment industry during the 80's appeared to be particularly obsessed with appearance/surface at the expense of content. This manifest itself in cinema,TV and videos - a golden age of the poseur if you will
While it is true for the 80s, it is also true for the 90s and 00s. Nothing much has changed. We target the 80s because that was the big change but 90s being an amazing revival which dispensed of all the flaws of the 80s is a big myth. The obsession with looks remains to date.
Yeah, I agreed previously that the 90's and 00's not being sensibly or notably much better than the 80(s, precisely because the 80's modified the industry (and life) in an irrepairable way (no going-back).
Looks were already mega important in the 50's rock'nroll bands when they chose to fress up the same... (even big band jazz of the 30's did that as well) >>> but that was about uniformity in a band >>> like putting on a suiit & tie to work at Wall street.
The 70's didn't seem to give a hoot (well the black funk group still dressed the same), but the 80's blew that to shreds.... it was important to look in certain fashion, but not too much like your comrades... In a way it was fine.... but then painting your left pinkie in black nailpolish was important (the videoclips emphasized it)...
Sooo it's not that much the fashion that ruined things more that the video over-exposure that did it.
In some weird kind of way, the music scene is still in the 80's !!! the pop realm never really left that decade >> let's face it: those boys-band and girls-band are somewhat linked to the 80's and Wham!.
Peter wrote:
You can't classify music styles via decades. When people say "80s music," they are likely thinking of stuff from around 77-78 to 86-87. (Much like "70s music" could be taken to mean stuff from 67-68 to about 76 and the advent of disco, punk and new wave. Musicians don't all just suddenly change as decades change: "Oh, it's January 1st, 1980. Let's abandon everything we've done up until now, and totally reinvent our music." It doesn't work that way.
I vastly preferred all of that to the vacuous disco which predated it. The late 70s to early 80s saw an explosion of original new bands on the airwaves, and on record labels. We danced, partied, had fun, sang along, and grinned a lot.
No, as at any time, it wasn't all good -- but there was PLENTY of good to be found. Commercial radio or one person's mainstream collection does not even scratch the surface.
Hey Peter, long time no read...
Yeah, I think I exposed the theory of those displaced decades dates before, and I kind of agree with it. 67 and 77 were more important than 70 & 80... And to be honest I wish I was 14 in 67 instead of 77....
The 80's should've been my decade (musically), but it wasn't.... (we're the same generation)
Yes, there are a few of those bands you cited that have some good stuff, but it was mostly about songs rather than albums, IMHO...
However, as much as I hated disco back then, but this was an epidermic teenager thing mostly. I mean I still don't like Donna Summer's I Feel Love or Claudia Barry's Boogie Woogie Dancing Shoes and stuff like that....
but some of that "disco stuff" was killer funk >> if you git the chance to listen to Chic or EW&F albums from 75-77 or the very early Kool & The Gang (dates from 69 if you can believe it), there are some outstanding funk stuff there. (I only became aware of this in the 90's, though.)
And to be quite honest, I much prefer that 70's disco stuff : I mean you could shake that booty of yours(and get very close to hers >> everytime I went to a discotheque back then, which was not often for age issues, I came home with either phone numbers or with that female dancing-fool) so shaking it much more than the unheatthy Grandmaster Flash or Chaka Khan of the 80's or the dance-music and jungle/techno of the 90's.
As for disco's prime era, it's mostly a post-77 thing (Saturday Night Fever & Grease-Xanadu film stuff) , so technically disco should be included in the 80's we both mention... that's post-77
let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword
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Posted: June 24 2011 at 06:44
Peter wrote:
You can't classify music styles via decades. When people say "80s music," they are likely thinking of stuff from around 77-78 to 86-87. (Much like "70s music" could be taken to mean stuff from 67-68 to about 76 and the advent of disco, punk and new wave. Musicians don't all just suddenly change as decades change: "Oh, it's January 1st, 1980. Let's abandon everything we've done up until now, and totally reinvent our music." It doesn't work that way.
In any case, I enjoyed LOTS of music made at that time. The 80s (my 20s) were very rich for me, musically. I found music to be quite diverse then: Cure, Smiths, Clash, The Damned, Fripp, Belew, Bowie, Crimson, Simple Minds, Steel Pulse, U2, Echo & The Bunnymen, XTC, REM, Devo, Stranglers, Jane Siberry, Talk Talk, Talking Heads, Madness, The Specials, English Beat, Ian Dury, The Jam, Psychedelic Furs, Chameleons UK, Police, Ultravox, Japan, Dire Straits, UB40, Cramps, The The, Joe Jackson, Los Lobos, Mental As Anything, Midnight Oil, Shriekback, Lloyd Cole, Robyn Hitchcock, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Elvis Costello, etc, etc, etc.
I vastly preferred all of that to the vacuous disco which predated it. The late 70s to early 80s saw an explosion of original new bands on the airwaves, and on record labels. We danced, partied, had fun, sang along, and grinned a lot.
No, as at any time, it wasn't all good -- but there was PLENTY of good to be found. Commercial radio or one person's mainstream collection does not even scratch the surface.
