What was going on in music in the '80s?

Luna wrote: Atavachron wrote: Despite the truly inventive music that was being made - with Pop as much as anything else - in retrospect, the '80s were more or less the vapid and disappointing period we all thought it was. Care to elaborate? I know that popular music back then really plummeted, but popular music has never really been good.

There have been periods where 'Pop' was high quality, even innovative;  Gershwin, the Beach Boys, Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, etc.    And there absolutely were some wonderful 1980s acts, Simple Minds, Cocteau Twins, '80s King Crimson, even Yngwie Malmsteen.    But if you look at what was happening, the musical movements that were most prevalent as seen on MTV or the Billboard charts, it was artist like INXS, A-ha, George Michael, Huey Lewis, Hall&Oates, and Springsteen's jingoist period that were setting the tone.  

I think also for music lovers and musicians, the decade represented a sort of "giving in" to the new clean, clipped & streamlined look and robotic sounds of that period.   No one seemed immune, few survived, and drummers and bassists were on the verge of going extinct thanks to new technology.   Luckily that never really happened but it could have.

Pop music was actually good for a brief period in the late 60's.

I.Q., Marillion, Pendragon and Twelfth Night were going on in the 80's

Luna wrote: dr wu23 wrote: Luna wrote: Atavachron wrote: Despite the truly inventive music that was being made - with Pop as much as anything else - in retrospect, the '80s were more or less the vapid and disappointing period we all thought it was. Care to elaborate? I know that popular music back then really plummeted, but popular music has never really been good.    There have been many 'popular bands' over the years that have done some very good music......   what exactly do you mean by popular music btw.? Are you referring to the pop divas, boy bands, what...? Chart music. Radio music. Grammy music. You get the deal.

Edited by dr wu23 - September 12 2013 at 10:17

Atavachron wrote: Luna wrote: Atavachron wrote: Despite the truly inventive music that was being made - with Pop as much as anything else - in retrospect, the '80s were more or less the vapid and disappointing period we all thought it was. Care to elaborate? I know that popular music back then really plummeted, but popular music has never really been good.  There have been periods where 'Pop' was high quality, even innovative;  Gershwin, the Beach Boys, Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, etc.    And there absolutely were some wonderful 1980s acts, Simple Minds, Cocteau Twins, '80s King Crimson, even Yngwie Malmsteen.    But if you look at what was happening, the musical movements that were most prevalent as seen on MTV or the Billboard charts, it was artist like INXS, A-ha, George Michael, Huey Lewis, Hall&Oates, and Springsteen's jingoist period that were setting the tone.   I think also for music lovers and musicians, the decade represented a sort of "giving in" to the new clean, clipped & streamlined look and robotic sounds of that period.   No one seemed immune, few survived, and drummers and bassists were on the verge of going extinct thanks to new technology.   Luckily that never really happened but it could have.

I tend to prefer A-ha over America and Bread. The musical movement that was most prevalent, anyways, was New Wave which included much better artists than INXS. Are you forgetting Talking Heads, The Fixx, The Cars, and New Order?  Or did those never "happen?"

Other than IQ, Marillion, Al Stewart , Simple Minds , OMD , Ultravox , Visage , Kate Bush , Tangerine Dream , Vangelis , J M Jarre, Iron Maiden , PIL , XTC , Siouxsie and The Banshees, Mike Oldfield , Eloy , Mark Isham , Stephen Caudel ,King Crimson , Peter Gabriel and Enya it was a load of rubbish really.

A Certain Ratio, All About Eve, Alien Sex Fiend, Altered Images, The Associates, Toni Basil, The Books, Bauhaus, Cabaret Voltaire, Colourbox, Cowboys International, Chrome, Anne Clark, Classix Nouveaux, Cocteau Twins, Comsat Angels, The Creatures, The Cure, Dalek I Love You, Dali's Car, Danielle Dax, The Dream Academy, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Europeans, The Explorers, Fad Gadget, The Fields of The Nephilim, Fiction Factory, The Fixx, John Foxx, Ultravox!, Gentlemen Without Weapons, Girls At Our Best!, Nina Hagen, Head Of David, The Icicleworks, The Immaculate Fools, Japan, The JAMM's/Timelords/KLF, Kissing the Pink, Annabel Lamb, Magazine, The Lover Speaks, Love and Rockets, Modern English, Modern Man, The Monochrome Set, New Model Army, The Passage, Peter and The Testtube Babies, The Pop Group, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Psychedelic Furs, The Punishment of Luxury, Random Hold, Rikki and The Last Days of The Earth, The Scars, Shelleyan Orphan, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Skinny Puppy, The Slits, Slow Children, The Sound, Spliff, Swans, Talk Talk, The Teardrop Explodes, This Moral Coil, Toyah, Tuxedomoon, Virgin Dance, Victorian Parents, Wire, The Waterboys, The Wonder Stuff, XTC, Xmal Deutschland and the Clan of Zymox

Edited by Dean - September 12 2013 at 16:28

Dean, You pretty much listed every band from the 80's that I never listened to with your post.  Talk Talk is the only band on that whole list that I own something from, and that was a compilation that I bought a few months ago. Edit:  Oh wait..I do have 2 live albums from Japan.  Edit once again: And 1 album and 1 compilation from The Cure.


Edited by rushfan4 - September 12 2013 at 16:29

Deans list was most interesting and I would add The Police and U2 who both did some excellent lp's and songs in the 80's even though many prog rock elites would ignore them as being too mainstream.

dr wu23 wrote: Deans list was most interesting and I would add The Police and U2 who both did some excellent lp's and songs in the 80's even though many prog rock elites would ignore them as being too mainstream.

Well, no. Not those, (and not for any elitish reasons either), nor Tears For Fears, Simple Minds, Orchestral Maneouvers in the Dark, Human League, A Flock Of Seaguls, Haircut One Hundred, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Spandau Ballet or Dire Straits. U2, Police, Human League and Simple Minds may have started out as part of the left-field/underground/alternative scene they don't really belong.