...and A Certain Ratio, All About Eve, Alien Sex Fiend, Altered Images, The Associates, Toni Basil, Bauhaus, The Books, Cowboys International, Chrome, Anne Clark, Classix Nouveaux, Comsat Angels, Dali's Car, The Dream Academy, The Europeans, The Explorers, Fad Gadget, The Fixx, John Foxx, Gentlemen without Weapons, Girls At Our Best!, Nina Hagen/Spliff, Head Of David, The Icicleworks, The Immaculate Fools, The JAMM's/Timelords/KLF/K-Foundation, Kissing the Pink, Annabel Lamb, Magazine, The Monochrome Set, The Lover Speaks, Love and Rockets, Modern Man, New Model Army, The Passage, Peter and The Testtube Babies, Penetration, The Pop Group, Pop Will Eat Itself, Public Image Limited, The Punishment of Luxury, Random Hold, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Slits, Slow Children, The Sound, The Teardrop Explodes, Tuxedomoon, Virgin Dance, Victorian Parents, Wire, The Wonder Stuff, Xmal Deutschland, The Clan of Zymox, etc, etc, etc.
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Posted: June 24 2011 at 08:09
Dean wrote:
...and yes, the "decade" ran from 1977 to 1992
I'd say early 91, because the Grunge/Seattle movement and Neil Young's Ragged Glory came just after that time... the Rageous Rock Revival (I just made that up) can't be counted as the 80's
--------------
actually the same friend who sees (as I do) the 67-76 and 77-onwards boundaries also sees the XiXth Century as running from 1789 (French revolution) until 1914 (1st WW) and the XXth running from 1918 until 1989 (fall of Berlin wall)... I also havea hard time disagreeing.with him
Edited by Sean Trane - June 24 2011 at 08:12
let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword
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Posted: June 28 2011 at 17:42
the only good music to come out of the 80s was some metal, other then that it sucked big time! pretty much all the big old artist from the 60s and 70s did awfull in the 80s only to come back in the 90s.
The worse thing that could have happened was in the mid to late 70's with Rock music. Robin Trower, Boston, Styx, Peter Frampton and many others dived into the "Stadium Rock" genre. Obviously Peter Frampton was improvising blues, a little Ventures Jazz mentality, and beautiful melodic guitar playing in general with HUMBLE PIE. When he conformed as a "Stadium Rock" artist with his "Frampton Comes Alive" he used a voice box, wrote more commercial music etc.....and became almost a David Cassidy of the mid 70's. How or why would Progressive Rock fans take him seriously? If they remembered his diversity on "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" they might re-consider. During that time he was simply wearing a flanel shirt and jeans. Just a regular guy playing nice guitar with Rock band. Rock music was more "down to earth" then.
Bands like Boston and Van Halen were playing a cheap version of Rock. Although I wasn't fond of the hippie movement....Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd, and a host of others were performing in smaller venues for years. For example they played "The Electric Factory" on the east coast.
The idea of Rock bands reaching out and touching somebody for the sake of art began to vanish shortly after "Woodstock" where promoters like Larry Magid came up with the idea to place acts such as these in stadiums and eventually pour the sugar on top of their music.
The idea came to promoters after "Woodstock" turned out to be a financial disaster. They posed the question......"What if we gambled on the idea again and placed all of these bands in big stadiums to play for larger audiences? Maybe we could repair the mistakes that were made with WOODSTOCK and eventually make ten times more profit from Rock music. This is when everything in rock began to go straight to hell. Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones used to dress in fashion but the attitude was different. To me they were the honest "Rock Stars". They experimented with music although it was not Prog......the elements were more dominet than what Robin Trower and Boston would reveal in their music.
Rock music just wasn't the same after that. Prog was going strong in the media and the underground prog was truly creative, but Rock Music was now contrived. No one was doing a "Electric Ladyland" or a Magical Mystery Tour and NOT just because the 60's were gone. It had little to do with that aspect. The industry just didn't allow mainstream Rock to be extremely creative. So you had ELP and YES who were creative , but in Rock you had garbage like FOGHAT which was the son of Savoy Brown, SLADE, JO JO GUNNE and tons of bands who were not a representation of how "Rock Music" was once creative before. It just became progressively worse.
Humble Pie included a diverse guitarist, harmonica playing, acoustic music, while VAN HALEN featured a simplistic kind of ROCK that was obviously cheap and contrived. Even Deep Purple lost it on "Stormbringer". YUK!
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Why the 80's did suck!
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JJLehto wrote:
You can't classify music styles via decades. When people say "80s music," they are likely thinking of stuff from around 77-78 to 86-87. (Much like "70s music" could be taken to mean stuff from 67-68 to about 76 and the advent of disco, punk and new wave. Musicians don't all just suddenly change as decades change: "Oh, it's January 1st, 1980. Let's abandon everything we've done up until now, and totally reinvent our music." It doesn't work that way.
!!! the pop realm never really left that decade >> let's face it: those boys-band and girls-band are somewhat linked to the 80's and Wham!.
.... (we're the same generation)
), there are some outstanding funk stuff there. (I only became aware of this in the 90's, though.) 
